In the modern world, society is gradually renouncing the gender binary, that is, the belief that there are only two distinct genders – male and female. Traditional gender roles pertaining to patriarchal societies, in which a man is a breadwinner and a woman is a housewife, also become outdated. These social changes are reflected and promoted in popular media, such as music, films, and advertising. This paper will outline the differences between gender and sex and review the media representation of gender in different communities. By doing so, this paper aims to prove that the representation of gender in popular media has gone beyond traditional roles, and, thanks to globalization, this tendency is spreading all over the world.
In contrast to the past, in the contemporary world, gender and sex are no longer perceived as the same concept. Currently, sex is a biological concept related to one’s sex organs, while gender is a socially constructed notion concerned with one’s self-perception (Timke & O’Barr, 2017). Four key terms help to understand the difference between gender and sex and their representation in media better: gender identity, biological sex, sexual orientation, and gender expression. According to Timke and O’Barr (2017), gender identity determines whether one sees oneself as a woman, a man, or someone in between. Biological sex, in contrast, refers to a person’s sexual anatomy (Timke & O’Barr, 2017). Further, sexual orientation means whether a person prefers to enter sexual relationships with a partner of the same sex, the opposite sex, or both the same and the opposite sex (Timke & O’Barr, 2017). Finally, gender expression refers to how one presents oneself to others (Timke & O’Barr, 2017). Given the complexity of the concepts related to gender and sex, it is important for media not to oversimplify the representation of gender and sex.
The expression of gender in popular media differs in different communities. For example, in Botswana, which is a predominantly patriarchal country, gender stereotypes still pertain in media, although more diverse gender expression is also present in various educational media, such as radio and TV programs (Lemish & Götz, 2017). The same is true about media in India, where children are shown cartoons in which characters conform to traditional gender roles pertaining to patriarchal society (Lemish & Götz, 2017). In the US, media has widely adopted the diversity of gender identities. For example, there is a variety of TV series, such as The Fosters and Pretty Little Liars, which depict the experiences of transgender individuals (Lemish & Götz, 2017). Thus, the representation of gender in media is largely influenced by the development of society and its retreat from traditional patriarchal social norms.
However, patriarchal societies are gradually changing their attitudes and media representations of gender thanks to globalization. The rapid spread of information over the Internet has blurred the boundaries between different countries and allowed people from various backgrounds to have access to media and news from the most developed societies. For example, at the end of the twentieth century, Indonesian people did not accept individuals of non-traditional sexual orientation (Yulius et al., 2017). However, thanks to the coverage of homosexuality in mass media, the attitudes toward different sexual orientations have become more favorable in Indonesia, allowing people with non-traditional sexual orientations to be accepted in society (Yulius et al., 2017). Hence, globalization allowed for spreading Western attitudes toward gender to other parts of the world, thus making the media representation of gender more positive.
In conclusion, contemporary media represents gender as a wider concept than it was understood in traditional patriarchal societies. Currently, the depiction of traditional gender roles has remained only in underdeveloped societies that maintain the patriarchal system. However, globalization is gradually changing this situation by introducing people from different countries to the complexity of gender identities, which, in its turn, influences the media representation of gender in these countries.
References
Lemish, D., & Götz, M. (Eds.). (2017). Beyond the stereotypes? Images of boys and girls, and their consequences. The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media, at Nordicom University of Gothenburg.
Timke, E., & O’Barr, W. M. (2017). Representations of masculinity and femininity in advertising. Advertising & Society Review, 17(3-4), 1-119.
Yulius, H., Tang, S., & Offord, B. (2017). The globalization of LGBT identity and same-sex marriage as a catalyst of neo-institutional values: Singapore and Indonesia in focus. In B. Winter, M. Forest, & R. SĂ©nac (Eds.), Global perspectives on same-sex marriage (171-196). Palgrave Macmillan.