Misogyny in the Media
Tags: Feminism, Women Empowerment, Sexism, Womens Rights, Misogyny

Exposure to media has grown exponentially. We live in a time where exposure to media would quite literally outreach some necessities like freshwater. It leads to the formation of opinions, headspaces, and influences our very lives, thus creates fanbases and critiques alike. It would not be an overstatement if I quoted Jim Morrison on this who rightly stated “Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.” Now, such a massive industry without a doubt becomes the thing everyone looks up to. This is why the objection over ‘Portrayal’ becomes valid, because it not only influences the perception of the consumers but also, their opinions.

Now, before we question the portrayal of the feminine by the popular media, we need to go down time line, all the way to the evolution of Homo sapiens. We know for a fact that biologically, human males were supposed to face nature, while the females were supposed to nurture. But then, as Edward R. Murrow said, “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” A physically weaker section came under the domination of a pseudo superior version of the same race.

The popular media displays a vast variety of stereotypes created by a very biased section of the society that has been force-fed to us ever since the first newspaper delivered in the streets of Rome in 1605. We live in a society so pathetic that we feel the need to call out the women who try to live normally and give them the title of ‘Independent’.

In 1985, an American cartoonist Alison Bechdel came forth with a set of three questions commonly called the Bechdel Test, a simple enough argument kept forward to question the portrayal of women, to highlight how the individuality of women was assumed to be an adjective to the dominance of a man. Surprisingly, almost all of the most beloved movies failed to describe the existence of women as an individual. Their depiction as ‘glorified’ as a subordinate. In 2019, only 4 out of the major 15 movies of Bollywood passed the Bechdel test, giving us an insight on how we as the world’s largest democracy, lack the most basic fundamental right of equality. It’s ironic how the Censor Board makes sure to cut out slangs and scenes that might offend some remote community but seems to be blind towards potential causes of sexual harassment.

It’s not just what’s shown on the screen is misogynistic either, the events that take place behind the screens aren’t to be celebrated either. We have heard of countless incidents of women being blackmailed and harassed and that too at lower pay grade and incentives. Celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Cara Delevingne, Twinkle Khanna spoke out about their horrific incidents during the early days of their respective careers.

From all the facts above stated, we can clearly understand how the dream world of movies and cinema and all forms of media, isn’t just a misrepresentation of femininity, but also could even be one’s worst nightmare. We evolved with leaps and bounds, everything around us has changed, but it still seems we have a mentality update due for over seven million years. The toxic male-dominant headspace has been popularized even further by media; hence we live in a reality where there’s an issue of ‘how films all over the world portray misogyny and glorify sexism, male dominance, and patriarchy’ that even needs to be addressed.

Semiotic Analysis is a study of interpreting signs and symbols as elements of communicative behaviors. This discipline could be used to categorize the portrayal in media over the last few centuries to analyze the development and hence criticize or appreciate depending on the conclusions.

The deduction based on Semiotic Analysis could be categorized as the following three codes.

- The Dominant Code; representing the largest number of people that identify themselves with a particular issue.

In media, the portrayal of women in the domestic sphere falls into this category. Essentially creating a headspace that ‘believes’ the widespread role of women BUT within the four walls of a household. This also includes the depiction of women as an object, sexualizing and beautifying them to make there importance solely dependent on the visual appearance. Lastly, it involves the idea of women being a certain way, be it cunning or creative or talkative or backstabbing, hence stereotypically making feminine disposition intrinsic. Now, such depictions aren’t intended to build a character arc, but solely to create an entertaining side character with almost no minimum importance in the progression of a plot.

- The Lapsed Code; representing the ideas that were prevalent once, but have fallen out of the popular culture dud to eventual irrelevance.

Over the years, there has been a very slow, yet positive shift in the depiction. We have more story arcs and better characters, that influence the plots and are liberating, not subjective. For example, it sure rings a bell if we were told to believe that a girl’s role is restricted to the households.

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The Emergent Code; representing the change in society, that shows the growing comfort in the world, looking beyond the dominant code.

The depiction of women as an individual and not just someone’s wife or mother or a subordinate, popularizing the concept of ‘We can do it’ falls under this code. Now, it doesn’t mean this has been welcomed by the masses. In early 2019, Marvel Studios released its first-ever female superhero standalone movie which was criticized for its ‘over-powered’ female protagonist.

What could be concluded from all this deduction then? We need to acknowledge the impact of society on Media before we question the impact of Media on society. We need to look closely into the chronology, which essentially indicates the formation of a male-dominated Media inside of a male-dominated society, which further went on to publicize male dominance. The solution to this evil lies in the simple equation of demand and supply. The media houses capitalize on the headspaces of their consumers. While the feminism movements have successfully created a new era of strong and independent female characters, the fact that the formation of a society that accepts and normalizes ‘strong females’ has yet to be achieved.

So, as we can see, the situation isn’t as bad as it sounds, in fact over the years the statistics support the Emergent Code. The rates at which the movies pass the Bechdel test is slow, yet positive. The only way to fix the toxicity is quite ironically the way toxicity was introduced to society, media. For in the words of Late African American minister Malcolm Little, “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”