Category: Gender

Every day we hear about another woman brutally murdered and rape, another woman a victim of the cruel reality of gender-based violence and all we can do is ask ourselves why. Gender-based violence is a term used that refers to any harm committed against someone’s will that negatively impacts their psychological and physical health because of their gender (Mpani & Nsibande, 2015). There are numerous types of gender-based violence with different reasons why it is being performed, thus having severe consequences on the victim’s well-being. This essay will focus on the main forms and causes of gender-based violence, the consequences of GBV on the victim, possible prevention strategies against GBV and why it should be prevented.

One of the most common forms of gender-based violence is domestic violence or also known as intimate partner violence. It can be defined as any form of physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse when one partner feels the need to control or dominate the other (Toby D. Goldsmith, 2020). In many cultural beliefs people think men have the right to assert dominance toward women, and that women are not equal to men (Toby D. Goldsmith, 2020). It is believed that men have the right to discipline women when they have done something ‘wrong’, that sexual harassing their partner is normal and women cannot deny their partner sex (Oxfam, 2020).

These types of behaviors of domestic violence are caused by many different factors; it can be internal or external factors. Alcohol and drug abuse is strongly associated with domestic violence because the abuser has less control over their behavior when under the influence of drugs or alcohol and can become more violent toward their partner and causing imminent harm, even death, toward their partner (Toby D. Goldsmith, 2020). Another cause can be when the perpetrator has a history of violence within their family, either witnessing violence or being a victim of child abuse, thus learning these violent behaviors from their family members or cultural influences and growing up with the idea that abuse toward their partner or being abused by their partner is normal (WHO, 2017).

Violence against women is one of the most extreme forms of gender-based violence in South Africa (CSVR, 2016). The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women defines it as an act of violence that result in psychological, physical or sexual harm toward women and girls (Shepard, 2010). Violence against women can also be associated with economic abuse where community standards give men higher privileges and status in employment, therefore discriminating against women and not giving women the same opportunities given to men (WHO, 2017). Economic abuse also includes the control over a female partner’s assets or income, thus giving the female partner no economic independence or control over their income (CSVR, 2016).

The root cause of violence against women is gender inequality and the imbalance of power in a relationship and favor men over women. Cultural norms often place men in superior positions in relation to women due the practicing of cultural traditions such as labola (CSVR, 2016). It is mainly believed that violence against women, the use of alcohol and the ownership of guns are indicators of masculinity in the community which ultimately give men the idea that practicing such behaviors are normal.

Gender discrimination can be seen as another form of gender-based violence which indicates that heterosexuality is the only acceptable sexual orientation (Oxfam, 2020). It is also known as discrimination against the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender and queer) community, people with disabilities, widows and divorced women. Such people experienced unequal rights, responsibilities and opportunities (Mpani & Nsibande, 2015). The main cause for this form of gender-based violence is due to the lack of education and also due to cultural and religious beliefs of an individual. It is believed that divorced women have less value and are seen as the property of the family in law who paid for them, thus not being respected by the family (Oxfam, 2020).

Other forms of gender-based violence include physical, emotional and sexual violence which are all strongly associated with violence against women and domestic violence. Physical violence is a form of violence that assert any physical harm toward a person like kicking or punching, whereas emotional violence involves verbal abuse which affects the victim’s self-esteem and self-confidence (CSVR, 2016). Sexual violence, on the other hand, involves sexual intercourse or abuse without the victims consent such as rape, sexual harassment and the trafficking of victims for sexual purposes (CSVR, 2016). The main cause of these forms of violence is due to cultural beliefs which not only make men superior toward women and that women must be submissive toward their male partner, but also women must obey their husbands and act according to their male partner’s wishes (Oxfam, 2020).

Gender-based violence has a diverse list of consequences on the victims and can be physical, psychological and behavioral effects. Physical effects may include head injuries, internal organ damage, loss of eyesight and/or hearing (CSVR, 2016). Other physical affects can include unwanted pregnancies which include gynecological problems, abortions and sexual transmitted infections such as HIV (WHO, 2017). Women who are victims of intimate partner violence have an increased possibility of miscarriages, stillbirths and low birth weight in babies (WHO, 2017). Possible psychological effects include post-traumatic stress disorder resulting in nightmares and flashbacks, a major form of depression that can result in suicide, and severe anxiety disorders (CSVR, 2016). Finally, behavioral effects on victims of gender-based violence include increased substance abuse like alcohol and drugs, males being perpetrators and females being victims later in life if they were exposed to violent behaviors within their family or community as well as practicing risky sexual behaviors due to exposure of violence (WHO, 2017).

There is a lot that needs to be done and more resources are needed to achieve long-term prevention of gender-based violence. One of the most crucial strategies in preventing gender-based violence is to put an end to any form of discrimination against women and girls (WHO, 2017). Having women empowerment initiatives will help end discrimination against women in the work place and give them equal opportunities in employment and making decisions. It is important to educate young boys and girls that any form of gender-based violence is unacceptable and what the consequences of such violence might be by having this topic as a part of a life skills subject taught in school (WHO, 2017). Health workers can help educate children on the linkage between gender-based violence and sexual-reproductive health issues in a “youth-friendly” manner by doing community visits at schools and allow adolescents to have access to gender-based violence and sexual-reproductive health services (Shepard, 2010). By identifying victims of gender-based violence at an early stage will help in the prevention of repetitive violence against them and can therefore provide them with the appropriate support they need (WHO, 2017). Having population-based surveys can help identify possible gender-based violence victims and educate the community on the forms of gender-based violence and what behavior to look out for to prevent them from being a victim (WHO, 2017).

It is clear that gender-based violence is a major problem, not only in South Africa but around the world. So many young people are losing their lives because we are not working hard enough to prevent this from happening. I think it is very important to educate children from a young age that gender-based violence is a massive problem and what can be done to prevent this form of violence. Perpetrators should have a more severe punishment if they are found guilty of gender-based violence, because this just might help in lowering the total number of reports. It is important that we should stand together and fight against this problem, because together we can stop someone from being a victim or becoming a perpetrator.

Audiences’ multi-role in cultural co-production and its impact on masculinity and feminism in Asian popular culture.

What is the role of audience reception in the co-production with blurred boundaries between producers and consumers, does it affect the social condition of femininity and masculinity and what are the consequences?

The audience reception can be both producers and consumers. As a producer, Fandom can offer an effective labor in its co-production and circulation. In the sub-fan community composed of adoring fans, the Internet has been used by different categories of fans who create fanworks, spread the products, and then gain profits, although the requirement of profit can be replaced by a self-serving motive. However, fandom can also be a pirate in without a feeling of qualms, and downloading, copying, and selling the sub-fan subtitled product usually happens in the market. Thus the original property of cultural enterprises can be violated sometimes.

When fandom reception plays the role of consumer, their reaction to the industry can have a referencing and orienting effect, which means the content of imported cultural products need to fit the audience’s cultural background and national identity to be accepted. Also, the operation of producers is fed by consumers’ innovation and preference, which would direct a market route in the exploration of the cultural industry. Moreover, a mass reception can promote conformity psychology, the culture that lacks fans’ support is not likely to be mass-produced or invested, such as commodity fetishism can be blown up by audiences’ psychological needs of groups.

