EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY

Name: Nova Myrel F. Recimo

BTVTEd - CSS 3
GENDER & SOCIETY TTH – 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Module 3: Lesson 2

Title: Gender and Media

ACTIVITY

Watch any of the following films:

1. Mulan (1998)
2. Wonder Woman (2017)
3. Hidden Figures (2017)
4. Dangal (2017, Bollywood)
5. Bend it like Beckham (2003)

ANALYSIS

Answer the following question below:

1. How active is the woman protagonist in the film? Is she portrayed as a

creative member of the society or a person who has an important
function in the community?
2. GEETA
REAL
MOVIE CAST:
PHOGAT Fatima Sana
Shaikh as
“Geeta
Phogat”

MOVIE: Dangal

The protagonist
named “Geeta” is a woman considered as one of the finest sportswomen the
country. She won India’s first-ever gold medal in wrestling. Geeta is woman with
great personality as she portrayed to be one of the creative members of the society
and considered to have an essential function in their community. In India, it is very
impossible for women to get involved in the field of sports because the women
happens to stay at home, be a wife or a mother, a sibling and a modest woman that
needs to stay low-key under the control of the head of the family, the father.
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Depending on her father’s view, Geeta and her siblings were strictly trained in
wrestling wanting to produce first woman wrestler. Their father is a former wrestler
and wants to train his daughter in a strict and strong way with his one basic formula
“train as hard as you can”. With the willingness to try as hard as they can, they
eventually succeeded and Geeta was known as one of India’s pride.

3. What was her exceptionality in the movie?

Geeta Phogat was exceptional in the field of sports garnering the gold medal in
Olympics 2010, 55kg category in a freestyle wrestling, and was known as the first
ever to beat records as a woman.

4. Did a woman direct this film? If not, do you think a woman would have
told the story another way? Why do you think so?

No, a man named “Nitesh Tiwari” directed the movie “Dangal” in 2016. I think
whether a woman or man told the story, it would still be in the same pattern and the
same situation because the Dangal movie is a real-life story of Haryanavi wrestler
Mahavir Singh Phogat, who trained his daughters to become world-class wrestlers.
Also, gender has nothing to do with the storyline of the movie itself. Though the
director was a man, he successfully represented feminism victory. The father in the
movie portrayed as the head of the family and the personal coach of her daughters
which happens to be very strict but a motivator. As a father, he chose to live with his
dreams and decided to make his daughter part of it not minding what the society
would say, not bothering the existing social stigmas. The daughters then believed
that being woman does not mean you are weaker, it just means you have your own
exceptionality and you just have to own it.
 EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY

APPLICATION

1. Reflect how the portrayal of women, men, and the LGBTQ+ in media
influences people’s views and attitudes towards each sector?

Media are the most pervasive and one of the most powerful out of many
influences on how we view men and women and the LGBTQ+. The LGBTQ+ in
media are highly misrepresented. It usually categorizes all of the LGBT people into
just lesbian and gay. In media, gays are portrayed as flashy, girly and cross-dresses,
as well for lesbian, vice versa. These examples of portraying is a bit off because it
merely shows society standards when it supposed to be not. Some would think that
a gay should be like this, a lesbian should be like that, etc. It changes the people’s
views and as well as the attitude both in good and bad ways. In bad circumstances,
the misrepresentation in media will control the standards of the society and limits the
people’s views for example, if a lesbian is actually dating a gay, some would insult
that why consider yourself as lesbian when you just marry a gay, they would think it
is toxic and it is still the same for man and woman which insults a lot because as if
the gays and lesbians were born to get judgments limiting their wants. Another
example is the gay wearing man’s clothing instead of cross-dressing. There are gays
who prefer to present themselves as young man with a feminine heart. Most of the
people say that gays should wear girl’s clothing but it is wrong, they only say and
because what they see in media whether on tv, on social networking sites, they
believe that all of are the truth. Portraying LGBTQ+ in media can be crucial because
it does not control the interpretation of every people’s views.

2. Reflect: Is media an effective way to influence people towards gender

equity? How?

Gender roles are influenced by the media, family, environment, and society. A
child's understanding of gender roles impacts how they socialize with their peers and
form relationships. Although there are many negative consequences that arise from
LGBTQ+ portrayal in media, there are some positive consequences as well. Seeing
LGBTQ+ people in the media can bring about acceptance of the community. It helps
them see that they are belong to any field, without any bias. Time by time, the
 EGE 311 – GENDER AND SOCIETY

change in the portrayal of LGBTQ+ is positive. The change in representation of racial

diversity in the LGBTQ+ community is advancing towards a more equal standpoint.
Therefore the media play an important role in society as a source of information. I
strongly believe in the transformative role media as it can play in achieving gender
equality in societies. By creating gender-sensitive and gender-transformative content
and breaking gender stereotypes, by challenging traditional social and cultural norms
and attitudes regarding gender perceptions both in content and in the media houses
and by showing women in leadership roles and as experts on a diversity of topics on
a daily basis, not as an exception. Media is one reason that there is increased
support to gender equality which all the people deserve to enjoy the same rights,
resources, opportunities and protections. However, it will only be more effective if the
media industry is encouraged to produce gender-transformative content and to
develop self-regulatory equality policies, including access to decision-making
positions. Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms need to be set up to assess the
progress within the sector.