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Media and gender


Media and gender refers to the relationship between media and gender and how representations of the different genders created for and by mass media. Media can range from newspapers, magazines, comic strips, novels, CDs and music videos. These representations can influence the general public's perception of the different genders. It is important to continue exploring interactions of media and gender to dismiss personal choices, but to see the larger context, and potential consequences for ourselves and others. Advertisements and pictures in magazines carry significant messages about cultural norms and values, but also norms of gendered relations for both men and women.

Betty Friedan, American feminist and writer, analyzed American women's journals (such as Ladies Home Journal, McCall's, Good Housekeeping and Woman's Home Companion) in her book The Feminine Mystique published in 1963. She discussed the role of women in the American society, after World War II, noticing that until 1939, media spread the idea of a modern woman, happy and willing to get the right to build her own life. In those stories, heroines are women with a professional life, who are determined and independent. After the Second World War, media broadcast a new propaganda of a housewife's lifestyle as the only proper way for women to reach happiness. These magazines addressed women as housewives who aimed to impress their authoritative, working husband, and gave them advice that focused on bringing happiness to their families. Media, gender and identity femininity has thus been associated with the concepts of maternity and housekeeping. Friedan also underlines the overlap of media representations with social relations between sexes. It produces the paradigm of masculinity's superiority over women.


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