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‘Doing Gender’ In The Media

Media has a powerful influence over so many aspects of our lives in today’s society and it ranges from advertising and TV shows to digital and print media. Through all of these mediums, the many ways gender is expressed and perceived by audiences varies from culture to culture. The language within a culture as “the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis [states], notes how language influences our perceptions and thus shapes our reality.” As language evolved within a culture and new language is added, the gender identities are influenced and the categories that people know change. The influence of language and the significance it has often communicated over media and the gender categories people use to place gender roles in, may change or add new categories. There are other areas that gender roles and differences stem from, “some researchers suggest that gender differences result from a variety of factors including socialization and biology…gender roles are often manifested through communication and culture (Goffman, 1976; Lauzen et al., 2008; Wanta & Legett, 1989; Williams & Best, 1990; Wood, 2009).” Language, the biology of humans, the roles of gender, and how we ‘do gender’ is always changing and evolving with time.

Gender is something that is always out there whether we are mindful of it or not: “Gender identity and gender roles are a significant part of everyday life.” On top of this, gender roles help us make sense of our environment and they influence relationships and our own views. Since the social aspect of life is such an important need to be fulfilled, we are exposed to gender roles frequently and sometimes unconsciously, absorbing it if it fits with the category that society has influenced us to perceive it as. “In contemporary media and culture, women’s and men’s social desirability and gender often been defined in terms of their bodies. For women this has often involved comparing themselves to and even replicating the ‘thin ideal’.” These views like the ‘thin ideal’ are enforced through media with advertising, actors, and Photoshop touchups. Thus creating an unrealistic goal that women feel they need to fit into. On the other end, men have been shown images of being extremely fit and muscular, usually in a pose that expresses power, and the cultures values of what ‘masculinity’ is for a culture, “gender-based definitions of success frequently revolve around presenting or developing their bodies as strong, youthful, active and physically dominant.” These roles are promoted by society, with visual displays and traits assigned to specific gender roles. “Goffman (1976) accounts for these traits in his research of magazine and newspaper photography, finding women to be pictured in more submissive positions while men are depicted in more elevated positions.” These depictions of gender are growing in trending shows and movies. Lauzen and colleagues (2008) examined gender roles in television, “they found male characters on prime time television were more likely to inhabit work roles, including blue collar, white collar, and extracurricular activities, while women were portrayed in more interpersonal roles involving romance, friendship, and family.” The way gender roles are portrayed in TV can spill into everyday life. Another area that ‘doing gender’ is being expressed is in video games: “Female characters are represented as highly sexualized while male characters possess exaggerated strength, are hyper masculine, aggressive, and, with the exception of showing hostility, lack emotion.” The way gender roles are represented in video games adds another influence that society has to take in and this can make people think that these fictional depictions can be obtained. This creates perspectives used to categorize gender roles and as we see others ‘doing gender’ we want to believe that we should be looking like these characters in games or actors in advertisements and TV. “A number of studies, for example, have demonstrated extensive ‘gender-swapping’ in ‘avatar’ creation for online gaming and in text based CMC.” The increase in video games and in especially online environments allow people to step into other gender roles, by ‘doing gender’ that may be different from what they present in real life. These online environments allow users to shape their roles in gender.

Social Media and Dating

The digital age has brought with it the rise of social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. These online platforms allow users to communicate across the world and manage how others perceive them and how they choose to express their gender. The increase of digital content in today’s technology has influences over gender roles, “Digital formats…represent exciting possibilities for individuals who can explore the freedom of presenting a physical self that might differ from the one they present or perform in everyday life or form socially-defines expectations.” People will put themselves into a role to look as though they fit in and to avoid embarrassment in case they violate a social norm.

Education on ‘Doing Gender’

Gender is a very personal topic for most to talk about and this makes it hard to have open conversations and for the ability to create dialogues to encourage people to see gender roles from different perspectives from other cultures. As this article from Rebecca Richards Bullen states, “We know that media emphasizes stereotypes and gender roles. But in the youth media field we don’t always account for how girls, especially young girls, are bombarded with images of women as powerless, passive victims noted primarily for their bodies and sex rather than their minds and capabilities.” The way media portrays these women is plugged into the minds of young girls and “changes girl’s relationships to themselves, their bodies, and each other.”  Gender stereotypes are a part of our lives whether we notice them or not, they are out there influencing decisions and creating the ideal for ‘doing gender’ the ‘correct way’.

