Media and women

How does Media present women?

Over the history media presented women as mother, care givers and housewives also as thin, beautiful, sexy and independent. However, this is not the same image anymore. In many TV shows, they show women as sex objects. I always heard about the show sex and the city but I never watched it until I took sitcom class, which I had to watch one of the first episodes. In my opinion, the show presents women in different shapes or stereotypes, not the women who are faithful, pretty, and deferential and focus on home and family. However, in this show we are seeing new images of women who are independent, aggressive and overactive sexually

The show expressed adult comedy and sex in an open way. The women discuss their sexual desires, fantasies, and their love life. The women have open discussions about romance and sexuality especially since they are single women and they are in their mid-thirties living in the big city. This was a big for the American culture from the 1950’s and 1960’s to the 1990’s. These women want to free themselves from the control of men and want to support themselves and to be in charge of their lives. However, at the same time, they are lost for looking for true love and commitment to start a family with the right man. They are career-holding women, who are strong, successful, and outspoken. They are loyal to each other, but are still in need for family, which tends to be a women’s main role in society. The show tells us this is the life and sexual behavior of many urban, American, single, women. “From newspapers to video games and online communities, media shapes our understandings of gender. By presenting us with images of women, men, and relationships, media advance ideals of what is desirable in women and men.” (pg 258)

One of the things that are clear to me, media has changed the image of the female role traditionally and has become somewhat submissive. We see the role of women change slowly starting with the strong female mother who loves to tend to her house and we end up with the fragile single women who longs to be independent but at the same time wants a man in her life. Women have taken a big leap in American society.

second week assignment

Growing up as a child one remembers how their parents treated them. For example, a boy might remember his dad for yelling at him. The boy will grow up to remember all the bad things his father did to him and vow to himself not to be like that. Usually one learns from the mistake of others. In this case, a father whose father never spent much time with him would try to spend plenty of time with his own son. The father would remember the pains of his father ignoring him and would not want his son to have those same feelings of loneliness.

“Parents play a major role in shaping children’s understanding of gender in general and their own gender in particular.” (pg 171). Fathers encourage in children to behave according to their gender. In sons, they require them to be more aggressive, independent, competitive and overall tough. For daughters fathers want them to be more emotional, gentle, and lady-like. When a father interacts with children, they tend to talk more with their daughters and engage in activities more with sons. Mothers tend to talk more openly about sensitive subjects such as emotions and relationships with daughters than with sons. Both mothers and fathers talk more personally with daughters than with sons. This explains why daughters tend to explain things more freely with their parents than sons do. Fathers typically spend time with their children playing physically more than taking care of them. They like to engage in play that is more physically exciting and they help children develop skills and conquer challenges. Today’s father talks more with children than fathers in previous generations did. “Fathers more than mothers stretch children by urging them to compete, achieve, take risks, and move beyond their current levels of ability.”(pg 169)

Mother Day

Mother’s day is a very special day for me especially since I have been living far from my mother for the past 17 years. Also in my country we celebrate mother day in the fist day of spring, March 21 of every year and we always say, mothers are like the ground it brings life to her kids and she sees them bloom like the flowers in the spring. When I was young girl, I always save my allowance to buy my mother’s gift for mother’s day. One day I cam home late after school and my mother was so angry at my but I could not tell her that I was shopping around for her mother’s day gift I took the punishment without complain. This is my first mother’s day with my children after separation with my husband and it was very thoughtful because I woke up in the morning and I found that they wrote We love you mom with flower petals on my kitchen counter.Sometimes you cannot find the right card to express your feelings to you mother or your caregiver so something new like what my kids did will be very thoughtful. In addition on mother’s day, I called all my friends who are mothers and wished them happy mother’s day. I told my kids to remember their baby sitter in NY and call her because she took care of them when I worked so she was like mother to them.-Sireen
May 21, 2008 6:38:00 PM