Gender Discrimination In The Media

We all claim to be in 21st century where we don’t differentiate among boys and girls but still if a girl wants to ride a plane and a boy wishes to wear pink, we tell them to perform their stereotyped gender roles. It shows that gender discrimination still prevails. Moreover we are stuck in stagnant society which is resisting any kind of change. At the same time, many social institutions such as mass media are practicing gender stereotype. If media is gendered, how can we expect our society to behave in any different way towards gender? This article focuses on how media especially advertisements highlights gender stereotypical images of both men and women.

I.INTRODUCTION

The term media refers to the groups that communicate information and news to the common people. The media holds immense power in democratic countries. Often media coverage shapes the perception of people around the globe. The media reports the news that serves as an intermediate among the actively involved people of the society. The oldest forms of media are newspapers, magazines, journals, books and other printed materials. These all are known as print media. Television is hugely popularised these days. The main broadcast networks have news shows running

Advertising and mass media forms gender codes that are associated with representing male and female attributes. These gender codes shape the way society views gender and also the acceptance of gender performance. As discussed above in section 2, gender is not formed at birth, this self identification is governed by socio cultural norms. Media often presents these socio cultural aspects and set these as ideal for gender roles. Mass media becomes a primary tool which encourages people to participate in a gendered world. (krijen et al ,