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Portrayals of Gender

CM-213

Emily Angelo

Worcester State University

April 8, 2023
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Gender is something that defines each individual so that they can identify themselves.

This determines a lot of things in our world, and can cause issues in one's life just because of

what gender they were at birth.

The first thing that we are taught when we are born is gender identity. In the book entitled

Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, &Culture, it states that “as children develop their

gender identity, which is a person’s subjective sense to his/her/their gender, it determines which

parent a child will identify and how the child’s psych will develop.” Becoming a woman you

tend to lean more towards the mother figure in your life due to the fact that you can both

associate with the same things. Whereas a male will lean more towards the father figure because

of the similar things as well. By having someone who identifies as the same gender as you allows

you to have a “role model” per say that will guide you through life as such gender. Within this

book it discusses how a child’s development is based on a heterosexual family. It states that “

Today families are increasingly diverse”. There are less than half of families now that have a

mother and father figure. Even though there are different types of families in today’s day and

age, parental communication about gender is very important in a child’s life. According to the

Gender Lives: Communication, Gender, &Culture book within “the first 24 hours of a baby's life

they are exposed to many stereotypes regarding their gender.”

How we view genders is greatly influenced by our media, and what we see online, in

magazines, advertisements, newspapers, articles, movies, etc. What we see in the media is harsh

stereotypes for each gender on how a girl “should” look and how a boy “should” look as well as

how they should think and act. An article published by Women You Should Know, called

Appalled Graphic Designer Shows Girls’ Life Magazine What Their Cover Should Look Like. In

this article it talks about how girls are still being stereotyped in the media. The original magazine
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cover shows a teenager who is all glammed up with curly, blonde hair and makeup on with fancy

clothes being modeled to fit the magazine owner's liking. Along with the way the girl is looking

on the cover are short quotes to grab the reader's attention. These quotes consist of “Wake up

pretty”, “Your dream hair”, “100+ ways to SLAY on the first day”. All these quotes are

convincing girls who see and read this magazine that if they do not look like the girl on the cover

they are “not pretty”, or if they do not act like how the magazine says then they will “not be

liked” by the public. It is giving women and younger girls false information on how to be a girl.

There should be no right or wrong way to act or look. So, Katherine Young, a graphic designer,

took matters into her own hands and decided to create a magazine cover that looked identical to

the one published, but using real photos of girls, and quotes that correspond to the way we

should be portraying girls online. Young’s quotes she used were “Girls doing good, 100 ways to

help others in your community”, “Wake up hungry? Healthy foods to power through your rough

days”, “Be yourself, work hard, and get better grades”. By having these quotes instead of the

ones originally used it allows girls to see that not everyone is perfect, everyone has bad days,

everyone is figuring out their life or finding ways to better themselves. It gives younger girls the

insight on allowing them to express themselves in a way they would like to, and not just in a way

the media is trying to portray them.

Another point of how women are portrayed in the media is when we are a mother we are

looked at as the “caretaker”. The media has given women the reputation of being the nuterting

gender, the gender that has to clean, cook, and care for the children. Where the media portrays

men as the hardworking, tough, masculine gender. These stereotypes are what is hurting gender

identity greatly. A Tide and Downy advertisement entitled Stay at Home Dad with Daughter

goes against the created stereotypes to show that there is no definition of how a man, and women
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should act. In this advertisement it displays a father to a little girl who is folding the girly laundry

while his wife is at work. This is an important message because it shows a male breaking the

stereotype put in place that men are not as neutering as women, and it also shows that can get the

housework done as well while the women work. In this advertisement the male states that he is a

mixture of “masculinity and nurturing” which makes other males and females become alert to the

matter at hand. Along with the Tide and Downy advertisement of the father doing “mother”

things, there is a Youtube video that is a parody of the song Sexy and I Know It yet it is called

“I’m a Daddy and I Know it”. In this video it is a father singing along to the popular song while

showing how he is able to care for the children his wife and he have. This goes with the Tide and

Downy advertisement because it shows that we should not classify actions by gender. If a male

wants to stay at home and take care of the kids that should be normal. Just as normal as if a

woman were to stay home with the kids. As our society opens its mind up to males taking care of

children more, we break that gender barrier of generations ago only to have “stay at home

moms”. In both the advertisement and the music video the males are clearly showing that they

can fold laundry, clean, feed the kids, and take care of them all day until their partners come

home. I believe this is a step in the right direction to breaking the gender barrier.

