Sexism and general discrimination based on gender are unfortunate realities that has become so engrained and common place in everyday society that most individuals rarely notice it anymore unless it is brought to their direct attention. For this project we aimed to highlight some of the everyday sexism that is often overlooked, show the difference between the treatment of men and women in the media and an extreme example showing how far some are willing to go to enforce gender roles. Drawing attention to overt sexism and institutionalized discrimination based on gender brings the problem to the forefront and can lead to change.
We chose a blog to create an artifact that would allow a continuous stream to document this as well as create an atmosphere that promotes reader involvement and feedback. Blogs facilitate dialogue and that’s exactly what we aimed to do. A video was also aimed to highlight to the ridiculousness that is found online, in papers and magazines every day while pointing out the sexism and then rewriting the article headline in an appropriate way. The video gives a face and tone to headlines and catches people’s attention.
Bruce Jenner winning the decathlon in 1976. Caitlyn Jenner's Vanity Fair cover 2015.
Most people are known for one great accomplishment in their lifetime and only get to live one life. Caitlyn Jenner has been fortunate enough to both win gold in the Olympics as Bruce Jenner and be a crusader for trans gender rights as Caitlyn Jenner. But this case study is not to talk about her transition. Caitlyn is a prime example for how women are portrayed in the media, as well as how men are, which she experienced during her time as Bruce.
Bruce Jenner acknowledged for his athletic accomplishments.
Jenner after the Olympics and his move into motivational speaking.
Jenners most well known accomplishment, winning gold in the 1976 Olympics.
Bruce Jenner and overcoming his developmental disability.
Going through an archive of news articles on Bruce Jenner was ultimately surprising. He had numerous divorces, none of which were ever mentioned. His personal life seemed to be left personal and no attacks were made against him. He was praised for his accomplishments and the good he was doing. Most common were articles on his win at the 1976 Olympics, his rise to success, what he was doing with his life now and what charitable causes he was involved in.
This clip from the Daily Show highlights the major points of the gender inequality in the media. Before transitioning, Bruce received media attention for his motivational speeches, his Olympic victory and yes, being married to the Kardashians. While this last point may seem to undermine the argument that is about to be presented, remember that his Olympic status combined with a series of unfortunate events is what made the family famous in the first place. Upon revealing Caitlyn to the world, Jenner was at first met with praise for her bravery and courage. Soon after the media was quick to comment on her appearance. Speaking on how great she looks quickly morphed into speculation as to how much cosmetic work she had done and how much make up had been applied to make her look this good. Then came in the worst comment of them all, "Who looks better Caitlyn or her ex wife Kris Jenner?" Never once was it mentioned how Jenner won the games or public speaking or even how she was championing the transgender community. All that the media became focused on was her body, who she was dating and what she was wearing.
In reference to Caitlyn, the media is full of speculation into her personal life as well as a fixation on what she is wearing. Every outfit is documented and analyzed for trends and any hidden meaning. For example, Caitlyn wearing a skirt is often taken as her trying to attract men. Any man she is seen with is automatically a potential love interest and thus watched under a microscope. Is her most recent red carpet dress too revealing? Or is it too conservative? What does the color of her nail polish mean? These are serious newsworthy headlines for Jenner now. Rarely are her charitable contributions mentioned and her social activism within the transgender community is gone unacknowledged.
Obviously comparing the treatment of Bruce Jenner to that of Caitlyn Jenner is a bit of a stretch. The articles pulled about Bruce were in a time before tabloids, while the ones of Caitlyn are all from gossip magazines. However, Caitlyn has made a societal impact equal to that of the one Bruce made thirty plus years ago. And yes, Caitlyn is judged more harshly by the media and more speculations are made because she is transgender. Bruce however had many negative aspects to his life, such as divorce and bankruptcy, that were rarely mentioned and certainly never picked apart in a similar fashion as to who Caitlyn was spotted having dinner with. His age was never mentioned nor was he compared to other another man, except in a strictly athletic sense during the games. What Caitlyn is facing now shows the duplicity of the media in relation to gender as well as the misogyny that often goes unnoticed.
Looking forward, how can we combat this tendency in media? Treating women and men equally seems like an obvious solution, but this problem is societal. The media only magnifies this gender disparity and brings it to society's attention. Ending gender stereotypes and redefining gender roles sound like a good place to start but keep in mind that this is a huge undertaking. As far as celebrities and media goes, the more high profile stars who speak out against sexism in the media the less of a problem it will become.
Works Cited:
http://onmilwaukee.com/images/articles/je/jennercourage/jennercourage_fullsize_story1.jpg
http://access.newspaperarchive.com/us/illinois/arlington-heights/daily-herald-suburban-chicago/1996/07-06/page-36?tag=bruce+jenner&rtserp=tags/bruce-jenner?psb=relavance
Most people who use the internet are familiar with social
media and news aggregating websites. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Yahoo,
Google News, the list goes on. It is not hard to find examples of gender based
disparity on these websites. When the trending topics on Facebook and the top
articles on yahoo have to do with men, they are either in relation to
businessmen, star athletes or world leaders. When they have to do with women or
femininity, the topics are limited to hair, clothes or the female body and are
almost always rank with objectification. While this sexism far from desirable, it is
nothing compared to the outright and dangerous “anti-feminism” that has
developed on less well known websites like 4chan and Reddit. This “anti-feminism”
has resulted in vast campaigns of online harassment that is truly dangerous for
women who use the internet.
