Chapter One

People tend to lose themselves after having a stereotype pushed onto them. After living in these standards and ideas for such a long time women tend to start believing them and thinking that way as well.  Since the beginning of time these standards are being pushed onto women and over time it has become near impossible to demolish those stereotypical beliefs. Many people don’t even realize the way they have been taught to act and think. Sometimes women don’t even realize their fate in this world until they experience it first hand. 

Family Dynamics:

You can often see this happening in a family dynamic. This popular theory from Bonnie Burow’s “Radical Feminist Therapy”  that daughter and father together, repeatedly look down on the mother: 

“Often father and daughter look down on the mother (woman) together. They exchange meaningful glances when she misses a point. They agree that she is not bright as they are, and cannot reason as they do. This collusion does not save the daughter from the mother's fate.”

This is a really strong way to word this previous idea that most of the time people aren’t even aware that they are bluntly misogynistic and/or sexist. For no reason they are looking down on their mother/wife and most likely not even realizing the hurt she is going through because of them, her own family. 

This theory is also a really strong way to show the growth of sexism through conditioning. `.The daughter has been conditioned to make fun of the mother, and overtime will just connect the idea of comedy to a woman's face.  All the while not even realizing that her fate will become the same as the mothers. Growing up girls are told to have big dreams and speak their truth but end up growing up just to have the same outcome as her mother. 

To put it simply this premise really shows how common sexism and the basic idea of putting women down has become. It fights against the idea of democracy in our society by allowing these ideas and standards to continuously grow against equality and uniform behavior towards one another.

Books + movies etc examples:

Children have been introduced to gender standards since they could see. The second they were put into the world they were either wrapped in a pink or blue blanket depending on their biological sex. And even before they are born they have parties thrown for them that surround their gender and receive the “right colored” clothing before they even are really here.  So considering this knowledge that gender standards are shoved into children's hands before they can even walk it shouldn’t be such a surprise that these ideas are also implanted into the children 's books and movies. But having to look back and see that these ideas little or even older girls are getting are from children books, or any book, movie or show for that matter is really heartbreaking that the media has such a strong influence on everyone's thoughts and actions, especially when it comes to young girls finding themselves. 

A really strong example of this is from an gender stereotype analysis article that focuses only on children's books, “Content Analysis and Gender Stereotypes in Children's Books”. The specific part of the article I am going to be talking about mentions a part in a certain children's book which I will briefly summarize. A female dog keeps trying on hats and asking the male dog for his opinion. Every time the male dog replies that he doesn’t like her hat until she has on the most fancy one she could find. The story ends by the two dogs going off together.  It is important to keep in mind that they only went together after the male dog approved of the female dog’s hat. The article goes on to analyze this and says: “This observation certainly illustrates the connection between gender scripts in the media and the continuing importance of personal attractiveness for women. Thus, women in the classroom begin to understand that they may have internalized certain behaviors and attitudes with respect to their appearance when they were very young.” They bring up really excellent points such as the need for male validation and the way society has conditioned women to obsess over their appearance since they could read. 

Teaching books like these and showing the idea of male validation and approval is really upsetting because in a way it teaches women and girls to not think for themselves. It shapes women to think that the only opinion  that truly matters are the ones voiced by men, which isn't true. 

A huge way that this affects societies democracy becomes really obvious when you look at it from the appearance stand point. When people become conditioned to focus solely on their appearance it naturally becomes a type of competition which completely derails the purpose of democracy. When things become competitive then people feel the need to become better than others which distracts from the idea of equality and retrieving the same treatment. 

Music:

Another way female standards have been implanted through the media is through music. Music is a really great example that you can be easily influenced to behave under these standards (either acting on them or because of them) and not even realize. For most people listening to music is just like second nature and unless really listening don’t even pay attention to their lyrics or focus on a message trying to spread. 

role stereotypes were that most songs were by male vocalists, females were often described as being pretty, heavenly, or angels while males were more often described as being courageous. Men more often used possessive terms in referring to females.” These are all really great observations. I think the mass of it shows that men more often than not are assigned the brute, heroin role while females are written more to be the character who sits in the corner looking pretty. 

So in the end it becomes clear how strong the effect media has on female standards. And how most likely without it we would have a stronger democracy at least when it comes to this. Being able to stop the spread of sexism throughout social media would eliminate those ideas from future generations, allowing media to be healthier as well as strengthening the relationships between men and women, and the relationship women have with themselves. 

Works Cited:

Burstow, Bonnie. Radical feminist therapy: Working in the context of violence. Newbury Park: Sage, 1997.

Taylor, Frank. “Content Analysis and Gender Stereotypes in Children’s Books.” Teaching Sociology 31, no. 3 (2003): 300–311. https://doi.org/10.2307/3211327.

Wilkinson, Melvin. “Romantic Love: The Great Equalizer? Sexism in Popular Music.” The Family Coordinator 25, no. 2 (1976): 161–66. https://doi.org/10.2307/582795.