Prejudices in Media Representations

Gender and race intersect in media representations and in real life as well. The feminist movement took the methods of the Civil Rights Movement to heart in agitating for change, just as blacks had done before. The relative positions of women and blacks show both similarities and differences. Women actually constitute a majority in society yet still face discrimination, while racial minorities face discrimination for different reasons. Yet, both groups are seen as less able and less worthy than the white male, suggesting that the plight of black women in particular involves a double dose of discrimination. Distinctions based on both gender and race and on the two in conjunction can be seen in our popular culture, notably in films and television shows that offer particular views of both women and people of color and especially women of color that do not comport with reality but that do reflect deeply ingrained prejudices.

Many of the prejudices we encounter in media representations may be clearer in a historical context because representations in the past were usually more open about certain prejudices. Mullings points out how women were viewed in traditional Western societies in the nineteenth century. The ideal woman was seen as "incontrovertibly identified with the home: as the ideal wife and mother; as good, passive, delicate, pure, submissive, calm, frail, small, and dependent" (Mullings 257). Saegert echoes this idea as she notes how women have been identified

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the sexually aggressive, provocative woman governed entirely by libido" (Mullings 257), and the "Mammy," or "the religious, loyal, motherly slave devoted to the care of the slaveowner's family" (Mullings 257). These two images persisted in modified form and continue in the present, though the Mammy of today is devoted to the care of her own family rather than that of any owner. In the 1950s and into the 1960s, the mammy character was present in many television shows as the loyal maid on programs like Beulah. In the 1960s, a show called Julia could get on the air because it had a black star with drawing power, Diahann Carroll, and because the message of the show was non-threatening to the audience to whom the business interests wanted to sell their products. The appeal then was directly to the white audience, still the largest audience and still the "buying public." Julia was a widow with a small son, and she worked outside the home in a doctor's office. Glamor was still the norm, and the show had more in common with The Donna Reed Show than with some of the current presentations of black women on television. When it could be proven that there was a large black audience and that this audience would watch and spend money,

Category: Psychology - P