Category: Social Norms

Overview

Staying up to date and being constantly connected are some of the reasons why engagement in social media is a “way of being” rather than a mere activity. In today’s world social media usage has become a norm for both men and women. However, the way they use social media differs. Men create social media accounts such as Instagram or Facebook to look for new relationships compared to Women who use the same platform to create and use these accounts to sustain already existing relationships. It is also shown that men and women often engage in different topics.  According to a Facebook investigation, women are more likely to disclose personal information on the social media platform, including family affairs. Men, on the other hand, talk about things like sports. Results showed that not only did men and women have distinct themes that they want to talk about, but that obviously “male” issues (sports, for example) receive more comments from other users while seemingly “female” topics (birthdays, family time) receive more likes. Negative feedback is one of the reasons why female users could be more reserved on the internet. When women voice their ideas, they often receive more derogatory remarks. For example in this Twitter experiment conducted by British journalist Martin Belam – Belam created a spoof account in which he pretended to guest-tweet as different male and female celebrities. When he presented himself as a woman, the account received significantly more offensive comments, and even blatantly misogynist ones. The preferred social media platform for men and women will also differ based on the topics they enjoy discussing online. Men tend to use more text-oriented platforms, whereas women typically favor visual ones. More women use Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram than men do, while more men use online discussion sites like Reddit or Digg. Sociologist Katrin Tiidenberg of Tallinn University thinks the solution can be found in the traditional role in the family: moms have always taken more family portraits compared to dads. This may also contribute to the explanation of why women upload more selfies than men: the Selfie Exploratory project, for instance, examined 3800 Instagram photos from five different cities worldwide and discovered that there are consistently many more female selfies than male selfies. Younger users exhibit even more marked distinctions from this group; numerous studies have revealed that teenagers frequently construct their social media profiles around gender norms. Teenage boys are more likely to share images of themselves engaging in dangerous activities, drinking, or having sex, whereas girls are more likely to share overtly seductive photos of themselves.

Policy Intervention

Policy intervention in the realm of social media is a challenging topic. One of the main issues involving social media is hate speech. As we saw above women are more prone to receive hurtful comments or interactions from other users compared to men. However, that does not mean a man can’t receive hate on social media platforms. Social media platforms aiming to monitor speech are tasked with a slippery slope concerning the freedom of speech. However, it is their job to review and detect hate speech. For example, In 2016, a group of major tech companies agreed upon the European Commission’s Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online, which requires these companies to review hateful speech within a day of receiving a report. This approach is challenging due to high variance in terms of service and operational definitions of hate speech, but it is a significant effort in promoting collaboration and linking legal approaches in the hate speech space. This policy is a step in the right direction but the problem still lies that companies need someone to report an issue of hate speech before the hate speech is investigated. With the technology available today social media companies should be able to monitor their platform more easily finding hate speech before it is reported. This type of policy intervention can be seen in a 2021 report by YouTube and Facebook who both reported a rise in the amount of content they detected and flagged, as well as a higher percentage of content that was flagged by the companies versus by users. This is because automated detection technologies are being used more and more. Because social media companies are not subject to territorial jurisdiction, it is crucial to remember that their obligations are limited to adhering to their terms of service, which may or may not be more stringent than the guidelines established by the international agreements mentioned above. 

Potential Consequences Without Intervention

Potential consequences without intervention include an increased amount of hate speech going undetected and affecting young minds poorly. There is a greater chance that hate speech on the internet will manifest as physical violence if laws banning it are ineffective.. Hate speech has the potential to escalate into hate crimes against specific individuals or groups by normalizing discriminatory beliefs. This can be seen in the widespread use of social media During the January 6, 2021 attack on the capital. Hate speech has the power to polarize people and widen already existing societal divides. Without controls, social media sites could serve as havens for radical ideologies, escalating hostility and conflict between various communities. Hate speech frequently manifests as cyberbullying and harassment, fostering an aggressive atmosphere for those singled out for discrimination based on gender, race, or other attributes. Psychological distress, emotional pain, self-harm, or suicide, can result from this. Finally, social media companies risk damage to their brand if they ignore hate speech. When harmful material is allowed to spread on platforms, users may lose faith in those platforms, which results in a drop in user activity and perhaps legal issues. 

