Media and gender
Media and gender refers to the relationship between media and gender, and how gender is represented within media platforms. These platforms include but are not limited to film, radio, television, advertisement, social media, and video games. Initiatives and resources exist to promote gender equality and reinforce women's empowerment in the media industry and representations. For example, UNESCO, in cooperation with the International Federation of Journalists, elaborated the Gender-sensitive Indicators for Media contributing to gender equality and women's empowerment in all forms of media.
History
writers, largely gaining prominence in the 1967s during second wave feminism, began criticizing the Western canon for providing and promoting an exclusively white male world view. These feminists typically perceive gender as a social construct which is not only reflected in artistic work but perpetuated by it. Until fairly recently, feminists have mainly directed their studies to gender representations in literature. Recently, a new wave of academic studies focused on gender representations in modern society and culture.Gender disparity in media careers
Numbers of women in media professions, such as journalism, are growing; however, the media is and has been statistically dominated by men, who hold the vast majority of power positions. Studies show that men are more likely to be quoted than women in the media, and more likely to cover "serious" topics. A large number of international institutions and NGOs are advocating for gender equality in the media workplace. For instance, in 2018, UNESCO supported 42 media institutions and 16 universities to implement policies and strategies on gender equality. In addition, coherent with the strategy to empower women and girls through policy implementation, 31 institutions, community radio stations and national broadcasters adopted policies on gender equality in media.The Bechdel test, originally created to evaluate popular fiction's representation of women and subsequently adapted to employment in the media professions, show that a number of women are employed but do not benefit from an equal voice. For example, women in radio are typically hired to cover topics such as weather and culture.
In the video game industry about half of the gamers are women but their presence is still limited in the production of games. Those who tried to publicly challenge this situation, such as A. Sarkeesian, have been subjected to harassment. In cinema there is concern about the low number of female directors and the difficulties of older actresses to find roles. They also earn 2.5 times less income than men in the same jobs.
A survey conducted by Stacy Smith of the University of Southern California shows that only 7% of directors, 13% of writers and 20% of producers in film and television are women. According to The Writers Guild, an estimated 17% of screenplays over the last decade were written by women. However, increasing numbers of women work in the media as journalists or directors. Therefore, they deal with topics tightly related to women's needs and tend to provide a positive role for women. No longer only consumers of media but also contributors to media, they get more involved in decision-making and agenda of activities. This empowerment of women gives them abilities to promote balance in gender representations and avoid stereotypes. Media becomes a suitable ground for expressions and claims. For instance, it has been the case with the support of a special project called "Enhancing a gender responsive film sector in the Maghreb-Mashreq region" that has demonstrated that women empowerment in their career enhances the image of women in the audiovisual landscape.
Representations of women
Under-representation and misrepresentation
In spite of their monumental achievements, women's representation in media remains drastically different to that of their male counterparts. Women are the focus of only 10% of news stories, comprise just 20% of experts or spokespeople interviewed, and a mere 4% of news stories are deemed to challenge gender stereotypes.According to the report investigation of female characters in popular films across 11 countries, 1 woman for 2.24 men appeared on the screen between 1 January 2010 and 1 May 2013. In 2009, the Screen Actors Guild also found that men continue to make up the majority of roles, especially Supporting Roles, where they contribute around two roles for every female role, whereas females hold a slightly larger proportion of lead roles compared to their proportion of supporting roles, but still less than lead roles occupied by male counterparts.
The same is true for television programs. In general, from the 1950s to the 1970s, television programs had 30–35% female roles in American TV shows. The female roles increased in the 1980s, but there were still twice as many roles for men in television. However, these disparities change depending on the type of program: in mid-1970s sitcoms there were "nearly equal proportions", whereas in action-adventure shows "only 15 per cent of the leading characters were women". In the 1980s, female characters represented 43% of roles in comedy shows and only 29% in action-adventure programs, however, they had outnumbered male characters two to one in dramas. Since the 1990s, "gender roles on television seemed to become increasingly equal and non-stereotyped... although the majority of lead characters were still male."
