Chelsea Morganelli

1/30/15

Entry 1

Sex Roles in Media

The reading that I found most interesting was “From Images of Women to Women as Image” by Suzanna Danuta Walters. The reading discussed “sex roles” in mass media and the stereotyping that goes along with it. Walters quotes Gaye Tuchman when he says, “Watching lots of television leads children and adolescents to believe in traditional sex roles: Boys should work, girls should not. The same sex role stereotypes are found in the media designed especially for women. They teach that women should direct their hearts toward hearth and home” (Walters, 35). I agree with this quote, television is brainwashing children and telling them that this is the way they should live when they are older. The stereotype that women should stay at home and be housewives while their husbands go to work is shown on television to young viewers. These young viewers are soaking up this stereotype they see on television and think that is what they need to do when they are older. There needs to be more TV shows for children showing them that women can go to work too and that they do not have to stay at home.

 In the reading, George Gerbner concludes that women and nonwhites are portrayed as victims on television. I agree with his conclusion, women are always being saved by men in TV shows and movies. For example, Disney movies have been showing the princess being saved by the prince for too long. These movies are telling young girls that their prince will be there to save them and all they have to do is wait around. This idea is wrong and should not be viewed by young people. It is giving them the wrong idea that when they are in trouble someone will always be there. Two years ago, Disney finally made a movie where the prince does not save the princess. This movie is called Frozen and they should make more like it. Women should be shown as strong rather than weak and distressed. If media does not change then how do we expect to change the idea of traditional sex-roles?