In our world gender plays a huge role in many aspects of our lives. One of those aspects

is gender intimidation. The book entitled Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, &Culture,

describes gender intimidation as their “sex, gender, or sexual orientation, are treated in ways that

lead them to feel vulnerable or unsafe.” Things that fall under gender intimidation are stalking,

sexist comments, and groping. One of the popular examples of this is the stereotype of comments

made by men towards women that are sexually made about their bodies. As this book describes

the actions made by women when these types of comments are made results in them avoiding
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certain areas in public, taking longer routes, and always looking around to make sure a male isn't

following them. Whereas for males they do not have to even think about this type of behavior in

public. It is made out to be the “women’s fault”. Although another sensitive subject to talk about

is sexual assault. Sexual assault victims “may be of any sex, gender, sexual orientation, and

gender identity.” (pp. 267) A surprising fact according to Gendered Lives: Communication,

Gender, &Culture was that before 2012 the United States “defined rape as carnal knowledge of a

female forcibly and agasint her will.” The United States never spoke about if a male got raped

what it would be defined as. Then in 2012, “the FBI’s definition was revised to define rape as

“penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral

penetration by a sex organ of another person without the consent of the victim.”” From this you

can see that the United Stated refined their meaning of rape to better fit the gender

indentifications of individuals which is something that our world needed for all to be counted for

and included. Portrayal of gender is something that I believe is very important when discussing

anything sexual. Our society in the past has only ever talked about females being assaulted, or

abused, etc. They never listened to a male figure if they were to say they got assaulted, or

abused. When in a relationship it is crucial to be aware of things that can be considered abuse. As

this book also states “intimate partner volence cuts across many demographics- it is experienced

and prepertated by both sexes, members of all races and economics classes, as well as by gays,

lesibians, bisexuals, straights, cisgender, and transgender people.” (pp.272) By including all

genders instead of only speaking about females it allows for a better portrayal of genders in our

media.

The final topic I want to speak about is how gender is portrayed in our lives towards the

younger generation. When growing up everything is categorized as for boys or girls. This
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includes things such as clothes, toys, games, athletics, etc. We are taught at a young age that

things revolve around what gender you are. One of the biggest gender portrayals is in toys. The

New York Times wrote an article entitled Sweeping Away Gender-Specific Toys and Labels. As

young generations are portrayed through pink “girly” dresses, and sports and blue themes it can

give the wrong impression to younger generations. In this article they go into detail about how

marketing companies have gone to change the way they are classifying toys by making them

gender neutral. The article stated “ Not only are toymakers more wary of marketing some items

only to boys or only to girls, they and major store chains are creating gender-neutral or

androgynous labels.” As this article states, many companies and stores have already changed the

way they market their products. For example, Target changed their sign labels to “all kids”

instead of gender specifics as well as the Disney Store, and Amazon. Jim Silver who works for a

toy reviewing company stated that “The industries learned that you shouldn’t be labeling for a

specific gender. There are so many girls who want to be Iron Man and Captain America, and

boys who want to play with Easy-Bake.” (Silver, 2015) Our world has come a long way since

this article was published, yet it does make a good point stating that “the most significant shifts

in gender categorizing- and certainly the most debated- have been in children’s merchandising.”

By changing the way we portray gender to younger generations earlier on, then they will feel

more comfortable if they would like to play with or wear the “opposite sexes” items.

In short, as always our world still has many more steps to take on this matter, but from

the past decade we are striving towards the right path. With the continued help of older

generations, and younger generations we will be able to fully change how gender is portrayed

within everything in our lives. This is an important matter that I feel everyone should come

together, and work towards as one.

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Work Cited

Fixmer-Oraiz, Natalie, and Julia T. Wood. Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender,

and Culture. Cengage, 2019.

Kelly, Gretchen. “The Thing All Women Do That You Don't Know About.” HuffPost,

HuffPost, 7 Dec. 2017, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-thing-all-women-do-you-dont-

know-about_b_8630416.

Tabuchi, Hiroko. “Sweeping Away Gender-Specific Toys and Labels.” The New York

Times, The New York Times, 27 Oct. 2015,

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/28/business/sweeping-away-gender-specific-toys-and-

labels.html.

Tabuchi, Hiroko. “Sweeping Away Gender-Specific Toys and Labels.” The New York

Times, The New York Times, 27 Oct. 2015,

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/28/business/sweeping-away-gender-specific-toys-and-

labels.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0.

Tamblyn, Amber. “Amber Tamblyn: I'm Done with Not Being Believed.” The New York

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Vanstone, Ellen. “How Has Rape Become Such a Common Trope of Television Drama?”

The Globe and Mail, The Globe and Mail, 16 Sept. 2016,

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/how-has-rape-become-such-a-common-

trope-of-television-drama/article31931181/?

post_id=10213161863020677_10213161868180806#_=_.

Wysk, et al. “Appalled Graphic Designer Shows Girls' Life Magazine What Their Cover

Should Look Like.” Women You Should Know®, 11 Sept. 2019,

https://womenyoushouldknow.net/appalled-graphic-designer-shows-girls-life-magazine-

what-their-cover-should-look-like/.

YouTube, YouTube, 21 Jan. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDZ0SdlKPXU.

Accessed 7 Apr. 2023.

YouTube, YouTube, 24 Dec. 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8xcBmj1sn8.

Accessed 7 Apr. 2023.