Gender stereotypes

Gender stereotypes are very common place, it is easily found in all types of Media, especially print based Media. Often, this is found in Tabloid styled print media. In the media Women are a main focus of being stereotyped when given the oppurtunity, and often have a very narrow set of stereotypes and prejudice. The two main general stereotypes that you see placed on Women in the media are the ideas that either Women are not supposed to be in places of work, and should instead be in a relationship and spending their time as someone who takes care of the house, and takes care of the family that the Media expects them to have. The other common stereotype is that Women are often displayed as very sexual, that they are only be there for sex. 

One place you can see both examples of female stereotypes are the advertisements you see in these Tabloid newspapers. Often in papers like the sun you can find advertisements or even certain articles that tell women how they can look more physically appealing to men in what they eat and what they wear, most clothing items are advertised saying it will make them look more sexually appealing, other advertisements that are directed towards women are based around them being around the house, if items such as any household appliances are being advertised, the majority of the time they are going to be advertised towards women, and say that women are going to find the most use of it. Because of how women only receive two types of advertisements that can be found in Print media, it suggests that women should have specific roles in society, and very specific and streamlined ones at that.  

It tends to be very rare to see articles in newspapers that are about a certain political figure or person in authority who is also a woman, this is might be because there is generally less women in high ranking positions when compared to men, even though there are indeed women in high ranking positions, they are almost never represented, and as such to the general public, it appears as if it is mainly men doing important jobs. This enforces the stereotypes that the women's 'role' is not supposed to be in place of work. Another possible reason for why more articles may be about men is a deliberate Bias by certain editors who indeed believe that the roles of genders exist, and may ignore notable things women may do to enforce those roles. 

Other stereotypes that women face in the Media is that they are generally frail and weak individuals, that need to be supported by Men, this pairs up with the idea that Women should be in a family and have a relationship, there are multiple examples of this during when any Woman runs to be a political figure for their respective country (Margaret Thatcher and Hillary Clinton), often some print based Media have responded by questioning if they can run a country because of their gender, this is based of the same roles that the same print based Medias push onto women, and as such their gender is put more into focus than their actual integrity  and why they should run politically based on what their goals and beliefs are, this would often provide a very bad image for such people, and opinions are made based on just their gender. 

Female stereotypes enforce the ideas of femininity onto women, femininity is the social construct that projects women as all being slim, tall, predominantly white, and other aspects that the Media deems as beautiful or pretty. The implication this brings is that all women should look ideally look a specific way, simply because that's what society deems is best, this is also seen for Males, and the idea of masculinity, which gives the impression that all men should be strong muscular, and have interests in things like vehicles and sports, though is a bigger problem for Women. These two ideas give a very unrealistic depiction of society, and it misleads people that the world is in fact extremely diverse and varied. 

Stereotypes are very problematic, they make the world seem very streamlined and singular. If everyone were to believe that these stereotypes were true, there would be very little choice for people.