Sources

Atanasova, A. (2016, November 6). Gender-specific behaviors on social media and what they mean for online communications. Social Media Today. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/gender-specific-behaviors-social-media-and-what-they-mean-online-communications#:~:text=An%20investigation%20conducted%20by%20Facebook,the%20platform%2C%20categorizing%20them%20into

Belam, M. (2013, July 4). How my spoof BBC question time twitter account showed me the level of abuse political women face on social media. martinbelam.com. https://martinbelam.com/2013/bbcextraghost/

Gender, topic, and audience response: An analysis of user-generated content on Facebook – Meta Research. Meta Research. (n.d.). https://research.facebook.com/publications/gender-topic-and-audience-response-an-analysis-of-user-generated-content-on-facebook/

Herring, S. C. (n.d.). Teens, gender, and self-presentation in social media. https://homes.luddy.indiana.edu/herring/teens.gender.pdf

Selfiexploratory. (n.d.). https://selfiecity.net/selfiexploratory/

Seligson, H. (2016, June 7). Why are more women than men on Instagram?. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/06/why-are-more-women-than-men-on-instagram/485993/

United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect [24]. (2021). Addressing hate speech on social media: contemporary challenges. Unesdoc.unesco.org. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379177

By Alexandra Francis and Lillie Edwards

Overview:

The objectification of women in the media refers to the fact that women are often stereotyped and sexualized in various forms of media. Examples of this can be seen on television, in movies, lyrics in popular music, and even in sports media. Often, on screen, women are portrayed in a manner that highlights physical attraction and reinforces gender stereotypes regarding the intellectual and professional ability of women. Studies show that holding women to the unrealistic standards that are seen on screen skews society’s view of women, as well as how women view themselves (Rousseau, 2019). A large portion of modern media is music, and women are the most frequent targets of objectification within music lyrics (Flynn, 2016). Additionally, female athletes are viewed more on their appearance than their athleticism (Daniels, 2020). Female athletes are often sexualized and are not taken as seriously as male athletes. The depiction of women in the media has a variety of long-term consequences in society through the reinforcement of gender stereotypes which increases self-esteem issues within women. 

Policy Recommendations:

Policy intervention could be used to minimize the long-term effects of objectification of women in future media. Although old media are abundant in which women are objectified and minimized, moving forward, policies could be put in place that create stricter guidelines on the portrayal of women in the media. Additionally, there should be more education and awareness regarding the long-term impacts of how women are depicted on screen. Young men and women should be made aware of the impacts of what media they are consuming. Finally, new media could paint women in a light that contradicts society’s narrow expectations and defies gender stereotypes. 

Consequences Without Interventions:

Objectification can have very negative consequences on the way women view themselves. Women are depicted in the media and focused on their appearance and are less likely to be featured in a manner that depicts them as smart and hard-working (Santoniccolo, 2023). This sets a precedent that women must look or be a certain way. These are unrealistic measures and can cause women to feel the need to change the way they look. Objectification in women can also be connected back to poor mental health and eating disorders (Szymanski, 2007). These are serious consequences women are faced with caused by irrational standards media sets for women. 

Research Questions:

Some feature research can be done to help come to a better understanding of why our worldviews women the way it does, and if a change is on the horizon. A good research question would be, how do different ages in males affect their levels of objectifying women? Do older men objectify women more or do younger men? Research on this could help us understand whether there has been any improvement in media to help change the views of the younger generation of males today. Future research on the financial differences between popular movies with women being severely objectified versus popular movies where women are not objectified would be very telling. I wonder if there is a major difference and if that has changed over time due to how films have changed.

References: 

Daniels, E. A. (2009). Sex Objects, Athletes, and Sexy Athletes. Journal of Adolescent Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558409336748

Daniels, Elizabeth A., et al. “Sexualized and Athletic: Viewers’ Attitudes toward Sexualized Performance Images of Female Athletes – Sex Roles.” SpringerLink, Springer US, 21 Apr. 2020, link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-020-01152-y.

