gender stereotypes analyzed

Gender stereotypes serve as a basis for cultural distinctions between men and women, as well as between our images and those of others. Men are thought to be objective, autonomous, active, ambitious, and self-confident, whereas women are perceived to be subjective, dependant, non-competitive, and passive, resulting in a lack of self-confidence and drive. Media advertising play an important influence in the development of stereotypes in men and women by depicting how women and men act rather than how we behave as genuine men and women.
Various gender-related body positioning approaches must be examined when assessing commercial commercials on television and in magazines at the point where the gender display articulates cultural stereotypes.For instance, the display of men appearing larger than women or looking down emphasizes the independence of male figures and the subjectivity, dependence, and passiveness of the female figures.
This research paper analyzes the justifications, findings and the conclusions of Coltrane and Allan, develop a comparison with episode 1 of the buffy slayer movie and provide a conclusion about the findings in the research by Coltrane and Allan. The research also Reflects the past and present gender social movements and establish the extent to which the strategies for these movements were reflective of the genders which comprised them.
SECTION 1
What justification did Coltrane and Allan give in their line of inquiry?
The research on television imagery generated an idea that the medium perpetuates rigid gender differences. The pictures were showing that women and men performing different activities and displaying dearest character traits. Secondly, the number of male characters tends to out weighted number pp female characters on television programs (Coltrane & Allan). Women tend to be shown as emotional, passive and dependent on men. Men tend to pay diverse roles on television programs and their characters tend to have greater complexity and depth. Much as these stereotypes had persisted, most of the researchers studying commercials from the late1980s's indicated there was an improvement in the presentations of women. Some studies showed that more women were present in occupational roles and were pictured in high profile jobs. Some studies had also shown that men are likely to change the lifestyles and less likely to be portrayed in stereotypical fashion (Coltrane & Allan).
What were their main findings and did their findings align with the hypothesis
The research findings recovered that the movement of women from their households seeking for waged labor forces steadily increased batten the 1950's and 1980's. Women characters were pictured while working than parenting in 1980's. In addition, the research found that the gender display at the work activity changed dramatically. Women showed masculine stereotypes at the workplaces (Coltrane & Allan). The types of occupations occupied by women also changed since earlier representations. The number of women in several occupations increased. In contrast, the images of men in family occupations changed. Most images were portrayed showing men acting as parents, spouses and this trend was increasing (Coltrane & Allan). The increased images of men parenting were observed but the research found decreased images of men performing housework. The research also found that characters of sexuality had the greatest influence on gender display.
Coltrane and Allan had three hypotheses. They hypothesized that there is a relationship between the sex and the activity in which the character is depicted. Secondly, they hypothesized that there is a relationship between the era, sex, and gender display of the character and lastly they hypothesized that there is a relationship between the sex and gender display of the character. The findings did align with the hypothesis.
Children and adults are exposed to gender depictions from multiple sources but their stereotyped portrayals come from viewing pictures from the Television. Based on the two-decade experience of television display analysis, women and men show differences in their settings and differences in the way the perform different activities by showing different traits and characters. In addition, male characters dominate female characters by about two to three ratio in all the imagery.
Men play more diverse roles in television activities more than women do. In other words, male characters tend to be having greater complexity and depth than female traits. On the other hand, their findings had to align with their hypothesis when they discovered that male characters outnumber the female characters on television programs. Despite the numerical equivalences in the population between female and males, most of the commercial television programs show men more than women. In the early1970's and 1980's, the ratio of men to women in television programs was 1:2, with one female narrator working for every ten male narrators (Coltrane And Adams).
Conclusion about the boundary work and the degree of salience of gender displays and gender inequality
Allan and Coltrane's conclusion about the boundary work and the degree of salience of gender displays and gender inequality still look to hold true according to the analyses made on super bowl commercials. Advertisements play a significant role in the process of developing the stereotypes in men and women by depicting the way how other women and men behave instead of how we behave as real men and women. While analyzing the commercial advertisements in televisions and magazines, various gender-related body positioning methods must be considered at the point where the gender displays articulate cultural stereotypes (Coltrane & Allan). For instance the displays of men appearing larger than women or looking down on emphasizes the independence of male figures and the subjectivity, dependence, and passiveness of the female figure.

