How the Media Looks at Women in the Early Years

It is time to get past the idea of women needing to stay at home. Stereotypes of women commonly depicted in the media provoke the ideology that women should stay home and take care of their families. In the reading in the book Media, Gender, and Identity by David Gauntlett, Gauntlett brings up the point of how women were barely represented in television from the 1950s-1970s. However, progressively there were more roles where women were shown in more leadership positions in the media, but they are still commonly shown as housewives. Most of their interactions were derived from “concerned with romance or family problems”. It was not until the 80s when women were playing stronger roles but there was still an underlining stereotyping taking place.

Strongly in the sixties women were seen as sex objects. This view was seen very powerfully in the form of film. Below are two examples of two movies from that time period. The first clip is the famous film The Seven Year Itch. Marilyn Monroe’s character plays a woman that is very desirable. Her looks, high pitch voice and lines like “I keep my undies in the icebox! ”, make a strong statement of how women should be perceived and what is considered sexy.

The second clip, is from the film, North By Northwest. In this film, Cary Grant’s character plays the man running away from spies trying to kill him because they mistake him for somebody else. The woman character is seen stronger then Monroe’s character in the Severn Year Itch in a few of the scenes because she is seductive but strong. However, the woman, or "the blonde", is still seen as a sexually craved animal. On a few occasions, she says that she just wanted somebody to be with for the night while they are on the train. Gauntlett mentions this in his book because this (and other Hitchcock films) has men as the main character of the films and the men play the hero. But the women are important to the role because they help lead the story. I feel that the character in North by Northwest shows the change of gender stereotypes because even though she plays a stereotypical woman, she is also stronger (She does shoot at Cary Grant for goodness sakes).

Lastly, I just wanted to mention briefly a section in The Symbolic Annihilation of Women by the Mass Media by Gaye Tuchman. I have put one more clip at the bottom of the section because in the beginning of the reading, Tuchman quotes Lesser. The clip is from the movie Mean Girls. At 8:34-8:39, the audience is able to see the little sister character dancing to the hip hop song “Milkshake”. This is a perfect example of modeling. Modeling is when someone sees something happen and then does it. Other words, modeling is a sort of monkey see, monkey do with pop culture. This clip shows the little girl is dancing similarly to the woman on the screen. Also, as the quote continues, the action the woman is portraying may not be repeated or enforced, it is still able to seem acceptable to the little girl.

Sources:Media, Gender, and Identity by David Gauntlett

The Symbolic Annihilation of Women by the Mass Media by Gaye Tuchman