Woman, the forever victim in sexist stereotype

Credits: Guardian

Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge as mentioned in the previous post where images of her being topless was published by some French magazines further ignites another issue with the publication industry.

This time, it is regarding sexist stereotype of female on the front cover of the publication. In the West especially French, images of females often won the position in the front cover of the publication. According to Hill (2012), "the Duchess of Cambridge and her sister Pippa Middleton were two of the women most likely to be pictured on newspaper front pages".

 

Credits: Guardian

In my opinion, they were highly published on the front cover as they are well known icons in the country where everyone; in fact the whole world knows them, better than any entertainment industry celebrity where some readers may not know them at all. However, they are not being well positioned when appear on the front cover. Most of the publications only published them on the front cover for certain issues which puts their position down.

 The reason behind these articles are due to the presence of male writers and auditors being the majority of workers in the media industry. A research was carried out by the industry body Woman in Journalism (WIJ), "study reveals 78% of front-page articles are written by men, and 84% of those quoted or mentioned are male" (cited in Hill 2012). When the articles are written by male, they are likely to choose female as a topic of focus especially to entice the curious public to read it.

A cure to the problem:

Anti-Sexism Training

Now, the French government is trying to remove this bad image from them by sending government cabinet for Anti-Sexism Training. The Anti-Sexism Training will cover "a 45 minutes gender equality sensitization session where they will be trained to identify sexism in daily life and taught how to avoid sexist stereotypes in political communication" (Ayrault cited in Adamson 2012).

This type of training session is good as it reinforced the image and importance of gender equality in a developed society. As the members of the cabinet are often being watched by its citizens, they will need to play a good role for others to follow. This step also shows that the French government is looking seriously into the gender issues which will tarnish the country's reputation if left uncared.

"Subjective construction of gender in the media" seminar

In Argentina, a university had proposed a plan to organize a 6 months seminar in learning the course of 'non-sexist communication'. This course, which is proposed by Argentina's National University of Entre Rio's School of Communication, will "include topics such as communication, gender and subjectivity, the importance of non-sexist language in the media, and gender violence and the media" (ENINEWS 2012).

Such course is good to be implemented as the journey of becoming a journalist starts from  tertiary education. When students are being taught to be non-sexist throughout their course in the university, they will be less prone to do such mistake of stirring up gender issues when they work for any publication in future. This is because such action is opposed to what is being taught to them that they may find it unacceptable to do so. As many people said, we need to nurture our future leaders way back from the root itself. Implementing rules to stop them halfway through their action is that difficult.

Sexism in Asia

 

While here in Asia, the sexism problem is under control where the government is playing its role in controlling publications which will stir up a sexism issue. 

Credits: MediaEthics.org

In Sri Lankan, one of its local newspaper had to apologize to the public for publishing a cartoon which portray a stereotype in gender equalities. According to Smith (2012), "Lakbima News apologized on Sept. 16 for a Sept. 9 cartoon that was slammed as unacceptable [which] depicted the Indian Prime Minister underneath an uplifted sari of the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and looking up".

Credits: Groundviews.org

The cartoon published by Lakbima News

The cartoon received much criticism from its citizens after it was published. As we from the Asia are more conservative in nature, these type of images are unacceptable in our society compared to the West. Therefore, there is more tendency for the publisher to apologize to the public for its actions than in the West because it might lose support from its readers if no action is taken by the company. Also, the government is more strict in taking action against such cases which will cause an uproar in the community.

Compared to the West, some of the citizens especially male will accept such publications but not here in Asia. Such cases has occurred since long ago and due to no actions taken by the authorities against these publications, those publications company take such publications as a normal thing which they need to publish to get their sales.

Therefore, rules and regulations of content of publications in the West should be strictly enforced by the authorities. The authorities need to take immediate action against any publications which publish materials or images which shows sexism stereotype without further delay.


At the end of the day, have our journalists remember the ethics which they have to follow?

Credits: Sublimal

Reference:

Adamson, T 2012, French government gets anti-sexism lessons, CBS News Online, viewed 2 November 2012, <http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57542815/french-government-gets-anti-sexism-lessons/>. 

ENINEWS 2012, WACC Welcomes Study of Non-Sexist Communication, WACC, viewed 3 November 2012, <http://www.anglicanjournal.com/nc/other/news-items/article/wacc-welcomes-study-of-non-sexist-communication-11120.html>. 

Hill, A 2012, Sexist Stereotypes dominate front pages of British newspapers, research finds, Guardian, viewed 2 November 2012, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/14/sexist-stereotypes-front-pages-newspapers>.

Smith, S 2012, Sri Lankan Newspaper Apologizes for Sexist Cartoon after Complaint, Daily Media Picks, viewed 3 November 2012, <http://www.imediaethics.org/News/3426/Sri_lankan_newspaper_apologizes_for_sexist_cartoon_after_complaints_.php>.

# Warning: The description in this blog may contained information which may not applicable to all users. The owner of the blog is not responsible for any loss cause by any misinterpretation of the content posted.