Female Voices in Media: Essay on Me Too Movement

Introduction

America has been a patriarchal society since its founding of the country. The founding fathers of the government were all men. Even the Declaration of Independence states that “all men are created equal”, leaving women completely out of the text. While women are slowly fighting for more freedoms and rights, men in America hold most of the power in society. Along with patriarchy, comes toxic masculinity. Toxic masculinity is certain masculine social norms that harm society. Toxic Masculinity is the fear of being seen as “not enough of a man”. Toxic Masculinity leads to physical aggression, fear of emotions, discrimination against people that aren't heterosexual, sexual violence, and anti-feminist behavior, all of which are catastrophic to society. Toxic masculinity and patriarchy have effects on every aspect of American society, including the media. In America, the media is very important in people’s lives. Americans check the news and social media the moment they wake up, listen to the news on the radio as they drive to work, and watch the news on the TV in their living rooms. The media can be biased toward a single story and perspective. It's very dangerous when the media doesn’t cover every side of a story because the media helps people form opinions on important issues in their communities, in turn affecting what society values.

Context

The media has played a big role in amplifying social justice movements in the past few years including the Black Lives Matter movement, climate justice movement, Anti-Gun Violence movement, and the #MeToo movement. Despite these recent movements, women’s voices and issues are still underrepresented in the media compared to men--continuing inequalities for women in society. Movements like the #MeToo movement have shown the importance of including women’s voices in the media to bring about change to women’s issues. Women’s voices need to be amplified in the media in order to fight toxic masculinity in America.

Underrepresentation in Media

Women’s voices are disproportionately underrepresented in the media. The Global News Monitoring Project has tracked gender in the world’s news media every five years since 1995 and looks at women’s presence in relation to men and gender bias and stereotypes in news stories. The most recent study from 2020 found that only, “24% of [women are] serving as news subjects and sources” (GMMP). Along with the 24% of women in news, “Just 1% of the stories in the total sample were coded under the ‘gender and related’ major topic that includes news on various forms of gender violence against women and girls” (GMMP). Less than a quarter of the media we consume around the world presents women’s voices, and even when women’s voices are included in the media, important women’s issues like gender-based violence are almost exclusively left out. Women journalists’ stories also make up less of the media than men’s stories, according to a Women’s Media Center study from 2017, “Women receive only 38 percent of bylines in print, TV, Internet, and wire news” (Powell). This data shows that we live in a world in which women are virtually invisible in the news. At this rate, it will take more than 70 years to see 50% of women in the media, a true reflection of their representation in society. (Ashr, et al.)

Media’s Influence on Social Norms

The media is very influential in society. Media plays into every aspect of our lives from the radio to the newspaper, to social media. Media can be used to amplify minority and social justice movements to help create change in society. “The stories and struggles of minorities often aren’t well known or publicized, but social media can provide a platform to amplify and share them with potentially millions of people across the globe” (A Guide to Activism). Because of the enormous amount of people that use social media, media can bring exposure to minority voices and other issues that previously have been underrepresented throughout society. This exposure helps share lived experiences, uplift voices, and stories, create awareness and create a space for organizations, activists, and citizens to demand justice and action (A Guide to Activism). Media, particularly social media, can encourage solidarity and emphasize shared experiences (Powell), which can help people feel less alone in their experiences. Media has the power to influence our individual beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors (Adrias). Because of the power that the media has to influence society, it’s important that there is a fair and balanced portrayal of women in the media. Portrayals of women in the media “play a critical role in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment” (WACC).

The Me Too Movement

The Me Too movement was founded in 2006 by Tarana Burke in order to help women who experienced sexual assault to stand up for themselves, but it wasn’t until 2017 that multiple actresses opened up about sexual assault in the film agency and began sharing #MeToo on social media that the movement gained a voice in society (#MeToo: A timeline of events). The hashtag has grown into a whole movement of women (and men) saying no more to sexual violence. The movement has shined a light on the conversations that we need to have, and #MeToo is “forcing us to have the conversations” (The year of #MeToo). The movement reduces tolerance of abusive behaviors and increases support for victim-survivors (A Guide to Activism).

An important and special aspect of the Me Too movement is that the movement was created to specifically amplify minority voices that have long been silenced in society. Tarana Burke specifically founded ‘me too’ in order to give a voice to “Black, queer, trans, disabled, and all communities of color” (metoomvmt mission). At the end of 2017 when Time magazine recognized the Me Too movement it named the “silence breakers”--the women and men who spoke out against their abusers. The magazine interviewed both famous and non-famous women and men who were abused (Me Too Movement). If women who have been victims of sexual violence do not see themselves presented in the narrow picture that society has previously seen as sexual assault, the readiness to report the incident to the police, other people’s willingness to believe them, and their healing are diminished (Schwark). The Me Too movement is a source of solidarity for women of all backgrounds who have experienced sexual harassment, not just celebrities, famous actors, or white women.

