How do the media images & stereotpyes of men & women impact how we view each other professionally (at school, at work, in politics, etc.)?
Though the above picture lacks recent evidence, it does illustrate a commonality portrayed by the media--the images of stereotyping gender roles in our society. Professionally speaking, Abraham Lincoln is depicted here as a stoic leader of a great nation who may quite be the epitomy of justice, fairness, and a "real" man in the mid 1800s (though the Confederate states will disagree with me.) At the same time Abe is looking rugged and fetchingly, his wife is also looking strangely at ease yet with a hidden anxiousness. What possible anxiousness could a First Lady who is married to a Civil War, to-be-assassinated President feel? How about a lack of her own voice.
In today's world, sadly, we are not far off from those days of White male dominated society. In fact, many will argue we still are in a culture that is still dominated by white rich males. Just the same, white males in the middle age in a work place are considered the "stabilizers" or the "rock" of a corporation: still hard-working (not too old), still innovative, experienced, and well to do with the world (probably having a family so they know how to deal with life's worst situations.)
On the contrary, many middle-aged women in the professional work place are seen as "are you really still working here?" or "you must have no family or husband, right?" Unfortunately, the worst of all these cultural biases are involved with the view and images of teenage girls in junior high and high school. Junior high especially can be extremely detrimental or influential on girls. When both sexes enter junior high, their biological clocks begin to chime and their emotional stability and "sexual confidence" is very impressionable.
Since over 13% of all 7th grader boys could not honestly tell you their sexual orientation, it is highly likely that these males will lach on to the nearest "manly" or "real man" thing that is available to them. At that age, since most sexually explicit movies and shows are not available to their access, they absorb the media's violence as a way to show that they really are "men" and not something weak or pathetic. (Not that I am suggesting that men are animals, but this is a ritualistic endeavor by many mammalian species for adolescent males is to be engulfed in violence, whether it is through play, such as lion cubs, or violent video games.) Therefore, from a biological standpoint, since sexual development and natural male "violence" attraction many times come hand-in-hand with many mammals, I will argue that the need for teenage boys to find a strong male figure or model in their lives is extremely crucial. Unfortunately, I blame the media for using this natural process to its advantage by stereotyping the violence as an integral part of development, when in reality, the natural process does not actually need external additions of violence to a developing adolescent male.
Similarly, I put all blame on the media for making the "respected" image of teenage girls the way it is today. Never in nature is a super skinny, sluttily-dressed girl considered "respected"; yet somehow, our culture feels that a thin woman representing a submissive character flaw (one that would not stand up to a large, burly male) is considered advantageous to the woman! How backwards are we!?! In an exercise of futility, the women are told that being industrious and basically being a person is not an effective way to live life. Women gained suffrage in the 1920s; however, the media's image of women simply being submissive, sex-crazy objects to men clearly spit in the face of the gains of the 20s. Just the same, industrious women are considered "female dogs", and female politicians are seen similarly and ones that cannot make rational decisions because they are too involved with emotions to be effective leaders.
To Honest Abe, I would bet that he would think differently of the roles of women in his time if he had a longer time to live. In addition, that stoic leader of social progress seen above would probably cry if he saw the little gains of women stereotypes in our society today.
