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Aude Stheneur

KateEnglish-mojo

Mojo 2

Repesentations of gender in media

This is my Mojo about my Internship at Copeam in Rome, from 4th to 8th February 2019.

The difference in reporting on men and women in the media. Women are often described using single words to do with their family role, e.g. ‘mother of two’ or ‘divorcee’ or ‘wife of…’

How is this different for men?

Hannah W

Since most top positions in companies (for example in media, but also in other fields of work) are taken by men – you could say the power is in many ways in their hands. But if these men aren’t willing to fight for gender equality – how much harder will it be to achieve it?

I also would find it interesting to discuss how far different countries has come on their way towards gender equality. Can we learn something from each others progress?

Media industries have branched into  the digital world of social media where they exist in the user interface on the basis of their spontaneous content generation in the form of videos and social media posts. An industry that influence multitudes of people should be accountable for the content it produces. Bechdel test was created in 1985 to evaluate the portrayal of women in fiction and piece of art. I would like to research and create a test similar to Bechdel test that would evaluate portrayal of all the genders in media rather than just women.

I would like to discuss how gender stereotypes are implemented within society, for example women are more associated with gossip, and this is still replicated today in the media, through magazines such as Women’s Weekly, and TV shows like Loose Women (UK). I would be interested to learn how such stereotypes came to be, and why men would typically never be associated with such things. I believe it is also important to mention how clothing is often discussed when it comes to women, e.g the media focuses heavily on what Kate Middleton, or Theresa May wear; however men are more noted on the actual work they have done, when it comes to women this often takes second place.

When watching Italian television – and when stumbling across YouTube videos on clips from Latin American TV shows – there is something that strikes me constantly.

Men are generally dressed up formally and elegantly (as you would expect a presenter to appear on the screen), whilst women are usually asked to wear very skimpy, sensual and provocative outfits that make all their curves stand out.

It would be interesting to understand and discuss the reasons why women on Latin programmes have to often noticeably exhibit their (objectively) seductive bodies, as if it is a ‘must’ feature to have in order to appear on television, whilst men do not undergo this strict physical selection (at least, not as often).