One of the reasons that shape consumers’ multi-role in the co-production is the blurring boundary between producers and consumers, firstly it can promote cultural diversity and offer more opportunities for different voices to be noticed in public discussion since audiences’ opinions can be reflected in the pop industry more visibly. As a result, a fair condition can be built between consumers with different cultural expressions. Such as the blurred boundaries of gender identity in Asian pop culture, and consumers’ need for a fair condition for different genders are the reasons that caused this phenomenon which results in a merging cultural market for males and female.

Furthermore, producing, consuming and recreation integrate and form a complex cultural sphere, which increases the difficulty of censorship. Therefore the contradiction between the patriarchal superstructure and the mass culture would be emphasised. Such as the conflict happens between the popular feminine boys state masculinity in elites’ intends. Consequently, the market of varied gender identities would take persuasion for academia to renew the study on gender studies.

Structure

• Introduction

• Body

Identify: the co-production process and the fandom’s roles as producers and consumers

• Argument 1, the producing role offers labor but also piracy.
• Argument 2, The consuming role has referenced and unifying impact.

Identify blurring boundaries. Link to the previous paragraph.

• Argument 3, Audiences requirements of varied cultural expression can help to build a fair condition for feminism.
• Argument 4, The blurring boundaries between consumers and production emphasizes the contradiction between elite and mass intentions, and a new viewpoint on gender studies would be noticed.

Conclusion

Annotated Bibliography

• Chua, B. (2012). Structure, audience, and soft power in East Asian pop culture. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, pp.105-117.

In the 6th chapter of the book, Huat identifies the definition of a sub-fan community and concludes several types of fandom roles. He considers this as a case in which the audience is both consumers and producers of culture. Via his introduction of the Korean fan club system, they try to maintain ‘grace’ as fans that are worthy of the star’s status by purchasing hundreds of the same album, creating fanworks, spreading their images, and producing advertisements to introduce their idols to more audiences. This process is evidence of the fan’s role in the “labor of love”. In addition, he points the 2 directions of the life of fan cultural co-production and circulation in the future, one is that production companies might restrict audiences’ right to recreate and spread the reason to avoid fan’s privacy of original works, like the policies of Johnny’s Entertainment in Japan. Furthermore, the profit reasons might direct the market to produce similar works and the competition would be dramatic. The book is useful to my research, the terms and theories it mentioned form a basis for understanding my research, and some of the arguments are inspiring. Nonetheless, I didn’t find any discussion about the effects caused by the fandom’s activities on the social depth. Therefore, a study of the relationship between pop culture and fandom reception will be invested with the contemporary social background in my upcoming research.

• Atkins, E. (2017). A history of popular culture in Japan. London: London New York Bloomsbury Academic, pp.197-210.

Chapters eight and nine introduced how Japan grew from a consumer and imitator of Western popular culture to a producer and how it successfully exported its cultural national identity to the world in the 1980s to 1990s. Atkins argues that the workaholic social environment made a large requirement for sexual manga as a method to relax Japanese men’s exhausting workdays. However, a lot of content is about raping, sex with underage girls, and sex slavering which shows disrespect to females. Atkins points out that compared with China and Korea’s pop industry, the Japanese pop-cultural economy grew much slower after 2005. One reason she identified is that sexual consumption drives Japanese feminism to be weak in an unfair social condition, which might fit into the trend of blurring and equaling gender identity. When the Korean pop industry is showing an obvious welcome to the exporting programs, Japanese protecting policies of intellectual and original property restrict fandom communication and recreation in global width. Atkins also analyzed the market for males and females respectively with the cases of girl idols and shojo manga (Comic for female readers) which offered me a wide range of materials in gender study. This book is in lack of a comprehensive view of Japan’s cultural industry as the market for females is mentioned very few, also the perspective that can respond to my research question is not raised in the book, but the analysis of the cases will inspire me a lot to understand how the boundaries of consumers and producers, masculinity and femininity were blurred and how this can influence the social environment.’

Bibliography

1. Chan, A. (2000). Consumption, Popular Culture and Cultural Identity. popular Culture Association in the South, [online] 23(1), pp.35-55. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23414566 [Accessed 10 Oct. 2019].

The ‘holy trinity’ of social analysis is named as such because of its importance in the historical field. It is impossible to conduct a complete social analysis without acknowledging all three categories of class, race, and gender. However, as with all historical scholarship, the field must develop, and social analysis naturally becomes more nuanced and intricate as our understanding of these concepts evolves. The way we view these three categories has developed in the last few decades and we now have a very different understanding of them as a means of social analysis. The ‘holy trinity’ encourages historians to look at history through an intersectional lens and consider how these categories work with each other to shape society in the past. One cannot study gender history without considering class and race, and vice-versa. However, we must not get stuck in this ‘holy trinity’ and think that is all we need to consider to make our studies intersectional. There are areas within these categories that require more nuanced analysis and additional categories that scholarship would also benefit from considering, including but not limited to, sexuality, disability, religion, and age. Though these are all essential to the formation of society and people’s identities, this essay will focus on how social analysis should use this ‘holy trinity’ but not be limited by it, focusing on the study of gender, sexuality, and disability to expand how we see historical scholarship today.

In her article, Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis, Joan Scott explored this ‘holy trinity’ as a way of ‘understanding that inequalities of power are organized along at least three axes’. These three categories are essential to understanding the contributing factors to one’s oppression or privilege. However, it is clear that there are at least’ three, but this is not necessarily a limited set of categories. These three are influential in terms of both oppression and privilege in most, if not all societies, past and present. They intersect and each person will experience the relationship between these categories and society’s views of them. For example, a black, middle-class woman will have different experiences and society will treat her differently to a white, working-class man. It is not about competition or oppression, however, and we must not fall into that trap. In social analysis, it is just important to see the differences and how these can either be lessened or dealt with in a way that recognizes differences and accommodates them. In this way, therefore it is so important to make sure that we include the impacts of sexuality, disability, religion, and other categories. The way that society functions as a whole and how individuals interact is impacted by all these factors and not one alone. The idea of the ‘holy trinity’ is incredibly useful as a starting point for intersectionality in social analysis, but that is exactly what it should be; a starting point to use to extend our analysis beyond the core three categories.

