Is the Media at Fault for Portraying Genders Falsely?

“TV is today's mass social educator with powerful influence on social life, people's worldviews, consumer behavior and the shaping of public sentiment. The network of commodity and visual symbolic sign systems within which we live is already so dense and pervasive that we fail to take much note of it” (Luke 2). Carmen Luke is a professor at The University of Queensland in Australia, and he focused his sociological studies on how the media effects the beliefs and views of people. Just as the United States, there are problems with media all over the world; it is a very powerful source and can lead into discrimination of the genders. Jean Kilbourne and Michael Messner are two authors who also have their personal views on what the media does to an individual, and in their own ways, show how it is done. Kilbourne brings up many situations and examples of how women are abused, while Messner focuses mainly on the men with sports television. Although Kilbourne gives one many instances, she has little evidence to back her information up, whereas Messner supplies the reader with cases and also has evidence to support his beliefs.

Jean Kilbourne is a feminist who believes that women are being dehumanized and related to as objects through the mass media. From ads of razors, perfume, liquor, and ones with young girls Kilbourne believes they are mostly all degrading to women, lies, and meant to be perverted. “A perfume ad running in several teen magazines features a very young woman, with eyes blackened by makeup or perhaps something else, and the copy, “Apply generously to your neck so head ‘no’” In other words, he’ll understand that you don’t really mean it and he can respond to the scent like any other animal” (Kilbourne 459). Here, she is analyzing every part of the ad from the makeup the model is wearing to the slogan of the perfume. Kilbourne provides one with many instances and ads, but she never does have evidence to back anything up. There are no statistics or even opinions of another author, therefore it is very difficult for one to agree with or even understand the thoughts of Jean Kilbourne.

Ten seconds left, and the pressure is on. They just got the touchdown, but they need the two point conversion to win…BREAK…We see they line up to go for the two…The whistle is blown…The ball is hiked…There’s the throw…..AND ITS GOOD 21-20!!! Sports are very well known and talked about in society today, and through the studies of Michael Messner it can be seen that the sports media is extremely geared towards men. “Men are fore grounded in commercials. The gender composition and imagery in commercials reinforce the idea that sport is a man’s world. Women almost never appear in commercials unless they are in the company of men” (Messner 479).

Messner did a study on they sports