Leigha Clifford

CM213_AL_S1_2024

Reading Response 1

5/25/24

Week one was about gender and the cultural basis over the decades. The shaping of

gender over the recent decades has been the most or one of the most noticeable and impactful

aspects of modern culture. Having access to modern technology the gap growing between

different generations is enormous, communication between the generations holds inequality and

unfair treatment based on gender.

Gender differences are extremely noticeable across media platforms, workplaces, and

pretty much everywhere else. Everything is based on gender. In Gendered Lives, Julia Woods

goes on to explain the differences of sex and gender/ the meanings of both. Sex is defined in the

text as “Sex (female or male) is a designation based on biology and assigned at birth.” and “Sex

is a biological classification based on external genitalia…” (Woods, 19). This explains how

everyone is at the beginning at the moment of being born. Gender is more complex to understand

with how society is in previous decades and now. Gender is defined as “Gender is the social

meaning assigned to sex.” (Woods, 21). This refers to how some express how they were born or

chose to present. Gender identity (how someone views themself) and gender expression (how

someone shows themself to the world) are terms used in this concept. These concepts are more

likely to be fluid from person to person. Even as a child, the concepts can be seen as being a

tomboy, girly, rough, and tough.

 Gender equality has been a major issue since the beginning of time. So many areas are

affected by inequality besides gender issues there are economic, political, social, cultural, pay,

and much more. Throughout history, women have been fighting for rights while having others

taken away. From the video Why Gender Equality Matters, by Julie Frechette gender equality

would help society go through a transformation that is needed and would ensure more

opportunities for women, more diverse leadership roles and decision-making, and greater

economic growth through increased work participation. In the interview, it is stated that “if men

and women were treated as equal I think you would see a huge transformation in society from

the local level all the way to global.” (Frechette, 0:13-0:25). She goes on to talk about how

beneficial it would be to be equal in the workplace. Some possible outcomes could be improved

social structures, increased innovation and problem-solving from diverse perspectives, and

greater well-being. Gender equality isn’t just a moral imperative but also a catalyst for positive

widespread change.

Sexual harassment has been running rampant in corporate workplaces, especially at news

stations like Fox News. Big brands tend to cover up scandals usually by buying out the

victim/trying to silence the victim. These “settlements” approximately reach to be around $13

million as found by The New York Times in an investigative report. Some of the people that

work exposed are Bill O’Reilly and Roger Ailes. “Bill O’Reilly’s abrupt dismissal from Fox

News in April serves as a long, hard fought victory for those who have called him out for his

sexist, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, and classist rhetoric.” (Frechette, Tip of the day).

O’Reilly is one major example of sexual harassment at Fox News. People have been waiting for

him to be exposed for about two decades. Communities that were most impacted by O’Reilly’s
rants have been women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, and many others. Some people

tapped into their own sexiest views of people. Many more people view this as a “Mad Men” in

the office. Many social media activists and feminist groups like UltraViolet, the Women’s

March, NOW-New York, CREDO, Color of Change, Sleeping Giants, Media Matters, and

MoveOn caught on and started a boycott. News stations aren't the only workplaces where this

happens. I can guarantee you could talk to someone who works in retail, modeling for brands,

and more can tell you personal stories. Fox News and other stations to this day are still getting

exposed.

Media throughout the decades have managed to portray men and women in more hurtful

stereotypes forcing certain ideas and drawing people that agree with the stereotypes. Stereotypes

like women stay at home to cook, clean, and take care of the kids while men work to make

money and support their families. Another example could be men can’t wear hearts on their

sleeves or be honest with their emotions and women can’t be tough. From a section in a Media

Smarts article titled Men and Masculinity, “...for boys, violence and dominance are aligned with

norms of masculinity.” (Media Smarts, Men and masculinity). This section specifically talks

about the male stereotype that can do more harm than good. Women are not listened to/taken

seriously in media and are constantly over-sexualized. Data from multiple worldwide surveys

show that less than 40% of information given to the public or talked about is from women. There

are still issues with people in the LGBT community not being able to be who they are because of

old ideals that have been passed on to new generations.

 Kids understand more than we realize. You can watch videos on sites like YouTube of

parents recording their kid watching a show and laughing or laughing at something that isn’t

appropriate for their age. Even talking about things that they shouldn’t know. With kids today

having access to technology, being exposed to the world at a young age could be very harmful in

the long run. Similar to what I talked about above there are still bad areas that children and teens

should stay away from. “Stereotyped portrayals start early: an analysis of the channel BabyTV,

which is distributed in more than a hundred countries, found that female characters were

underrepresented and portrayed as fearful and helpless.” (Smart Media, Media and Girls). This

shows that girls aren’t being shown the correct people to look up to in media and television.

“Adults expect girls to play with dolls and boys to play with cars.” (Smart Media, Children’s

Perceptions of Male Stereotypes). Simple stereotypes can be the most hurtful because they are

the ones that will stick with someone forever if not corrected. Sexual innuendos are also put into

children’s animation for the creators or even adults watching without the kids realizing it. The

Mickey Mouse Monopoly goes into greater detail about this.

Barack Obama was big on setting a good example for his daughters while in office. The

article by Glamour called Glamour Exclusive: President Barack Obama Says, ‘This is what a

Feminist Looks Like’” talks about his experience as President being able to both set a standard

for girls to have in male figures in life and start to mold a better future for the future generations.

“And while I’ll keep working on good policies—from equal pay for equal work to protecting

reproductive rights—there are some changes that have nothing to do with passing new laws.”

(Glamour Exclusive). President Barack Obama has been able to meet incredible people during
his time and he took what he learned and then put it into his practice. This was part of the change

he was able to make.

Everything from this week has shown how gender is seen in media, harassment in news

stations, gender equality matters, stereotypes, what being a feminist looks like, and

communication, gender & culture. These all show how impactful gender equality is to all of us

locally and globally.

 Works Cited

Frechette, J. (2016, April 21). Julie Frechette on gender equality. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoKE3sqD4gc

Frechette , J. (2023, May 22). Tip of the day: The unfair and imbalanced culture of sexual

harassment at Fox News. projectcensored. https://www.projectcensored.org/tip-day-unfair-

imbalanced-culture-sexual-harassment-fox-news/

Obama, B. (2016, August 4). Exclusive: President Barack Obama says, “this is what a

feminist looks like.” Glamour. https://www.glamour.com/story/glamour-exclusive-

president-barack-obama-says-this-is-what-a-feminist-looks-like

Gender representation- Men and masculinity, and women & girls. MediaSmarts. (n.d.).

https://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/media-issues/gender-representation

Sun, C. (n.d.). Mickey Mouse Monopoly. Google Drive.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YjvEboKsCx4xmimDRqiaD3SkXrIq0F1Y/view

Wood, J. T., & Fixmer-Oraiz, N. (2017). Gendered lives: Communication, Gender, &

Culture (13th ed.). Cengage Learning.