Scharrer (2013). Representations of gender in the media. - Article summary

The media plays an important role in shaping (gender) roles and behaviour. The media shapes perceptions and attitudes regarding gender roles. There are several differences between the genders in television representation:

1. Number of characters
   Women are underrepresented in television compared to men. This is consistent across several types of programmes, types of media, in video games and across race.
2. Physical appearance
   Media characters are thinner than individuals in the actual population, especially for women. For women, attention is called to attractiveness and sexuality. Female characters are typically younger than male characters. White women are objectified more often than other characters.
3. Domestic roles
   Media suggests that marriage is more important for women and women have lower-status occupational roles outside the house and were responsible for more childcare in the media. Women are more often depicted in roles associated with interpersonal relationships. A maternal role for (white) women is emphasized. Males are portrayed as more appropriate recipients of affectionate expressions. The media emphasizes traditional gender roles.
4. Occupational roles
   Male characters are more likely to be explicitly presented as having a job outside the home than female characters. Female characters are equally likely to be found in professional occupations as males. Female characters often cross the gender-boundary in occupational roles. However, male characters are more often restricted to the professional scene. Women are more likely to be portrayed as having low-skill occupational roles and women of colour are less likely to be shown having a job outside the home than white women. Males are more likely to be associated with computers and ICT.

There are more women in health- and beauty-related and household products in advertisements but not in other types of advertisements. Women characters are more likely to receive appearance-related comments whereas both women and men are equally likely to make them.

There is a drive towards thinness in media, as there are more positive comments about the body of an underweight character and characters on a diet are negative about their body weight. The ideal for women is thinness while the ideal for males is muscular or lean.

Individuals are not affected by the media in uniform ways but individual differences and situational variables shape media effects. Television contributes to relatively more stereotypical and traditional gender-related outlooks. Media has the potential to exert an influence on the overall view of gender held by individuals and the behaviours that emerge from those views.

Mainstreaming refers to the ability of television to reduce differences in individuals’ viewpoints that would typically be found based on demographics. Television can contribute to gender role attitudes that run counter to gender stereotypes in other cultural contexts (e.g. Arabs watching a lot of American television will have more egalitarian gender role attitudes than before watching it).

There are several media effects:

1. Physical appearance
   The thinness ideal in the media leads to less body-satisfaction among women. It also influences prevalence of binge-eating, purging and disordered eating in general. Sexualized video-games influence gender-stereotypes and acceptance for sexual harassment. Media influences males towards being muscular.
2. Domestic and relational roles
   Television use is related to children and adolescents holding traditional attitudes about which gender should do which tasks. However, there is no link between television use and the household chores that are actually performed by people. Traditional gender roles on television is related to young women anticipating a more traditional approach to their own future roles within motherhood. Exposure to gender-stereotyped content on television can contribute to audience members’ stereotypical views of gender in sexual and romantic relationships.
3. Occupational roles
   Television affects perceptions of the careers that are deemed open to and suitable for males and females. Heavy television viewing perceived the world as being more similar to the television world in terms of gender differences in occupational roles. Television use can contribute to views of gender and occupations.