Critical reflection on three documentaries

Men = Power & Women = Sex:

The Media's Definition of Gender and Its Impact to Society

The first question that is asked about you is "are you a boy or a girl. When selecting a gift for a baby girl, it's usually pink; for a baby boy it's blue. A gift for a toddler is often a doll for a little girl and a baseball mitt for a boy. Family and society immediately attribute specific expectations of a person based on one's gender. The expectations of society of what it means to be a girl or a boy, a female or a male, a lady or a gentleman is constantly reinforce in pop culture. Be it television, radio, music videos, movies or comics, man are depicted as strong, powerful and in control while women are depicted as childlike, sultry and disposable.

Three documentaries -- Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising's Image of Women, GENERATION M: Misogyny in Media & Culture and Tough Guise: Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity - examine how pop culture defines masculinity and femininity and how society is impacted by these definitions. In the documentary Killing Us Softly 3, Jean Kilbourne describes how women -- young and old -- are presented as perfect sexual objects in advertising. In Generation M, Thomas Keith discusses how the media's displays of denigration of and violence towards women serve as role models for girls and boys. In Tough Guise, Jackson Katz believes that today's media most often shows men who have over-developed muscles, power over women and a "no one messes with me" attitude. All three documentaries agree upon the media's influence on gender roles has led to low self-esteem for both men and women, domestic violence, rape and murder.

Tough Guise opens with clips from film, television and print media all stating that a man is only a man if he is in control and powerful. The film's title is a combination of tough guys and disguise, which deftly sums up how the media teaches men and boys to have a tough facade. The premise of Tough Guise is that over the past two decades toymakers, film producers, authors of comics and many others have aggressively depicted an exaggerated view of a male's body, guns as extensions of a male's arm and the only way a man can achieved respect is through violence and anger. Along side these inappropriate male role models are equally inappropriate female role models. By consuming video games, movies and music videos, girls and women learn that man only value women for their appearance and for sex. Rappers refer to women as bitches and hors (slang for whores) and often use these words to describe each other's mothers. The rapper Eminem's recently released music video called Love the Way You Lie, a duet with Rihanna, shows a man beating his wife/girlfriend and burning down their home. The irony and contradiction of this is Rihanna was a recent victim of a very public domestic violence incident and has been on broadcast television claiming to want to educate women on patterns of domestic violence. I also find it interesting that both performers are known only by their first names: does not using a full name make them less accountable for their irresponsible lyrics?

Katz feels that society allows women to be exploited in both the media and real life. He compares the public's reactions to domestic violence and racism; stating that racism would receive a more vocal and aggressive reaction than sexism would receive. Katz explains that the power of the media should be used to set more appropriate expectations of being a man and a women and the public will need to both demand it from the media corporations and put extra effort in teaching their children respect for others regardless of race, size, sexual orientation and gender.

Killing Us Softly 3, is a film of Jean Kilbourne presenting a lecture to a mostly female audience. Kilbourne's use of print advertising illustrates how advertisers dehumanize women by turning them into sexual objects - actually, sexual body parts. One of the first ads she shares is for Love's Baby Soft perfume. It shows woman dressed as a little girl with the tagline "innocence is sexier than you think…." This is contrasted to an ad for ladies' jeans, which shows a woman's naked from the waist down in an embrace with a fully clothed man. The role of sex in advertising is even more blatant in a food advertisement of an ejaculating Tabsco sauce bottle over a split bake potato -- hot and spice as a metaphor for intercourse.

Sex sells: a woman wants to be desired by a man which requires the perfect figure, in the perfect low-cut dress with the perfectly matching nail polish, and a man can only be desired by a woman if he drives a BMW, wears a Rolex watch and has on a Ralph Lauren suit (which is not a Polo suit but the higher end and much more expensive Purple Label suit). Media's objectification of women and the fact that sex does sell has lead to the "sexification" of young girls and teens. Kilboure makes her point with magazine covers and television spots, including JonBenet in full makeup for a toddler beauty pageant, a teenage Brittney Spears displayed as a sex kitten, and a young and shy Kate Moss being asked to unbutton and lower her jeans during a photo shoot. The inability of girls, teens and women to achieve this unattainable perfection and sexiness leads to low self-esteem, which then leads to women feeling that they deserve to be disrespected by men.

Two people, Oprah Winfrey and Teri Hatcher, are working to show girls and women how actresses and models fake being beautiful. On a recent Oprah Winfey show, Teri Hatcher shared how she looks straight from the shower and showed viewers how long it takes and how much makeup is used to turn her into a Desperate Housewife. Society needs to see more of this message; the self-esteem of women and girls would improve by convincing women that the perfectionism of a magazine cover requires smoke, mirrors, airbrushes and digital photography.

The third film, GENERATION M: Misogyny in Media & Culture, brings the pieces of the puzzle together. Thomas Keith explores the conflict between the media stating that women and girls have achieved gender equality and Hollywood and Madison Avenue's portrayal of women as sex objects whose worth is measure by their beauty. Like Katz and Kilbourne, Keith believes the media is training young girls to be sexual far before they are ready for sexual encounters. Keith illustrates this with the evolution of the Barbie doll. He presents images of the earlier dolls with apparel representing different career paths (teachers, nurses and secretaries) along side the beach and play outfits. Today, Mattel's Barbie, in competition with Hasbros Bratz dolls, comes dressed in lacy lingerie. Keith contrast the with music and movies which show truly empowered women, such as Hermione in the Harry Potter movies and Pink's song Stupid Girls. Emma Watson the actress who portrays Hermione is now attending Brown University and Pink includes lyrics like those in Stupid Girls: 'The world believes it [girls acting stupid to attract boys] and I'm going crazy. I cannot take any more. I'm so glad that I'll never fit in that will never be me. Outcasts and girls with ambition, that's what I wanna see."