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ACADEMIC | The Oversexualisation, Stereotypical Perpetuations, Harassment and Underrepresentation of Women in Media

The media and consumption of entertainment has been biased since its conception. Media refers to collective communication outlets that are tasked with the responsibility of storing and delivering information and women's role in media revolves around the four axes of media. The axes are media freedom, media pluralism, media independence and media safety. Whilst it may be true that women do not face the same safety risks as men in media, they still are open to the experiences of gender inequalities, safety issues and under-representation (UNESCO, 2018). 


According to Lanza (2017) a 2014 global survey of nearly 1,000 journalists, initiated by the International News Safety Institute in collaboration with the International Women's Media Foundation supported by UNESCO, found that nearly two-thirds of women who took part in the survey had experienced intimidation, threats or abuse in the workplace. In the period from 2012 through 2016, UNESCO's Director-General denounced the killing of 38 women journalists, representing 7% of all journalists killed (UNESCO, 2012). Lanza (2017) also depicts how the percentage of female journalists killed is lower than their overall representation in the media workforce. Lanza (2017) goes on to describe how this large gender gap is likely partly the result of the persistent under-representation of women reporting from war-zones, insurgencies or on topics such as politics and crime. In 2016, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers adopted recommendation CM/Rec(2016)4 on the protection of journalism and safety of journalists and other media actors, in particular noting the gender-specific threats that many journalists face and calling for urgent, resolute and systemic responses (Council Of Europe, 2016). In the same year, the IPDC council requested the UNESCO Director-General's report to include gender information. 


In regards to online harassment of female journalists, according to Duggan, et al (2014) research conducted by the Pew Research Centre stipulated that 73% of internet users in the US had seen some form of online harassment and 40% had fallen victim to online harassment. The research also indicated that young women are particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment and stalking. Further research conducted by think tank Demos analysed over two million tweets and found that female journalists were 3 times more likely to receive abuse on the platform than their male counterparts. Additionally, as told by Gardiner, et al, 2016 The Guardian observed 70 million comments posted on their website between 15 years (before 2006, only 22,000 were recorded) and of the comments, 1.4 million were blocked for exhibiting abusive or disruptive behaviour. 8 out of ten of the staff journalists who received the most online abuse were women. The survey conducted by INSI and IWMF highlighted that over 25% of all verbal, written and/ or physical intimidation aimed at family and friends took place online. There are limited legislative and policy frameworks to counteract online abuse both on a national and international level. However, the International Federation of Journalists and South Asia Media Solidarity Network have launched their Byte Back campaign which aims to combat the online harassment of women in the Asia- Pacific Region. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) organized an expert meeting titled ‘New Challenges to Freedom of Expression: Countering Online Abuse of Female Journalists’ which produced a publication of the same title that includes the voices of journalists and academics on the realities of online abuse of women journalists and how it can be combated.


Suebsaeng and Liebelson (2012) suggest that according to a report published by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media 28.5% of females in family friendly film wear attire that would be considered inappropriate for the genre or classed as “sexy” in contrast to only 8% of males who wear clothing matching the same description. The impact of this is that young children will become conditioned to believe that women regularly dress in clothing considered sexy. Furthermore, 37.5% of females in primetime shows have an objectively thin physique compared to 13.6% of men who would be considered thin which could be harmful in projecting the rhetoric that in order to be successful in the media women are required to be thin. The report also details how 31.5% of women in primetime comedies have a speaking role with men taking up the remaining 68.5% which is reinforcement of the misogynistic idea that women's voices are not as valuable as men's voices. Only 22% of sitcoms have a gender balanced cast. There is a 2.25 to 1 male to female ratio in children's TV shows which does not represent real world population statistics. 73.5% of family films have a male narrator and 45.3% of black characters in prime time shows are female with males making up 54.7%. These figures indicate that there still is strong gender inequalities amongst all genres of media. Globally, women are far less likely to be seen in the media. Only a quarter of television, radio and print news has a female at the centre. A report conducted by Macharia (2025) indicated that women only made up 19% of experts featured in news stories and 37% of reporters telling stories globally were female. Scientific evidence has analysed and deduced that the consistent underrepresentation of women in media is harmful and enables the perpetuation and reinforcement of harmful gender stereotypes.


Whilst it is the case that over the decades media has changed and adapted to try and accurately represent cultural and sociological advancements in society it is also true that female stereotypes exist in some media formats. The male perception of women, known as the male gaze often dictates how women are portrayed in the media. Many representations of women are often concentrated on sexuality and emotions or have a deep focus on the woman's relationship with her children or romantic relationships. Whilst these representations prevail, in recent years the media has seen an influx of female characters that challenge and subvert these social constructions. These portrayals highlight a more realistic view of women as being active, not passive and being their own heroes and not a males victim in need of saving.


Overall, women in media are disproportionately mistreated, from fear of online harassment, threats to friends and family too. It would be fair to suggest that men also face scrutiny and biases within the media but not on the same heightened level as women. The stereotypes that the media perpetuates feed into later life and govern societies interpretations of what a woman should be. Media is a force of power and society must make further changes to ensure that media biases are eradicated. 







References 


UNESCO, 2018, World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development Global Report 2017/2018. Available at  http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0026/002610/261065e.pdf [accessed 19/06/2020]


Lanza, Edison. 2017. Silenced Zones: Highly Dangerous Areas for the Exercise of Freedom of Expression. Office for the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Available at http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/expression/docs/publications/ZONAS_SILENCIADAS_ENG.pdf [accessed 19/06/2020]


UNESCO, 2012, UNESCO Condemns Killing of Journalists, available at  https://en.unesco.org/unesco-condemns-killing-of-journalists [accessed 19/06/2020] 


Council of Europe. 2016. Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the protection of journalism and safety of journalists and other media actors. CM/REC(2016)4. Available at https://search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectId=09000016806415d9 [accessed 19/06/2020]


Duggan, M., Rainie, L., Smith, A., Funk, C., Lenhart, A., and Madden,M., 2014. Online Harassment. Pew Research Center. Available at http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/10/22/onlineharassment/ [accessed 19/06/2020]


Gardiner, B., Mansfield, M., Anderson, I., Holder, J., Louter, D., and Ulmanu, M., 2016. The darkside of Guardian comments. The Guardian. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/ap/12/the-darkside- of-guardian-comments. [accessed 19/06/2020]


Suebsaeng, A., and Liebelson (2012), 7 Ways Women and Girls Are Stereotyped, Sexualised and Underrepresented On Screen, Available at https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/11/geena-davis-institute-women-girls-are-stereotyped-sexualized-hollywood/ [accessed 19/06/2020]


Macharia, S., 2015. Who Makes the News? Global Media Monitoring Project 2015. London, Toronto: World Association for Christian Communication (WACC). Available at http://cdn.agilitycms. com/who-makes-the-news/Imported/ reports_2015/global/gmmp_global_ report_en.pdf [accessed 19/06/2020]

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