by Peter Davison
Organizations like MediaWatch and other feminist
groups have been working for a long time to challenge sexist images in the
media. I hope to build on this work and share some of the media literacy
strategies and ideas I have found to be effective in working with teens
specifically to end attitudes of sexism and the practise of violence.
Historically, stories and beliefs were passed on through the family, religion,
tribe or the community. But in these modern times children, aged from two to
eleven, watch an average of 17.7 hours of TV per week in
A recent article from Adbusters magazine alludes to
the repercussions of this unchecked phenomenon. The authors, Allen Kanner and
Mary Gomes, in writing about consumerism note that, "Corporate advertising
is likely the largest single psychological project ever undertaken by the human
race, yet its stunning impact remains curiously ignored...".
I think educators are all to familiar with this
impact. Anti-social behaviour, poor self esteem and hopeless futures for young
people are ever present realities in our schools. Many, though not all, of the
stories produced by the media are based on sexism that become
the lies that bind both women and men to a limited potential. From this
perspective I join those who advocate mandatory media literacy education at all
levels in our education system.
In this discussion I want to focus on how the critical thinking skills of media
literacy can be part of gender equity work. My personal interest as a profeminist man and educator is to unpack how dominant
masculinity is learned and how the media contributes to the years of training
it takes to turn boys into violent men. By exposing the impact of sexism in the
media as a particularly pervasive infotoxin I hope to
help challenge and reduce at least one of the root causes of violence.
Detractors of media literacy cry censorship. To the contrary, the investigation
of who produces media and what stories are told can
begin to loosen the tightening grip of the cultural cartels like Disney and
Time/Warner. In our increasingly technologized age
stories are being told by a handful of media corporations, owned by men, who
have something to sell us. The challenge is to democratize
the media and move from passive consumption to active participation.
What can happen with a group of teens? As a background to the discussion of the
influence and motivation of media I use references to television because the
research on this medium is more abundant. But in the classroom, especially at
the introductory level, magazine ads are a compact way to open up 4 of the
following key concepts of media literacy.
All of us are affected on some level by the media's
unreality as the lines between fantasy and reality are becoming blurred with
every slick new production gimmick. As consumers we have been trained to let TV
think for us, so opening a discussion about tricks that are geared to maintain
our viewing attention require a couple of examples to
prompt our thinking.
I shared one of my pet peeves about TV's artificiality in a recent workshop by
recalling how cars explode every time they have an accident on TV, but do not
do so in reality. One of the teens attending told us how she believed this was
truth and after the car her parent was driving flipped onto it's
roof, she ran down the road leaving her mother trapped. This is consistent with
the experiences of emergency personnel who report that their most difficult
task when arriving at an accident scene is to deal with victims trapped in the
car because the victims panic in fear of an explosion.
Twenty five years of research on the effects of TV has concluded that the more
television we watch the more we perceive the real world to be like that of
television. It takes no great leap of imagination to correlate that study to
the effects of other media messages. The more media images we take in the more
we believe them to be the norm. Deconstructing media images is about reclaiming
what is true for us and discerning what is fiction.
To illustrate this in magazines I share the front cover of Esquire Magazine,
featuring a famous actress in a low cut red dress with the text, "What
Michelle Pfeiffer needs"--open the cover fold--"is absolutely
nothing." This myth would be true except for a $1525 bill submitted by the
artist who "touched up" the photograph to remove her imperfections.
Another example comes from Mirabella magazine and
takes cosmetic perjury to a new level by featuring a cover model made from a
computer generated composite. The best eyes from one model were added to the
best "bee sting" lips of another etc.--to create a completely
unattainable female object of beauty.
Maybe you're born with it, maybe you're not--but regardless there are lots of
magazine manuals on how to be a successful stereotype and sex object. As author
Mary Pipher succinctly puts the dilemma in her
bestseller Reviving Ophelia, "The prospect for women is to live
authentic lives or to play out culturally scripted roles." The price of
keeping up to the culturally scripted roles, as defined by the media and
models, is well studied. Low self esteem and anorexia/bulimia are common
effects and teens girls tell me about their friends that stay with an abusive
boyfriend because its better than not having a
boyfriend and being uncool. Dismantling the rules of this script can be about
empowerment and acceptance.
The roles for boys are also culturally scripted. When I ask young men what they
like about being guys they answer, "don't have periods or pregnancy,"
"not scared of snakes," "physically stronger," in short, a
definitive list suggesting that what it means to be male is really to be not
female. The implications of this are devastating for young men who find their
self worth in the crucible of fear of being feminine. It can lead to misogynist
attitudes, homophobia, competition and isolation from fear of each other and
our "feminine" emotional selves. Dismantling the rules of this script
may also begin to dissolve the links between masculinity and violence.
To move from the opening question of "how" to the deeper analysis of
"why," I use a mix and match game. Six ads for women (ads with men
can be used as well) are displayed with all the words blocked out, isolating
the image of the model. The trick is to match the ad with the product being
sold. Teens earnestly try to match up the ads, and actually recognize some of
them, but it doesn't take long before we realize it can't be done. What is
really for sale is a sexualized and stereotyped
ideal. If we buy product X then we will be like that stereotyped model and be
successfully cool. This activity offers a bridge into how gender analysis can
be used in media literacy.