How do their findings align with my research?
At times the interaction styles between women and men portrayals tend to reinforce gender-related stereotypes that can only be portrayed statically in the newspapers and magazines (Martin & Harkreader). In most cases, the television displays in both commercial and programming activities have perfected the tendency of women and men in conventionally stereotypical ways as shown by the twenty years of content analysis on television. When one looks at the television content, male characters are depicted as independent, powerful, knowledgeable, and liable for any decisive actions (Howard & Hollander).
On the other hand, televised female behaviors are often shown as dependent on men, emotional, eager serve others and passive in nature. Male behaviors tend to be more multidimensional and complex since men are shown as working and employed in a wide range of occupations more than female picture characters. Women have been shown employed in traditional occupations or lower status jobs and in other cases, they have been shown as homemakers. The parental and marital status in female behavior has been defined well. The female characters whose role in the family is depicted as being more indeterminate (Bretl and Cantor).


Sources cited
Allan, Kenneth; Coltrane, Scott. Gender displaying television commercials: A comparative study of television commercials in the 1950s and 1980s, 1993
Scott, Coltrane And Michele, Adams: Work-Family Imagery and Gender Stereotypes: Television and the Reproduction of Difference. Journal Of Vocational Behavior 50,323-347 1997
Bretl, D. J., Cantor, J. The portrayal of men and women in U.S. television commercials: A recent content analysis and trends over 15 years; Sex Roles, 1988, 595-609
Howard, J., & Hollander, J. Gendered situations, gendered selves. Thousand Oaks.1997
Martin, P. Y. & Harkreader, S. Multiple gender contexts and employee rewards.Work and Occupations,20,296-336, 1997
Coltrane, S., &Allan, K. "New" fathers and old stereotypes: Representations of masculinity in 1980s television, 1994 p. 43-66.


SECTION 2
Analysis of the Buffy vampire slayer, using the theoretical concepts of boundary maintenance as it was discussed by Allan and Coltrane
The high school student in the vampire slayer stands between the world and its associated evils. The episode shows that the sixteen-year-older Buffy moved to Sunnydale with hopes to leave behind Buffy's troubled past.
The high school girl known as the slayer showed all the skills and strengths to kill and hunt vampires. The person responsible for training and guiding the slayer knew Hare past and became her new watched. Episode 1 shows that buffy had two friends namely the shy bookish willow and loveable sander. When a student was discovered dead with marks on the neck Gile had to seek for help from Buffy. Buffy refused to get out of the slaying game but her friend Giles insisted that there is an anticipated occurrence of a crucial uphill (Anne).
Buffy's secrets leaked when Xander overheard the conversation between Giles and buffy. Later on, in the dark chambers, a vampire was seen kneeling in front of the pool of blood yet the same vampire seemed to be confirming the prophecy for Giles. A handsome stranger followed Buffy when she was going to the Bronze Sunnydale's club. The mysterious stranger told her that she must be prepared to harvest and give her a small cross. When Gile met buffy at the bronze she told buffy what she had encountered. In addition, Gile tried to convince Buffy to use her power to sense if there was any vampire remaining in the room. Buffy's sense one found the vampire Luke talking to willow, but the two later on disappeared. In an effort to catch him, she grabbed a makeshift stake turned the corner and attacked cordillera with a thought that Buffy was a loser to hang up with the willow.

According to Allan and Coltrane, categorical differentiation of women and men is the one that creates male dominance. The episode reveals that female characters are more similar that the ways they are different. In addition, the episode revealed that men tend to reject women's legitimacy in exercising their duties.
The episode shows the desire for men to retain their privileged position in the exercising their authorities. Not only do male maintain their positions but also they tend to promote homosocial relations and gender inequalities by maintaining their male group and excluding women from their groups. The episode shows how Giles enlisted Willow to check on the internet about the harvests information as buffy decided to go and look for Jess. Willow warned that the harvest would be that every night. Buffy became shocked when she found that Xander her friend was following her and later on Jessy who was leading the turned into a vampire but later they managed to escape through a grating towards the street (Rhonda). The facial expression of the master showed a furious impression that the slayer had managed to escape but the master allowed Luke to eat from him and gain strength to support the activities of the master. The master dabbed some of his blood on the forehead of Luke in addition to painting it with a three-pointed star.
Female characters reinforce group boundaries by keeping their relations secret. Females do not want their fellow friends to know what is transpiring between them and their boyfriends and this reinforces group boundaries. The episode also indicates that the interaction styles portray the differences in the stereotypes that exist between males and females. Buffy and her friends could crash with Chase who had tried to befriend buffy on her first time to interact with buffy but buffy did not appreciate the way she treated Willow. Through the entire season, Chase used to beat bad terms with buffy and her friends.
Males tend to break down group boundaries by keeping their relations and friendships open to one another. Their differences are sometimes covered up by the motives of fulfilling their ambitions. In the episode, Xander and willow had motives to fight. However, Xander's motive was to support buffy in fighting yet this motive was a loss to his friend Jesse who turned to look like a vampire. Both became loyal sidekicks of buffy. However, this created some romantic tensions when Xander crushed on buffy and became oblivious to the affections of Willow for him.


