As everyone knows, today's youngsters are the key to our future world. They have the most impact on future developments, society, culture, language, mindsets, norms and of course gender equality. Apart from school, family and friends, media plays a major role in youngsters' lives. Not only does it help us form opinions and take sides, it also teaches us many concepts and affects our thoughts and emotions. So, how does the media, which is supposed to have an immense responsibility to educate the upcoming generations, influence gender inequality?
From my standpoint, I would say that media has more negative influence on gender inequality than a positive influence. But I'm not saying that it is the objective of media to discourage equality. No, in fact they predominantly do what they do with good intentions, but sometimes the opposite of their expected effect occurs. And also, some of the advertisements and articles that are supposed to promote gender equality are actually offensive if you think about them.
In the 20th century, where patriarchy was present in most countries, you could see countless advertisements that portrayed gender stereo types openly. The people were so used to them, that they didn't find any of them offensive, but when we look at them nowadays, we find those ads outrageous. However many of us don't realize that this gender stereotyping hasn't stopped yet. It is just that they are more hidden. You can see fair, slim women wearing quite revealing clothes advertising cars or junk food. This is (obviously) to attract men. If women aren't portrayed as mentioned above, then as one of the general stereotypes: the shy housewife, the to-be-bride, the young mother etc. But women aren't the only ones being stereotyped, the men are too. You can see the bulky, muscular men, the nerdy type, the clueless type and so on. For example there was once an advertisement of a popular brand with the following motto: “Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a boss.” This is extremely sexist, because it implies that only men can think logically and women are only recognized because of their appearance.
You can say that the purpose of an advertisement is to convince people to buy the product and thus the gender stereotypes are justified, but we need to understand how bad an influence it is on the young ones. They feel the need to become one of the stereotypes, because it is “cool” and because only those type of people are attractive or accepted in social groups.
The representation of genders in advertisements isn't as big a problem as some of the products themselves. The inference that only fair-skinned girls can find their life partner and thus dark-skinned girls should utilize fairness creams and cosmetic products creates unnecessary expectations and complexes. Dark-skinned girls aren't satisfied with their looks and are in most cases under-confident because of this; boys in general think that only fair-skinned girls can qualify as their girlfriends. A similar controversial product is diet and slimming food products. A cereal brand was advertised with the following tagline: “This summer lose your weight not your confidence.” What was this supposed to mean? Yes, you can only be confident if you aren't overweight. This is a blow to the self-respect of many girls. They become too self-conscious of their weight and in extreme cases end up with eating disorders.
I am not saying that these products should banned, no, many people are willing to use them and that is their choice. What I'm trying to explain is that no one should be put down because of their appearance and physical qualities. These kind of products should be advertised in a manner that no one gets offended due to them.
The next main grey area in media, is the portrayal of the different genders in films. As you all know, films are a major source of entertainment and hence a very popular form of media. The most ideal films, in my opinion are light comedies or films about social issues and solutions to them. But unfortunately several films are of the so-called genre “masala” which basically refers to a cliché film containing a bit from all main genres. In these kind of films there are so many gender stereotypes. A typical “masala” film features a fair, slim heroine who is very emotional and naive – a damsel in distress. The heroine's role is so insignificant that even if you take them out of the plot, it remains the same. The hero is muscular and is shown as a very violent and impulsive person, who always saves the day. The villain is mostly the heroine's father or a local politician.
All these stereotypes manipulate the minds of young, growing people in a way that they think this is how a perfect person should be. What they don't understand is that no one is perfect. You don't have to be fair or slim or muscular or violent to be attractive. Many a times they try to become someone who they are not. Also parents aren't aware of all these effects films have on children and teenagers. These kind of films makes people imagine too many things and also creates unrealistic hopes about their futures. Films shouldn't only entertain, they should also educate. So why aren't there more films where the heroine is dark-skinned, intelligent and independent? Why can't the hero be clever, but also emotional? Why is it such a taboo for a man to cry?
People working in the film industry, like any other industry get a specific income. But, for actors the income varies drastically, depending on the budget and the success of the film they act in. Even though this is the case, actresses are often paid a lot less than actors. The worst part about this is, their talent and their work isn't really considered for this decision. Even if their performance in the film was much superior than the actor's, it just doesn't matter. Of course, this may not be true for all cases, but generally this is what happens. I admire many actresses, who have openly talked about this problem on interviews. I hope they make a difference for the future artists in that industry.
Many of us may think that this inequality in payment in the film industry doesn't matter, because the actresses affected by this still get a higher salary in a single film than most us could earn in a decade. But this only speaks for the most popular actresses. If the gender inequality in salary exists in a large industry like Bollywood, then imagine small screen actresses and television anchors. They are affected significantly by this inequality. Media needs to understand what they are doing and how it affects the youth's perspective of gender stereotypes and equality. The future of our generation has a huge connection to media, so it is our duty to make them understand. Do not support sexist portrayal of men or women. Criticize media for their blunders. Stand up for both your gender and the opposite gender.
– R
* I'm not rude, I'm outspoken.
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