How are genders represented in the media?

How are men represented in the media?
1. Strong
2. Calm and Collected
3. Bread winner
4. Sexual
5. Smart

How are women represented in the media?
1. Emotional
2. Damsel in distress
3. Sex object
4. Mother figure
5. Delicate

This image shows a typical scene for a housewife in the 1960's. I can see this through the style of dress, setting and props as they were all fashionable in that time period. However the use of Brad pitt playing the role of the female shows that there has been a change of how gender roles are represented in the media due to the fact that a male would never have had been shown in this way in the actual 1960's. 

This advert shows women of different sizes and shapes looking confident and promoting the realistic body image of women through the use of different models. This is a revolutionised was for advertising as the models that mostly used have a body in which society deems as perfect to make the female audience want to buy the product more due to the thought of obtaining that beauty, where as this advert shows beauty in a completely different and more realistic way. 

Nutella clip1-2011

The 2011 version of the nutella advert shows a mother hastily rushing around in the morning looking after her kids in the kitchen while getting breakfast ready. This is trying to say that the product is perfect for fast paced lives mostly for women who stereotypically have to look after their children while spending their time preparing meals for her family. 

Nutella clip 2- 2013

The 2013 advertisement text for this product shows that everyone who has to rush in the morning can easily and quickly use nutella. It shows people with different preferences to cover wider audience and shows the different genders taking on various roles. 

I feel that there was a slight change in the way that gender roles have changed however still shows some of the usual stereotypes used in gender roles. 

Homewrok-

write a 500 word essay on "has the mediation of gender changed, does this reflect change in society?"

use source material in relation to your argument

add visual example of historical and contemporary media texts

You should access information from this presentation and the one called "exploring the female gaze and the body image"

What is your view on the male body image and what extent do you think that the representation of male body image is changing?

The representation of the male body in media texts has changed substantially in the last century. What is currently shown as a representation for men is as being very attractive with perfectly shaped bodies, an example of this is the recent film 'Magic Mike XXL' which depicts the male leads half naked showing their muscles and abs. This links with the female gaze where the use of sexualising men in media products is used to attract the female audience. In contrast to this the representation of the male body in the 1960's was very different. In most media platforms at this time the male body was shown as being strong and heroic while the female body was used as a sexual object, for example in the 1965 'James Bond- Thunder ball' film poster where the male is holding a weapon and is surrounded by half naked females. This shows that there has been a rather large evolution of how the male body image is represented within media texts.

In the television show 'Reggie Yates- Extreme UK' it shows how a healthy lifestyle can lead to addiction in many different ways including the use of steroids injections to wanting the perfect body through over exercising. Gauntletts theory that states "Identity is now consciously constructed, and the media provides some of the tools to help us contract our identity. The media contains a huge number of messages about identity and acceptable lifestyles. At the same time the public have their own diverse set of feelings. The media and media consumers are engaged in a dialogue in which neither over powers the other". This links with how the public/ normal people such as the ones in this television show are affected by how the male body is currently being shown in the media, as the message is that having a fit body is what is acceptable for men. This can also be seen in mens magazines such as mens health and in product advertisement for example the diet coke advert, both show attractive overly sexualised men which is leading the public to think that its the most acceptable form of identity for men.  

Personally, I believe that the representation of the male body image has changed dramatically to show men more as sexualised objects in todays media.