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The media shapes our perceptions, in part because we spend more time consuming media than doing just about anything else other than sleeping and working or going to school. In 2014 Gloria Steinem gave a public lecture entitled Media: More Real than Reality[1] in which she said, “Yet because we are communal creatures, the media campfire is still where we learn what is normal, what is possible, what is desirable. Even if we’re informed enough to know that the media are not reality—reality is reality—they still are the biggest force shaping what reality will become.”[2] Jackson Katz, an American author and filmmaker quoted in the documentary Miss Representation said, “People learn more from media than any other single source of information, so if you want to understand what’s going on in our society in the 21st century we have to understand media.”[3] Indeed, it is now widely acknowledged that the media plays a crucial role in shaping our attitudes and perceptions. Everyone seems to concur: the media shapes our perceptions. In 2009 the Canadian Mental Health Association published an article that stated, “The mass media’s power to impact public perception and the degree to which people are exposed to media representations makes the mass media one of the most significant influences in developed society. The mass media is unquestionably the Canadian public’s primary sources of information.”[4] In 2013 the Australian Psychological Society published a paper in which it stated, “In more recent times, the influence of media on society has expanded exponentially and into ever diversified forms. […] Entertainment media has literally leaped off the big screen and out of the television producers’ hands into video games, YouTube, and applications for mobile phones, to name a few. […] Media, in all their various forms, are today shaping our world in more ways than ever.”[5]
[1] Gloria Steinem, public lecture entitled Media: More Real than Reality delivered at Rutgers University on Feb. 27, 2014 [2] Gloria Steinem, public lecture entitled Media: More Real than Reality delivered at Rutgers University on Feb. 27, 2014 [3] Miss Representation, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, 2011 [4] Canadian Mental Health Association, The Media’s Impact on Public Perceptions of Mental Illness, Feb. 2009, Kismet Baun, p. 1 [5] Australian Psychological Society, Media Representations and Responsibilities: Psychological Perspectives, Melbourne, March 2013, p. 1 © 2016 Alline Cormier
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From a section of my book on the sexualization of women in media that discusses sexism in Canada8/6/2016 Sexism and even misogyny in Canada are prevalent and increasingly documented. Daily examples can be found in news stories, workplaces and homes—and not just on our TV screens and computer monitors. They manifest themselves in a myriad of ways: on campuses like the University of British Columbia’s and Saint Mary’s (Halifax) where frosh students sing pro-rape chants; in Air Canada flight decks where male pilots bully female pilots by leaving pornography behind for them to find; in courtrooms where charges of sexual assault are commonly withdrawn, where the victims of sexual assault are put on trial instead of their aggressors (who are not required to testify) and where provincial court judges ask rape victims why they couldn’t have kept their knees together; on billboards where a drill hovers over the vagina of a prone naked woman surrounded by flames with a tagline that reads, ‘Screwpiles. We Drill them to Hell and Back’ (Alberta); in the comment section of news stories, as well as on social media where men voice their opinion that certain premiers should be killed, etc. (Alberta). Canadian women and girls—but also boys and men—are continually exposed to behaviour, images and messages that reinforce the idea that our society condones sexism and misogyny. Thankfully, women (and men) are increasingly exposing these sexist and misogynist attitudes and behaviours for what they are—unacceptable.
© 2016 Alline Cormier There was a time when women in music videos did not constantly run their tongue over their lips or put their fingers in their mouth, appear in the shower, perform in strip clubs as pole dancers, ride swinging wrecking balls naked, wave their nearly naked bums in our faces in big close up shots, simulate having sex with other women, rub their bum on men at the drop of a hat, spank (whip or slap) other women, simulate giving men oral sex, have sex with men in airplane lavatories (and anywhere else someone could possibly imagine), have sex with multiple men in the course of a three-minute video, roll around on floors (couches, beds, etc.), appear in bondage gear and basically look like they were in a pornographic film. There was a time when music videos did not include women eating bananas or putting whip cream on their chest for no apparent reason or using any excuse to touch the front of a man’s pants. There was a time when the lyrics in women’s songs were more elevating than: 'I just wanna look good for ya' or 'I’m a slave for you.'
© 2016 Alline Cormier |
AuthorThe film analyst who puts women first. Author of an upcoming film guide for women. 
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