By Kaitlyn Vannucci
We can all agree that there is underrepresentation in the media when it is brought to our attention, but do we ever take it into consideration while we are actually consuming the media we do? I think that many people don’t take this into consideration, because there are still many gender norms and stereotypes in the media that people think are normal. By normal, I mean that people are so used to how people portray themselves, or how people are told to portray themselves in the media and those portrayals are thought to represent all individuals of a certain minority.
I decided to interview my best friend Julianna on what her thoughts are on this topic and if she acknowledges the lack of representation and stereotypes of minorities in the media she consumes.
I called her on the phone mid-afternoon, said our hellos, and told her about the topic I wanted to interview her on. I chose to talk with her because she is very well-spoken in my opinion. She is not afraid to talk about things that she does not agree with or things that she thinks are wrong.
The Interview
“So, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when I say the phrase, ‘underrepresentation in the media?” I started.
“People of color,” she responded. While I agree with her, I wanted to lean my interview more on the topic of gender minorities and stereotypes, so I mixed that in.
“And how do you feel about gender minorities?” I asked.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Do you believe that women are more underrepresented than men? Or are there specific gender norms that women usually play?” I clarified for her.
“I think it’s not necessarily one more than the other, just because in the media there’s so many different roles that people and influencers can play, and I think it can fit both genders. But there’s obviously bias according to what the topic is,” she answered.
“Can you give me an example of what you think? What would be a gender bias on women?”
“I was going to talk about ads and stuff… what ads to guys do more than girls?” she thought.
“Shaving commercials,” I immediately responded.
At this moment I definitely knew that my mind was so used to the gender norm that guys do the manly things, like shaving their facial hair or outside construction work. It was easy for me to come up with a gendered idea, and it supported our topic of gender stereotypes in the media.
And as for the girl in the picture, there is a statement on this ad saying, “Girl not included.” This is an example of sexualizing males and females in advertisements especially by saying a wet girl in the shower could or could not be helping a man shave.
“Oh yeah. Also all the guy influencers or YouTubers are always getting brand deals for gyms or protein powders or stuff like that. It’s very rare that you see a woman getting anything that has to do with extracurricular fitness,” she stated.
“Exactly that’s true. And they’re more like the makeup and the girly type things–” I added.
“And the clothes and stuff like that,” Julianna finished.
In class we talked about gendered advertising, and how we are immune to realizing that certain advertisements are catered towards one gender or the other.
Makeup gurus and fitness trainers on YouTube are generally women. Also from fitness videos I’ve followed, the trainers usually refer to their viewers as females. They say, “you’ve got this ladies!” or, “Send this to your friend! You know she’ll wanna do this workout!” They also get the brand deals that include makeup that’s more flawless, or the new Lululemon leggings that will make their behind look better.
However, the line has been increasingly more blurred as the commonality of male makeup gurus has emerged.
Most male YouTubers are the more comedic ones, or the manlier side of fitness. Some advertisements I’ve seen them use are for more general brands, such as concert ticket deals or new protein powder.
Still, advertisements can be very gendered, yet I think many of us are so used to hearing them come from specific genders that we don’t think much of it.
“Okay, so tell me what kinds of shows you like to watch and what kinds of videos on YouTube you like to watch,” I started a new conversation.
“I really like to watch influencers that vlog on YouTube and family lifestyles (family channels basically). And then I’m really into a lot of documentaries and shows like The Voice, All American, yeah,” she responded.
“So, how much diversity do you think is in these shows and the other media you consume? And you can totally be honest,” I reminded her.
“I think on YouTube there’s a lot more diversity than the average person would think. Because that’s more of an outlet where everybody can be heard. In more reality shows, the diversity starts to lower because there’s not much.”
“Yeah I agree. I know that we’ve talked about wanting to watch All American because I know you watch it, but is that a reality or is that a fiction?” I asked.
I wanted to talk about this because I know she loves this show so I wanted to dive deeper into the topic to see if it would relate. I don’t know much about this show because I haven’t watched it yet but I wanted to get her take.
“Here let me see what it says on Netflix. It’s basically about this young guy, he’s African American, and he moves schools with his family. I don’t know what it’s under but I would kind of say like life/reality I guess. And it’s based on a true story I think” Julianna explained to me.
“So since this is the premise of my interview, how would you say women are also portrayed in that show?”
“I mean women aren’t necessarily the primary focus, but when a woman is involved it’s drama,” she answered.
This shows that one stereotype with women is that they are supposed to be the dramatic ones, the ones who bring that emotional sense to the media.
In our gendered media notes from class, we talked about how genders in the media can be extreme. Men are the action, women are the chick flicks. After researching more about the show, I found that the men in All American were always shown playing football and being strong, and the women had different interests such as love.
Julianna and I then talked for a bit about the show and how I need to start it, and how she was super excited since the second season just came out on Netflix. Soon after we got back into the interview.
“Okay, so do you think that these people in the media you consume are similar to you and/or have similar ideas to you?” I started back up again.
“The majority.”
“So why do you think that is? Why do you think that you lean more towards consuming media that is like you?”
“I think because if they relate to what you believe in and the lifestyle you live, you’re more eager to watch them and see how they’ve succeeded, rather than someone who is polar opposite than you. I don’t think you’d really care,” she stated.
Why is it that we as an audience gravitate towards media that has similar ideas to us? I believe it’s to have a sense of familiarity and being able to empathize with the media.
However, being able to broaden our knowledge of other representations in the media can also broaden our thoughts about what the actual “normal” of media representation is.
