Gender Perceptions through Television

It is an undeniable fact that television, as a form of media, has become so popular, has pervaded our lives so thoroughly that we cannot imagine a world without it. Television programs are a way for us to know what is happening around the world and they entertain us with music, movies, soap operas and reality shows. These programs influence our perceptions of gender, which is “a euphemism for the sex of a human being, to emphasize the social and cultural, as opposed to the biological, distinctions between the sexes”.(blog – Notes Towards Day 1)

The phrase ‘perceptions of gender’ refer to the way we identify different gender types by what they look like, their manner of dressing, how they talk, express their emotions and behave in society. The television has a greater impact on such observations than, say, the radio because in addition to hearing what’s described to us, we are able to see it for ourselves. We can see the play of distress and sadness on a woman’s face when she finds out the man she loves is in love with another person. We can hear and see the sarcasm behind a bland line being delivered by Dr Frasier Crane from the TV show ‘Frasier’. We can especially see how people of possibly all genders on television programs avoid eye contact and seem distracted when they don’t want their real feelings about a particular subject (or a particular someone) known. Watching and listening to such performances over a period of time leads to viewers being able to recognize the patterns of behavior associated with different social situations. Moreover, it seems to me that viewers subconsciously absorb these patterns and then enact them, knowingly or unknowingly, in their own lives.

Such an absorption can also be seen in terms of appearances, namely how people choose to look and dress themselves. The hair styles nowadays tend to be a wide range of choices for all genders. In terms of clothes, men who choose to be viewed as men will typically wear, jeans, pants, suits or the like. There are not that many places in the world, if any, where you will find a man who chooses to be viewed as a man wearing a skirt. Also, women in the western world who want to go to a party or out clubbing wear short dresses or other forms of ‘sexy’ clothes along with a good amount of makeup. The term sexy is subjective but I feel that the subjectivity for quite a lot of women is affected by what they see women on television wear. Examples would be of fashion shows by famous designers or the styles of gowns worn by famous actresses to movie premieres or award shows. Trans people and intersex wear the clothes of the gender they associate with which, as mentioned above, can be partially influenced by television.

However, a more direct influence can be seen in the growing desire (or possibly obsession) that people have to look ‘the best’ they possibly can – for women, the most beautiful; for men, the most handsome. Seeing actors with brilliant sets of pearly whites flashed for the cameras make quite a lot of people want to get their teeth whitened, either by buying whitening gel or going to the dentist to get it done for them. Viewers see people of their gender on the TV with the perfect bodies – toned, no fat. This makes them want to get those kinds of bodies because everybody seems to appreciate them. They can achieve this by working out – possibly going to the gym, running around their neighborhood or using machines at home that were so conveniently advertised on the TV. They could also take the pills advertised to make one lose weight without any side effects. Or, if they can afford it, they can have cosmetic surgery done.

An interesting example of cosmetic surgery usage can be seen in the Fox reality television show called ‘The Swan’. This show was a beauty contest with a twist – the contestants were ‘ordinary / ugly’ looking women that were given three months to ‘transform’ into beautiful women. Two women were featured on every week. Each of the women was assigned a team of specialists i.e. a coach, therapist, trainer, cosmetic surgeons and a dentist who together designed an individually tailored program for her. The contestants’ work ethic, growth and achievement were monitored during the three months. These played a factor in determining, at the episode’s conclusion, which one of the women went home and which one was selected to move on to the Swan pageant, where the women competed with each other to be The Swan. According to Robert Bianco, “We convince these women their self-worth is wrapped up in their physical appearance, alter them to meet some unspecified standard of beauty and then tell all but one, “Sorry, you’re still not worthy enough.””

As we can see, the extent of gender determination and construction through the television is vast. What is interesting to remember is that the television is a technological product of human thought. Moreover, it is used as a method of propagating society’s view on life as it is, as it could be and possibly as it should be. So the question boils down to why people believe and act the way they do. How much room for flexibility is there? Why are people so resistant to the idea of change and breaking away from the norms they’ve created for themselves?

Works cited:
– Notes Towards Day 1, blog for CS257: Gender and Technology
http://gandt.blogs.brynmawr.edu/class-notes/notes-towards-day-1/
– Robert Bianco, “There’s nothing beautiful about ‘The Swan’”, USA TODAY article dated 04/11/2004
http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/reviews/2004-04-11-swan_x.htm