[RESEARCH] Gender in the Media

In the wide world, gender roles are very well rehearsed from birth. Though the years, Females and Males have had their own battle of gender representation and their own feelings towards it. However, only recently has it come to light that what we have been doing is wrong, manipulating the mind to
consider biological things which really don’t exist in the living world.
Depending on where you live, and what your culture believes to be acceptable, you can see advertisements or media everywhere which drives forward a desire in their customer. Tugging on the heart strings of the consumer is something which every advertiser/creator wants, so they will push forward images or anything which attracts attention.

But, through life, mythology and past, the male population have dominated considerably in life and that everything we see in gender roles have been passed down by men, and male desires. This leaves the females out in the open, and used as a tool to get attention of others, and left as the less dominant race. It may not seem that way in these times, and equality has really heightened over the years, but there are still many who believe that this equality should not exist, making one side higher then the other.
In Mythology, the tales told view males as strong, muscled and courageous in everything they do; males were the most strongest, well organised in combat and great at taming their own belongings. Females were beautiful, fluent but very weak; they were always asking for trouble, and when trouble arose the men would save the beautiful maidens which would then be considered to be a ‘prize’ for the man when the battle was done. This same sort of concept for males and females are still desired to this day, but because of its mythological state, these concepts we have gained have passed the wrong message along generations.
During the past (1970-1980), women artists began to use their body as a symbol of their engagement against the male population. Some of the photos consist of very graphical imagery that it became quite apparent to what women were trying to say. One of these women was Hannah Wilke, who posed herself in such a way that was quite intimidating for the western audience  and went against all sort of beauty, fashion or model related factors of western culture. She also did pieces which tribute to stereotypes of her own culture, including her Jewish mother and the relationship between them both. She did this to get across her own image of her own body and will, which defied all understanding of the stereotypical feminine body in western culture. Another artist, Valie Export, took the representation of women in media to the extreme by walking around an art cinema with crotchless pants. This performance was called Aktionshose: Genitalpanik (or Action Pants: Genital Panic). She wanted to express the passive role of the female nature in cinema, showing that her actions were about the

women offering their own bodies freely and not in control of the male directors and producers. And Grayson Perry, who is known for is alter ego ‘Claire’. Through Perry’s own life, he realised that he was a transvestite at a very young age and started to practice and shape himself into a woman. Because of this, his parents did not see eye to eye with him and was thrown out of his own home out of disgrace. Many years later, Perry just couldn’t accept his double life any more and wanted to become this person who he has always wanted to be, and wanted others to see that he is: “Grayson in a dress, deal with it” (Grayson Perry, Telegraph, October 2011). This shows that in this day and age it’s unacceptable to be a ‘female’ in a male body, because it brands a certain state of uncomfortable feelings when seen in the public eye (‘it’s unnatural’). It’s a strange twist which feels out of place, however it is perfectly acceptable to act out as a male in a female body, and/or have feelings for the same gender.

Because these very straight forward interpretations of content which have been shown all around the world, artists have pulled in a rather different approach to show their own feelings towards the media in the later years. Sarah Lucas, a well known artist who takes photo’s which contain puns and sexual humour, did a set of images which use inanimate objects to represent genitalia rather then using real models for the shots. Why? Looking back at other images, women were using their own bodies and body language to show that the representations were offensive and wrong; they wanted to pull it all out of context. However, Lucas (and many other artists) then decided that wasn’t enough to show the objectification that genders have been put through for years. Objects, clothing on objects, the way the objects that were placed in images, made the viewer see representations through cross examination. A good example would be Lucas’ creation called Au Natural (Sarah Lucas, Au Natural, Saachi-Gallery, 1994), where she uses fruit and objects which represent genitalia on the human body. She also plays on words which have been used for genitalia through generations: Bucket, Melons, Cucumber and Oranges. This gives the image much more then just a personal touch, but more of how far we have come to realise we have been sabotaging ourselves through these words.
Tracey Emin also does this, but she uses imagery which contains text, or just scenes which she has modified. Emin uses much more of a personal approach in her pieces, and rarely does something which is quite mainstream. It’s quite an effective way to show how people represent others, and why it hurts people in the way it does.

Tagged: Character, Development, Discussion, Female, Games, Male, Notes, Representation, Research, Understanding