Within the media, it is very common for genders to be generalised and misrepresented, stereotyping the genders as a whole. If a large portion of these gender's are known to behave a certain way and have a similar mindset, then it's very easy to pigeonhole them in one particular way.
Women have often been (and still are) viewed as an object, either something other women and young girls would aspire to be like, or as a sexual symbol for men to objectify.
Laura Mulvey studied the way in which women are viewed by men in her 1975 essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'. Mulvey stated that women were objectified on screen because heterosexual men were controlling the camera. Hollywood films showed the models with a sense of voyeurism and scopophilia. The male gaze occurs when the camera places the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual man. For instance, the camera may linger on the woman's body.
In I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, very often there will be shots that are provocative or show a women as a sexual figure; ie: showering in a bikini. The shots linger over her figure and assets to draw in a male audience.
Within the gaming industry, gender is very strongly misrepresented, whilst Lara Croft from Tomb Raider is a very strong female lead and shows that a woman can be a fighter and determined, its oh so clear that she was created by a man. With the size of her chest, little clothing and abnormally small waist, it seems rather unfair that this is the ideals created by a man of how they want a woman to look, for younger boys playing the game, it becomes an image they expect to see rather than what reality actually presents. The evolution of Lara has shown to look more realistic, mostly with the advancement of graphics in the past 15 years. She is a sex symbol of the gaming world and her short, tight clothing that defines her assets have drawn in a very large fanbase that have watched her change over time and still continues to explore her world as well as her demeanour, stances and the way in which she walks.
In Grand Theft Auto, women are high demeaned, they are merely there as something for the male characters to use from time to time before they embark on their next robbery or gang related crime. The women are all pretty girls, with tight clothing and an object of a desire for the men, as well as being prostitutes and hookers. The Telegraph's video game editor Tom Higgins stated that he believed the latest GTA game was designed to degrade women and that it would have been ebtter had one of the leading characters been a woman and not there jus as a sexual object.
The female gaze actually is a term in which the idea is formed that a women will start to view herself in the way a man would, of she doesn't deem her appearance acceptable then she will change herself to suit a mans ideas and expectations.
In contrast, it is also very common for a man to be presented in such a way to attract female attraction. Popular ways are brand ads (mostly fashion and fragrances), showing off their bodies, underwear shoots and being sexually positioned with a woman. Well dressed men are a plus side too.
Abercrombie & Fitch advertisement.
With all of this being said, woman are gaining a fairer approach in some aspects, they're being shown as stronger and more powerful than ever before. The independent women's approach may be scarier to the males but it's exciting and finally shows that a woman isn't letting others pusher her around, she actually can stand up for herself.
Uma Thurman in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 cult film 'Pulp Fiction'
Strong willed yet sexy and alluring.
Moving over to men, for years, decades, centuries, men have been perceived as a gender that are dominant and in the 1970/80's they were quite macho characters who fought when needed to and were determined.
Traditional representations and stereotypes of men in films were;
- Rugged features
- Facial hair
- Violent
- Possessive
- Strong/Muscled
- Hard faced
John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction
Today the connotations are stereotypes are a lot softer, it's not uncommon for them to show a more feminine side who have no qualms about showing their emotions (or at least a little of them) and taking pride in their appearance. Dapper and suave.
Whilst this would once be say as a sign of homosexuality, it's much more widely accepted than ever before.
A more... PG version of David Beckham's new range for H&M.
It is right that most believe that 'sex sells'?
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