The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media is an organisation that has been lobbying the industry for years to expand the roles of women in film.
In the 1960s and 1970s, feminists such as Clare Short, Gaye Tuchman, and Angela McRobbie denounced unfair representations of gender in media and especially in magazines.
Sexualization
Mass media has become a driving force to discrimination based on gender. Images and expectations of gender roles are highlighted through a variety of platforms and sources like the structure of language, activities, media, school settings, historical passages or art pieces, and the workplace. Sexualization of women, in particular, is heavily centralized in mass media. When these platforms hyper sexualize women, portray them in a lack of clothing, or depict women as subordinate to men, a women's self esteem, body image and emotional well being may be negatively affected. One of the earliest studies of role portrayal in advertisement was done in 1971 by Courtney and Lockeretz. These researchers discovered that the central four themes of female Stereotypes were that a woman's place was in the home, the second was women didn't make important decisions, third that women were dependent on their male counterparts and lastly that women perceived as sexual objects.Two other follow up studies done by Wagner and Banos, and Belkaoui and Belkaoui reached similar outcomes. The final two points highlight the angle that women are viewed in regards to their sexuality and bodies. For centuries, dating back to when women would pose for paintings or sculptures, the concept that a woman's nature lied within the ground of subordination and submission has been reinforced by media.The Western ideal of female beauty is that of the fit, young and thin woman, and the media spreads this ideal through movies, TV shows, fashion shows, advertisements, magazines and newspapers, music videos, and children's cartoons. For women to be considered attractive, they have to conform to images in advertisements, television, and music portraying the ideal woman as tall, white, thin, with a 'tubular' body and blonde hair.
Studies show that typical female roles fall into cultural stereotypes of women and are often sexualized with minimal clothing and sexualized roles. For example, a content analysis of video games found that "41% of female characters wore revealing clothing and an equal number were partially or totally nude", whereas the male characters were not. However, sexualization is not the only stereotypical way in which women are represented in the media.
In advertisement, celebrity endorsement of products are thought to be especially effective if the celebrity is a physically attractive woman, as the attractiveness is thought to transfer to the brand's image and studies have shown that audiences respond better to female endorsements.
The objectification of women in the media is transmitted verbally and nonverbally, as well as directly and indirectly, and it is not only visual but can also be expressed subtly by commenting on women's appearance in a humorous way, making jokes and gags, and using double meanings. Thus, women are often victims of online and offline violence as a result of the normalization of their bodies' objectification. To advocate against the objectification of women in the media, some programmes are implementing projects on this issue. For instance, some trainings and handbooks are being developed by International organisations and NGOS for media professionals to improve the gender-sensitivity of media representations.
Some shows focused entirely on successful professional women and their "quests for sex, pleasure and romantic love", such as Ally McBeal and Sex and the City. Even if the main character in Ally McBeal was portrayed as desperate to find a husband, the show had other non-stereotypical female characters and "sided with the women". Sex and the City had assertive female protagonists, especially in matters of sex, and did not punish them for wanting pleasure, knowing how to get it, and being determined to do so, which can be seen especially in the case of Samantha Jones, played by Kim Cattrall. Another female icon from the 1990s is the title character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a teenage girl who starred and became hugely popular in the "typically male-dominated world of sci-fi fans". Buffy Summers, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, was powerful, heroic, confident, and assertive, characteristics that were generally ascribed to male characters.
In her 1973 article "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", feminist film critic Laura Mulvey coined the term male-gaze to describe the way that women in film serve as projections of male fantasies.
