The Impact of Media on Gender Representation
The media has a significant impact on how individuals perceive the world in which they live. Gender representation in various media, including entertainment and commercials, is one of the primary problems. Feminists and feminist economists are concerned about a number of concerns in the media. Stereotypes and unequal gender representation in entertainment and commercial media are examples of this.
Women's Underrepresentation in Media
The first important issue with gender representation is women's underrepresentation. A lot of studies have proven that women do not have the same level of representation in the media as men. In his presentation on Ted Talk, Colin Stokes questions the representation of women by pointing out the bar against which to benchmark the reality. "Is there more than one character in the movie that is female who has lines?" (Stokes 06:31). In this case, a movie may stand for media in general. In an investigation to answer the question of underrepresentation of women in the media, Bryson and Bunker have found out that "Content analysis shows that men outnumber women on television by around 2:1 and this imbalance is broadly similar across almost all genres of programmes [sic]" (3). These findings point out that for every one woman represented in media, there are two men, a favor for men.
Stereotyping in Gender Representation
Another issue in the representation of gender in media is stereotyping that are imposed on one type of gender in comparison to the other. In most of these cases, women have been sexualized in the way they are represented in media. The media has mostly been marked for "not showing professional female characters who successfully balance having a family and career" (Bryson & Bunker 8). This shows that females are mostly represented as people who are mostly caregivers at home and those who are supposed to take care of the family. According to Stokes, men have been represented as the heroes who defeat the villain, while female are perceived as people who are usually quiet and lonely.
Implications for Feminist Economists
Both issues have implications for feminist economists. Underrepresentation of women in media is an indication that women cannot sufficiently participate in decisions that lead to economic development, since numbers are mostly attributed to power. In commercials and television shows that discuss matters of economic interest, it is easier to sideline women, who are usually underrepresented. As a result, it is more likely that economists will tend to support policies that support men, who are more represented. On the other hand, the issue of stereotyping where sexualizing of women has dominated the media can have the implication that women only have interest family matters, and not career and other matters of economic concern. As such, once again, economic policies are likely to favor men, who are perceived to be more involved in economic affairs. For feminist economists, thus, the fight to have women represented more in economic policies can be an uphill task.
The Dominance of Males in Markets and Investments
With the current states of affairs as far as underrepresentation of women and stereotyping are concerned, markets are more likely to be dominated by males. Additionally, decisions to invest are dominated by males. In doing so, women are not fully given opportunities in such investments and, therefore, have less power to control the investments. Even so, the impact of underrepresentation is that the targets for most companies is likely to be dominated by males. As such, to alter the status quo, there is great need to improve on the representation of women in media and eliminate traditional stereotypes that portray women as weak.
Works Cited
Bryson, James, and David Bunker. "Blurred lines: Exploring contemporary attitudes to gender portrayal in the media." Annual Conference. 2015. Web. 29 July 2017.
https://www.mrs.org.uk/pdf/Blurred_lines_Exploring_contemporary_attitudes_to_gender_portrayal_in_the_med.pdf
Stokes, Colin. “How movies teach manhood.” Ted Talk, November 2012. Web. 29 July 2017. https://www.ted.com/talks/colin_stokes_how_movies_teach_manhood
