It is clear that in the past the media’s portrayal of men has been extremely different compared to the portrayal of women. Men have been portrayed in their leading roles as strong and heroic figures. On the contrary, women in Hollywood cinema were first only used as sexual objects. This drastic difference has promoted sexist representations of women as well as discrimination against females. Men’s domination over women continued throughout early films. Media has repeatedly shown the stereotype of specific gender roles relating to family dynamics. Women played roles as purely mother figures who depended on their husband, the strong leader of the household. Even in advertisements, women continued to be seen in a particular way. “One study found that 75 percent of all ads using females were products found in the kitchen or bathroom (Dominick and Rauch 1972),” (Douglas 68). All females in media were casted down to their gender stereotypes, causing a major divide between male and female. The media has been able to represent women as strong figures and role models in more recent years, however, this long-lasting inequality problem cannot change overnight. Society must continue to fight for feminism.
4 thoughts on “Feminism: Marielle Dibbini”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I agree that women continuously get stereotyped in society, assuming that women belong in the kitchen and house cleaning. However, this needs to be broken because studies have shown that 11.9% of women, or 336 women are billionaires. Women should not be portrayed as lesser than men because women can excel and be independent of men. In all honesty, I feel that men depend more on women than women depend on men. For example in the movie ‘Cinderella’, the girl runs to the man that has the most power while the man doesn’t really give her a choice. This continues to show that men have more control over women, this is not empowering to women whatsoever.
I definitely agree with you on the fact that women & men are portrayed very differently in media. As you said, the man always plays the heroic characters while the women plays the one in the kitchen. It’s interesting how despite everything women fight for we’re still seeing the same people playing the same roles. I agree that we still need to fight for feminism. I wish to see more female characters that play the main roles and aren’t seen as clumsy or a ditz.
I agree with you that society must have to continue fighting for equality amongst genders. The media has continuously supported gender roles for years and this has contributed to their lasting presence today. These ideas have been ingrained into our society and will take some time before they can be changed. I also agree with you that there has definitely been some progress made. More often now, I am beginning to see women in strong and heroic leading roles. Hopefully actions like this will continue until we can have a truly equal society.
This post has me thinking about writers. While media portrayals are changing, if roles themselves aren’t rewritten to account for, promote, and emphasize strong female leads, then portrayals based on those screenplays and scripts can only move so far forward in advancing women’s roles in media.