'Dissing' men is the new sexism.

[gaelfarce]

Feminism has drawn attention to and fought against stereotypical and sexist portrayals of women in mass media, but new research shows that media portrayals of gender have largely done an about face in the past decade or so. There is a new “gender war” and the main target of discrimination is no longer women, according to research - it is men.

Comments

[octi_stripe]

Personally, I think this is more about how the media focuses on negative images of people in general than about feminism or masculinity.

ピンポン!

[thorny_rose]

Exactly what I was thinking. While people can and do take to heart media portrayals, the media is essentially an entertainment tool and it's primary concern is telling a story, no matter what sex the antagonist is.

[gaelfarce]

So more negative sterotyping in the MSM is not going to increase gender strife?

[thorny_rose]

Well, I dunno about octi, but I'm saying that MSM isn't negatively stereotyping a sex - it's stereotyping humanity as a whole. People. In general. It's a bandwagon. It's a farce. We read and go *gasp!* Media can only do what media does, and that's offer an idea. What we do with it is our own choice. If we allow it, or anything other than one's own sense, to rule our actions and lifestyles, sure it can increase strife, or decrease it, or confirm it. Maybe this is straddling the fence, but anything's possible. People don't like being held responsible for their lots in general, so thank god there's MSM! *ahem!*

[octi_stripe]

I think that it is more seeing the underlying structure than straddling the fence. It sounds a bit like a cop out to say that everyone looks bad, but media organizations are businesses and making people feel better about themselves by making everyone else look bad sells.

[octi_stripe]

I think the point is that taking the media to heart will cause people to internalize shitty views of humanity regardless of gender. The article focused just on how images of men have declined, not on how the media as an institution has declined, which I think would have been a much more interesting point.

[wolfshift]

Sorry, what's 'MSM'?

[technocracygirl]

MainStream Media. Traditionally, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc. It specifically (at least in the liberal blogosphere, which is where I hear the abbreviation) excludes Fox News, on the basis that Fox is not mainstream but heavily right-wing.

This is, of course, an Americanism, so in other countries the abbreviation may not be valid.

[wolfshift]

Ah, okay. Thanks. I'm in Canada, so maybe that's why I've never seen it before.

[technocracygirl]

That would definitely explain it. If you want any further readings on this, I'd suggest Eric Alterman's What Liberal Media?.