4chan is an entirely anonymous online community populated predominantly
by technically savvy, white males. Many of the most famous gags on the internet
(think Rick Rolling) developed on 4chan, however, before 2014 most internet
users had never heard of the site. That’s because in 2014, 4chan (a bastion of
racism, homophobia and sexism) was at the epicenter of the celebrity nude photo
hack that released private pictures of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and many,
many more (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/02/the-shadowy-world-of-4chan-the-shock-post-site-that-hosted-the-private-jennifer-lawrence-photos/).
This release of private photos was conducted illegally in order to harm and embarrass
female celebrities and while abhorrent, is just the tip of the iceberg when it
comes to online gender based harassment. Shortly after the pictures were
released on 4chan, they were to be found on a similar site: Reddit.
Reddit is a website similar to 4chan in that it is formed of
many different sub-communities. While the website has many benign areas focused
on art and history, it is also home to much darker areas devoted to racism, sexism,
pedophilia and rape (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/17/ellen-pao-reddit-sexist-racist-internet-trolls-winning).
One obvious example of the sexist, online harassment that hangs over Reddit’s
head is of course the celebrity photo scandal as mentioned above. A much darker
and more disturbing example is to be found in the way in which the members of
the website have interacted with management of the website. Between 2014 and
2015 Ellen Pao was the CEO of Reddit and made it clear that she intended to impose
stronger content restrictions on the website when she had the subreddits “transfags”
and “fatpeoplehate” shut down (The Guardian). In response to this presumed affront
to free speech, a vocal minority of the website’s users began a coordinated campaign
of harassment against Pao. While a regular petition for Pao’s removal formed,
users also began to post Pao’s address, personal information, and to create
memes focusing on her gender and race. One focusing point for the “anti-Pao”
movement was her involvement in a sexual discrimination case previously in her
career (http://www.newstatesman.com/sci-tech/2015/07/reddit-s-woman-problem).
This supposedly served as evidence that Pao was only interested promoting the “female
agenda” and served to fuel the vitriol towards her. In the end, she was forced
to resign. Far from being the outlier, this treatment is often the norm for
women who attempt to acquire and maintain status in the online community as is
evidenced by the Gamergate “controversy”.
Gamergate is essentially the example to examine when
discussing online, gender based harassment. The story of Gamergate starts when
a vindictive ex-boyfriend of video game developer Zoey Quinn posted a blog
accusing her of trading sexual favors for favorable video game reviews. The
story ends with multiple women (Zoey Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, and Breanna Wu)
being forced into hiding because of death threats, rape threats, and exposed
personal addresses. After the blog post by Quinn’s ex-boyfriend
When Anita
Sarkeesian, a media critic, spoke out about the issue, she received the same
treatment. Later, after making a joke online about the situation, Breanna Wu again
received the same. All three of these women received this treatment for the
same reason, because of their gender. This example of harassment thus proves to
be the most disturbing of the three and truly a show of how dangerous online
harassment can be.
While the thinly veiled sexism and
objectification found on mainstream internet sites is reprehensible, it is also
important to see how dangerous and damaging sexist beliefs can be when allowed
to ferment into their most extreme forms. Whether is an embarrassing and
harmful release of intimate correspondence or it is a “specific and actionable
death or rape threat,” harassment by anonymous online communities like 4chan
and Reddit needs to have a light shined on it and needs to be ended.
I started with googling accomplished women whom I respect — Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Lena Dunham, Emma Watson and more. I found a gross amount of headlines criticizing their bodies or what they’re wearing, and very few acknowledging their contributions to the political and/or artistic sphere. A common theme emerged as I found more headlines about women: their exterior is what matters most to editors and readers alike.
Maybe this doesn’t seem like a huge deal to some. But when women are given value mainly for their looks, everything else they do is forgotten about. Something as simple as these headlines can pave the way for women to be glossed over for their accomplishments, leading them to be discouraged knowing much of what they do will not be recognized. Whether these headlines compliment or shame female bodies, the message remains that their bodies are of greater importance than their minds.
So, here it is: headlines about famous women, improved. The faces of Loyola tell the story better than I could myself.
Women Displayed Negatively In Media
Women in the press: BBC Article
Sex objects
A report by Object and three other women's campaign groups surveyed 11 British newspapers over a fortnight in September. It found "excessive objectification of women in some parts of the press, reducing them entirely to sexual commodities in a way that would not be broadcast on television, nor allowed in the workplace because of equality legislation".
Passive roles
Campaigners have long complained that there is a pronounced tendency across the whole of the media for women to disproportionately appear in passive roles - perhaps as victims of crime - instead of actually doing something.
Edwin Smith accepts there may be some truth in the argument that women are presented as victims, but that it reflects a wider culture.
"It's a symptom of how things have been. It is lazy but it has more widespread appeal to portray women as a victim. And the reader is more likely to sympathise with a woman victim."
Relative invisibility
Research by Women in Journalism this year, looking at a month of national newspaper newspapers, found that men wrote three quarters of all front-page articles and 84% of those mentioned or quoted in lead pieces were male.
And women were focus of 19% of news stories about politics and government in 2010
Women in Journalism study showed 78% of front-page articles in British national newspapers written by men, and 84% of those quoted or mentioned are male
