Gender: Images, Stereotypes, Icons

1. Gender: Images, Stereotypes, Icons • Biological sex involves chromosomes, hormones, genitals, etc. Biologically, there is noabsolute difference between male and female; each person is on a continuum, with some being more female than others, and some being more male than others. Maleness and femaleness are readily identified in most cases, but sex is always a matter of degree, not of kind.

2. Sex and Gender • Sex and Gender are inseparable; those who are sexual males are normally perceived as gendered men and sexual females are normally perceived as gendered women. • Unlike sex, Gender is always a matter of perception. Thus, a male who is perceived as a woman could be said to be sexually male yet gendered as a woman.

3. Gender Image is a perception of Appearance • Gender identity is established by cultural appearance, traits, and idealizations—all matters of perception by self and others • Thus, Gender Image is the perception of individuals as either men or women based on appearance • Gender Image is a perception of body shape, facial features, hair length, voice, skin as images of “a man” or “a woman”

4. Gender Stereotype is a matter of perception of traits • Stereotypes are “typical traits” perceived as inherent in men and women—they are culturally influenced, and bear little resemblance to real people. • Women are stereotyped as “emotional, gentle, nurturing, helpful, kind, and warm.” • Men are stereotyped as “independent, active,competitive, persistent, confident, and decisive.” • Gender Stereotypes are not seen as ideal, but merely typical. Research shows that the ideal man or woman is not the stereotype, but a more complex idealization of a combination of men’s and women’s traits.

5. What is an icon? • The word originally meant a work of art that made use of a well-known symbol or metaphor to represent religious meaning. • The Cross, for example, remains a Christian icon • Later, the meaning of the word was broadened to include artworks that represent any deeply felt meaning • Some characters in literature are icons; Huck Finn is an icon of American individualism • In movies, Forest Gump is an icon of innocence and persistence

6. Gender Icons are perceived as ideal men, ideal women • An icon, unlike an image or a stereotype, is an idealization, a fantasy, a glorification of what a man or woman could be—not what they are as individuals (image) or what they are typically (stereotype). • Gender Icons are emotional and intellectual fantasies that allow us to imagine men and women at their best • Gender icons become “outdated,” but nevertheless they retain an inherent power that helps establish a cultural definition of gender, even in currently fashionable appearances

7. Gender Icons are “fantastic” • A fantasy is a dream-like construction that is recognized as such. Cinema is fantasy that is technically created. • No one believes that Cinematic Gender Icons are real. They exist, after all, “only in the movies.” They are fantasies • Art is essential to a rich inner life as well as to a rich cultural environment. Good movies enrich our lives. • This enrichment is much more than “entertainment.” Cinema establishes a background of meaning for the culture. • Is this controversial? Then where do we learn about our gender, if not from the movies??? • Where do we “see ourselves” if not in the mirror of cinema?

8. Where do Gender Icons come from, Mama? • They are conceived within the hearts and minds of people living in a particular time and place, they are delivered by artists and technicians, they are sustained by people who love them • A cinematic gender icon, like everything in a movie, must re-present to the movie audience something that is already in their mind and heart. • We go to the movies to see ourselves as we would like to be and who we would like to be with—Gender Icons.

9. Gender Icons: Summary • Gender icons are idealizations, not images of everyday people, not stereotypes of typical people • Gender icons reflect and influence the fantasies of the audience in regard to what it means to be a man or a woman • Sex is always an element of gender, so sex is important to gender icons—but there is much more to a gender icon than being “sexy” • Cinematic gender icons can become “outdated,” or “out of fashion,” but they never lose their “power to define gender.” They are continually “resurrected” within contemporary actors and movies