Supermen versus Barbie dolls

Men are the super humans and women the Barbie dolls: These are the common gender perceptions portrayed in the media, according to the editor-in-chief of an award-winning US magazine.

“We are affected by both news media and popular media and our perceptions are formed by the role that media plays in our life,” said Tayyibah Taylor, an American Muslim leader and founding editor of Azizah magazine, quoting recent academic research.

A Unesco study has found that in films women are cast in very stereotypical roles: It’s either the mentally dense shopaholic blonde, the accommodating nurturing mother and wife, the back- stabbing social climber, the gold digger or the victim who needs to be rescued.

“Invariably, women are seen as the emotional drama queens whereas men exude power,” said Mrs Taylor during a talk on gender stereotype in the media, organised by the National Council of Women, the Malta Confederation of Women's Organisations and the American Embassy.

The findings of the study tally with the conclusions of another recent one released by the University of California, which analysed the top 100 films of 2008. The figures again speak for themselves: 67 per cent of the speaking roles went to men and 24 per cent of female actors were much more likely to appear naked compared to eight per cent in the case of male actors.

“Men talk and women show skin,” noted Mrs Taylor, explaining that stereotypes constantly fed into the mind eventually get into our collective consciousness. In the last few decades, there has been a transition from women being attractive to merely being sexualised objects: “Women are 10 times more likely then men to feature in sexualised images,” she said.

Gender stereotyping can be found in cartoons, music videos, newspaper stories, comic books and “certainly” in advertisements. Mrs Taylor expressed her concern that in news media women are under-represented in decision- making positions, a trend that is reflected the world over.

Moreover, she said, in recent years journalism had become more corporate and more driven by money: “They want to make the most provocative of stories in order to sell more. If it’s not sexy enough it won’t sell,” she said, highlighting the need for higher ethical standards when it comes to reporting.

Her main concern is the youngsters. “Stereotypes are reaching them and more and more young girls are showing preoccupation with their bodies,” she said. Younger girls are wearing more and more provocative clothing, pre-teens are requesting plastic surgery and eating disorders are becoming rampant. “There’s this hyper-sexualisation of teens. The message we’re giving them is that women are just eye-candy, that in their natural state they are not beautiful.”

Women are being taught that their only source of power is their beauty. However, said Mrs Taylor, women demean themselves when they only use their bodies as they are forgoing their spirit: “The human mind was not made for constant bombardment of provocative salacious slut. The only way to counteract this is to be examples of women who love themselves,” she said.

When her magazine Azizah, which targets Muslim women, first hit the racks 11 years ago, she used to get threatening calls from men for featuring Muslim women on the cover of the magazine. “I was told I’d be going to hell because the women on those covers would end up stuck on some wall. I just told them: ‘I never knew we are competing with Playboy’,” she joked.

Her determination stemmed from the fact that in her youth she did not see herself as a Muslim woman reflected in the media. Then, later, she realised that Muslim women in media were most often only depicted as victims, as exotic harem girls or as women who hate Islam, which is not the real picture out there.

Her magazine won the New America Media Award for Environmental Journalism and was finalist for the Folio Eddie Award in the religion and spirituality category. It is a proactive tool that aims to project gender equality in the media and empower women.

“We have come a long way but we still have a long way to go. But, of course, for gender equality to work, it has to come from both sides,” Mrs Taylor said.