Media as an expression of popular culture reflects the
implicit and explicit ideological messages about who is important, and what
stories are told or not told, by those who hold the dominant views. On
television, stories of men outnumber women 3 to 1 and women are portrayed as
victims of violence 50% more than men. A Martian doing research on the dominant
species of Earth need only tune into shows like Baywatch
to gather primary information about patriarchy in action. Media pins its
messages on stereotypes as quick representations that splash a minimal sense of
completeness about the characters because it is a quick way to build the plot
and hook the audience or to pitch an ad.
At this point it is useful to open up the teen's experience of sex role
stereotyping. To do this I use an activity from Healthy
Relationships: A Violence-Prevention Curriculum developed by Men For Change.
The following list, from one Grade 9 class, illustrates how observant teens are
concerning scripted roles. Stereotypes for men include: macho, tough, stand up
for self, in control, don't cry, sexually aggressive, strong, muscular, be a
leader and burp. Stereotypes for women include: polite, fragile, nice, kind,
don't spit, shave legs, passive, pretty, skinny, can't be smarter than guys,
confused, loyal and depend on a guy.
Who controls this monopoly on our collective identities as women and men is
very political. To quote Kathleen Shannon, founder of the women's production
Studio D that made films such as Adam's World and the Burning Times trilogy at
the National Film Board, "True oppression is when someone else defines
you."
The merchants of consumerism and advertisers spend $150
billion per year to pay very close attention to the hopes and fears of teens
and adults. The consumer, both male and female, is constantly defined as
inadequate against the ideal script of the sex role stereotype noted above. We
are trained to feel that our 2000 body parts fail in comparison to computer
generated cover models and we can only fill this void in our being with
products that compensate for not being "born with it."
At this stage I introduce the formula for an effective ad as another framework
to use in critical thinking. 1. Create a problem by tapping an
insecurity about fitting into the stereotype and 2. Sell the product as
the solution to this "problem."
The marketing of addictions is a great place to see how this formula
manipulates our insecurities about fitting into the stereotype. Cigarette ads
for women are sold as "slims" to appeal to body weight concerns or
the paradox of equating women's liberation--You've come a long way baby!--with
addiction. Cigarettes for men promote being cool, independent and in control.
This myth can be exposed through asking teens what the truth is about smoking,
or by reading the obituary of the actor, Wayne McLaren,
who portrayed the Marlboro man in ads. He died at age 51 from lung cancer.
Even just one of the 100,000 alcohol ads the average child will see before they
reach legal drinking age is good for a long discussion. One I use from the
infamous Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition features a woman in a swimsuit and
a glass of booze. The text reads, "We all know that the same guys that
don't drink us are the same guys who protest the swimsuit issue."
Challenging this message within the framework of gender analysis reveals
homophobia and stud options for becoming cool.
In the media battle to gain brand loyalty the collateral damage is the self
esteem of young people. How does this affects their
own sense of personal power, identity and their future dreams? With every step
towards deconstructing a media message the consumer begins to assert control
over the product, rather than vice versa. The politics of choice enters back
into our decisions as we realize there is more to drink on a hot day than just
Coke or Pepsi.
I tell a story heard on CBC's Morningside that
illustrates the revelation of choice. It's about the origins of the practice of
women in
I use an ad for Escape cologne that pictures a naked male
model towering over a naked women looking up at him and pressed against his
chest. Who is in control and how is this shown? Ad couples are invariably
portrayed as sexually voracious, but messages also confirm who has power. If
the ad producers printed the same message rotating it 90 degrees to the right
how does the message of power change? (The woman appears to be "coming
onto" the man) Notably, while this product is consumed by men the ad
itself appeared in Mademoiselle magazine. The message
is for women; expectations of male power and control are normal and desirable.
Although deconstructing media messages reveals important links between sexism,
thought control and maintaining the male-dominant status quo, the ultimate
radical act is to make our own media. This could mean making parody magazine
ads like those published in Adbusters Quarterly or
producing a video like students did in
In conclusion, media literacy is a teachable skill that can bridge the gap
between the classroom and the culture. It is about a new awakening that
stimulates critical thinking skills, labels sexism and fosters attitudes in support
of gender equity, puts personal choice back into our self esteem and exposes
the truth about the corporate dependency on consumerism.
At the dawn of the 500 channel universe we can anticipate an increased daily
diet of culturally scripted stereotypes, but I believe men and women can work
as allies against sexism and violence in the media. For me the real promise of
using media literacy in the quest for gender equity is to empower us all with a
lifetime of skills that can create authentic people and lasting relationships.
A student in a recent workshop summarized it best. Johanna, age 15, said,
"I think that in order to understand things in our society we have to be
able to understand what the media motives are. Then we can really more
concentrate on who we are instead of what other people want us to be."