MEF Receives Gift of $30,000 to Distribute Documentary Fighting Anti-Arab Discrimination
A Conversation with Karen Green Stone & Rob Stone
A Soft Sell for Hard Drugs
Producer's Corner: April 2006 With Adriana Barbaro
The Macho Paradox: A New Book by Jackson Katz
Brandhype.org: A New Web-based Resource About Product Placement in the Movies
MEF Board President Michael Morgan Remembers George Gerbner
George Gerbner's Influence on MEF: An Interview with Sut Jhally
MEF Videos & Underfunded Institutions
Behind Hijacking Catastrophe
'Wrestling with Manhood' Sparks Protest in Burlington
Militarism & Video Games: An Interview with Nina Huntemann
The Media and Iraq: War Coverage Analysis
Sexual Assault Awareness Month
Media Education & Preventing Sexual Violence
Free Press
Beyond the Frame
Speak Up! at GLSEN/Boston Conference
Interview with Michael Levine
Jean Kilbourne on The Oprah Show
MFN NYC Premiere
MEF: Firehouse Re-Use & Renovation
MFN at SXSW Festival
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It is commonly accepted that sexual violence prevention programs should address the cultural factors that encourage violence, specifically those involving limited definitions of gender. But where should we begin?
To answer this question, we can look in our own living rooms – to the television set in the corner entertainment center and the magazines on the coffee table. We bring mass media into our homes, and they become the dominant storytellers in our society. Children between the ages of 2 and 17 watch an annual average of 15-18,000 hours of television, and it is estimated that the average child sees more than 20,000 commercials every year, which works out to be at least 55 commercials per day. Children and young adults often learn what it means to be men and women – and how to have sexual relationships – from movies, television shows & magazines that are owned by multi-national media corporations.
Overwhelmingly, the stories mass media tell about men and about women are narrow and stereotypical. Men are primarily portrayed as aggressive, strong, independent and violent. And although feminism has succeeded in attaining diverse roles for women on television shows and in movies, female characters are still mainly valued for their appearance (with extremely narrow definitions of beauty), their (hetero)sexuality, and their passivity. When these stories are internalized and interact in real-life relationships – a dominant, aggressive man paired with a woman who believes she should look pretty and keep her opinions to herself – it promotes the dangerous dynamics that are common in violent relationships.
Media literacy – the ability to read, understand and deconstruct media images and messages – can give young people the tools to construct positive self images and navigate healthy relationships. A media literacy activity, such as the careful analysis of an advertisement in a fashion magazine, can be an effective point of entry into a conversation about gender stereotypes and sexual violence. A sexual violence prevention educator might hand out photocopies of an advertisement featuring a woman and ask students the following questions:
>> What do you see?
>> What is the advertisement trying to sell?
>> Who is the ad targeting?
>> What point of view of women is represented by this image?
>> What points of view of women are not represented by this image?
>> Does this woman look like a real person with thoughts, opinions and goals?
>> Who makes money from this image and message?
>> Can you imagine seeing a man’s body, rather than a woman’s, used in this way? Why? Why not?
Learning to question images and messages is a critical first step to becoming an active, thoughtful consumer of the media, and, consequently, an independent thinker capable of resisting and challenging unhealthy cultural norms.
Media, however, go beyond just portraying the gender in stereotypical ways. Women and girls are frequently depicted in the media as victims of explicit violence; often, the violence is sexualized. Scenes of violent assaults against women are used continually in horror films for entertainment purposes, and some companies use violent images in their advertising campaigns for shock and aesthetic value to help sell their products. When we see these images regularly and without serious commentary, we become desensitized to them. Media literacy activities can help make students aware of the ways media trivialize men’s violence against women and can create an avenue for important discussions.
As the dominant storytellers in our culture, media have a powerful influence on our understanding of our selves and our world. It is imperative that we take the stories they tell, and the notions of love they purport, seriously. Sexual violence prevention educators, whose work directly addresses cultural definitions of gender, are in a unique position to bring awareness to the persuasive role media play in our lives and our relationships.
For information about using MEF videos as a resource for sexual prevention, see “Sexual Assault Awareness Month — MEF Videos A Resource for Prevention”
The Journal of the American Medical Association
American Academy of Pediatrics, “Television and the Family” fact sheet. www.aap.org/family/tv1.htm. Accessed 5/9/02
Media Education & Preventing Sexual Violence
by Kendra Olson
© 2003 Media Education Foundation. This activity may be reproduced on a non-profit basis for educational purposes only.
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