Domestication
On TV, marriage, parenthood, and domesticity have been shown as more important to women than men. From the mid-1940s to the 1960s, women were portrayed mostly as housewives who had seemingly "perfect" lives: their houses were always impeccably clean, their children were always healthy, and they were always beautiful and organized. TV didn't portray the reality that by 1960 "40 per cent of women worked outside the home... divorce rates spiked twice after World War II". According to a study from 1975 conducted by Jean McNeil, in 74 per cent of the cases studied women's interactions were "concerned with romance or family problems", whereas men's interactions were concerned with these matters in only 18 per cent of the cases. Furthermore, female characters often didn't have jobs, especially if they were wives and mothers, and were not the dominant characters or decision-makers. The boss is usually a man. Men are portrayed as more assertive or aggressive, adventurous, active, and victorious, whilst women are shown as passive, weak, ineffectual, victimized, supportive, and laughable.As one study about gender role portrayals in advertisements from seven countries' shows, women are more likely to play the role of the housekeeper and men are more likely to play the roles of professionals.
In another study, Souha R. Ezzedeen found that career-driven female characters in film are f a woman, like sexual attraction, maternal roles, and relationsrs in general tend to be underrepresented in most media; however, this seems to specifically effect female actors who appear less frequently in film and television than their male colleagues and younger women. While 40+ male roles are on the rise in both theatrical and television productions, female 40+ roles represent only 28% of female roles. Actors such as Harrison Ford and Clint Eastwood continue to undertake major roles as ageless heroes, whereas the normative structure for older women is that their ageing is part of the plot and Sex and the City ). This is typically seen in relation to female roles relying on sexualization and the superficial effects of aging on their body are presented as something to be hidden. They continue to be defined mainly by their appearance. In gossip culture, the older female body is represented in largely negative terms unless it has been modified "correctly" by cosmetic surgery. Aging female celebrities have become one of the mainstays of gossip magazines and blogs, which endorse a culture of consumption in which cosmetic technologies and procedures are not questioned but in which female celebrities who have used them are either figured as glamorous for getting it right or as monstrous for going too far. Another consequence of portraying aging women in the media, is that in most TV shows, actresses who are playing characters in their 40s and 50s tend to have younger appearing body types. This has led to critiques that these representations are first and foremost framed in terms of how well older actresses are managing their aging bodies. Midlife women have grown accustomed to seeing their age group portrayed in a seemingly unrealistic way, and this had led to an increase of eating disorders and negative body image among this group.
In one court case in 2011, English television actress Miriam O'Reilly successfully sued the BBC for age discrimination after being dropped from a show. It was claimed that she had been told to be careful about her wrinkles and to consider Botox and dyeing her hair.
The commercial potential of older consumers is becoming more significant. A multiplication of images of successful aging are explicitly tied to consumerism by the anti-ageing industry and older female celebrities advertising their products. Examples abound: Sharon Stone for Christian Dior, Catherine Zeta-Jones for Elizabeth Arden, Diane Keaton and Julianna Margulies for L'Oreal, Christy Turlington for Maybelline, Ellen DeGeneres for CoverGirl, etc. These advertisements are paradoxical in that they allow older celebrities to remain visible while encouraging an ageist and sexist culture in which women are valued for their appearance. Baby boomers are an increasingly important audience group for the cinema industry, resulting in more and new kinds of stories with older protagonists. Romantic comedies in which women protagonists take on the romantic heroine role provide one of the few spaces in popular culture showing appealing representations of older women, such as I Could Never Be Your Woman, Last Chance Harvey, and It's Complicated. They are part of a phenomenon called the "girling" of older women, where the protagonists and celebrities are portrayed as being just as excited and entitled to be going out on dates as younger women.
