Missrepresentation and Mismanagement in media
The documentary, Missrepresentation, was fascinating in many ways, however what I took away most from this documentary is the negative effects it had on men. This may sound counter intuitive as this documentary is literally informing the public about the flaws in media around the representation of women, however it speaks volumes about the men in our society. One scholar stated, "You can't be what you can't see." This is especially applicable for young girls looking for role models in the media, ones that are strong and in positions of power, without being hyper sexualized. However, as they briefly touch on in the documentary, how does the lack of representation of respectful men in the media affect society?
If there is not representation of men who are respectful, kind, responsible, good fathers, etc how do we expect the next generation of young men to develop into individuals with these characteristics. We as humans do not conjure up the ideal personality, it is something that everyone must work on, however what can you work on if there is no model for appropriate behavior to begin with? In the media, specifically movies, men are supposed to always be in a position of power, be dominant, be aggressive, make more money than women, and treat women as they are in movies, as over sexualized objects. None of these personality traits are synonymous with the ones that as a whole society wants and needs. Therefore how is it that men are supposed to become people that are polar opposites to the ones they see portrayed every day in media?
The problem is that there are thousands of men in the world who are all of the things society desires and needs to thrive, however for some reason they are not the ones we see in live action movies. We see aggressive assertive men who's sole purpose is to obtain wealth and the girl. This kind of individual exists in large in reality, however to make that the standard of masculinity is absurd. In order to enact change for women there also needs to be a change in men, and that change is the standard that is modeled in the media. If men were exposed to media platforms that feature men just like them being respectful towards women, being good fathers, sharing their emotions, and a number of other positive traits it is likely that there would be a lot more progress in society in terms of women's rights. But that is not what is seen in television, and movies, or video games so that is not the kind of behavior we see modeled in the real world.
In addition to making this standard of masculinity a model for young men to follow it has also created ample scrutiny for boys. If boys do not meet this strange criteria of what being a "man" is they are often scrutinized by both their peers and themselves. What this creates is a culture of judgement that only negatively impacts the individual and society as a whole. This scrutiny can create a sense of self hatred and a willingness and need to change oneself to see what is modeled in the media. Those insecurities of not being masculine enough is then prayed on by advertisements. For example if you buy this cologn you will be the stereotypical power hungry man you allegedly desire to be. If an individual feels as if they need to be that standard of masculinity they will become the perfect consumer of all the products giving them a false promise of achieving it. And so the feed back loop of advertising begins again: the media creates an unrealistic standard, we crave to meet that standard in fear of scrutiny, we buy products that supposedly will make us who the media wants us to be, those products take off and more ads appear portraying the same stereotypes. Once again we have fallen into the same trap men and women have for years.
The lack of representation of respectful men in the media is astounding and what it leads to is a lack of change and continuation of consumerism. In order to change this viscous cycle the hundreds and thousands of kind, respectful, genuine, men need to begin to be portrayed in media platforms in stead of the traditional stereotype. Hopefully this will lead to a more progressive society as a whole and benefit men and women alike.
I definitely agree with you. I think that not only is there a lack of representation for women, this exists for men as well. No progress can occur if we only try to fix one thing such as how women see themselves, we need to look at the bigger picture. This concept of masculinity only referring to men and how the phrase "be a man" is offensive because one is not strong or "manly" enough creates this false idea of what it is to be a man. We need people to focus not on what the media is shoving down their throats, but instead truly think about what they want or think, honestly. Our society has become so dependent. We do things to please other people or fit in. We try to belong and feel included because we don't want to be alone. But reality is, your happiness comes from within yourself in my opinion. I think that we must remind people of their individualism and show them how to tune out this false media coverage in order to truly make progress.
ReplyDeleteLike you said, that we cannot just fix how women see themselves, we need to turn to the bigger picture, a lot of women see themselves as less because of how men are represented in the media. The bigger picture is how men are represented. If men are represented as the dominant and "manly" figure, this leads young boys to aspire to that. This also leaves women to be portrayed as the weaker figure, showing young girls that this is what is available to them.
DeleteI really feel like when producers leave three demential women out of television they are missing out on an entire new market of viewers. Women like to watch some and women watch a lot of TV. I don't understand why producers are trying to market to men if they are not watching.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. The media and the standards it sets for young boys and girls is horrifying. It portrays this perception of how we need to look and act and all it does is make us feel like we aren't good enough. I want to stop comparing myself to models and celebrities but when that is all I see on social media and I am bombarded with these perfect girls there is only so much acceptance that I can feel towards myself before resentment. It is the same thing for boys and it creates this awful feeling of always having to strive to look better or create a facade because we fear who we truly are won't be socially accepted. I feel like this could be a really easy fix if movies and tv shows started portraying accurate representations of boys and girls, because it isn't realistic that a man has to conceal his feelings and women have to sexualize themselves.
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