The section of “Doing difference” I will be adding in information on the following:

-The role of ‘doing gender’ and how we express this impacts how we see it

-Looking at some examples in Academia (Denker, 2009)

-We express this gender over the Internet with the rise of online profiles in todays society. The way we represent our ‘self’ over these profiles come from social and cultural influence.(Fullick, 2013)

-Examples of ‘doing gender’ in the workplace environment and how femininity is perceived in this environment, because the term feminine or femininity can arise negative reactions in the workplace.(Holmes, 2006)

-Also looking into ‘doing gender’ and keeping professional in the workplace

Creating a section to link to wiki descriptions of the following ; Sex, Gender, Transsexual, and Transgender. From this go into some common misconceptions concerning these as I explain ‘doing gender’ (Mcgrath, 2014) providing some background to gender that is being expressed in today’s society.

Creating a section for Social Media Influence

-The influence that social media has on ‘doing gender’ is today’s society.

-Outlets like Facebook require details about you and gender is something that can be expressed. (Mcgrath, 2014) Pictures

-How we express this over social media

-The stereotypes that are crated by the pictures posted to social media (Rose, 2012)

-As people post pictures we create what we should be seeing and this created a perspective that influences how we view that individual in future interactions.

Sources for "Doing Gender" article work:

Bamman, David, Jacob Eisenstein, and Tyler Schnoebelen. "Gender Identity and Lexical Variation in Social Media[The Resear]." Journal of Sociolinguistics 18.2 (2014): 135-60. Communication & Mass Media CompleteTM. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Benton, Bond H. "Gender, Games, and Toys: Role Communication and Socialization through Play." Communication Teacher 27.3 (2013): 141-45. Communication & Mass Media CompleteTM. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Denker, Katherine J. "Doing Gender in the Academy: The Challenges for Women in the Academic Organization." Women & Language 32.1 (2009): 103-12. Communication & Mass Media CompleteTM. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Fullick, Melonie. ""Gendering" the Self in Online Dating Discourse." Canadian Journal of Communication 38.4 (2013): 545-62. Communication & Mass Media CompleteTM. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Holmes, Janet, and Stephanie Schnurr. "‘Doing Femininity’ at Work: More than Just Relational Practice." Journal of Sociolinguistics 10.1 (2006): 31-51. Communication & Mass Media CompleteTM. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Laplonge, Dean, and Kath Albury. "Doing Safer Masculinities: Addressing At-Risk Gendered Behaviours on Mine Sites." M/C Journal 16.2 (2013): 1. Communication & Mass Media CompleteTM. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Mcgrath, Karen. "Teaching Sex, Gender, Transsexual, and Transgender Concepts." Communication Teacher 28.2 (2014): 96-101. Communication & Mass Media CompleteTM. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Medved, Caryn E., and William K. Rawlins. "At-Home Fathers and Breadwinning Mothers: Variations in Constructing Work and Family Lives." Women & Language 34.2 (2011): 9-39. Communication & Mass Media CompleteTM. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Norwood, Kristen. "Grieving Gender: Trans-identities, Transition, and Ambiguous Loss." Communication Monographs 80.1 (2013): 24-45. Communication & Mass Media CompleteTM. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Rose, Jessica, Susan Mackey-Kallis, Len Shyles, Kelly Barry, Danielle Biagini, Colleen Hart, and Lauren Jack. "Face It: The Impact of Gender on Social Media Images." Communication Quarterly 60.5 (2012): 588-607. Communication & Mass Media CompleteTM. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Uchida, Aki. "Doing Gender and Building Culture: Toward a Model of Women's Intercultural Communication." Howard Journal of Communications 8.1 (1997): 41-76. Communication & Mass Media CompleteTM. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

West, Emily. "Doing Gender Difference Through Greeting Cards." Feminist Media Studies 9.3 (2009): 285-99. Communication & Mass Media CompleteTM. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Wight, Julie. "Facing Gender Performativity: How Transgender Performances and Performativity Trouble Facework Research." Kaleidoscope: A Graduate Journal of Qualitative Communication Research 10 (2011): 73-90. Communication & Mass Media CompleteTM. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.