Our understanding of gender is influenced by the gender representations we encounter through mass media, as well as, environmental factors, such as childhood and family culture.

As soon as you are born, you are influenced by gender messages. Your care-givers' ideas about gender were, no doubt, passed on to you. In time, some of these ideas you may have accepted, and others, rejected. However, your childhood experiences had a great influence in defining your concept of gender. The culture into which you were born furthered defined your gender views. At some point in your life, you experienced a gender moment, a moment when you were aware that you were being shaped by the notions of gender present in your childhood, your culture, your society.

Reflection: Gender

What are little boys made of? Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails That's what little boys are made of!

What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice and everything nice That's what little girls are made of!

1. What gender messages are present in these children's nursery rhymes?
2. Identify other ways in which gender differences are promoted in infants and children.
3. Create a gender family tree which identifies the gender messages your received from your father or, any dominant male in your life, with the gender messages you received from your mother, or dominant female in your life. Include a box which identifies which gender messages you have adopted from both of these influences. Add another box which identifies those messages that you have rejected. Why have you rejected them?
4. Identify your first gender moment - a time when you realized that others concepts of gender were either a benefit or a disadvantage to you.
5. Reflect on your personal experiences. What do you think it means to be male or female in the society in which you live? Consider how gender messages influence or influenced: the gifts you receive, others assumptions about your interests and hobbies, moments when gender assumptions restricted your experiences, times when you challenged gender assumptions and stereotypes, and the reactions of others to your challenge.

1. Examine the magazine cover below.
2. Does the following magazine cover create a positive or negative impression of teen girls? What messages about gender are embedded within the text? Discuss your opinions with a classmate.
3. What codes and conventions of teen magazines have been included in this student example? In what way do these codes and conventions contribute to the representations shown?
   
   
   
   
   

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1. Examine one issue of either Teen Magazine or Ms Magazine.
2. Read the titles of the articles, the various lead paragraphs, captions, any highlighted type, and some of the advertisements.
3. As a class, discuss the following:
   Does the magazine create a positive or negative impression of teens? Explain.
   Do the teens featured in the magazine look or act like people you know? Explain?
   Do you think this magazine presents a fair and accurate view of teenagers today? In your community? Explain.
4. Base your discussion on the most common types of representation rather than the exceptions.
   
   

Activity # 2

1. Read "How Seventeen Undermines Young Women" by Kimberly Phillip.
2. Print the Magazine Survey chart.
   Complete the chart.
3. Respond to the following questions:

   
   
   Magazine Survey Questions
   
   1. Based on your survey results, does the magazine you analyzed promote independence, or does it reinforce the idea that adolescent women should be more concerned with looks, relationships and the approval of others? Support your statements with specific examples from the magazine. Refer to articles, captions, ads, etc. Use the tallied results from your survey for support.
   2. Summarize the main message of this magazine.
   3. Do the physical ideals represented in this magazine reflect reality? Who is not represented?
   4. Create a profile of a 'typical' teenage girl based on the content of this magazine.
   5. Do you agree or disagree with Kimberly Phillips' assertion that magazines like Seventeen contribute to the drop in the self-esteem of young girls?

Copyright Permission, Media-Awareness

Although advertising tries to convince you to buy a product or accept a message, advertising also shapes our attitudes about gender.

In the portrayal of men and women, advertising often uses the following six codes and conventions.

1. Superiority and Domination: Men are shown in dominant positions. Women are physically portrayed in subordinate poses.
2. Dismemberment: Parts of the body such as legs, chest, etc., are photographed, rather than the full body.
3. Clowning and Exaggeration: Women are shown in positions that make them look contorted or foolish while men appear in positions reflective of thought and intelligence.
4. Male Approval: Males desire and women are desired. Women are shown as recipients of male approval.
5. The Voice-Over Authority: Male voices are used as voice-over's in commercials rather than females.
6. Irrelevant Sexualization of Women and Girls: Women's bodies are used to sell products even if the product has nothing to do with sex.

   These codes and conventions affect the messages of the ads and our attitudes about gender.

1. Choose a class within your school. Separate the class into two groups: males and females.
2. Ask each male to find five ads that feature females and ask each female to find five ads that feature males.
3. Each group should then practice copying the exact poses in each of thier ads.

   After rehearsing, each group demonstrates the poses for the other group as a tableau (a frozen picture). Hold each frozen picture for 10 seconds while members of the class jot down observations on gender poses.
4. The gender representation chart may be used to record data.
5. Use the chart titles as a discussion starter on gender representation.
   
   gender representation chart
   gender representation chart
6. Discussion Question: Was it more difficult,awkward or, perhaps, humorous for the males to demonstrate the female poses or for the females to demonstrate the males? Why?
   
   
   If you are unable to work with a class, complete the following activity.
   
   

1. Clip a minimum of ten advertisements featuring males and ten featuring females. Work under the assumption that males and females are posed differently from one another. Examine the poses used for each gender. Do you notice any differences?
2. Describe the poses. Use the gender representation chart to deconstruct the poses. Be sure to make a note of any distinctions between the poses of each gender.
   gender representation chart
   gender representation chart
3. Discussion: What do these poses suggest about the characteristics and behaviors that the advertising industry attributes to males and females?

1. Construct a poem which focuses on what it means to be female or male in contemporary society, or

   According to the images and messages that you have seen in the mass media, construct a poem which focuses on the benefits of being male or female.
2. Compose your own poem, At Seventeen, which focuses on issues that you face.
   OR

Poetry rubric
Poetry rubric

Cartoon

Think about the stereotypes associated with males and females. Create a four to six frame cartoon which depicts gender differences and/or stereotypes.