In terms of using gender in social analysis, historians have been doing this for years. However, their approach has changed over time, beginning with the opportunity to finally include women in mainstream history, to a more complex discussion of gender and social constructions of gender in the past. The idea that gender history is typically ‘just women’s history’ is a common opinion, or at least has been in the historical field. There is an expectation that when we discuss gender in history, the focus is mainly on women and typically ‘female’ activities of housework or motherhood. There is a space for that in historical research, however, looking beyond the female experience, gender as a method of social and historical analysis can include ideas about masculinity, femininity, androgyny, the transgender experience, intersex experiences, and all of these and more about race, class, sexuality, disability, etc. Gender history has developed in recent years, and since Joan Scott’s article in 1986, there has been a move to understand gender history as a form of analysis of other histories, not just as a category in and of itself. There is a difference between studying the history of women and studying the effects of gender as a construct in the past and how it impacted the way people thought or acted. In this way, applying gender to social analysis must be done in a way that recognizes our current knowledge and ideas of gender and sex as concepts, while not applying those to the past in a way that reduces ideas to labels that can be applied to any time or place as ‘gender is, and must be perceived as, context-specific and context-dependent’ (Gisela Bock, Women’s history and gender history: aspects of an international debate). As historians, we must not apply these current labels to the past, but instead work within how individuals and groups in the past expressed themselves and understood themselves. As Scott explains, it is important to consider ‘not only the relationship between male and female experience in the past but also the connection between history and current historical practice’ (Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis). Gender is a category that is historically contingent and the way we view the concept of gender relies on the time and place where we look. This is also arguably true for concepts like sexuality and disability that have had their definitions shaped over time to become what we see today. The importance of including these nuances in gender history is the next step in the progression from the ideas about women’s history vs. gender history. Instead of moving from purely the history of women to the study of the relationship between men and women, historical analysis needs to move towards analyzing gender as a concept about the societies being studied. It is important to the study of history to analyze these complexities and to give space to the inclusion of other methods of social analysis through the use of other categories and building on the foundation of this ‘holy trinity’. So, though gender, as part of this ‘holy trinity’ is still just as important, if not more as it becomes more complex and nuanced, it has changed over time. The way we studied gender in the past is not the same way we study it now and that surely means that, as historians, we can make room for other categories such as sexuality and disability in historical and social analysis. Exploring gender as a complex concept regarding the past is an essential part of social and historical analysis as gender forms an integral part of the social framework of past and present societies. Just as with both class and race, it is impossible to analyze society without each of these things. In those terms, yes, the ‘holy trinity’ of social analysis is still with race, class, and gender, though it must be acknowledged that these concepts can no longer be used in isolation.

Although there has been a particular focus on gender, class, and race also provide an essential role in social analysis. The way we view society must be done in conjunction with how those societies approach race and class as concepts. They both play an important role in how individuals interact with each other and society and they remain pillars of social and historical analysis. As with most of these categories, the basis of the social analysis lies within how race shapes and is shaped by relationships, rather than focusing on race itself. It is not what we do to explain race throughout history, but rather understanding and explaining the existence of race itself in the past as an ideology that has been formed. The way that we as historians and as a society view race is essential to social analysis as connections can still be made to understand how race as an ideology influences aspects of society. There is no real argument against why this is still important. Racism and racial prejudice are still rampant in the 21st Century and we must work to unravel the ideology that is not ‘genetically programmed’ but in fact ‘must arise historically’ (Barbara Field, Slavery, Race, and Ideology in the United States of America).

The way that we understand sexuality today is based on a long history of queer people and mostly recent scholarship. The move towards understanding and studying queer theory and studying sexuality in more depth has only really emerged in the last few decades. This may be a ‘new’ category of social analysis in comparison to the ‘holy trinity’, however, it is still important in understanding the past and society. Queer people have always existed, but the labels and identities they adopted have shifted over time and they have, more often than not, gone without these labels. Whether it is to escape persecution, or because there were no labels that aptly covered their identity, queer people have gone under the radar in historical research as there are no clear-cut ways of categorizing them as ‘queer’. Therefore, it is essential that when analyzing the past, we consider sexuality as a way of understanding individuals and groups when it may not be explicitly ‘queer’. Many historians may not view sexuality as an ‘essential’ form of social analysis however sexuality is an essential part of society as a whole. Whether it is about sex or queerness, society has always found an interest in sexuality and it would be a mistake to ignore that. How sexuality shaped the lives of individuals in the past can tell us a lot about what society saw as important or valuable. For example, one of the ways we can see what people were doing sexually, was how they wrote about what they should not be doing. In that, we know that to stop people from doing these things, they likely had to have been doing them in the first place. This is where church and government documents come in particularly useful, which is not an expected place to look for histories of sex and sexuality. An excellent example of this is Henry VIII’s Act Against Buggery (1534) which can tell us a lot about what people were doing as they were being warned against it. Documents like these also give us the ability to read into how society viewed these relations, though by society, that nearly always means upper-class people in power who could control narratives and publish these ideas. This is where it is important to acknowledge how these categories intersect. As with most historical research, our knowledge is dependent on the few documents we have available, meaning that our information is often drawn from only literate individuals, and the working class is often excluded from the narrative. The history of sexuality is about queerness as much as it is about sex itself and understanding the roots of homophobia, sexual liberation, and queerness as a concept is needed in current historical scholarship.

The way society has come to understand disability is something that has developed over many years. Disabled people have experienced years of oppression and mistreatment by society and understanding the formation of that and how it developed is essential to historical scholarship today. The way we are beginning to view the past and analyze society, it is becoming increasingly obvious that everything intersects. For example, there is no way we can study the history of disability without considering how gender intersects, likewise for race and class. Though the ‘holy trinity’ of social analysis may be the first method we jump to, it is important to consider how other factors interact with these and how the development of the way disabled people exist in society is impacted by their race, class, gender, sexuality, or other factors. People are not viewed with one identity in isolation, they are taken in as an entire person, with a multitude of aspects of their identity. This can be done and is most commonly done regarding race, class, and gender, but incorporating someone’s disability into their identity is essential, for example, when looking at workplaces or earning a living in general, someone’s ability to work in certain fields is almost entirely dependent on what abilities or disabilities they have, both mentally and physically. Yes, the ‘holy trinity’ remains important to social analysis, but as historians, we must branch out and understand how more things interact to create the conditions of society in the past that people existed in.

The concept of disability may seem well understood and obvious to us now, making it seem somewhat useless to use as a category of analysis, however, like many other categories mentioned here, the concept of disability is changeable. The nature of the category of ‘disabled’ is inherently a political one; as a category, it is ‘contested and debated’ (Alison Kafer, Feminist Queer Crip, 2013) and is not a consistent, defined category that can be applied to moments in history in the same way each time. It cannot even be applied to different places in the same way in the same period. The concept of disability has developed over time and the way we use it as a form of analysis now would wildly differ from the past, even by a few decades the way we view disability has changed. Before the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the categories of disability were limited to a few options: ‘the deaf, the blind, the orthopedically impaired, and the mentally retarded’ (Mary Jo. Deegan, Women and disability: The double handicap, 2018.). Since then, the definition of disability has become more nuanced as our understanding of disability has improved. The way we view disability is constantly changing but it is still important to challenge the normative ideas of how we view disability. Queer theory and ‘crip theory’ both intend to ‘challenge compulsory normativity’ (Joshua Reno, et al ‘Toward a Critical and Comparative Anthropology of Disability’) which is essential to the progression of social analysis. The inclusion of disability in the social analysis allows us to explore the roots of ablism as well as create a more whole picture of what being disabled means. The way that being disabled intersects with other aspects of society must not be ignored and is just as important of a basis of social analysis as the other methods.

To conclude, while the concept of the ‘holy trinity’ being race, class, and gender is a good basis for social analysis, there needs to be an acknowledgment that these do not exist in a vacuum. The influence of sexuality and disability is significant and should not be ignored. The interaction between these categories is essential to understanding society throughout history and can give real insight into current society. The use of gender in social analysis must be understood in a way that acknowledges the complexities of gender as well as how gender and identity can help us understand the past in a more nuanced way. The way we view sexuality is also important in how we can gain a full understanding of individuals’ experiences and how they interact with society. The study of disability is similar in this way, in understanding how society made it difficult or impossible to live authentically in the past as many individuals’ livelihoods were contingent on society’s implementation of what was considered ‘normal’. Although race, class, and gender are fundamental to social analysis, the development of historical scholarship must allow more room for complex identities and ideas.

