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Women and Girls

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Simone de Beauvoir said “One is not born a woman, but becomes one.” This section analyzes how the various media contribute to creating an ideal femininity and how we buy into it.

  • Media Portrayals of Girls and Women - Introduction

    We all know the stereotypes—the femme fatale, the supermom, the sex kitten, the nasty corporate climber. Whatever the role, television, film and popular magazines are full of images of women and girls who are typically white, desperately thin, and made up to the hilt—even after slaying a gang of vampires or dressing down a Greek phalanx.

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  • Sex and Relationships in the Media

    The pressure put on women through ads, television, film and new media to be sexually attractive—and sexually active—is profound. While this is nothing new, research has found that women's representation in popular media has steadily become more and more sexualized over the last forty years. [1]

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  • Media Coverage of Women and Women's Issues

    Women professionals and athletes continue to be under-represented in news coverage, and are often stereotypically portrayed when they are included.

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  • Media and Girls

    They have ads of how you should dress and what you should look like and this and that, and then they say, 'but respect people for what they choose to be like.' Okay, so which do we do first?" Kelsey, 16, quoted in Girl Talk

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  • The Economics of Gender Stereotyping

    No one would deny that the mass media is big business. According to the American Motion Picture Association, Hollywood films alone pulled in $10 billion in 2011, and that doesn't include the renting and selling of DVDs. [1] However, media executives argue that the economics of the industry make it impossible to avoid stereotypes of women.

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  • Women Working in the Media

    Since the 1960s, feminists have argued that "it matters who makes it." When it comes to the mass media, "who makes it" continues to be men.

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  • Resisting Stereotypes and Working for Change

    Although many concerns remain about how women are represented in media, there are signs that things are changing. Roles for women on television, in particular, have become much more varied and complex in the last decade, ranging from tough and take-charge characters such as Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica and Detective Kate Beckett on Castle to more realistic, but still powerful characters such as Parks and Recreation's Leslie Knope.

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  • Resources for Parents - Gender Representation

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  • Resources for Teachers - Gender Representation

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