Gender & Media

Sex vs. Gender
Sex – biological

Gender – social

The Construction of Gender
Meanings or social roles assigned to sex are generated by culture

 “Culture” – the store of knowledge a society possess; these ideas contain the patterns and norms according to which we conduct our social and economic activities

Note: Cultural & historical relativity of gender

Note: Culture more or less narrow or expansive

If gender is generated by culture, then the forces and interests that shape the culture shape us, viz., our definition and understanding of ourselves and others as men and women, i.e., as gendered beings

Media & Culture
As media proliferate, they become an increasingly dominant aspect of culture

Media both convey and constitute culture

Convey: media transmit cultural messages

Constitute: media are themselves cultural artifacts; a part of the cultural landscape

Media content is largely determined by the commercial forces

Media products are vehicles for profit

Media & Gender
Since gender is derived from culture and media are an increasingly dominant aspect of culture, notions of gender are increasingly derived from media

Since media content is determined by commercial forces, our gender identity derived from media is similarly shaped by those same commercial forces

We tend to become the gendered person the media sells us, i.e., our notions of self, our personal identities as gendered persons, are literally & figuratively sold to us by the media

Q: What is being sold to us?