Rights are things that an individual is/should be legally or morally allowed to do/have. Various countries allow little/ no rights to women, one of those countries is Saudi Arabia. Women not having many rights in Saudi Arabia has been practiced for over many centuries. This essay will discuss women’s rights in Saudi Arabia regarding gender discrimination.

Saudi Arabia is commonly known for its strict moral values and customs regarding religion and women. Gender discrimination is a global conflict, but it is prevalently seen in Saudi Arabia. Gender discrimination is so poignant in Saudi Arabia because there are strict sets of moral guidelines and ideologies that Saudi Arabian culture implements on its people. Although Saudi Arabian men impose restrictions on women for the sake of upholding their cultural beliefs and family honor, there is no doubt that Saudi Arabian culture is male-dominated and holds misogynistic views on women, but progress is being made. Firstly, gender discrimination is not an exclusive feature of Saudi Arabia, but it is a more outwardly visible problem there. Gender discrimination and male superiority are most visible in Saudi Arabian culture because “inhabitants of the region where the Arabic language predominates are, despite their diversity, bound into a singular cultural unit with a particular gender system” (Tucker VII). One belief most Saudis have in common is their “conservative view toward women” (Al-Mannai 82). Middle Eastern individuals know what behaviors to expect from each gender, and what each gender should and should not do. An effect of holding such a belief is that a man’s role in Saudi Arabia tends to be one of dominance and power; the male is the ruler of the house and the main source of income for the family, he has to be notified or asked for permission for virtually everything. A woman’s role on the other hand does not consist of such significance and does not grant the power that the male role does. Rather, the female role consists of women acting modestly and submissively; women are expected to be confined to being in their homes, caring for their families, and depending on their spouses or male relatives. For Saudi Arabian culture to have adopted such a mentality they must have had large amounts of people – particularly males – with the same belief in extreme modesty and male superiority. Laws are made of rules; they determine “how the [ideology of gender roles] was formulated, applied, and implemented” (Yahyaoui 38). To make gender roles a generally accepted Saudi Arabian ideology, the ideology must have been supported by laws both directly and indirectly. One form of direct control of women is religious police or vigilante; women aren’t allowed to socialize, act, or dress in a fashion that isn’t considered appropriate. To ensure that no woman is behaving outside of what the culture condones, Saudi Arabian males created police-like individuals or watchmen that supervise the streets to make sure that everyone is behaving, socializing, and dressing as their culture instructs them to do. Charges will apply if a woman doesn’t abide by Saudi Arabia’s common law. Women also cannot do anything without male advice or consent. They must have male escorts if they go out of their home, and they can only socialize with people of the same gender or nuclear family members of the opposite gender (Zuhur 219). If a female is having a bad day, or just feels the need to get out of their house they cannot even do that because, on top of all the restrictions imposed on women, they are not allowed to drive (Zuhur 219). Despite Saudi Arabia’s extreme restrictions on females, it seems as if women’s rights are beginning to be tended to. In the twenty-first century “workforce demographics have helped raise awareness in the Saudi Arabian gender gap and positive steps [have] been aimed at promoting women’s advancement within the labor market” (N.A. 2). Women are now encouraged to pursue an education with careers that Saudi Arabian culture perceives as feminine or appropriate for a woman to work instead of condoning women to stay at home and care for their families (N.A. 2). A career Saudi Arabians consider feminine is teaching and working in hospitals, and that is why we see “women’s roles are centered mainly in education and health,” (Mahdi 93); it is one of the few professions that pays well and is seen as appropriate for a woman to do so naturally women would center their lives around something that would be promising to invest time in. It is now easier for women to have access to universities and other institutions that further education than it was for women in the twentieth century. Such measures are effective because women used to only hold 5.4 of Saudi Arabia’s workforce and they presently hold 14.4 percent of Saudi Arabia’s entire workforce, 95 percent of which jobs are in the public sector, with 85 percent holding jobs that cannot be attained without education (N.A. 2) Education is slowly starting to help gender disparity to be addressed.

To conclude, females in Saudi Arabia are conditioned to rely on males and lack independence to not compromise male superiority; if women were as equally privileged as men that means one day they could have the potential to surpass males and thusly no longer contribute to the superior status males hold in Saudi Arabia.

Chair (Barker) concluded that it is possible to use the anthropological method to study ‘cultural and social organization’. Holmes (1998) pointed out this method to formulate a series of sociolinguistic universals. These include: 1. Men and women develop a variety of ways to use language. (1998: 462) 2. Women tend to pay more attention to the emotional function of interactions than men. (1998: 463) 3. Women tend to use language devices that emphasize harmony more than men. (1998: 468) 4. Women tend to interact by maintaining and strengthening unity. (1998: 472) 5. Women have a more flexible style than men. (1998: 475) Waltz (Waltz Broker) and Holmes (Holmes) analyze the method of difference from a cultural point of view. Chambers (Chambers, 1992) gives a biological explanation. Chambers claims that it has fewer neurological benefits, but is congenital in women. This advantage is believed to be achieved by using verbal skills and is being transferred to other behavioral abilities. Chambers believes the data from Detroit and Belfast are from Japan and the Middle East. Volatility analysis. Despite pointing out the intermediate nature of this explanation, he argued that women are precocious whether they have verbal expression abilities since childhood, and that they tend to apply oral expression skills to various growth processes (Chambers 1992: 201).

Sexual Difference Voice Quality: In voice communication, there is a difference in the voice quality used by men and women. Female. Male: Female: talk loudly talk quietly deep tone treble slow high speed bend bend comfortable tone nervous tone strong style powerless Style Nonverbal Communication: Similarly, there are differences in the quality of nonverbal communication used by men. And woman. Male: Female: using more physical space than performance of physical space staring maintaining proper eye contact using command gestures using consent gestures heading horses Tilt to keep the ‘ poker face’ facial expressions the reason for the difference in use, there are several reasons for gender differences in language use. In this regard, you can issue 3 bills. First, unlike male females biologically, these differences have a serious impact on female gender differences. The use of language. Women tend to be psychologically united and get along with each other. It is supportive and non-competitive. People can naturally receive independence and power rather than units. Second, social organization is based on a hierarchical structure of power relationships. In such a system that men have, women generally do not have this advantage. Verbal behavior reflects the dominance of society and stops identifying male items they are trying to control. They made each other and made it with women. Women feel that they have no power to get out of the spot. Third, men and women are people of society. They have learned to behave in certain ways.

Language behavior is primarily a learning behavior. Men learn to be men, women learn to be women. Most studies show that differences in male and female morphology indicate that this interaction is likely the result of different social and cultural adaptations and various gender distribution activities. It is prejudiced to call the female style ‘cooperation’ and the male style ‘competition’. Most evidence suggests that men and women use other types of languages because of their different roles in society. The more different the roles, the bigger the difference. It is a very rigid society and hierarchical, the roles of men and women are not so different, and the languages are the same. Changes in society also reflect language changes. Domination and Obedience, Status and Power Most studies have found that in mixed conversations men tend to be more dominant than women. The dominant method is mainly supported by power-based variability. Power, on the other hand, comes in social, economic, social and historical positions. Helena Leet-Pellegrini (Helena Leet-Pellegrini) suggested that men’s desire for conversation ability is higher than that of women who are interested in participating in group conversations with women’s professionals at the same level as men’s professionals. According to Jennifer Coates, men can get more attention in the classroom environment and more attention in the field of science. The technical issues that can lead to great success in these areas can ultimately have more power in a technological society. Conversation is not the only area where power is considered an important aspect of male-female motivation. It reflects the power of all aspects of communication, from the way it communicates to the actual theme of communication.

