Media, Youth And Culture Application Of Theory - 1664 Words

Media, Youth and Culture Application of Theory to Culture Discuss the ways in which gender identities are constructed and expressed through media and popular cultures? This essay will address the way in which gender identities are constructed and expressed through media and popular cultures using Hebdige’s theory; Symbolic Interaction. Both gender identities will test the typical affiliated gender stereotype; which are created by social interactions – what a person sees and interprets in their world is what they believe and act accordingly to. The media has a very powerful effect on culture. Media has the ability to shape societal structures and operations. Dominant media forms (such as television and social media – the mediums) have†¦show more content†¦These standards shape the way in which society views and identifies male and female characteristics. The media projects gender stereotypes and models for the sexes as follows. Men within the media are constructed to be powerful and aggressive figures, whom embrace financial security and dominant control. (media, M. 2015) The media projects woman to be constructed as small and nurturing – concerned with family and sustaining beauty. (media, M. 2015) Often these stereotypes are referred to as codes or sexual codes. The code for each gender is constructed using values and rules an individual must conform to, in order to fit into their interpreted social group. (Cliffnotes.com, 2015) The way these male and female codes are created is through Hebdige’s theory – Symbolic Interaction. People develop and rely upon the process of social interaction. Men and woman act and behave according to their interpretation of the meaning of their world. They behave based on what they believe – not what is objectively true. (Crossman, 2015) The media especially plays on these elements of social interaction theory. We find that men and woman are still upholding their stereotypes because they are conforming to what they are told and see within their lives and media (symbolic interaction). From birth we see that the segregation between males and females is present. A boy wears a blue blanket, where a girl wears pink. Of