Flynn, M.A., Craig, C.M., Anderson, C.N. et al. Objectification in Popular Music Lyrics: An Examination of Gender and Genre Differences. Sex Roles 75, 164–176 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0592-3

Lampis, J., Cataudella, S., Busonera, A. et al. The moderating effect of gender role on the relationships between gender and attitudes about body and eating in a sample of Italian adolescents. Eat Weight Disord 24, 3–11 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-017-0372-2

Rousseau, A., Rodgers, R.F. & Eggermont, S. A Short-Term Longitudinal Exploration of the Impact of TV Exposure on Objectifying Attitudes Toward Women in Early Adolescent Boys. Sex Roles 80, 186–199 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0925-5

While there has been significant progress made in creating a more fair and equal work environment for men and women, it is impossible to ignore the gender-related social norms that are still barriers for women in the workplace. Although these social norms may seem to be a series of micro interactions, they accumulate into a grand macro problem of workplace discrimination against women. Donna Bobbitt-Zeher focuses on the specific experiences women have at work and emphasizes, “We must look at processes that lead to unequal outcomes for women and men. The real challenge is to uncover how discrimination unfolds in the workplace” (Bobbitt-Zeher, 2011). In the article there is a focus on the discrimination of Christy Kinneson as opposed to hypothetical scenarios. Christy Kinneson was a clerk in a manufacturing plant and comments were made by others in the plant regarding her nature. As described in the article, “Those managers clearly could not tolerate a woman acting like a man.” This negative view was translated into her firing as insubordinate. Although the work environment was described as “rough and tumble” with vulgar language commonplace and men engaging in similar or worse conduct, her General Manager justified her firing, stating, “she showed a blatant disregard and lack of respect for her supervisors…” (Bobbitt-Zeher, 2011). Obviously, Ms. Kinneson faced a double standard as to fire a member of the opposite gender based on insubordination but to not hold the men at the plant to that same standard is an example of why gender norms are still great obstacles for women in the workplace and are standing in the way of economic equality. 

Additionally, societal norms often create barriers and obstacles for women’s entry and those that are working their way up the corporate “ladder.” Women often receive discrimination, prejudice, performance devaluation, and general backlash when trying to succeed in the workforce. “For instance, across occupations, median weekly earnings diverge by 18.5% between men and women and these gaps widen in higher-paid occupations” (Garcia, 2022). It is important to emphasize that these gaps widen as the jobs become higher paid, meaning that discrimination could very possibly increase the higher up the “work ladder” a woman climbs.  Additionally, when women do climb up the corporate ladder, there is also a great deal of differences in leadership that men and women possess. These differences affect long term workplace success and equality among genders. Unfortunately, women only hold 6.2% of CEO positions among S&P 500 companies and make up a combined 26% of managing directors and CEOS in the workforce, resulting in real workplace change for women being a rarity (Garcia, 2022). Finally, it is important to note that, “…about 42% of working women (compared to 22% of working men) reported that they experienced job discrimination–such as earning less for the same job and being treated as if they were not competent–because of their gender” (Garcia, 2022). These statistics support the idea that societal norms often prevent women from real leadership positions resulting in the continued discrimination of women in the workplace.

Finally, women receive gender-related discrimination in the workplace even when they are in positions of power to make corporate decisions. In Tai Kenneth’s article “Gender, Bottom-Line Mentality, and Workplace Mistreatment…”  she focuses on how women with higher bottom-line decision-making tendencies are viewed to be higher gender norm violations than men with lower bottom-line decision-making tendencies (Kenneth 2022). These gender norm violations often result in mistreatment and discrimination. Due to this, we can see the preferred societal standards that women are held to, and the less leeway women have with gender norms in the workplace as opposed to men.  In conclusion, societal norms still greatly dictate gender workplace discrimination and women are still unfairly targeted as a result. 

• What policies can be implemented to ensure that men and women are receiving fair workplace treatment?
• What role do traditional family dynamics have on women’s career paths? 
•  Does the sterotypical representation of women in media have an impact  on women’s success rates in their career work?

Works Cited 

Hanek, K. J., &  Garcia, S. M. (2022).  Barriers for women in the workplace: A social psychological perspective. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 

Bobbitt-Zeher, Donna. “Gender Discrimination at Work: Connecting Gender Stereotypes, Institutional Policies, and Gender Composition of Workplace.” Gender and Society, vol. 25, no. 6, 2011, pp. 764–86. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23212199. Accessed 19 Oct. 2023.

Tai, Kenneth, et al. “Gender, Bottom-Line Mentality, and Workplace Mistreatment: The Roles of Gender Norm Violation and Team Gender Composition.” Journal of Applied Psychology 107.5 (2022): 854-65. ProQuest. Web. 27 Nov. 2023.