Gender Stereotypes: Gender And Gender Analysis

In the April 2008 issue of Vogue magazine, harvested attention, by having LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers on the cover displaying an all familiar pose on the cover. The image was simple, 6 foot 9-inch black man, bearing teeth, dribbling a basketball and clutching Gisele Bündche a white woman in arm. Reaching over a million readers per month, the magazine perpetuated an age old stereotype. “The Black Brute caricature portrays black men as innately savage, animalistic, destructive, and criminal -- deserving punishment, maybe death. This brute is a fiend, a sociopath, an anti-social menace. Black brutes are depicted as hideous, terrifying predators who target helpless victims, especially white women.” Charles H. Smith (1893), Dr. David

(Alexander, 1994) notes that Black bodies displayed “for public consumption have been an American spectacle for centuries. This history moves from public rapes, beatings, and lynching’s to the gladiatorial arenas of basketball and boxing” Images of masculinity as powerful and "natural" on televised sporting spectacles offer men of all socioeconomic backgrounds one of the most powerful sites to collectively identify with masculinity and an ideology of male physical and cultural superiority (Messner, 1988; Theberge, 1991).

How women are perceived by others, and how women perceive themselves, impacts their leadership roles in the work place. Stereotypes and gender biases are themes women have been dealing with for centuries. How women are perceived by social medial and television have been influencing how they are treated by men, and how they view themselves when it comes to taking a leadership role in their organization. According to Omega Institute (2012), “The rapidly shifting landscape of new media and technology, including reality television and celebrity culture, continue to reinforce gender stereotypes” (p. 1). This leads to men still growing up viewing women as home makers versus bread winner. With more women entering leadership roles in the work place they lack the respect from men due to how these men have grown up to know the typical role of a man and woman. Men tend to feel belittled due to the gender stereotypes seen on television, and this leads to women struggling to succeed as a leader with the lack of support from their male counterparts. Lack of confidence with women in the workplace is also influenced and effected by how women are perceived in social media and television. According to Steele (2005), “Exposure to stereotypic commercials persuade women to avoid leadership roles” (p. 276). As young women grow up seeing the typical gender stereotypes they lack ambitions to break the mold and

We are together but have been created physically different, we are equal when it comes to our rights to live, air, water yet not the same in certain issues. Both sexes are,“deeply ingrained in the codes of our society.” Stereotypes imposed on us by the society has shrewdly manipulated or brainwashed us into believing that being told how to comport ourselves and be is rather a liberation, not oppression. Unfortunately, we are unconscious of this conspiracy when trying to look and behave like those individuals we see in the media or magazines. For women, in particular, the assumption is that we wear beautiful clothes such as dresses and skirts, reveal some skin to attract men, wear makeup and keep our hairs long. Two different images of Grace Jones will be the source of comparison in this essay to illustrate gender stereotypes placed on women.

When looking at advertisements, magazine covers, and sometimes music videos, what is a common theme? Social media or media of any sort deliberately displays a lack of diversity in intersectionalities to try to appeal to most audiences. In the process of analysing Cosmopolitans front page cover of Kate Hudson, one can see the representation of sexual objectification, lack of diversity, and common reoccurring intersectionalities in media. From not only a couple images in the media showing these aspects, but almost all presented images have shown to create many more negative effects than positive effects in American culture. First in dissecting the Cosmopolitans cover, we look at the focus point which is Kate Hudson.

In the ten years since Cranmer et al. (2006) wrote this article, progress toward better research on Black female athletes has languished. The authors expressed great concern that many sexualized images of female athletes come from magazines; a ubiquitous medium consumed with little critical thought or challenge. This creates an environment that perpetuates the sexualization of Black women’s bodies as White men’s pleasure objects (Cranmer et al., 2006; Mowatt et al., 2013). The research fails to answer the question of how the sexualization of Black female athletes in media affects Black female student-athletes.

A good deal of racist propaganda has rested on those images, and they’re a deeply ingrained part of our cultural history. That’s why this Vogue cover, which plays on racist facial expression and imagery, is troubling and that just because you don’t see racism of this stereotype of black males; it doesn’t mean that it isn’t there. Lebron James is one of the most famous sports stars alive, and his image and endorsement are worth tens of millions of dollars a year. He’s got a carefully-maintained public persona as a squeaky clean, family-friendly, playful person, and his substantial personal interests as well as the interest of his top-tier agents and PR team, as well as the interest of several large multinational corporations with whom he has long term endorsement deals that are all centered on maintaining that image. When looking at this cover, it is LeBron who grabs your attention. On the Contrary, Gisele is a mere after thought; a beautiful after thought, but an after thought nonetheless.

Heterosexy images can best be explained like this, ‘for women, being an athlete contradicts the conventional female roles, and thus the media coverage emphazises other aspects of their “femaleness”’ (such as their attractiveness) (Knight and Giuliano, 2002, p 219). Martina Narvatiolva, a professional tennis player who won 18 Grand slam titles through the 80s, has always been open about her homosexuality and due to this fact received less endorsements and sponsorships throughout her career than her predecessor Chris Evert (Creedon, 1998). These two female tennis players both won the same amount of Grand slam singles titles, so it seems like a blatant strike against those who challenge dominant beliefs about male hegemony in sport. Others have learned from this, Nelson (1991) remarks on the LPGA (Ladies Pro Golf Association) and how the ‘[s]ponsors, LPGA staff, and players attempt to… play up marriages and mothers, employ an image consultant to serve as hairstylist and make-up artists and maintain…a “silence so loud it screams”. Sponsors are only interested in sport which gains the most coverage, women’s sport and female athletes do not feature enough in the media for the sponsors to be interested, therefore when females are ‘glammed’ up and conforming to heterosexy images like mother or wife,

