Media and Gender Stereotyping

The media is one of the most influential forces in the modern world. Unfortunately however, as our world slowly breaks free from the stereotypical walls built throughout history, the media is unable to follow in line. Marla McConnell’s paper discussing Media and Gender Stereotyping goes into the struggle in great depth, as she argues, “ an individual’s struggle to maintain a unique identity and self understanding apart from media influences is becoming increasingly difficult” (McConnel 1). Advertising and the media chose long ago how they could effect the largest target area. By idolizing a few celebrity bodies (the minority), they have been able to convince the average person (the majority) that they are not desirable. Though an intelligent marketing angle, this technique has proven to entail fatal consequences. “As it is currently used in the media, the body is stripped of its uniqueness and forced into frustratingly narrow constraints” (McConnel 6).
Sadly, these constraints often create an unattainable outlook on what men and woman should look like. The media’s portrayal of an ideal male body that has physical characteristics including “being muscular and possessing a full head of hair” has forced men everywhere to take a closer look at their own bodies (McConnel4). “It seems as though nearly everyone at some point in his or her life attempts to alter his/herself in order to conform more closely to the marketed ‘norm’ of attractiveness and desirability” (McConnel 5). The feminine side has proven to be much more dangerous. The desire to be “long-legged, slim-hipped, and large breasted” has created the narrow-minded perception that those who look anything other than what is celebrated, should start altering their bodies (McConnel 4). Marketing these limited figures is not only immoral, as it strips the beauty away from diversity, but regressive, as it builds upon the stereotypes about male and female figures that we as a society have worked to overstep for so long.
Marla McConnell’s paper on Media and Gender Stereotyping discusses the problems engrained in marketing. In today’s world, it has become nearly impossible to escape the sensual Abercrombie advertisements displaying men with chiseled bodies, or the provocative Victoria’s Secret billboards crowded with images of big-breasted beautiful women. This dilemma has caused an outbreak of self-obsession and a boom in body-altering products. The fatal consequences of this marketing scheme have proven significant in the statistical evidence that records the number of people with emotional/physical damage due to bullying, eating disorders, and even suicide. It is time for us as a society to determine what is important in life, and finally allow men and women to be appreciated for their individual qualities, instead of the few stereotypical, “desirable ones,” that have become so necessary to hold.