Mass Media's Influence In Shaping Culture

Mass media has been a key influencer in shaping culture and society, and particularly in forming gender and creating gender roles. Most representations of either men or women display certain generalization of attributes in order to create their characters, and often times they influence the way society itself begins to view gender. As such, by displaying certain aspects of women in the media time and time again, society begins to accept them as a norm for femininity and expects to see them in every day women as well. Media projects these stereotypes, and the people must follow. Typically, women are portrayed as nurturing and delicate figures and, as Celica Benoit says in her work Women, Work and Social Rights, creating such a tight frame in which women must fit themselves can have great repercussions in their personal and professional lives, as they tend to be rejected when they do not fit the profile. Naturally, the same can be said for men, as their media representation mostly omits any emotional side and, as such, men are expected never to show emotion and to be the pylons of society.

When representing gender, comic books draw (sometimes literally) an exaggerated image of men and women. Character qualities or flaws are taken to the extreme, with the villains lacking a sense of morality or even lacking humanity and the heroes often struggle not to break their own morals and are the embodiment of good. In a nutshell, it’s clear who the good people are, and who are