Genders Portrayed in the Media

Gendered Media

The National Congress of Black Women’s Coalition for Dignity and Diversity in the Media had a scheduled meeting with the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on July 12, 2007. The meeting has not yet taken place; it was postponed to a later date. The women of the coalition campaigns to changed the messages broadcasted in some programming that has a ‘corrosive effect on the dignity and self-worth of young women. The group wants to increase public awareness regarding the way women; especially women of color are portrayed in media. I have assessed that women mirror the behaviors displayed in the various mediums. Most young women wear clothing and dance provocatively like the young women seen in music videos. The same as older women in the past mirrored women on the television’s sitcoms like the Brady Bunch, Partridge family, Beverly Hillbillies, I Love Lucy, Carol Burnet Show, Leave it to Beaver and Lawrence Welk Show, to name a few. The magazine publications tell us how to present a fantasy on how and the way to attract the opposite sex; what proper clothing to wear, etc. Most women’s clothes show a lot of bust, or outline the shape of a women body to preview her curves.

For example, celebrities shown on the Hollywood’s Red Carpet. Most of those women are walking media billboards for fashion industry and their hunk/companions who walk with them. Celebrity women wear clothing that show off some aspect of their breast; with long slits in their gowns or dresses that allowing symbolizing sex or gendering behavior by showing off their leg(s) or a side photo of both their breast and leg(s). Just as Julia Woods state, ‘Women and minorities are underrepresented; portrayed primarily in stereotypical ways that reflect and reproduce conventional views of gender; and the relationships between men and women are usually portrayed as consistent with traditional gender roles and power relations. May that why the House Committee on Energy and Commerce rescheduled the coalition’s meeting to a far later date. It is an acceptable practice in our modern society.