Men are supposed to lead and women are supposed to be submissive and follow orders. Women are supposed to be pretty, sexually appealing, and to be looked at. Men do not cook, sew, or do any arts or crafts. Being a secretary, nurse, or teacher is a woman’s job and is too feminine for a man to do. Women are responsible for cooking, housework, and raising kids. Men are supposed to be physically strong and shouldn’t show any emotional vulnerability. These are just some of the many gender stereotypes that have globally evolved since time and have sunk deeply into the way our society functions. Gender stereotypes are not something that we are born with; they are something that we develop based on what society teaches us. Growing up in communities flooded with stereotypes, we have become accustomed to them and have reached a point where the majority of us don’t even see anything wrong with them. Even those who are negatively impacted by these absurd gender stereotypes find ways to change themselves according to these social classifications, and those who don’t change are seen as outsiders. A huge promoter of these stereotypes especially in children and teenagers are magazines and advertisements. The sexual aspects, beauty standards, and dreamy body images that they display of both men and women to promote their products turn into role models for young minds which eventually leads them to think that this is what they should look like and this is what they should aspire to be. In the day and age of photo editing, pretty much all photos of models, male or female, go through editing. For example, male models are made to look more muscular, are heightened, are given even and flawless skin tones, and are often made to look as if they are in charge.
On the other hand, for female models, the thighs and waists are made thinner, their sexual aspects are enhanced, they are made to look more sexually vulnerable, and they are overall made to be the perfect ‘eye candy’ for the audience to look at. This in turn makes it unhealthy for the teens and youth that see these ads and magazine covers, as the body images and intense beauty that they crave and work to achieve may be unrealistic and may be even unachievable. This can leave them in a state of depression and self-hatred. According to statistics, 43% of girls in just grades 1-3, an age group at which no child should be self-conscious about their body, said that they want to be thinner. To achieve the body image they desire, 30% of high-school girls and 16% of high-school boys have an eating disorder as they are afraid of gaining weight and straying away from the body image they want. Not only do many of these magazines and ads display these stereotypical pictures, but many of them also send gender stereotypical messages such as in Dolce and Gabbana’s ad for their jeans.
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The image is of a muscular, half-naked man with jeans on, who is on top of and holding down a sexualized and vulnerable woman in a black dress who is surrounded by similar-looking men. This image in my view does a poor job of selling the jeans but does a great job of sending out the gender stereotype that men are superior and stronger than women. Although many children and teens may not see this stereotype in the ad, that message that the man is stronger than the woman will remain in their heads, and with other ads constantly bombarding them with these other stereotypical messages and influences, these thoughts will evolve in their brains and will eventually become the way they think daily. Gender stereotypes not only affect the way that youth and teens think and behave but also play a huge hand in determining their career paths. According to our traditional classifications of male and female jobs, careers in medicine, nursing, and teaching were seen as feminine, and jobs in science, engineering, and construction were seen as masculine. Though people have changed their thinking and now we see more men in careers such as doctors and teachers, but there are still very few women and girls in areas such as computer science, engineering, and mathematics.
It is statistically proven that there is a huge gender gap in careers in the Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) field which at the time is male-dominated. To empower girls to break the gender stereotype barrier and pursue careers in the STEM fields, there are communities such as the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology (SCWIST) (www.scwist.ca.). To provoke change in our gender-stereotypical society, we must educate each other and our children and act against any open display of gender stereotypes. The question here is not why or how these stereotypes were made, but how can we cleanse our society from them. If you come across any advertisement, poster, or any sort of media that reeks of gender stereotypical messages, be sure to communicate with that company and let them know about what you feel in regards to it and how they can improve their mode of media to be more acceptable. We as consumers have the power to choose what succeeds and what doesn’t, so if you see a specific company that is sending out gender stereotypical messages even after complaints, you can and should boycott their products and encourage others to do so as well to get your message across. The time has come to leave behind these old-fashioned gender stereotypes and to rise above them. To let everyone be free from gender barriers, for being a male or female defines our gender, but our gender doesn't define who we are as people, so it shouldn't limit us from reaching our full potential as individuals.
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