Gender Representation in Media Products

Introduction 

In different media products, gender is mainly represented to create a specific thought within the viewer. Gender stereotypes are also used in most media products to base males and females to roles that they "belong in", almost creating a relation between the media product and the real world.

Stuart Hall's Representation Theory is the idea that media products are being used to create representations for the different gender roles, and stereotypes created from representations are often negative. 

Music Videos

One example of gender representation is the music video for Katy Perry's "Roar". Gender stereotypes within the music video seem to be almost reversed, as the start of the music video shows Katy Perry bravely exploring a jungle, and her boyfriend is seen to be taking selfies and photos at the start. Katy Perry then begins to show her powerful personality near the end of the music video, but her character is sexualised later on, which fits in with Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory. 

Advertisements.

Another example of gender representation belongs in an advertisement made in 1953 about ketchup. The advert has the caption of "You mean a woman can open it...?", which is considered sexist. Through stereotypes, this can give the message that women were not able to open ketchup bottles without aid from a stronger individual - a male. This advertisement was frowned upon by society as the sexism was very clear.

Magazines

A further example of gender representation appears in magazines. They are usually stereotypical as magazine companies attempt to create a connection within the reader to make the magazine relatable with them. Gender roles in magazines clearly show differences between the male and female, but some magazines bypass this. Majority of fitness magazines usually portray a man at the front cover, and fashion magazines usually portray a woman at the front cover. 

If a person is "metrosexual", they are more focused about taking care of their appearance and fashion, and these type of people are portrayed on Fashion magazines. 

If a person is "spornosexual", they are more focused on taking care of their body, and usually pose on Fitness magazines.

Video Games

The gender representation in video games can clearly show the differences in roles for each gender. For example, the game New Super Mario Bros. includes two playable characters: Mario and Luigi. The two protagonists are male and their goal is to retrieve the princess back to their castle as she had been kidnapped by a male antagonist. One clear example of sexism is that the only playable characters in the game are male and the only person that needs saving is a female. 

However, one game that didn't include a male protagonist is a game called Metroid, and the protagonist is called Samus. Her goal is to stop threats from an evil group called the Space Pirates, and to harness the use of biological weapons used by the Space Pirates. At the end of the game, Samus' gender is revealed, and it surprised many people due to Metroid becoming (one of the) first games to include a female as the protagonist.

Another game that didn't include a male protagonist is a game called Tomb Raider, and the protagonist is called Lara Croft. In the game, her goal is to discover ancient artefacts, solve puzzles and to fight off enemies to banish a soul called the Sun Queen. The character of Lara Croft, however, was sexualised; her clothing reveals a lot of skin, and her body proportions were sized to further sexualise the character.