Abuse
Heterosexual romantic relationships in media, particularly in film, often romanticize intimate partner violence wherein the woman is the victim. Film like Once Were Warriors is an example of film in which abusive behavior, such as manipulation, coercion, threats, control and domination, isolation, excessive jealousy, and physical violence, are all exhibited by the male romantic lead. A 2016 study on women's interpretations of abusive behavior found that many women see the sort of abusive behaviors shown in popular films as romantic or desirable. This conflation of abuse and romance is widely attributed to the prevalence of abusive tropes in popular media.Female characters as plot devices for male characters
Referred Pain
In media featuring a male protagonist, women's pain, suffering, or even death are often used as plot devices to further the male protagonist's narrative arc. This is known as the “referred pain” plot device. It involves a situation wherein a woman undergoes a traumatic event, often of a sexual nature, but her pain is referred to a male character. This male character's grief and anger due to the trauma experienced by the female character are explored in depth. The female character's emotional or physical response is only addressed briefly or cursorily. This trope is featured in such films as, Moulin Rouge, as well as in the Shakespeare play Titus Andronicus and books like Oroonoko.Disposable Woman
The Disposable Woman trope refers to a trope in which a woman is included in a story for the sole purpose of dying, thus putting the male protagonist through emotional development or inspiring him to embark on a revenge quest. The woman who dies in these situations is referred to as "disposable" because she does not serve a purpose beyond her death. The disposable woman trope in present in many films, including Braveheart, The Matrix Revolutions, The Bourne Supremacy, The Dark Knight, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Deadpool 2, and ''.The Manic Pixie Dream Girl
The term "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" was coined in 2007 by film critic Nathan Rabin to describe a female character who exists solely "to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures." The Manic Pixie Dream Girl improves the life of the male protagonist and makes him a happier and better person, but she has no apparent character arc or complex story; she is simply a plot device. A list of notable instances of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope can be found on the article for Manic Pixie Dream Girl.Representations of men
Men are proportionally represented by media more often compared to women, but the representations that do exist are often criticized for their portrayal of sexist stereotypes. Most critics discuss the ways male characters in film and television are typically more tough, aggressive, domineering, etc. than the average man they are meant to represent.Media has the power to shed the light on what is frequently stereotyping images, actions and values that are no more acceptable on all humanitarian levels because they represent all kind of violence and gender discrimination. The importance of mainstream media when it affects the way that people think, understand and talk about violence within our communities; also when it plays a role in shaking the mentalities and promoting positive images for women who are strong leaders and powerful survivors, yet what media should start highlight is positive masculinity. Many examples show that masculinity is usually represented by negative values such as violence, dominance, cruelty, illegal or unhuman actions. Media are way too often diffusing and showcasing this negative representation. Thus, they are playing a role in the acceptance of the society, by men and women, to these negative values as the norm to depict men and masculinity.
‘Masculinity’ is the ideas of how men and boys should behave. In fact, most societies socialize men and boys to assume that they are superior, leader, aggressive and entitled. According to the hegemonic masculinity model, men who demonstrate power, strength, bravery, fearlessness, virility, competitiveness etc.. can assert their superiority over women and consolidate their general position of dominance over them.
Media representations of sports and athletes contribute to the construction of a dominant model of masculinity centered on strength and an ambivalent relationship to violence, encouraging boys and men to take risks and to be aggressive.
The UNESCO's section for Media Development and Society advocates for gender equality in sports media. "Sports coverage is hugely powerful in shaping norms and stereotypes about gender. Media has the ability to challenge these norms, promoting a balanced coverage of men's and women's sports and a fair portrayal of sportspeople – irrespective of gender". The campaign "Her Moments Matter" highlighted the fact that biased media representations of sports athletes have repercutions on women's self-confidence and the perception they have of themselves.
In advertising, men usually promote alcoholic beverages, banking services, credit cards, or cars. Although women also promote cars, advertisements involving women are usually highly dependent on their sexuality, which is not the case for those with men, who are shown in these ads in an elegant and powerful way. Also, when men are acting on a television commercial, they are usually performing activities such as playing sports, driving around girls, repairing cars, drinking, relaxing, and having fun.
Also, when a man is promoting on an advertisement, they usually speak about the product and do not use it. They seem to be the beneficiary of the product or service, typically performed by women.