Sources cited
Billson, Anne, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BFI TV Classics); British Film Institute (December 5, 2005, pp. 24-25
Wilcox, Rhonda V.; David Lavery "Introduction". Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Rowman & Littlefield xix, 2002



SECTION 3
Reflecting the past and present gender social movements and establish the extent to which the strategies for these movements were reflective of the genders which comprised them.
Despite the recent and the past gender social movements, the persuasive entry of women into labor force have not reflected the position of women to take up greater responsibilities. Women have remained identified by their family responsibilities. Most of the jobs remain tight to gender differences and in most cases, women tend to earn more than men. Paradoxically, the theories explaining the ongoing gender movements point on how organization's functions and duties should be made neutral. In the effort to address the gender difference segregation in the workforce, parts gender movements investigated how the markets, occupation, and families should be structures according to gender roles and theorized how they could explore various conditions that could lead to gender equality in future.

Most of the present gender inequality movements focus on documenting the patterns of allocating housework, differences in promotion patterns at the workplaces, payment differentials, job segregation, and less job satisfaction. The insights have been drawn from the past gender movements focusing on the roles cultural submissions in fostering gender, family, and work stereotypes. The current gender social movements combine insights from sociology, psychology, anthropology and tend to demonstrate how the individual consciousness and special identity is shaped by microstructures in reorienting special interactions.
Most of the media analysts tend to apply the concept of the frame to account for the implication of imagery in the media such as magazines, newspapers, and televisions. In cognitive psychology, gender social movements apply the concept of the schema to select certain aspects of perceived gender differences and make them much salient. The use of media frames in gender characters analyses help in defining the gender-related problems distances the possible causes of the problems and finally make moral judgments hense suggest specific remedies. owing to the fact that the current social movements have lost the assurance of traditions in solving gender-related issues, people have decided to apply the concept of media frames in line with other collected information to organizers simplify and make a meaning of the very complex world.
Deregulation of television in the past gender social movements of the 1980's enabled airing more gender-related concerns in the broadcasting media houses and this resulted in proliferation of gender sensitization program about the use of human rights and applications of qua responsibilities in all undertakings (Buechle).
The current theories gender differences tend to assumes that differentiation women and men tend to culminate into male dominance. However, the differences should be exercised and maintained through cultural practices. Therefore gender inequality starts with differentiation no gender characters, roles, and responsibilities. However, the present gender social movements believe that the presence of socially structured distinctions in gender characters is differential to evaluate women and men and provide unequal rewards where necessary (Birchall, and Horn).
The modern social movement versions stem from the traditional beliefs in separate spheres where women were assumed to be responsible for nursing children provide care for homes and men were assumed public pursuits and suited for jobs. The spheres of gender differences are Brocken down to bridge the gap between women and men. These spheres had originated from upper middle classes of people in the UK during the 1990's and spread to the United States, as the reproductive workers were required to separate from homes. Because of the present social movements, women and men changed completely especially during the period of economic transition as the social movements increased emphasis on eliminating the concept of gender differentiation due to changes in the employment dynamic and workforce reactions in the labor market as well as improved competition between women and men for higher positions in various organizations.
The present gender social movement has assisted a large number of unmarried women to enter the waged labor markets with majority females occupying the positions which used to be perceived all-male positions (Rolls). The influx of women into what was previously known to be all men positions lead to increased demand for family wages and has promoted a Victorian belief of the broken spheres for women and men. Much as the current labor market practices are much different from the traditional ones due to the current social movements, an ideal sphere of gender-related differences still exist between women and men. Sometimes women are not given some job positions due to their sexuality, reproductive capacity, and vulnerability. Some employers still have a belief that women are suitable to those jobs which reflect their domestic skills such as emotional sensitivity and caretaking (Birchall and Horn).


Sources cited
Bhagwan Rolls, S. Defining our Space: Gender mainstreaming strategies in the work of GPPAC. The Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict, Brighton, 2013
Birchall, J. and Horn, J. World Social Forum: Integrating feminism and women activists into visions and practices of "another world", Brighton, 2013
Buechler, S.M. Understanding Social Movements: Theories from the Classical era to the Present, Boulder, CO, London: Paradigm Publishers, 2013