After this, I dove back into the stereotype topic. “Yeah. I know I’ve already talked about this but I just want to ask this specific question: In the stuff that you watch, what are some specific stereotypes that you can think of? I know women are usually the more dramatic stuff. And even on YouTube, what kinds of stereotypes?”
Julianna immediately said, “One of the YouTubers I watch, she’s always the one cleaning and cooking and so I think that’s obviously an old-fashion stereotype that the woman does all the housework. And that’s just one of the biggest ones in one of the families I watch.”
I looked at some of the questions from a video that our class watched called The Illusionists, which is about how the media is very gendered and stereotypical, and used them in my interview.
“Why do you think the media wants to resist going against gender stereotypes?”
“I want to believe it’s just because that’s the norm, and that seems too basic and broad, but I think it’s just what everyone is used to and so if people were to switch it up, no one is happy either way. So if they keep things the way they are, the people that are happy are happy. And that way if it doesn’t get reversed then no one’s happy,” Julianna answered.
“I know, and that’s why sometimes people want to produce movies that are an all-white cast because they think people will like that,” I added.
“Yes because that’s what makes people happy, but in the end there will always be people that are mad,” she bounced back.
“Because if they produce an all African American cast, a lot of people of that color will be happy because it’s representing them. And then a lot of people other races will be happy because there’s more representation, but then the movie might not get as many reviews or watches because people will be like, ‘oh that’s not like me so I don’t want to watch that,’” I explained.
“Yes, and like I said you watch what you relate to or what you’re interested in,” she answered.
“So going off of that, how do you think people have become desensitized to gender and racial norms and misrepresentation in the media? Because if a movie with a whole white cast comes out, we don’t think, oh that’s bad,” I asked.
“I think it’s because that’s what they’re brought up on. So if they think that’s okay then they’re going to continue to think that. A lot of people are brought up on having that mentality that having an all white cast in a Hollywood film is alright. So I think a lot of people get used to that so no one thinks of that as they’re offending other people because that’s all they’re used to,” she ended.
While in this conversation we started talking more about races and how they’re portrayed, it still applies to that if there is a movie all about women then it might not get as much feedback as a movie with strong male characters.
We both agreed that having more representation in the media could change people’s mentality that an all-white cast or a male-lead cast shouldn’t be the norm every time. The people who are mad at these stereotypical casts are the ones who are being underrepresented or misrepresented.
I decided to finish my interview with a one lasting question.
“Okay, my last question is what are some ways you could be more observant of when you’re consuming media, or how other people could be more observant, and acknowledging that there are specific minorities in the media that have specific stereotypes? How do you think you and others could become more observant of that or change the way that you all consume media? We talked about this in class, but if you look at your Netflix reel of shows you watch, you can kinda see-”
“What you’re into and what you gravitate towards,” she finished my sentence.
“Yeah and you don’t really realize this, but let’s say I watch a lot of dramatic rom-com type shows and movies, all the pictures of my Netflix shows show a very romantic dramatic picture. But let’s say I’m into more adventurous stuff, that same show could show a more adventurous picture of that show,” I explained to her that of which I learned in class.
“So how do you think you could be more observant of what you consume?” I finished.
“This sounds kind of basic but I don’t know how else to say it, I think paying attention to the kind of outlet you’re watching. Like if you’re watching eight thousand reality TV shows, majority of the time they’re going to be white women or a white family, or they’re going to be really wealthy. So I think if you just pay attention to the genre you’re watching, I think that could help in wanting to watch things that have more diversity in them.”
“Yeah, and another thing that I even realized is a lot of the influencers I follow on Instagram are white, well-off women. So I also need to acknowledge the type of people, representations, and stereotypes that I see everyday and broaden the diversity of what I see, because I never really even realized that,” I concluded.
“Yeah I agree,” Julianna responded.
After this conversation I told her that was all I had for her and that I really appreciated her allowing me to interview her on this topic. I felt like she had very good responses and agreed that there is a lot of underrepresentation, misrepresentation, and stereotypes in the media that we consume everyday.
I wanted to do a follow-up and say that I have watched All American, and I’m glad now that I have a grasp on more of what the show is about. Misrepresentation is a big problem, but much of the media is still trying to overcome that.
Yes, the show is about football and teen-angst, but it shows the trials and tribulations of being an African-American male in a predominantly African-American city, full of gangs and violence, moving to the more lavish lifestyle that is Beverly Hills.
While the show deals with lots of tackling racism, there is more to the gendered media of the show that is strong males and dramatic females. The male characters show emotions such as crying and breaking down, and the female characters show how to also be strong and independent in times of struggle.
One of the main characters, Olivia Baker, creates a podcast that is all about how to live in a world of racism and stereotypes. She comes from a mixed-race household with an African-American father and a white mother, lives in Beverly Hills, and isn’t always exposed to racism. She is a recovering addict, but when she is the victim of being profiled as a current drug-addict African-American, she created a podcast of how to overcome those types of obstacles and how to break out of her sheltered bubble in Beverly Hills.
Another main character, Tamia Cooper, or “Coop,” is an African-American gay women, who deals with lots of criticism. However, her character shows her as a strong woman who does not take anything from anyone.
These were perfect examples of what we also talked about in class, and how different genders can challenge the norm of gendered stereotypes.
This interview and these examples support the argument that much of the media today still has many gendered stereotypes, but many people like to challenge those stereotypes too. I think that everyone can help make a change in the way we consume media. If we all added diversity into what we consume, that can change the norm of everyone wanting what they are used to. One day we can make it so that the new norm is ALL minorities being represented equally.