Film historian Miriam Hansen argues the way female gaze came to film during the flapper films of the 1920s, specifically citing the famous Italian-American actor Rudolph Valentino as having been used on the screen to draw in a female audience as an embodiment of male beauty.
Representations of non-binary characters
Virginie Julliard and Nelly Quemener remark that even though the dominant conception of sexuality in media is heterosexuality with construction of traditional models of femininity and masculinity, sexually diverse versions are being used in media which can also be a source of identification by the audience.In 1985, a U.S. non-governmental media monitoring organization called GLAAD was founded by Vito Russo, Jewelle Gomez, and Lauren Hinds with the support of other LGBT people in the media to combat media discrimination. The name "GLAAD" had been an acronym for "Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation", but is also known for its inclusivity of bisexual and transgender people.
Effects on youth
Stereotypes
The media is generally regarded as playing an important role in defining prevailing social norms concerning sexual harassment, especially television, which is "widely accessible and intentionally appealing and engaging, massive use of stereotypical messages that the majority of the people can easily understand". Media affects behaviors and is "of prime importance for adolescents' general ideas of romance, sex, and relationships". Thus, objectifying media has important social consequences, among which is greater acceptance of stereotypical attitudes. Studies have found that exposure to objectifying media can be linked to increased probability of male viewers engaging in sexual harassment, abuse, or acts of violence against women.In the U.S., for example, exposure to TV has been associated with "more stereotypical sexual attitudes and evaluation styles". Also popular is the idea that appearance or sexiness is essential for men and women. Additionally, pop music and music videos have been shown to increase stereotypical gender schemas, and promote the ideas that gender relationships are adversarial and that appearance is fundamental.
The stereotyped portrayals of men and women have been argued to be valued and internalized by younger viewers, especially during puberty and the construction of their sexual identity.
Advertising/Television
Gender-related content has been portrayed in stereotypical ways in advertising, commercials on multiple platforms, and in Television shows. Most of the gender-related content in these different platforms of media are examples of the roles of females and males that are geared mostly towards children. A study was done on the content of children television shows. Looking at the four main emotions, it was concluded that males portrayed more than females. The maturer the show got, the less females are seen, while males are shown to "manly" and aggressive. Young people and adolescents are the main targets for different advertisements due to their buying power for a variety of products. According to Aysen Bakir and Kay Palan, associate professors of marketing, researchers have conducted a study with eight-and nine-year-old children about the perception children have towards advertisements with gender-related content. The researchers express that the issue of stereotypical gender roles in these platforms of media leads to closed minded effects on youth. The experimental design examined children and researched ways to combat the closed mindedness as well as the concept of gender flexibility. The concept is the degree to which an individual is able to be open minded about stereotypes and understand Gender roles. Male as well as female roles in advertisements are viewed differently in clarity and value. At a very young age, children are susceptible by Environmental factors like media, strangers, parents, and much more. A study by Ruble, Balaban, and Cooper, researchers examining gender development, expressed gender stereotypes in media and observed that children younger than four years old are likely to choose gender-typed toys if they have seen them on television being used by the same-sex models. This explains the factor of children becoming closed minded, researchers explain, at a very young age due to how certain genders are portrayed in media and television.Female Roles
The gender-related content in advertising in the past as well as today portray females with certain labels. The roles that women play in advertising, such as in television commercials or Magazines, shows them as delicate characters who tend to act very innocent. The commercials prominent on television today show females struggling with some issue or problem. Not only is this example of female roles portrayed in advertising, but also media content online under-represent women very often; women are put in traditional roles in advertisements and television. On platforms aside from television, like on radio or Podcasts, women have quiet and calm voices. They are seen as shy and gentle, which makes youth stereotype as well as categorize them in a negative way. In a content analysis in 1970 by Courtney and Lockeretz, researchers who study women roles, it was suggested that there are four very common stereotypes that women are seen under:1) A woman's only place is in her home.
2) Women have no ability to make their own decisions or important ones.
3) A man must always protect women as they are dependent on them.
