Gender is something that is clearly defined and represented through the media. We’re given a great deal of guidance as to how women and men should behave and appear. Stereotypes have developed over the years and when someone falls outside of those stereotypes they are criticized for being unique or different. It seems as though this fear of being criticized for uniqueness has resulted in a loss of identity and individuality among both men and women.
Sure there are the extreme cases where individuals choose to stand out as individuals, but we can all admit that we look twice and may even make smug comments about the appearance or behavior of the individual. So my question is, why have we allowed the media to create a society where uniqueness is not applauded?
We have allowed the media to control in a manner that influence us not only on the outside, but also on the inside. We laugh, talk and act like the actors on the TV, in the radio, and in our magazines. We’ve become mere clones of the mainstream actors we see everyday in the media and in most cases these aren’t real individuals they’re simply actors, acting out life.
There is a biological line distinguishing males from females but other than the biological factors there shouldn’t be any rules regarding how to be a male or female. The media shouldn’t be trying to mold us into what they believe defines men and women. We should be left to create our own personalities, appearances, and behaviors based on our own assumptions about being male and female, if this were possible everything would be honky dorey!!
