Gender in the Media

Through several of years the media has brought a distorted mirror of our lives and of our gender. In just a few examples which I decided to focused on were commercials, song lyrics, and a movie. It is important to take media into account because the media is world wide and the most popular movies, commercials, and songs spread out transnationally. If we didn't study the media it would mean that we would not be acknowledging what influences our very lives.

The first form of media I am going to talk about is this Axe commercial that I saw trying to sell men's hair gel. During this commercial there is a “guy” and a “woman” , I put this in quotations because the quote on quote “guy” and “woman” are actually more like “hair” and a pair of “breasts”. Throughout the commercial the so called guy is basically following the so called woman trying to get her attention. Of course he does not accomplish this until the very end when they both have their full bodies and he uses the axe hair gel and then end slogan is “Hair. It's what girls see first.” So with that being said it implies that what men see first are a woman’s breast since that is all she consisted of and even when they returned to their full body forms the woman had on pushup bra and a low cut shirt. Can you say sexist? So what are the elements of gender within this commercial aside from the obvious? First off it stays within the hetero-normative dichotomy roles that society enforces upon us and it also denotes that in order for a woman to be sexy enough to be wanted she has to have a nice rack. Moreover, the second form of media that I will talk about are song lyrics. Oh, song lyrics I could probably go pages and pages talking about this but I will spare you your beloved eyes and sum it up as best that I can. Therefore, for this I have the most perfect example from a girl named Kai Davis who is a spoken word poet that makes a reference to a popular song by DreDRE ; this is how it went: “We’ve learned to call queens outside of their real titles. Girls became ‘Jawns’, ‘Jawns’ became ‘bitches’, and bitches ain’t shit but hoes and tricks. Whose trick was that? Is it a coincidence that the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene share the same name, but not the same crown? These girls have no crown. Just scalp-pats and ass-taps. They say “Hit it from the back”. Well, I couldn’t look a Queen in the eye either. So we’ll just pretend they’re all animals or objects. Because devotion is harder than disconnection. Someone disconnect the throne from the seat of their elastic denim. Beat them till they bounce back like rubber-banded bimbos. Tell them bend over. Can you wave hello to hell? Can you smell the burning embers? Does it smell like sulphur? Does it smell like dirty twat? You know, dirty twats get swatted into filthy gutters. We’ve got to get our minds out the gutter. Gotta get these hoes off the track. Gotta get this glue out this trap. Those sticky, Nicki Minaj impersonators, those self-proclaimed “Bad bitches”, “Hood Bitches”, “Five-star Bitches”. They disrespect the galaxies because heaven has no place for whores. So where will they go? Sexual freedom isn’t acceptable for women. Due to the misogyny massaged into men’s brains. A Queen loses her crown when she loses her virginity. And a Queen becomes a ‘bitch’ when she likes it.” This perfectly sums up what that song does, along with other degrading misogynistic songs that are there, but focusing on this one specifically she hits every single point that there is to be made. This song is sexist, objectifying, and racist. “Look I like bitches, that's lightskinned-ed, With ah whole a lot of ass, and get right with it, Off a pill, i can prolly' make her like bitches, Lick Lick it, like a lolli till it's like Liquid, These hoochies always talkin' bout, where my dick is, But if it's not in your mouth, then get out my business, A nigga real ratchet, i ain't Wifin' Shit, Known to fuck and cut her off, Lightswitches..” Aside from this song not even having actual words within half the song the whole agenda is for woman to be viewed as objects. It dehumanizes us by making it seem that we are noting but a hole to fill for when a man wants to get off. Another point that Kai Davis comes across is that she states how sexual freedom is not acceptable for woman, yet having sex acted upon us is alright. This goes back to the whole “I want a freak in the sheets but a lady on the streets” saying and also song lyric while men have the liberty of being as sexual as they please, it's all double standards. This song does not only degrade but enforces male violence against woman by making it seem these are the gender roles that should be acting out by insinuating that the way to attract a woman is by treating her like some dog, because that sure as hell is the way I would like to be desired and approached, I mean who wouldn't want to be treated like some hound right?

On a lighter note, I am now going to talk about the movie “Brave” and how it has actually been one of the more positive forms of media that have been out there which give me hope that maybe things will change. Some of the most powerful parts about the movie are that it showed an accurate depiction of a mother/daughter relationship, which is something that is rarely seen since most of the time it is father/son relationships that are portrayed, also how Elinor truly is the ruler of her kingdom eventhough Fergus is the king, he doesn’t rule the kingdom. He follows Elinors lead and lets her shine. She truly is the most powerful person in the kingdom and you don’t see Fergus acting like an ass about it. He realizes she is a better ruler and supports his wife. This gives off a positive message of a hard working mother and a functional couple. There are not many powerful queens that you can see out there in Disney movies, the ones that are either evil or passive for the most part. They also have Merida, who is head strong, independent, and believes in herself. They get a role model who is as confident as her mother and really will fight for what she believes in. She truly is the Princess I wish I more girls had growing up. Not that I don’t love Belle, Ariel, Jasmine, and the other princesses I grew up with but their stories still revolve around the men in their lives not the women. It was nice and refreshing to see a Princess movie just about the women with the men as the background characters. That is truly revolutionary and a true deconstruction of how woman are viewed.

All in all, media is something that is going to influence gender and has greatly tried to set out messages to how a person should be. What all these have in common is the hetero-normative, male oriented, and societies perception of how men should see woman and how woman should be viewed as. The axe commercial showed how woman and men are physically represented in the media in the form of desire once again saying that what I woman has going for her depends on her physical appearance, the song represented that no matter how demeaning people will listen to it and take those gender roles to heart, and finally the movie was the pivotal hope that maybe gender in the media is coming to some sort of change, and this time for the better.