4) Men only see women as housewives and as sexual objects.
Film Genres
is based on who is considered to be the target audience for a given film and is considered to be a prominent issue in the United States. It is believed that romantic movies and or shows are more directed towards and intrigue more females than they do males. Due to the reputation that is upheld in romantic films, males feel that they are unable to enjoy or watch films in this genre, forming this stereotype. It is also believed that these gender expectations in movie genres are developed at a young age as both girls and boys direct their interests towards different film categories. Researchers Oliver and Green displayed a preview of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well as Beauty and the Beast to a group of both girls and boys. The researchers asked the children whether the movies previewed would be more appealing to girls or boys and the majority response was that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was more directed towards boys due to the violence in the film. While boys are more intrigued by action movies, girls tend to enjoy a film that is more feminine and contains a female protagonist. In addition, targeting a specific gender through different genres and displaying that particular sex's desires helps to intrigue that targeted audience even further. The protagonist also helps determine the viewers of the movie. Different genres attract different audiences. Therefore, the intended audience is more likely to watch the movie if the protagonist is relatable or easy to identify with. In addition, another study was conducted that looked at men and women's preferences in regard to 17 different movie genres. The participants within the study determined whether the genre presented was more directed towards male or females. The researchers were able to determine from their study that animation, comedy, drama, and romance were genres that interested females. While action, adventure, fantasy, history, horror, thriller etc. movies were considered to be more liked by males.Body image
There are many studies that aim to prove that sexual objectification is the root cause of body image issues. One 1995 study intended to prove that sexual advertising contributes to body dissatisfaction. One hundred and thirty nine women were involved. They were split into two groups: The first group where the women watched an advert that showed attractive women. The second part where they showed adverts that were non-appearance related. The results showed the group of women that watched the appearance related advertisement experienced feelings of depression and body dissatisfaction.Relationships between media exposure and personal concepts of body image have also been increasingly explored. Psychology Today conducted a survey and observed that "of 3,452 women who responded to this survey, 23% indicated that movie or television celebrities influenced their body image when they were young, and 22% endorsed the influence of fashion magazine models".
Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors have increased in the UK, Australia, and the US due to a "perceived environmental pressure to conform to a culturally-defined body and beauty ideal" which is promoted mainly by the media. This ideal of unrealistic and artificial female beauty is "impossible for the majority of females to achieve".
A study conducted in 2015 by the Department of Communication at University of Missouri tested the potential impact of gendered depictions of women in the superhero movie genre on female undergraduates. The study concluded that the exposure to sexualized and objectified images of women in superhero movies resulted in lower body esteem, increased priority for body competence and altered views on gender roles.
Factors involved in the composition of self-image include the emotional, physical, and reasoning aspects of a person, and these aspects affect one another. One of the main contributors to negative body image is the fact that forms of media like commercials and magazines promotes the "thin ideal". From seeing images of women with extremely thin bodies, some people have an increase of negative emotions, and these individuals tend to take actions like dieting to help relieve the undesirable feelings about their body image. This act of dieting could lead to dangerous behaviors such as eating disorders if the negative perceptions about one's body image does not improve. Considering that an average North American will watch about 35,000 commercials a year, it is to be expected that commercials presenting images of skinny and gorgeous women will have a bigger impact on increasing negative body image, than ads in magazines. The author of "Influence of Appearance-Related TV Commercials on Body Image State", Tanja Legenbauer, conducted a study to demonstrate that images presented in commercials can lead to harmful effects in those that watch them. Her study included participants who looked at different silhouettes of differently shaped women, and their response to these images was reviewed. These participants included those with and without eating disorders, and usually those participants with eating disorders reacted more negatively to the images presented to them in the study.