Women tend to be less concerned about power, more trained, and maintain relationships, and men are more concerned about their position. Women’s Communication Tends to focus more on building and maintaining their relationships. Meanwhile, the male’s state is high, power comes first. Your communication style reflects your desire to maintain your position in the relationship. According to Tan’s investigation, men tend to tell stories to maintain their position. They make jokes or stories mainly centered on the man himself. On the other hand, women don’t pay much attention to their strengths, so their stories are not centered around themselves but around others. The woman to learn is on the same level as the people around her, neglecting her role in the story and trying to strengthen relationships with the people around her. Zimmerman West (1975) and others who use the problem as a control strategy believe that male domination is represented by male control over males. Macro tissue can be expressed under male control over at least some of the microstructures. (Zimmerman West 1975: 125). It can be seen that one of the control mechanisms of the microstructure is the disruption strategy. Since men are more likely to disturb others than women, they can establish a male-dominant position in conversation. Therefore, some people ask to change the shift, but this issue is raised and maintained by men, or abandoned by women. Meanwhile, in some cultures, the problem can be used as a control mechanism. The above non-interval rules put pressure on speakers in these cultures and require answers to questions from many conversational situations.

Questions with examples or examples that can be used to maintain or maintain courtesy when doing comfortably without asking questions can be used to control the direction of the conversation and specific sentences combined. This kind of problem is used more often by women than by men, so you can set up a female domain. Gender composition Gender is determined by biology. Gender differences indicate biological physical institutional differences. Gender It is a social building, including the general manifestation of psychological, social, and cultural differences between men. And woman. Sex differences are recognized: Women: Have fewer fat-rich muscles, are not as strong as men, and have less weight. They mature faster and last longer. They have different sound qualities and different sound technologies, but most of the differences are likely due to different socialist processes: life voice quality. The difference between male and female voices in almost every language in the world is, for example, Hindi: Differences in word selection between different languages. Japanese women use ne or wa morphological changes when they say. According to Sapir (1929), the Yana language in California contains a special format that women can use to make speeches. Actors-actresses, waiters-waitresses, and teachers-in idioms of discrimination based on other genders like lovers. Deep-rooted patterns of semantic development and use further reinforce some of these differences. The scope and meaning of the hostess are completely different. Some other differences: man and woman, man and woman, man and woman, single, and bereavement from husband. d Widows and wives have different usages and meanings. Reikohu pointed out that there is a term for ‘ equality’ that refers to men and women.

Various English language societies. ‘He’s a pro’ and ‘She’s a pro.’ Gender is a social structure Gender is a structure that should be attributed to many social institutions. These include families, educational institutions, judicial institutions, and religions. Media has recently become a powerful factor. Agent for gender-related ideas. Gender Unlike gender, it depends on a biological distinction. It is peculiar, it changes with time and context, which is more uncertain. Who is the sexist language ‘sexist’? Who is using the language or the language itself? Lakoff claims that English is a sexist language. Therefore, with the use of language, women are more likely to submit to men. For example, women’s names, job titles, and job titles are often different from men’s. Tell men, using sex, if the proportion of women, all other conditions are the same. If you don’t have a name, use the following terms: Mrs., Mrs. Dear, or Baby or Baby. Women receive more titles than men, and men are more familiar than other men. Languages vary depending on whether they contain gender Differences in words that describe objects without biological gender (quoted from Vigliocco 2005, p-515). Language is sufficient to adapt to all forms of change and space, so all expressions and gender-biased speeches are possible regardless of gender: president, president, salesman, salesman, actor, etc. You can also initialize the language and avoid dominant structures in structure and use. idiom. Therefore, the language itself is not sexist. People who speak a language may or may not be discriminated against by gender.

The feminist movement calls for the elimination of all types of discrimination, including social, economic, and linguistic discrimination. For women. Many suggestions can avoid the use of sexist language. Morphological changes: Supplier Lady-Vendor Sales Assistant, President, Craftsman, Firefighter-Firefighter, Security Guard Security, Human Artificial, Artificial Art, etc. Some women have recently united themselves. I tried to declare. ‘Recover’ your language. ‘Men as the dominant group created language, thoughts, and reality,’ Spender said. Penelope believes that women need to know ‘parental tongue lies’ and ‘the world of patriarchal discourse.’ She argues that women need to restructure their language for their purposes. Many feminists try to develop their linguistic customs, non-competitive remarks, or interrupted remarks for ‘women’ for free. Emergency ‘feminization’ distinguishes men and women. Gender and Gender Gender is a social construct, and gender is a biological term referring to men and women. Gender is a political vision based on gender, and is based on the dual division of men and women. This binary division seems natural. But the problem of this division starts with one. The other one is considered the second and the second. Chanter (2006) states that ‘that is, biology, anatomy, physiology, nature, DNA structure, genetics, materiality,’ body ‘(or represented by someone)’ ranks first in logic or chronology. Social structure, gender-historical roles, expectations and stereotypes, cultural customs, sexual taboos and taboo behaviors, etc. Chante, 2006, p. 2. u2016 -43). Therefore, it can be said that a given biological gender (ie, boys, girls, men, and women) provided the basis for gender composition (gender attributes). Male and female). According to Tannen (1991: 77), dialogue language is above all sympathy among women. (Tannen 1991: 77). Its purpose is to establish contacts and negotiate relationships. Women tend to represent similar places and experiences, and in meetings, women tend to discuss and use their experiences as evidence. Meanwhile, for most men, language is a way to maintain independence and maintain a bargaining position. Hierarchical structure. According to Tannen (1991: 92), men perform tasks by demonstrating knowledge and skills. And men It can also be achieved by ‘telling the story’ through ‘basic steps’, joking, conveying information, etc. For example, meetings are often discussed by making clear statements about good and evil.

Gender issues affect boys and men just as much as it affects girls and women, however, it has been found that boys and men tend to not report their anxieties and depression on this subject. The social construction of masculinity could be one factor of the rise in suicides amongst boys and young men. Not feeling comfortable in expressing their feeling in this heteronormative (the assumption people should be and are heterosexual) society.

The notion of a being child is paradoxical to a becoming child. Focusing on children in the present not their future roles (McNamee, 2016) and allowing children an active involvement in their own agency by giving them choices. Moreover, respecting children as beings and respect that they have a voice, pre-verbal and verbal. If a child is a baby or an infant whom has not begun speaking or is a child with SEND and cannot speak or has difficulty doing so, this does not mean they have no validity in their agency. It is our ethical position to recognise children’s voices. Children have the right to be heard, as stated by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 12 (UNICEF, 2019), every child has the right to express their views freely concerning all areas of their own life and to be seen as citizens in society not just children waiting to become adults.

