Women in the media

The Courier Mail, a woman’s best frenemey.


How are the media representing modern women? By Kathryn Adams



Monday:
Page 9 - Barbie Parade has clichéd blonde gaffe (Courier Mail, 2009)


Wednesday:
Front Page - Many Aussie women lack manners and are 'foul-mouthed and loud' (Wallace 2009)


Thursday:
Sweet 16? Wild Child Cassi’s older man. (Mc Whirter, 2009)


Courier Mail website:
Top Model Finalist shock outburst. (Wednesday). (Mc Whirter, 2009)



Who can forget the headlines that arose after Carrie Prejean, a Miss USA Pageant contestant, responded to a question about gay marriages? The headlines were not directed at the fact that she had made the comment and what was wrong with the content of the comment, they were directed more so at the colour of her hair.


Women are subjected to representations daily through all forms of media, be it billboards with near naked women advertising beer, as explained in Sophie Abernethy’s blog A Blonde Mistake, or articles in the paper representing women as particular characteristics.


Could I find an article this week in the courier mail detailing the success of a woman rather than the controversy leading up to her success? No. Perhaps because it is not ‘newsworthy’. But when does newsworthy become more important than the representations of a particular group.


Kimberlee Eason made reference in her blog about the changing trend in the media and that celebrity gossip and in this case discriminatory views on women constitute headline news. Gone are the days were women were seen as submissive, stay at home mothers who spent their days in the kitchen and in come the days where women are as represented as rude and aggressive.


Stereotyping is the key element in representation. As Kate Bowles wrote stereotyping is ‘replacing the particular with the general, by misrepresenting the general as an imaginary particular’ (2006, 70). The Courier Mail is side lining the success of women, stereotyping them as ‘blonde’ and aggressive.


Kate Bowles explained that representation has a relationship with reality (2006, 64). However what reality is involved in representing women as rude, evil and feisty? Perhaps most women possess these qualities but so do men and to what extent do these qualities take precedence over the success of a woman. Defining reality depends on elements such as gender, age and racial background but in the above articles no emphasis is placed on age and race. The selected articles depict ‘reality’ in relation to gender solely.


Representations are used in an aim to communicate with audiences and are not entropic (Bowles, 2006, 68). So who is the Courier Mail communicating with? I know that readers of the Courier Mail are not solely males as I, a woman, often enjoy flicking through the pages of the paper.


As Andrew Beck writes, “Representations are extremely powerful in society” and although the representation of women in the media has changed, women are still given dishonourable representations. Reading an article with aspects of controversy has become more interesting that reading one without, evident by the articles in the Courier Mail over the last week. There is no focus on Prejean or the Australia’s Next Top Model finalist getting to that level in the competition. The focus is on their ‘not so attractive’ personal characteristics.


Media professionals are continually being selective in their material to represent people and events in relation to one or two characteristics (Andrew Beck, 2009). As they saying goes ‘you can not judge a book by its cover,’ so surely you can not judge a person by one aspect of their character.The representations of women are changing daily by the media, especially the Courier Mail.


Courier Mail.. Why don’t your headlines read like this….


Monday:
Miss USA Contestant – how she made it this far.


Wednesday:
Real women achieving real success.


Thursday:
Model makes the runway at 16.




Reference List:
Bowles, K. 2006. Representation. In The Media and Communications in Australia, ed. S. Cunningham and G. Turner, 64-77. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin.
Mc Whirter, E. 2009. Wild child Cassi’s older man. Courier Mail. April 23.
Wallace, I, 2009. Many Aussie women lack manners and are 'foul-mouthed and loud'. Courier Mail. April 22.
Mc Whirter, E. 2009. Top Model Finalist shock outburst. Courier Mail. April 22.