One explanation for why TV shows could negatively affect body image is the idea of the "third" person. The "third" person idea explains that women can start to develop negative body image because they are constantly seeing images of thin and beautiful women on TV. From seeing these images, they realize that men are seeing these same women and thinking that those images are the standards for a perfect or ideal woman. Body image can be defined as the perception of how one sees themselves and whether or not they are happy with what they are seeing. This image of oneself can be positively or negatively affected by the opinions of those that matter to the person. When a woman thinks about the "third person", the gender and relationship of the "third person" to the woman can change the amount of impact their opinion has on the woman. So, an example would be if a woman knows that her boyfriend is seeing these images of lean and beautiful women, her boyfriend's opinion can more negatively affect how she sees herself and her body than if she thinks about a female stranger seeing the same images.
Eating disorders are presumed to mainly affect teenage girls, but they are starting to become more common in middle aged women. When women want to work on bettering their health or when they want to get into shape, they often look to fitness or health magazines. One problem with women looking towards health magazines for help is that these magazines are often filled with images of women who are in their 40s and 50s, but are very lean and beautiful. To establish that these health magazines are having a negative impact on body image in the readers of the magazines, Laura E. Willis, the author of "Weighing Women Down: Messages on Weight Loss and Body Shaping in Editorial Content in Popular Women's Health", conducted a study. She looked at issues of five different health and fitness magazines, and realized that these magazines tend to focus more on appearance rather than health, and focused on reducing caloric intake rather than exercise. The messages presented in these magazines can cause a negative perception of oneself, and instead of motivating people to better themselves, they have the ability to make the reader feel bad about their body.
Social Media
With the rise in popularity of social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat, new standards of beauty have emerged in the relationship between media and gender. This can create a false image of how individuals, particularly young children, should look. Young people are more likely to purchase products endorsed by social media personalities such as Instagram models in hopes of getting that model's body type when in reality the figures are likely attained through plastic surgery. This look has also lead to a 115% increase in the number of plastic surgeries since 2000.Responses and movements for change
Feminist response
, Australian-born author of The Female Eunuch, offered a systematic deconstruction of ideas such as womanhood and femininity, arguing that women are forced to assume submissive roles in society to fulfill male fantasies of what being a woman entails. Greer wrote that women were perceived as mere consumers benefiting from the purchasing power of their husband. Women become targets for marketing, she said, and their image is used in advertising to sell products. American socialist writer and feminist, Sharon Smith wrote on the first issue of Women and Film that women's roles in film "almost always around her physical attraction and the mating games she plays with the male characters" in contrast to men's roles, which according to the author are more varied. In 1973 Marjorie Rosen, an important contributor to feminist film theory, argued that "the Cinema Woman is a Popcorn Venus, a delectable but insubstantial hybrid of cultural distortions". In 1978 Gaye Tuchman wrote of the concept of symbolic annihilation, blaming the media for imposing a negative vision of active women and making an apologia for housewives.From media representations, feminists paved the way for debates and discussions about gender within the social and political spheres. In 1986, the British MP Clare Short proposed a bill to ban newspapers from printing Page 3 photographs of topless models.
In the early 2000s, feminist critics began analyzing film in terms of the Bechdel test. This feminist assessment of cinema was named after Alison Bechdel, feminist cartoonist and creator of the long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. This test determines the level of gender equality present in a film by assessing whether a work of fiction features at least two named women who talk to each other about something other than a man.
In the 1970s, TV critics, academics, and women started to point out the way TV shows portrayed female characters. TV Guide magazine called out the industry for "refusing to rise above characterizations of women as pretty, skinny, dopey, hapless housewives or housewife wannabes", and a poll conducted by Redbook magazine in 1972 showed that "75 per cent of 120,000 women... agreed that 'the media degrades women by portraying them as mindless dolls'". In that sense, The Mary Tyler Moore Show was a television breakthrough because it introduced the first female character whose central relationships were not her husband or boyfriend or her family, but her friends and coworkers. The main character was a sort of stand-in for the "new American female" who put her job before romance and preferred to be alone than with the wrong men, but still had to do stereotypically female office work and didn't speak up to her boss and other male coworkers.