Different Images for Different Sexes and Genders

The media has presented two images of women, the good and the bad ones and these polar
opposites are often juxtaposed so as to dramatize their differences. Good women are those
that are closely focussed on their homes, take care of their families and offer assistance to
others. The good women are portrayed as those that are subordinate to men and are often
seen as helpmates or victims. Occasionally, the women who depart from the traditionally
assigned are also portrayed as being good but that is if their positions are less visible (Segel-
Evans, 2019). When they start to dominate or move away from such positions, they often face
resistance and are labelled differently. This shows that the society is willing to appreciate
women but only if they adopt or remain in certain positions. In the past, the women who had
strong positions in the films had their roles altered to match what is expected in the society.
The media remains as an important tool for changing and also perpetuating the existing
notions (Burke, 2004). When the role of women is watered down to match the demands of a
particular gender, this is a form of oppression and it affects gender relations badly. As this is
taken as the appropriate way and behaviour, those moving against it will be portrayed as bad.
If more action is not taken to remove biases, they will remain in the media and the society
will continue to oppress others based on gender (Freelon et al., 2018).

In most of the witch films, the roles are allocated to women because they are seen as the evil
sisters. The bad woman is the one who is aggressive, hard and cold. In films such as the snow
white, the witch is female (Faludi, 2009). In most of the children’s literature, the evil witch is
woman and often they exemplify aspects which the society does not want about women.
These portrayals which represent participants is a given light help entrench the notion of what
a bad woman is and the media has not worked to dispel the notions. The women who want to
be acceptable to the society have to sacrifice some aspects of their personality and identity
which is not good to gender relations. Equality will not be achieved when a section of the
society is supposed to act in a specified way which limits their capabilities (Fournier, 2002).
If both genders are allowed to prosper in the same way, the world will become a better place.
Respect is crucial to ensuring that good relations persist and it is the duty of the media to
ensure that they increase the participation of others in the media.

Showing one gender as having the authority and ability to handle certain activities is a way of
removing the other from such activities. Overtime, it has been proven that women can
perform certain activities as well as women. However, the media continue to indicate that
masculinity is the only way that one can accomplish such tasks. Women who also indicate
that they have a masculine nature are castigated because they are said to want to take roles
meant for men (Risdaneva, 2018). When the society works to increase the number of women
in influential positions, it becomes hard to achieve the set. The voice of most of the
advertisements even those selling products women products are mainly that of men. Such
narrations are followed and matched by women doing activities which only seen as suitable
to ladies. This is a form of gender oppression which is supported by the media whether
knowingly or otherwise. In most cases, the leading media organizations indicate that the
consumer determines the kind of information which is presented (Oakley et al., 2017).
However, this is not the case as the viewers consume the media the way it is presented. Most
people have become accustomed to things happening in a particular way because the media
has presented this notion repeatedly. One does not expect to see a man washing dishes in
advertisements because they have been conditioned to view this as a lady’s role. This will
also persist at home as men will not want to take up such duties because they are associated
with women as shown in the media. Therefore, even though some of the direction is because
of cultural issues, there is a role which the media plays in ensuring that such stereotypes
continue to exist and even grow (Risdaneva, 2018). A majority of media houses are afraid of
changing the depictions because they fear losing followers and viewers (Doyle, 2019). This
means that the gender oppression in the media will persist as the community and the media
want to maintain the status quo.