However, the dichotomy of a child being brought up as becoming could have a very different childhood from a child being brought up as being. A being child is an individual in their own right. They are different from adults and each other, everyone is individual (Creasy and Corby). The only trouble is some parents, practitioners and policy makers do not give children the opportunity to be heard as they are too busy worrying/planning what they are going to be. Moreover, Children’s agency can be seen as negative, challenging or problematic when they are not seen as complying to policymakers or adult wishes or demands.

In 1997, Allison James and Alan Prout argued that children are deserving of study, not as part of their family, as was then, but in their own right (McNamee, 2016). So began the Social studies of childhood. This study rejected the idea of children as becomings, started the awareness of childhood being socially constructed, took research away from the process of development being just about age and recognising childhood as a time of children’s competence and agency. Seeing children as not only capable of making valid choices but to enforce their choices on the world.

There are many reasons for Holistic education, not curriculum based but child based. Focusing on the interest of the child and learning through play, not subject centred and/or teacher led and beginning where the learner is, not where they are meant to be (McDowall, 2016), Gender, socio economic status, learning needs and race or culture are also some of the holistic views to be taken into consideration to see the whole child and what they might require. Children’s centres are considered holistic as they support all aspects of children’s development (Neaum,2016).

Furthermore, in education there is a push for practitioners and how they are gendering children. As gender and sexuality are socially constructed (Kane, 2013) teachers and practitioners should offer ranges of experience instead of identifying their behaviour along specific male or female lines. There is an need for teachers and practitioners to be educated so they are aware of issues which may arise, such as intersex children (children whom have characteristics of both male and female sexes), or Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood, GIDC, (children experiencing continual discomfort with their assigned sex). This could help provide support to a child who may be feeling constrained and/or confused, giving them agency over their own gender (Kane, 2013)

In the contemporary family, children do not hold much power but that is not to say they passively comply to their parents rules and regulations, they negotiate with them (McNamee, 2016). Children can be hyper-responsible, censoring themselves and knowing what they should be doing. By being social actors, children participate in their own life.

Some organisations see the importance of children being. They understand how giving children the option for their own safety and to have their own point of view, especially as a child, is valid. For example, the NSPCC have a campaign named ‘Pants’. This campaign aims to teach children how to keep themselves safe from abuse by informing parents how vital it to have the conversation with their children about sexual abuse and teaching parents how to make sure the conversation is appropriate and easy for a child to understand.

Introduction

Video games have become a significant part of the media diet, as well as have been seen as a crucial symbolic system that mat have a wide range of social influences (Comstock and Cobbey, 1979). Considering the influence of video games as a form of media, it is necessary to research whether some game elements represent real-world situations and problems or video games’ representation are disconnected with real-life; as well as the impacts of game representations. This article affirms the video games’ representation to some extent reflects the realities and problems. In addition to harming real life, the game representation has a positive impact on it. It may not have much impact on real life. This article first analyzes the importance of video games as a representation of reality and issues based on the nature of video games as the most representative and influential media platform of the era. Secondly, considering that the existing video game analysis work is mainly focused on three topics which the communication researchers extremely interested in, including violence, gender, and race (Dmitri et al. 2009). Consequently, this article will analyze the reaction and influence of game representations to real life from three perspectives, containing gender representation, race representation, and video game violence.

Gender representation

Gender representation in the video game is largely reflected in that video games have always been a male-dominated media, including market audiences, group players, and characters in the game (Williams, 2006).

Firstly, males’ characters are more frequently present in video games than females. Secondly, females role are more likely to play secondary roles instead of primary roles. Dietz (1998) examined the stereotypes of violence and gender in 33 video games from Nintendo and Sega. The research demonstrated that the most common description of female characters is that there are no women at all: more than 40 per cent of the games have no female characters. Apart from the frequency of occurrence, male characters are usually more playable than females. On the one hand, when women characters appear, they are likely to be secondary roles. For instance, Dill (2005) analyzed the top 20 bestselling video games of 1999, which illustrated in the 20 games, 70 per cent of the main characters are men, while 10 per cent are women. As for the secondary role, 55 percent are men, as well as 31 per cent are women. Even though video games have female characters as the main roles, these women characters tend to be with men characters.

Male characters act as protectors, directing or performing the majority actions, while female characters are regarded as partner roles, indicating that women are only a significant part of video games (Burgess, 2006). On the other hand, for the video games that players are allowed to choose the gender of the game characters, the players are more willing to play male characters. For example, when playing The Simms 2 or Guild War, 60 per cent of players tend to operate male characters (Williams, 2006). Thirdly, the depiction of women in the video games reflects traditional gender roles and female stereotypes, including characters’ physical representations (body, dress), the ability and images of male and female characters (heroes, victims). Miller and Summers (2007) claimed that male characters are stronger but female characters are sexier. Women are usually portrayed as large breasts and more exposed(王者荣耀⼥女女英雄). Lara Croft in Tomb Raider (1996) is one of the most famous female game characters in the history of video games (Egenfeldt-Nielsen et al., 2008). However, she was criticized due to the unrealistic size of her breasts. With the rise of the feminist movement and the advancement of women’s status, female characters are slowly subverting the gender stereotypes on the image. Among many games released in 2013, including The Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite, the Rebooted Tomb Raider, and Beyond: Two Souls, female characters are in a leading position. However, in-game narratives, women are still restricted by men. Women characters are seen as “accessories” for men characters or complementary roles in driving game progress. Princess Zelda in the early Legend of Zelda and Peach Princess in the whole Mario series are typical examples. They are all characters who need to be rescued (Totilo, 2013). The female characters mainly can assist other roles. For example, in Outlast 2 (2018), players are required to operate two characters simultaneously. The male characters can more insight the enemy’s weakness to improve the ability of single combat; the female characters can hear the footsteps around them and play the role of detection to assist the male characters in battle.

Williams (2006) illustrate that the gender representations in video games create a “vicious circle”. The more masculine the video games are, the more young men are more likely to be attracted to the games. Consequently, these men are more likely to engage in game- related industries in the future. 88.5 per cent of developers are men while women are only 11.5 per cent (Gourdin, 2005). When developing video games, male creators tend to develop more masculine games, including making male characters appear more frequently and giving male characters more important roles in the game. Consequently, male players will be the primary audience for these gender-skewed games. The game developers will be more likely to develop games for male players to satisfy their current clients. The vicious circle keeps female underrepresented in video games. The low representation of women in the video game and gender stereotypes have reinforced society’s perceptions of traditional gender roles and gender discrimination against female players (Shanon, 1997). Yee (2006) claimed that female group’s status and power is real- world are not as high as that of the male group. In addition to video games, the representation of women in other media is generally lower than that of men. With the development of the feminist movement, more and more women groups appear in the current media reports, while audiences rarely pay attention to them. Female roles tend to be “male gaze” object, including huge breasts, revealing clothing. The status of women characters as primary facilitators leads to the emergence of female roles as accessories to male characters. To some extent, the above situation aggravates the imbalance hegemonic masculinity. Further, based on the games’ masculine characteristics, the attitude of male players towards female players reflects the stereotypes of women.

Female is considered not to play MMO games. However, it is game culture rather than game mechanics as a major obstacle to potential female players. Although female MMO gamers are small groups, women spend the same amount of time playing MMO games as men. The underlying cause of the underrepresentation of female players in the MMO is the social environment. Social norms and perceptions may control women’s exposure to electronic opportunities in ways that are not available to men. Most players not only think that the women in the game are unreal but think that women who play MMO are trying to establish a relationship. Even when male players introduce games to their girlfriends, they should be strongly encouraged to play a supporting role to promote their games (Yee, 2006).

