Making an Argument: Pop Culture Stereotyping

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Making an Argument: Pop Culture Stereotyping
Gender stereotyping in pop culture is an issue that has been in existence for a long time. Unfortunately, it is the women who are usually stereotyped and not often in a positive way. From television, magazines, on social media and in movies, I can barely flip a page or watch an episode without seeing evidence of women being stereotyped. Sexual objectification is one way that pop culture stereotypes women and young girls. The other ways include making the women appear vulnerable in TV shows or movies as well as uneducated or unemployed. This gender discrimination has in many ways contributed to destroying the image of the woman in the world.
Pop culture stereotypes women by objectifying them usually in a sexual manner. While growing up, I often wondered why women in most of the TV shows I watched were always thin, slender and extremely beautiful. This was a trend across different shows and magazines. It is the same thing I noticed on the social media whereby my lady friends who met these standards in most times got many comments of approval from the men. At one point, I even considered dressing in the same way as some of the women or simply copying the unique hairstyles that had earned them the massive attention from men. In essence, this is exactly what pop culture has reduced us to, as sexualized objects meant to please men through our appearances. According to a study by Hanes, the objectification has gotten to the extent that girls believe that “if you are going to attempt these other things, you need to look and be sexually hot,” (Hanes). The study adds that even though girls and women, in general, have learned to perform in all areas just like the men, they still believe that if whatever they are doing is not making them appear in a certain sexy way, then they quit. An example is in sports whereby it is mentioned that girls stop participating once they “realize” that the sports do not make them look feminine and instead opt to take up cheerleading roles where they get to dress skimpily while performing in routines that are highly sexualized. It is only natural to desire to emulate whatever we see and listen to on the mass media and therefore in this way, pop culture has managed to continue to stereotype us, women.
Pop culture stereotype women by making them appear like vulnerable beings that should always be at the mercy of men. In my neighborhood, I witnessed a case where one woman would not take any action due to the fear she had for her husband. It was quite unfortunate that the woman was blindly submissive to the husband to the extent of taking abuse from him. Even in all these, she could not raise her voice to the injustices she was being exposed to because society expected her to be a good, less talkative and submissive wife. The above is a typical situation of how pop culture has painted the woman as a weak and vulnerable being that can be handled in whatever way the men see best. In her article, Cofer gives an example of how Puerto Rican girls were wrongly assumed to only think about s...