Exam Question from past paper

Q3. Using your own detailed examples, explore the representation of gender in the media today?

In the modern day gender is represented both positively and negatively in the media. Firstly, the BBC 3 documentary 'Stacey on the front line: girls, guns and ISIS is a positive representation of gender as it is made to show women are just as capable of fighting on the Front line as Male troops. The documentary follows Stacey Dooley in Northern Iraq as she experiences life with a group of female soldiers who are fighting against ISIS. It is also key to note that women would not be doing this on the other side in the ISIS camps. This is a positive representation of Gender as women who are usually portrayed as the weaker of the two sexes are shown to be just as strong physically and mentally as they fight on the front line.

There is also more negative representations of gender in the media, one example is a news story from the BBC on the 19th of march 2017 which had the headline 'chatted up tourist beaten by man' this story was about a female tourist who rejected a strangers sexual advances and ended up being brutally beaten by the man. The story claims that after she rejected the man he "grabbed her from behind and repeatedly punched her in the face" this story is obviously a negative representation because it shows a man physically injuring a women for no good reason, this makes men in general look bad because the story makes it seem like this is the way men generally act after being rejected when this is really just a rare case. 

Lastly, another story from the BBC in February 2017 is headlined 'Transgender girl,11, shot in school with BB Gun' this story was about a girl who was being bullied at school because she is transgender, according to the article the parents of the girl contacted the school about the bullying in December and no action was taken and 2 months later the girl was shot with a BB Gun in school. This is again a negative story because the girl is being bullied for being transgender, not only has the school let this continue but they waited until there was a very serious issue before taking any action. 

In conclusion, in the media today Gender is represented both Positively and negatively, examples of this are the BBC 3 documentary 'Stacey on the front line' and the News stories from the BBC News website.