Ratios of Men and Women in the Media

So I found this interesting website listing stunning statistics comparing the rates of how often women versus men are portrayed in the media: www.mediareporttowomen.com/statistics.htm

I had no idea that men were showed more often in news and talk shows. The ratio is 4-to-1 for males vs. females who are shown on these shows. Not only are there more men than women on these shows, but the men are mostly white. This just goes to show the effect media has on the world; even reality talk shows have a stereotypical bias. We should show more of other races and more of women in order to accurately depict the people of America. Children who watch these shows won't know the real ratios of genders and races in the world if all they ever see is a majority of white males on these shows.

Another interesting thing listed on this website was the fact that male actors on television are predominantly older than the female actors. At first glance, we may not see this as very significant, but one could see this as another influencing factor supporting the idea of women seen as sex appeal and objects in the media. As I learned in a psychology class of mine, aging in men is more respected than aging in women. In fact, men with gray hair and older facial features is seen as more attractive because it shows their maturity level and presumably we attribute this to more wisdom and glamor, making older men more attractive. Women are not seen as attractive when they follow the natural aging process. No one wants a fat wrinkly woman; everyone wants the skinny, hip, in-shape females. Therefore, it would make sense that producers of television shows allow older men to act longer, while on the other hand these producers don't allow older women to play the part of "sexy" stars. But just because it makes more sense why, that doesn't make it right. Look at Brad Pitt, for example, he is definitely not a young man anymore, but he still plays the part of a handsome dreamy man. Brad Pitt is actually about as old as my dad; in fact, I think he's older. The media has inserted into our minds this idea that this older, middle-aged man is actually the epitomy of handsome. But what we need to ask ourselves is whether or not we would actually feel this way about the attractiveness of men and women as they age and lose their young beauty.

The media has such a strong hold and persuasion on our thoughts and core beliefs. We grow up seeing these biases and stereotypes on the media, but we never really have the time to develop our own feelings and opinions on the matter. It just makes me wonder what life would be like without this constant influence of the media in our lives. This website had many interesting facts and statistics, but I only covered a few. You should click on it and read the rest and learn to gain opinions about your own idea of gender in the media!