wha an 4 - Friday, January 12, 1990 - North Shore News Ty image suffers Women's FORUM STRESSES MEDIA LITERACY BY THE time children graduate from high school, they will have- spent 11,000 hours in the classroom, and between 15,000 and 25,000 hours in front of the TV set. This statistic, says the exec- utive director of Mediawatch, underlines the urgent need for parents and educators to teach their children ‘‘media literacy.’’ By PEGGY TRENDELL-WHITTAKER News Reporter Suzanne Strutt recently spoke at Presentation House on The Images of Women in the Media. The event was sponsored by the North Shore Women’s Centre. Strutt’s presentation ranged from the portrayal of violence on television, to the effects of gender-role stereotyping of women in the media, to the ways we can teach our children to ‘‘deconstruct’’ violent or stereotypical images for themselves, instead of being brainwashed. Strutt says there are not only fewer images of women in the media than of men, but that those images are likely to portray a damaging stereotype. In cartoon programming, for example, only 16 per cent of the characters are female, and 1 in 5 female charac- ters are shown performing home management tasks, as opposed to 1 in 40 males. “Children identify very strongly with same-sex characters,’’ noted Strutt. The dearth of women char- acters in cartoons, or prime time TV, in which 70 per cent of the characters are male, sends 2 message to children and adults alike that women are unimportant in our society. Even when women are shown holding down professional careers, their position is often trivialized, says Strutt, as in commercials that portray businesswomen and doc- tors in their offices worrying about their pantyhose or plotting an of- fice romance. Women disappear from the Screen and from the ads when they are over 40, Strutt notes, and the message we receive is that women are acceptable only so long as they are young, beautiful and thin. A National Film Board video shown during the presentation underlines her point: one of its Statistics reveals that 80 per cent of Grade 4 girls in the United States are on diets. Says film narrator Jean Killbourne: ‘‘The message (of ads) is ‘you’re ugly, you’re disgusting — buy something.’”’ Strutt says that by repeatedly limiting media images to beautiful, albeit unrealistic, women, media producers are sending out the message that women are ‘‘objects of consumption’? — and that can be very dangerous. “Turning humans into objects is the first step in justifying vio- lence,’ emphasized Killbourne. **Violence is inevitable once you turn a person into a thing.’’ Some of the ads shown in the film Still Killing Us Softly show women being chased down alleys by men or posing with a man’s fist held to their face. One shoe adver- tisement shows the lower half of a woman in a party dress lying twisted on the floor, with the shadow of a man looming over her. The appearance is that she has been raped or murdered. Exposure to such images of vio- fence doesn’t lead directly to their imitation, says Strutt, ‘‘but what is potentially more damaging is the sense of fear and powerlessness generated by images of a world out See TV Page 5 An exotic Safari into the heart of fine East African Indian Cuisine A.C.A.E.! A CUSTOMER APPRECIATION EVENT Bring In this ad for ONE FREE DINNER ENTREE When a second dinner entree of equal or greater value is purchased (up to $10.00). Not valid with any other promotional discount, I Not valid with buffet. Maximum 2 coupons per dinner party. § Valid to Jan. 31, 1990. Mee i ee a ww Recommended “Where to Eat in Canada” - ‘89 * + NEWS photo Elke Schroter SUZANNE STRUTT, national director of Mediawatch, recently spoke at 1344 LONSDALE AVE. RESERVATIONS Presentation House on stereotypical images of women in the media and : ~ the negative effect they can have on our society. The presentation was ff NORTH VANCOUVER 984 2 a a 5 organized by the North Shore Women‘s Centre. 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