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The importance of the voice and power the Me Too movement has given women in society has been shown by Chanel Miller. Chanel Miller has been an influential advocate in the Me Too movement. For years Chanel Miller was known as 'Emily Doe” to the world, the woman who was sexually assaulted by Brock Turner, a Stanford swimmer. As with many victim-survivors in the American justice system, she entered it “without any idea that it was about to swallow her whole and spit her out like it did uncountable others” (Kumar). “Journalists wrote about her assault in the same breath as the number of laps Turner could swim. What he'd lose as a swimmer always came before what he did to her” (Kumar). She didn’t have a voice until she shed her anonymity and published 'Know My Name', giving a voice to herself, and all other victim-survivors. “I never want to become [Emily Doe] again, and whenever I talk about this, I scoot a little closer,' Miller says. “Reading her book prompted the question in society that Judge Rosemarie Aquilina (who sentenced Larry Nassar) asked, “how many times were people, like Miller, not heard?” (Aquilina). The beautiful thing about Chanel Miller and #MeToo is that when people share their stories it also gives other people a voice, recognition, and value. (Kumar) Whenever a victim-survivor speaks up, they are saying that they are valuable and that other survivors are too, which is what the #MeToo movement is about (Kumar). Women are dramatically under-represented in the news, #MeToo in the media gives women the power to take their stories back, lets other women know that they are not alone, and amplifies the need for change in society.

Consequences of Incorrect Representation

Including women’s voices in the media can sometimes make toxic masculinity worse, especially when women’s voices are overrepresented and dehumanized. There are many stories where women are overrepresented, because they are portrayed as having little or no agency, especially in cases of violence (Ashr, et al.). The way that sexual violence is framed in the media is important, as this portrayal shapes public opinions about sexual violence (Schwark). In a recent study on the news media’s coverage of sexual violence, Shannon O’Hara found that,

Much of the news media’s coverage of sexual violence perpetuates myths and stereotypes about rape, rapists, and rape victims. This is troubling, as the news media shapes public opinion about rape and can affect policy-making, not to mention the running of the legal system itself (O’Hara).

Victims are often blamed for the assault because of their behavior, what they drank, or the way they dressed. As a result, society will often focus on what victims did “wrong” instead of focusing on the problem of sexual violence that society. Another study by Renae Franiuk, et al. investigated the prevalence and the effects of rape myths in the headlines of news articles, surrounding the high-profile case of alleged sexual assault involving basketball player Kobe Bryant. “Their results showed that 10% of articles about the case had a rape myth-endorsing headline (e.g., “she is lying” or, “she asked for it”)” (Schwark). Also, after reading the headlines with rape myths, men were, “More likely to endorse rape-supportive attitudes and less likely to think that the alleged perpetrator was guilty, compared to those exposed to headlines that did not endorse rape myths” (Schwark). They found that rape myths were present in more than one-third of the examined articles.

When the media perpetuates toxic masculinity and rape culture by representing women’s voices and issues incorrectly, it in turn hurts women. “If women who have been victims of sexual violence do not see themselves presented in the narrow picture the newspapers’ choices of photographs paint, the readiness to report the incident to the police . . . could be diminished” (Schwark). Often journalists report on high-profile cases--for good reason--because they capture the attention of society, however, this very narrow focus on just a few types of sexual violence often creates misconceptions that assault is rare and limited to hyper-masculine environments like athletic departments military academies (Baumgartner and McAdon). The majority of reporting on sexual violence shows a limited and binary understanding of sexual violence, and even though women’s voices are included in the media, they are not always portrayed in helpful ways that create change, the conversation around toxic masculinity, or amplify women’s voices (GMMP).

Analysis

The media is very powerful in society. Through the media, the Me Too movement has changed how society viewed toxic masculinity by making it, “clear that sexualized violence is political and public . . . It admits that sexualized violence can be changed” (Stienmen). By amplifying women’s issues in the media, society admits that there is a problem, which is most important in beginning to create change. When amplifying women’s voices, the media needs to make sure women--and specifically survivors--are being represented in media coverage and bylines because the best way to create change on an issue is to make sure that the population being affected is the one that has the voice and the power in the movement. “One of the most effective ways to bring about social change is direct involvement with communities facing oppression and injustices,” because the communities that are most affected by toxic masculinity and rape culture are the ones that know what positive change is needed to change society and make their lives better (The role of privileged allies). The media can be a powerful tool in fighting toxic masculinity in America when it amplifies women’s voices.

Works Cited

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