Though BuzzFeed stands at the forefront and was a very pivotal player in putting body positivity, inclusivity, and representation at the forefront of discourse within the beauty realm, the inconsistencies within their vast content show that either such radical stances on beauty were either not as important as making trite videos and articles on beauty to gain more views and therefore revenue, or merely just another scheme to appeal to a wider audience, including those marginalized by today’s beauty standards. Though they are quick to act as a cavalier for women of color or queer folk by condemning celebrities, brands, and companies such as Kylie Jenner, Karlie Kloss, Khloe Kardashian, ASOS, Urban Outfitters, Coachella, etc. for cultural appropriation

According to Knight and Giuliano’s 2001 article, gender equality has been and will remain a current topic of hot discussion in the media and its portrayal of athletes. Athletes have a unique ability to deliver their thoughts and information to the masses through the media outlets given to them in regard to their social status. Once the media has heard what the athletes have to say it can be at the media’s hand for interpretation. In this specific study 92 undergraduates were given a fake newspaper that covered an Olympian with the main focus being on attractiveness. The study covered male and female athletes in the newspaper article while focusing predominantly on attractiveness. Results show that the readers not only disliked the attraction focus, but also preferred the reading be more focused on the athleticism of the Olympians. The largest take away from the study is the media and its coverage or portrayal of athletes being geared towards athletic achievement over quality of appearance

A female athlete couldn’t just be talented, she also had to be a “beauty queen” (p. 346) so that men could find some inkling of pleasure. This idea ensured that the women did not lose the sexual nature of their bodies by training too hard and looking too “mannish.” Sports games became half sport and half beauty pageant, which forced all athletes to shed any stereotypically homosexual appearances in order to put on a show and gain public acceptance. The idea of the “athlete as a beauty queen” (p. 346) is still present today in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. Although many of the models are not athletes, all of them are featured in revealing swimsuits showing off their fit, toned bodies. According to the magazine and its readers, that athletic-while-still-presenting-starchly-feminine look is what men are looking for in a

By observing the New York Times writing patterns within their sports section, not only did the news promote heteronormative gender roles, but it also intensified white male privilege. Although we have acts to “protect” American citizens of color, these government attempts to dismantle racism and discrimination in America can only do so much. Many of the pieces that the New York Times posted oftentimes segregated black and white players by publishing separate articles and pictures according to the color of their skin. In America, many of our sports teams are composed of the black community. It is not uncommon for many sport business enterprises to exploit black athletes for profit (Anderson 1995). Many individuals who own sports teams, coaches, and administrators are predominately white and continue to earn billions in revenue from television and games (Farrington & Kilvington, 2012). We can see this exploitation occurring in NCAA college sports where these universities are composed of mostly white students but the sports teams recruit mostly black team mates (Anderson 1995). As a result, many of these students continuously practice and sacrifice their time to put towards their studies for an athletic career. Although many of these college players are valued for their physical strength and contributing victories to their school’s name, they still face harassment, discrimination, and segregation (Anderson 1995). This argument can be supported by one of the articles that The

Throughout history, humans have always been expected to act a certain way depending on their sex. These societal expectations are called gender roles. (Rathus, 2010, p.447). These roles begin to develop even before a child is even out of the womb. A mother may decorate their nursery pink if they are having a daughter because “girls like pink,” and “boys like blue.” Gender roles should not be confused with gender stereotypes. A gender stereotype is a narrow way of thinking about how men and woman are obligated to behave. For example, men have always been considered to be the breadwinners of the family. Females, on the other hand, are seen more as the gentle homemakers that stay home to clean and take care of the children. (Rathus, 2010, p.447). These types of stereotypes have caused certain out-of-the-home jobs to be mainly categorized for either women or men, causing an even more distinct line between the genders.

Like female athletes, African Americans have had a difficult time getting equal treatment and representation for their successes by the media. African Americans were thought to have a feeling of hate towards others, as displayed in the classic feature, Remember the Titans, “Look at them, they hate us, they’ll always hate us.” In today’s sports arena, African American athletes are represented in their sports’ categories in a much larger group than in the past. However, they are still struggling to have the same equalization as their teammates in the media’s representation of their talents and skills. A typical stereotype of the African American by the media is their depiction of them having more brawn than brain. For example, Luke Walton of the Los Angeles Lakers, for example, is a white male whom commentators often commend for his high basketball IQ when he makes plays, but often fault for his insufficient physical ability when he doesn’t. African American teammates of Walton’s, in contrast, find their “skills” praised when they execute well and their “mental errors” blamed for failures to execute. Sports-related socialization of this discriminatory type can perpetuate stereotypes generation after generation.

The popular magazine Vogue made headlines in April of 2008 when it released its “Shape” issue which featured the first African-American male on their cover—LeBron James. James, one of the NBA’s newest and rising stars at the time, was not alone on the cover as he was highlighted alongside the famous super model Gisele Bundchen. LeBron is shown in a dribbling position, with the basketball in mid dribble on his right side below his right hand, while he holds Gisele in his left arm. While in this position he appears to be caught in the middle of a scream directed at the camera and the viewers of the picture. This photo spiked some controversy on whether or not vogue was using an old racial narrative; saying that they are showing the black man as animalistic, resembling an old King Kong poster holding a damsel in distress. Although there is