Liberal Feminist Perspective on Mass Media

This article discusses the liberal feminist perspective on mass media and its role in shaping gender inequality. It explores the representation of feminism in media and the beliefs of liberal feminists. The article also examines the potential for media to change stereotypical femininity.

Running head: LIBERAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON MASS MEDIA
LIBERAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON MASS MEDIA
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1LIBERAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON MASS MEDIA
One of the priorities of the contemporary democratic states is building an egalitarian
society. Mass media has been playing a vital role in democratic state by providing information
and shaping individual’s perception. It is not a new phenomenon that people rely on mass media
for information in regard to the world news and entertainment. It is through the content portrayed
by media that makes the population shape their perspective about certain subject. Since mass
media shapes the society it is important for media to provide appropriate and correct information
along with providing necessary information that can help in the betterment of the society.
According to most feminist, mass media is largely responsible for the existing gender inequality
in the society. Through the representation of gender roles, a generalized concept of gender roles
has been constructed leading to inequality. It is certainly a popular topic of debate that involves
liberal feminists’ perception of mass media. In the same discourse, the paper aims to discuss the
liberal feminist perspective on mass media (Banet-Weiser & Portwood-Stacer, 2006). The paper
will discuss the ways mass media represents feminism and the believes of liberal feminists in
regard to the representation of the feminism by media. The paper will also discuss the about the
roles that could be the role of media in changing the perspective on stereotypical femininity.
Mass media plays an import and unique contribution in shaping the society as discussed
before. The representation of feminism has been accused of stereotyping by the feminists. There
are a number of international conferences who have raised their voice against it. Several
conventions have noted the same in the media industry in regard to breaking the public
stereotype through change in the media policy. However, the change has not been observed and
media continue to reproduce discriminatory content in regard to women (Janus, 1977). Women
are generally represented in sexist manner that have the tendency to make them look as weaker
section of the society. In media, women are portrayed in a narrow range of character which

2LIBERAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON MASS MEDIA
represents the significance of the women role in society. if mass media is divided into two
categories, news reporting and fictional, it is certain to find them in limited roles. While in the
fictional category women are only represented in association with household and sex –objects
the news reporting category represents lack of roles (Crenshaw, 2018).
There is only limited number of programs or contents that shows women as the prime
character or expert in it. One of the major reasons that can be considered to be the cause of the
circumstance is the lesser number of women in these spheres. Since for years women have been
considered the maintainer of the house oriented work, their participation in the economic work
began much later. This led to the lesser number of women in the media industry. Also, in
addition to it women are underrepresented compared to their male counterpart, they are faced
with larger challenges and given less recognition. In advertising and magazines, women are
commonly represented as slim, young and beautiful. These parameters are used to define and
their worth through mass media. It has led to generalized accepted standards that are now widely
used to represent women in society. Women with this specific standard are used in advertising
and media content as sex objects (Gerding & Signorielli, 2014).
It is important to question the reasons social scientists attribute significance to study of
images and stereotypes in media of women. It is essential to understand and represent to the
society that neither femininity nor masculinity are biological, rather they are constructed socially
and culturally. The concept of femininity and masculinity has been constructed by various social
institutions such as education, family, and the public and to the greater extent the media.
Considering this specific aspect, the long term changes have been observed in women’s image in
media. There can be changes in the portrayal of women in media if this is paid attention. There

3LIBERAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON MASS MEDIA
is a possibility of eliminating the stereotype and changing the perception of the women face in
society.
In order to understand the perspective of liberal feminist in regard to the women image
portrayed by media, it is important to understand the goals of liberal feminists and their
movements. Liberal feminism is considered as an individualistic form of feminist theory. It has
also been stated that liberal feminism is the kind of liberalism that is focused on gender issues.
According to liberal feminists society holds the wrong concept in regard to women since they are
considered less intellectually and physically capable than men. Therefore, it has the tendency of
discriminating against women in the academy, the marketplace and the forum. Also, liberal
feminists believe that ‘female subordinate is in some way enrooted in set legal and customary
constraints that creates obstacles for women towards success in society. Liberal feminists strive
for sexual equality through legal and political reform (Dillabough & Arnot, 2014).
The above assumptions of liberal feminists’ position offer the theory that sexism may
have eradicated within the current economic system. Also, since sexism is caused due to male
supremacy and inappropriate strategies, the concept requires to be eliminated. The prime
exception to these common assumptions is therefore; put forward socialist or Marxist feminism.
Liberal feminism poses the issue as one of the male against women based on their sex.
According to them this is human universal hence, they tend no question the historical or origins
specifically of male-female roles in other societies. In this conflict and constant struggle between
two genders, mass media in the society are seen as perpetuating their own domination over the
female gender through transmission of sexist content. The mass media represent women as sex
objects and housewives. The liberal feminist believes it is only for the fact that it is a male
dominated industry and contents are under the control of men who portray women in such roles.

4LIBERAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON MASS MEDIA
The mass media is represent women in such roles as the men who make the contents such as
film, news, ads would like to see women in these kinds of roles. Liberal feminists’ research has
certainly concluded that men and women of mass media content are unequal. The contents of
media treat men and women unequally in terms of the way they portray them. However, the
content and form of that demonstration is someway interpreted and explained just by the
population for the gender roles have been accepted in a certain way. The theoretical perspective
of the issue has an explanation of the issue (King, 2016). For an example, media has recognized
that the objectification of women’s sexuality can been used for economic profit to advertisers
and industries. However they will not admit that its major purpose is to uphold the most
fundamental division in society which is majorly based on sex. The liberal feminists have the
perception that the main function of media stereotyping women is not to sell goods but to impose
an ideology that is of the sexual and economic subordination of women to men. The most
essential social division according to liberal feminist is between women and men.
Liberal feminist media research has managed to achieve several factors through their
research of media bias between two genders. The research by the liberal feminists demonstrates
evidences that certainly prove that media contents are dominated by male to a great extent. As a
mechanism, the media function for the transmission of sexual attitudes and norms. However to
describe the world only as sexist is not adequate. The mechanism is through which social
relationships are managed certainly not required to be confused with the underlying factors that
encourages such social relationships. It is a significant factor to note that 80 per cent of media
characters are male or that it is only half of the female participants of the media are married
however, it is a matter of investigation (Shor et al., 2014).

5LIBERAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON MASS MEDIA
There have been some of the interesting changes in the last decades in regard to the
changing image of women in the media. As per most of the studies, it has been observed that the
content at one point gives a static view of the problem. In the previous decades, there have been
some of the exceptional changes in some sectors of mass media. Considering the current image
of the way media portrays women it can be stated that media is changing its approaches. The
number of prime-time television shows with women shows with women has increased where the
lead role or character is a woman. Women are given roles apart from the typical roles that were
given before such as sex objects and household. There are number of roles that are given to
women including some of the most appreciable jobs such as policemen, lawyer and many more
(Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015).
However there is a need for much other improvement in this sector of media. In order to
eliminate gender inequality from mass media, there is need of more television shows which may
be with or without women as central character. The shows should ensure the touch on the subject
of women’s role in society. Even if the TV show or the program is not focused on the women’s
issue it should be cautious of not portraying women in any inappropriate roles. Also, for children
shows there should be shows which would help children get the perception of gender in an equal
way. There should be new public service television programs which would helps the audience
build an equal perception of the gender and gender roles. The stereotype should be broken down
by showing television shows that are exclusive of socially constructed misconception. In
advertising, the changes should be observed when there is more participation of women and not
simply using them as sex objects but having variety of professional careers (Tiggemann &
Zaccardo, 2015).

6LIBERAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON MASS MEDIA
It is also important to recruit females in the media industry in order to create the content
and other job roles. The employment in the media industry must have equal population
consisting both the genders. Through this way media can play important role in breaking the
stereotypes.
As discussed above, one of the priorities of the contemporary democratic states is
building an egalitarian society. Mass media has been playing a vital role in democratic state by
providing information and shaping individual’s perception. It is not a new phenomenon that
people rely on mass media for information in regard to the world news and entertainment. Mass
media plays an import and unique contribution in shaping the society as discussed before. The
representation of feminism has been accused of stereotyping by the feminists. There are a
number of international conferences who have raised their voice against it. There is only limited
number of programs or contents that shows women as the prime character or expert in it. One of
the major reasons that can be considered to be the cause of the circumstance is the lesser number
of women in these sphere. Since for years women have been considered the maintainer of the
house oriented work, their participation in the economic work began much later. There have been
some of the interesting changes in the last decades in regard to the changing image of women in
the media. As per most of the studies, it has been observed that the content at one point gives a
static view of the problem.

7LIBERAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON MASS MEDIA
References:
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Crenshaw, K. (2018). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique
of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics [1989]. In Feminist
legal theory (pp. 57-80). Routledge.
Dillabough, J. A., & Arnot, M. (2014). Feminist political frameworks: New approaches to the
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Routledge.
Gerding, A., & Signorielli, N. (2014). Gender roles in tween television programming: A content
analysis of two genres. Sex Roles, 70(1-2), 43-56.
Janus, N. Z. (1977). Research on sex-roles in the mass media: Toward a critical
approach. Insurgent Sociologist, 7(3), 19-31.
King, D. K. (2016). Multiple jeopardy, multiple consciousness: The context of a Black feminist
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Shor, E., van de Rijt, A., Ward, C., Askar, S., & Skiena, S. (2014). Is there a political bias? A
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fitspiration imagery on women's body image. Body image, 15, 61-67.

8LIBERAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE ON MASS MEDIA
Tylka, T. L., & Wood-Barcalow, N. L. (2015). What is and what is not positive body image?
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