Dear Fellow Passionate Media Followers,
I have to admit, sitting down to write this blog was pretty hard. There were so many groups, issues, and events that I could choose from to represent in my project. After going back and forth for about an hour, I finally came up with a plan about what to write about. I decided that a very important issue I should talk about in my film opener is the issue of gender roles. In today's world, the media constantly reinforces certain characteristics that embody males and females. The media usually portrays males as being muscular, non-emotional, and being very ridged. On the other hand, the media usually portrays females as being very emotional, warm, and having alot of care for people.
I have to admit, sitting down to write this blog was pretty hard. There were so many groups, issues, and events that I could choose from to represent in my project. After going back and forth for about an hour, I finally came up with a plan about what to write about. I decided that a very important issue I should talk about in my film opener is the issue of gender roles. In today's world, the media constantly reinforces certain characteristics that embody males and females. The media usually portrays males as being muscular, non-emotional, and being very ridged. On the other hand, the media usually portrays females as being very emotional, warm, and having alot of care for people.
A couple examples, of films that gender roles were enforced very heavily where: Magic Mike and Pain and Gain. These movies all portray males as being very muscular, adventurousness, strong, and independent. For example, Magic Mike is about Mike and Adam two males who are strippers. Since the movie is about strippers, it is almost a given that this movie has males in it who are very muscular and visually appealing. Specifically, the movie portrays the two main male characters as being very strong and independent. Similarly, the movie Pain and Gain is a movie about bodybuilders at a gym in Miami that kidnap a member of the gym that has a lot of money. The movie portrays the main characters, which are both males, as being very strong, non-emotional, and independent.
Personally, I feel like the gender constructs that the media helps to reinforce are not good. I feel like they are an overgeneralization of the male and female figure. I don’t even think they represent males correctly at all. Personally, I know that a lot of males that are very emotional. Furthermore, there are only a minority of males that are very strong and overly muscular. A majority of males have average strength and in today's society a lot of males are overweight, especially in the United States. Similarly, I don’t think the media represents females properly. I think women are not always the gossip crazy, emotional, and caring individuals that the media makes them out to be. The majority of the women that I am around around gossip and/or emotional. Furthermore, I feel like the media exaggerates the characteristic that women are caring. While I do agree that usually women are more caring than males, I don’t think they are caring to the extent that the media makes them out to be. So, with that said, I really don’t think the way media represents the characteristics that embody both males and females are correct.
After doing my research on media representation, I have decided that in my film I want to portray women as caring and emotional like the media does. On the other hand, I want to challenge the way regular media portrays males. I want to portray males as emotional and caring. I do not want to challenge the characteristic in which the media represents males as independent.
Sincerely,
Matthew Liebman
Filmmaker
November 11th, 2018