Race representation

Due to technical immaturity, early video games imposed certain restrictions on the design and representative form of video games. For instance, the early Moria had no apparent racial feature. Nevertheless, with the development of video game rendering capabilities, Mario has shown Italians’ characteristics, containing the love of pizza and pasta. Additionally, GTA portrays symbols of race more clearly through skin colour, environment, gestures. The description of gender in games is narrative. Black and Latino characters are usually limited to violent applicators, athletes, or are completely invisible. In the GTA series, blacks and Latinos are more likely to be considered as symbols of violence. For example, after completing the robbery mission, a black character, if players operate a black character, the players’ risk assessment will be higher than playing the white character. Furthermore, black characters will be forcibly arrested in front of the police. However, if the white character has a gun, most players will be asked to negotiate instead of forcibly arresting.

In sports games, the representation of black characters is higher, which is closely related to popular sports programs. Many sports game roles are based on real athletes from the real world sports league like NFL Street 3 and NBA Ballers Phenom. NBA Ballers demonstrated the fame and wealth that sports celebrities will receive. On the one hand, increasing black boys of working-class aim to become sports celebrities, thereby establishing a learning environment to activate the black hegemonic masculinity (Egenfeldt-Nielsen et al., 2008). However, the power and universality of these forms of expression are likely to distort the young black men’s values, thus having a huge impact on their lifestyle choices and behaviour (Everett and Watkin, 2007). On the other hand, “the desire to be black” play a role in the virtual reality of sports games because of black athletes’ athletic prowess and the growing popularity of sports stars (Leonard, 2004). In the immersive environment of urban or street games, not only can teenagers interact with realistic environments, but they have the opportunity to interact and express black masculinity.

The corresponding invisibility and the relatively negative on-screen images of other race contributed to the fact that members of other races were not interested in the game. In GTA’s game BBS, many players prefer to play white characters, even if the players are from other races (Everett and Watkin, 2007). The members of other races who are not interested in games are less likely to become game developers and are less likely to develop games with a higher representation of their own population, thus generating another ‘negative’ cycle (Williams, 2006).

In the view of Harwood and Anderson (2002), the existence, absence, and type of social group image in the media are closely related to social justice, power imbalance, and stereotypes. The groups that appear more frequently in video games are more “important”, as well as these groups are in possession of more status and rights in their daily lives. The media is both a mirror of existing social forces and a causal case of them (Yee, 2008). In video games, the social groups that recur in the specific roles will be more easy to access by other players, which make it easier for social groups with high frequency to be recalled, while the unrepresentative groups slowly become invisible. In general, the imbalance in video games to some extent reflects or affects the imbalance in the formation of social identity, social power and policy in real life. In the video game, the low representation of women and non-white races leads to their rights and status is ignored.

Game violence

The majority of critics believe that violent games have a negative impact on ordinary relationships (Schulzke, 2010). Nevertheless, Goerger (2014) stated that whether violence games have negative impacted is associated with its morality rather than simple manifestations of violent graphics.

Since the emergence of violent games, an increasing number of media storms have blamed juvenile crimes on violent games. Opponents argue that players’ minds are contaminated by violence in the games, leading them more likely to react to aggressive behaviour in the real world (McCormick, 2001). Proponents argue that although violent games can be offensive, they lack a clear link to violence (Markey et al., 2015). Since the emergence of violent games, more and more media storms have blamed juvenile crimes on violent games. Opponents argue that players’ minds are contaminated by violence in the game, making them more likely to exhibit aggressive behaviour in the real world (McCormick, 2001). Proponents argue that although violent games can be offensive, they lack a clear link to violence (Markey et al., 2015). Scott (2011) and others even said that violent games can be used as a means for players to vent negative emotions, which is likely to reduce violent crime. The violent factors of video games are reflected in three aspects: realism, graphicness, and gameplay.

Advanced computer equipment and technology have made the depiction of violence more and more realistic. Pixelated non-human characters have been replaced by ultra- realistic humans or demons. Furthermore, modern games’ visual effects are more bloody than in earlier games, which describe a variety of graphic violence, including the enemy being shot by a shotgun, the player being hacked, and so on. Killing ultra-realistic human characters is more aggressive and more influential to players than violent attacks on non- human characters (Goerger, 2017).

The third violent elements in-game involved in the gameplay. In many contemporary games, players cannot successfully access the game without simulated violence. Let us take the first-person play games as an example. Players are required to participate in violence as a condition for demonstrating skills. The Last of Us is a horror game. Players must direct a specific NPC to the hospital to develop detoxification vaccine to save the world. To protect their character, players will fight against zombies and infected humans encountered on the road. The Last of Us is known for its extreme graphic violence.

However, violence in the game is considered “necessary” or “forced” and the ultimate goal of the game is “salvation”, which emphasizes the fragility of the characters and the importance of toe moral choices they face. Although the players simulate violent actions, they do not perform similar actions in real life. They are primarily attracted to the entertainment value of the games, while violent simulation provides this kind of entertainment (Goldstein, 2005). From this perspective, the violence in the game will not affect real life. Whey studying GTA5, the core plot elements of GTA5 is a crime. Players are asked to rob the NPC characters for clearance. Critics illustrate GTA5 guides players to make money through criminal means in a hyper-realistic city (Everett and Watkins, 2008). This gameplay is morally problematic. Additionally, violence in the video games is often associated with drug crimes and gang activities, which also occur in real life. The player’s entertainment effect from the violent depiction that affects real life indicates their defects in character (Goerger, 2017). Although this gameplay does not harm real people, it is morally problematic and pollutes the player’s behaviour or character. In general, if there is a moral problem in a violent game, it hurts the player’s character. The role of violence in video games is negative for real life.

Graphic violence has little to do with players and real society. What kind of behaviour game players will make in the real world depends on players rather than the game. A mentally sound adult has the ability to distinguish between ‘reality’ and ‘virtual’, as well as ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’ Therefore, in essence, violent games do not lead to player crime. The game representations reflect some extent certain social phenomena, which have an impact on society and players behaviour. Furthermore, the game representation affects or reflects the impressions of outside society on specific social groups (Comstock and Cobbey, 1979). Gender and race representation in video games exposes white male hegemony and stereotypes of women and races, which hinders women and other ethnic members from accessing the game to a certain extent, causing them to become fewer game developers and form a Vicious circle. As for the violent performance in video games, graphic violence hardly affects players’ violent behaviour in the real world. However, crime games like GTA5, because of their moral problems, are considered to have a negative impact on players’ personality and behaviour.

Over the past two decades, research on gender issues in marketing and consumer research has grown exponentially. This special issue of Marketing Theory, along with the ongoing conference series of the Association for Consumer Research Gender, Marketing and Consumer Research, now approaching its tenth iteration, shows the continued interest in our disciplines in gender issues; positions this gender research within its wider humanities and social science context; and introduces the reader to the four papers in this particular issue. The paper argues that in marketing and consumer research, gender research has advanced from the margins to become a large body of work. That said, there is still substantial development opportunities where gender is concerned, and feminist research can provide new insights, criticisms, theories and approaches

To examine contemporary images of gender, an interpretive approach based on social psychology, feminist theory and art criticism is developed. A selection of advertisements from contemporary fashion magazines and catalogs is compiled to highlight common trends identified by studies on the portrayal of gender in advertising, using and building on visual analysis techniques. The body — and what it expresses — is a core place of interest, and debate focuses on how advertising is portrayed by female and male bodies.

