How Are Women Represented in the Media?
Since television had first made its debut, portrayals of certain groups of people have changed throughout the decades on the little screen. More specifically, people would agree that great strides and achievements have taken place in order to portray women in the media in a positive and empowering light. From Lucille Ball to Kim Possible, many female characters have broken barriers about harmful gender stereotypes. It is important, however, to note the different types of portrayals women have endured for a long time.
This article portrays a snapshot of the tropes of female roles in the media and the messages they try to convey with such idols.
The Femme Fatale
The femme fatale (French for ‘deadly woman’) is a female character with mysterious, attractive, and seductive charm that ensnares her victims into difficult, often fatal traps. Always portrayed as an entity of hypnosis, an enchantress, seductress, or witch, the femme fatale is seen as evil, morally ambiguous and gives off a sense of uneasiness.
Some of the most well known femme fatales are: Catwoman from the Batman series, Tomie Kawakami from Junji Ito, and Jennifer Check from Jennifer’s Body.
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue is a female character who is, essentially, too perfect. With little to no flaws, she can adapt to any situation, and is strikingly beautiful. A smart, strong, and attractive individual who can do no wrong.
The Mary Sue is often used as a derogatory term, considering the Mary Sue character is often seen as bland, unexciting, and acts as a deus ex machina in most media pieces. The term Mary Sue is surprisingly derived from Star Trek fanfiction dating back to the early 1970s and is usually used to describe ridiculously overachieving characters. The term is now used as a way to describe a character that is too good to be true.
Some famous examples of the Mary Sue include: Kim Possible, Katniss Everdeen, and Bella Swan from Twilight.
The Dumb Blonde
Pretty self explanatory, the Dumb Blonde is a blonde female of less than average intelligence. In most cases, the dumb blonde is also wildly attractive, and is susceptible to the tricks of the opposite gender. The dumb blonde, aside from being dumb, is seen as childlike, air-headed, and causes more harm than good without intention. While there is no set origin of this trope, a lot of it originates from 1950s black and white films, where they have busty blonde actresses on screen to serve as only eye candy for male viewers.
Famous examples of the Dumb Blonde are: DeeDee from Dexter’s Lab, American model and actress Anna Nicole Smith, and Karen Smith from Mean Girls.
The Sex Symbol
The Sex Symbol is a female character whose sole identity is about looking sexy. She gets gratification from the attention she gets from others who look at her. She is also said to be materialistic, interested in things that can only enhance her beauty. Also known as a Venus, the sex symbol is empowered by the attention she gets by males in a phallocentric society.
She is worshiped and treated more favorably amongst other women. The sex symbol is taken from the Greek goddess Aphrodite, who was the goddess of beauty and love. However, the sex symbol is often shown as shallow, has no personality, and can very easily be overcome by jealousy and obsession for power. Her sexuality and craving for approval can also lead to her downfall, seeing as her beauty is the only thing she can hold onto to stay relevant.
Famous examples of the Sex Symbol: Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Veronica Lodge from the Archie Comics franchise, and Trixie Tang from Fairly Odd Parents.
The Damsel in Distress
Probably the oldest trope on this list, the Damsel in Distress is a female character who always needs to be rescued, and is simply incapable of doing anything herself. The damsel in distress emerged from medieval times, often in plays where the honorable knight saves the woman and, in return, he gets her hand in marriage. The trope has been seen in European fairy tales such as Snow White and Cinderella, and into the golden age of cinema, most notably the Empire State Building scene from King Kong.
This trope has been said to be a tired and repetitive trope that only pushes harmful beliefs that females are always in need of a man to help them, and as time went on, there have been pushes to get rid of this trope by having more independent heroines appear in films.
Famous examples of the Damsel in Distress include: Lois Lane from Superman, Mary Jane Watson from Spiderman, and Ann Darrow from King Kong.
From Damaging to Insightful: Empowering Women
Many of us are aware of these stereotypes of women in the media, and it is important to know what message they are trying to convey about women in the stories they tell. They may come off as harmful and hurtful towards women, but that is not always the case.
In other words, as feminism expands, more women are seeing these tropes as a means of empowering themselves and using their attributes – whether it’s their body, their attitudes, or their emotions – to gain power and autonomy over male-dominated societies. For example, the Dumb Blonde stereotype is dissected and trashed by Reese Witherspoon’s character in Legally Blonde (2001), where she becomes a lawyer and ends up winning her first case. In the 2002 film Scooby Doo, Daphne Blake, the Damsel in Distress from the lovable cartoon, breaks her stereotype and turns into a self-sufficient fighter throughout the film and helps in solving the big mystery by the end of the film.
When it comes to analyzing the portrayals of women in the media, it is a process in which one can see how, over time, these images can go from damaging to insightful in order to create new female characters that will empower future generations of girls worldwide.