Women and Media.

E&Z state that there have been improvements in media's portrayal of women. I would have to agree with that. When compared to how things used to be I will say for sure. When compared to how life really is I would say that the portrayal is still very far away from reality.

In fact, women in different classes are being increasingly segregated in their portrayal. Lower class women are welfare abusing, prostitutes, baby factories, promiscuous, or the lone struggling survivor. Upper class women are usually based on which man they hang around with. There are the rebellious druggies, the goodie goodies, the pampered wives and girlfriends, etc. And if a woman is single, she is always available and looking... like we are not too busy with everything that we have on our plate as it is!!

The good thing they noted was the increased diversity of roles of women on TV, but I must agree with them that for every few good shows there are a heap full of bad ones... and I only have basic cable!! My pastor did a self evaluation with me and one of the questions was to list my 5 favorite shows. They were Law and Order: SVU, The Practice, Judging Amy, the Guardian, and one more law show. I realized afterwards that they are all legal shows. One reason for this is because I love court and law movies and shows... another is probably because many of the women in the shows are very mature, responsible, and professional which I can identify with.

One reality is that there will always be stereotypes in life in and out of the media. Many of the media stereotypes I mentioned above are also groups we divide ourselves into socially...
Jesus' Peace and Love, Meorah