When framed in a social science perspective, the conventions of art history offer unique contributions to the study of advertising and gender, which are well suited for researchers interested in consumer culture. Socalled ambush marketers are companies that use clever advertising imagery (and/or ad placement) to link their brand(s) to a major event without having to purchase the expensive rights fees that event properties often charge for official sponsorship status.This study uses an experimental design to investigate some of the marketing strategy’s effects on ambush. The emphasis is on the potential impact of recency (ad exposure), as well as gender differences, memory, brand disposition, and behavioral intentions for products that are viewed as official sponsors.

Respondents (n‐215) were randomly assigned to classes that consider programming for Olympics overlap with ads for either official sponsors or ambush marketers. In their pretest sponsor recall or recognition levels, no statistically significant differences are observed between males and females, whereas recency of ad exposure is found to have a significant impact on the aggregate’s post-test sponsor awareness. Significant gender differences are detected, however, in attitude toward the brand and purchase intentions for two of three product categories investigated, as females have higher mean scores for those two measures.

The consequences of these findings are discussed and supplemented by suggestions for event sponsors seeking to retain the interest of event sponsorships as well as protective promotional tactics to protect their official sponsors ‘ investments.

Introduction

Higher education is vital for generations irrespective of gender to lead a path of development and growth. Being emphasized by Swami Vivekananda – ‘To educate your women first and leave them to themselves, they will tell you what reforms are necessary’, but unfortunately there has been a gap in various perspectives. Considering countries like India has drastically reduced the gender gap from 2013 and as per HRD report it has considerably reduced gap by nine lakhs but still figures in profession and masters remained stagnant. In UK women has overpowered men in higher education but are lagging behind in pay rate and job satisfaction.

Subjects Studied

In India, women have outnumbered men in the masters of arts, Bachelors of Science (nursing), postgraduate in science and commerce stream but the graph get skewed in case of the undergraduate programs like BTech, Bachelors of Business Administration, LLB, Bachelor of Computer Administration. Significantly women have increased in last 5 years and expected to increase further as well. In contrast UK also, women have led the graph in almost two-thirds of degree subjects as per study done by UCAS (university admissions service). Both the countries have improved and women has considerably increasing for higher education.

Enrolment Numbers

With India, GER (Gross Enrolment Ratio) at 25.2 and UK also have higher enrolment for women as compared to men. But there are specific areas of study like engineering, LLB, Civil construction where it has been depicted that men have outnumbered the female. GER is calculated for age group 18-23 and it has shown in India women have lead in the streams of art and masters but again lowered in bachelors’ program. Same pattern has been established in UK with men increasing in streams like computer science, civil construction, engineering. Both the countries have almost higher enrolments of women over men except some streams.

Graduate Pay rates and job satisfaction

The saddening fact both the countries have huge gender gap in relation to pay rate and job satisfaction. It has been divulged by Monster Salary Index report India has median gender gap of 24.8% across Biomedical and biological sciences, economics, engineering, geosciences, atmospheres, health sciences, physics and astronomy, psychology and a narrower gap of 14.7 % in education and research. Women in UK are paid averagely 15.9 % low than men as per Times Higher Education (THE) 2018 survey. Also, as per DFE latest figures average difference between pay rate on grounds of work after graduation, one year after graduation and after post-graduation is 10 %.

Conclusion

As we can conclude women are majorly motivated for higher education and also believe in educating themselves but there is gender discrimination in jobs, profession, pay rate and satisfaction. Policies should be implemented to cover the difference and also make it equal for both of them. Women are not equally paid or are not equally treated at various market place creating world issue, which should be addressed immediately.

References

1. https://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/statistics-new/AISHE2015-16.pdf
2. https://www.bbc.com/news/education-43416671
3. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/766104/2018_Gender_Pay_Gap.pdf
4. https://media.monsterindia.com/logos/research_report/MSI_Full_Report_2016_July_2017.pdf
5. https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2018/nsf18304/data/tab48.pdf
6. https://thewire.in/education/women-in-academia-gender-pay-gap
7. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/jan/05/gender-gap-uk-degree-subjects-doubles-eight-years-ucas-study
8. https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=EAG_ENRL_SHARE_CATEGORY
9. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/gender-gap-narrowing-in-higher-education-hrd-survey/articleshow/62407944.cms

While doing my research on how violence is linked to gender, I found a few web articles that cover this topic. Most of this articles are written by people who have faced violence or any form of inhumanity because of their gender. My goal in this paper is to describe while giving examples; how violence is linked to gender and the three different forms of gendered violence. I will also define symbolic violence and explain how it and sexual violence are related to sexism.

To achieve this goal, I have organized my paper into four main sections. In the first section, I explain how violence is linked to gender. In the second section I discuss three different forms of gendered violence and give examples. In the third section I define symbolic violence and explain how it and sexual violence are linked to sexism. I end my paper with a fourth section where I state the lessons I learn from Ted’s video and how it relates to society.

Violence is a form of behavior that involves physical actions with the intention of hurting someone or something. In both ancient and modern society, gender parity has led to some forms of violence and wickedness to the society; mostly oppressing females. For example, cases of rape and sexual assault have risen. Research has proven that five times more women than men are victims of sexual assault and rape. Nevertheless, it is rare to meet a woman who has never had to endure whistles and calls from filthy groups of men while passing a road or street. This is known as street harassment and is common everywhere. Most ladies prefer to shrug it off and pretend the actions do not affect them while in reality it does. According to a research by the Peace Research Institute of Oslo(PRIO), men are more likely to be killed form conflicts than women. Society targets men and boys as a threat to society because they pose a threat to the opposition. This is because of the socially assumed role which is given to men as fighter and soldiers in times of war.

Symbolic violence is a form of violence that is not physical and is used by people in power in different groups of society. It can be used by different domains for example ethnicity and gender. For example, the view that women are weak or that men are born fighters and soldiers. Sexual violence on the other hand is a form of violence that involves a person taking part in a sexual activity without his or her will. On other point, the gender binary that classifies gender into strictly 2 distinct and opposite forms of masculine and feminine causes harm to both men and women due to their genetical make up. In general, women’s life expectancy is longer than men’s in almost every country in the world. In the United States, a woman’s life expectancy is 79 while a man’s is 72( Aulette and Wittner 324). Also, human male fetuses die more often than female ones, and more males die a year after birth in comparison to female babies. The result of this is a shocking statistic, by the age of a 100 years, the ratio of men is 11 in a 100 women (Aulette and Wittner 324). The reason for this is that females have the genetic advantage over males due to the fact that they have two copies of the X chromosome, that protects them from X-linked diseases such as muscular dystrophy or hemophilia.

Gender illnesses is a term that refers to diseases that are experienced by a certain gender due to environmental factors. In the United States, due to the gendered division of labour, men are expected to go out and provide for the family and women are expected to do housework and provide care in the home. Men end up working long hours and because they also take jobs in stressful occupations such as the military, construction or mining, they develop high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. Women are expected to do housework and provide care even if they having jobs and this leads to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.