Society, STOP Bullying Me!

You have freedoms, rights, and free-will? Yes, a question is being posed. You may think you have all of these things, and maybe to an extent this is true. You have the freedom to be exactly what society wants you to be or to be ostracized for not conforming. Even down to the origins of your gender, society has controlled everything you think, feel, and do.

Society’s omnipotence puts you at a loss to conformity. Are you really male or female? Society makes you think that. Maybe you are somewhere in between. In that case, you are rejected by society. Gender is socially constructed; you cannot escape it. Classifying people into categories satisfies our need for organization; without such, there would be a deficit of social order. The influence that the public has over its constituents is tremendous, and it has been since the beginning of mankind, but why is that? How does television influence our culture's perception of gender roles?

Television is a dominant force in the world’s entertainment and news source; it is opinionated, but it is not reflective of individual views. Historically, television has played a vital role in portraying the views of society to its audience. Because television has such an influence, anything that society (literally) wants broadcasted, it will be on television. In present- and previous-day television, gender stereotypes have been portrayed and influence our thinking. Gender stereotypes are not always true, but they are reflective of the culture.

Socially, television instills values and ideas of what our lives should be like. Ideas of gender, including heterosexuality and homosexuality, have been shown on television for decades. These things influence how we see ourselves and others, and the roles we take in society. Television shows such as “I Love Lucy” have shown women to be more of the care-taker and housewife, while their husbands come home from work and expect the house to be clean and dinner on the table.

In the “I Love Lucy” example and most television shows from that period show heterosexual relationships. Not only do they provide context for a woman and man’s place in the household, but also in the world, society, and culture which they participate. They are reinforcing gender stereotypes that start forming from three years old. 

Children learn the stereotypes from their social and physical environment; they perpetuate the ideas just as their parents. Children grow up learning the stereotypes, see them on television, engage with them in their everyday lives, follow them as they grow up, and teach them to their children. The male and female roles are now changing; we are evolving to a less stereotypical society, but we have a long way to go.

Because of I am a child of the media, a product of the technological age, I am heavily influenced by the images and a major target of marketing agencies. I am bias in these regards because I have lived in the gender stereotyped society, but am now seeing the change of gender roles.

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