Week 10 Blog Post

Dec. 2, 2025

Being raised by an immigrant Afghan father together with my Islamic cultural heritage from childhood taught me how media presents Muslims to non-Muslims. News programs and entertainment shows presented Muslims through limited negative stereotypes, which I observed since my early years. I was bullied incessantly for my bumped nose, my thick eyebrows and body shape. Young Muslims experience frustration according to Lind because our news constantly shows Muslims only through the lens of terroristic images instead of displaying their full religious faith. A lot of the times, people combine ISIS and Muslim as the same belief- it’s not.

The shows I watched as a child did not accurately represent the people who actually lived in my family and community. Media distortions about Muslims create Islamophobia because they spread disinformation AND misinformation instead of showing real Muslim experiences. Media serves as the primary source of information about Muslims because most Americans lack personal connections with that community.

The media continues to present women who wear hijab as oppressed despite the fact that many people (including my family members) view the hijab as a religious expression of dignity and personal freedom. They view wearing the hijab as a form of keeping themselves covered and respectful. The bloggers in “Fashioning the Ummah” show how Muslim women use social media to build their own identities instead of following media-based stereotypes.

The UNT community together with Texas residents consist of three main Asian American groups which include South Asians, East Asians and Southeast Asians. Media outlets fail to show the diverse range of people who make up this community. The news coverage of Asians during COVID-19 according to Lind's “Critical Discourse Analysis on Asian-American Sentiment and the Pandemic”. This explains how our media created negative stereotypes that led to public harassment and fear against Asian people. This was seen as President Trump labeling it as “The China Virus”.

The readings delivered new knowledge about Muslim representation in America because my personal knowledge was because of my individual experiences. Throughout my life, I’ve experienced prejudice and stereotypes because of my heritage. Media organizations need to explain these situations through the use of real representations from the communities they are in.

Week 9 Blog Post

Dec. 2, 2025

The continued rape myths in society are from the patriarchal gender norms that mass media slyly supports. The analysis of Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie" by Lind demonstrates how violent stories get presented as passionate, mutual or romantic, validating male aggression while making female suffering seem natural in heterosexual, cisgender relationships. The way violent relationships are shown in media leads viewers to believe that abuse happens naturally. We see this in rap music often, which is why it has seen a decline in popularity amongst many groups.

The beliefs that victims should stay in abusive relationships and that women cause men to act aggressively through their behavior shift blame from perpetrators to victims. Black women experience an enhanced set of discriminatory stereotypes because of their race and gender. The article Not Just Jezebel by Lind demonstrates how Nicki Minaj handles and fights the sexualized images that society forces upon Black women in rap music. The three main stereotypes of Jezebel, Sapphire, video “vixen” continue to shape public perception about Black women who experience violence, as society shows less belief in their cases, providing less protection and media attention.

Media fails to report male sexual assault victims because society holds the false belief that men cannot experience harm because of their masculinity. The belief system of patriarchy teaches men that showing weakness makes them less strong, sp their assault experiences get dismissed as trivial matters. Media professionals who work as journalists and producers have the ability to change how society handles and views this because of their platform. Media outlets need to show victims as victims, while demonstrating how sexual violence operates through power dynamics. This could open the door to survivors telling their stories without being seen as “responsible” by people who can’t understand this concept.

Media organizations need to expose these rapes, assaults and harassment while showing how our system fails to protect victims. We can move towards establishing equal protection for male survivors like female survivors have. Media that doesn’t use stereotypes enables people to grasp these awful situations better while creating an environment where survivors can feel safe to get assistance. The problem is not the victims, its how people outside diminish the victim’s experience.

Week 8 Blog Post

Dec. 2, 2025

Teams that keep Native American or Indigenous mascots continue to hold racial stereotypes, reducing entire cultures to symbolic representations. The images of war paint, headdresses and chants which Lind examines in Arguing Over Images: Native American Mascots and Race don’t accurately represent traditional Indigenous practices. Native people become comedic stereotypes for entertainment purposes, especially when used as mascots instead of receiving respectful treatment. The most ethical solution demands permanent removal of Native mascots together with financial support and actual consultation for Native communities instead of superficial brand modifications.

Sports and political activities have maintained a connection throughout history despite fans who want to keep them separate. We’ve seen this in our current news, with major busts happening in the sports gambling world. The silent protest of Colin Kaepernick received different interpretations from viewers who saw it as either a defense of his beliefs or an attack on American national values; two complete polar opposite beliefs. The #Bamasits case study shows how sports media enables activism to spread through Twitter, which becomes a space for public discussions about racial issues, police conduct and national pride.

The documentary by Dave Zirin shows how American sports have consistently displayed the ideological conflicts which include segregation and gender-based restrictions. Sports media continues to discriminate against women athletes because of established media prejudices that have existed for many years. Media outlets tend to present female athletes through their physical appearance (Angel Reese) and emotional responses (Sophie Cunningham) instead of showing off their athletic skills. Women journalists (especially in broadcast) experience maltreatment, which differs from the typical experiences of their male counterparts in the field. Look up the Erin Andrews hotel incident- no one would do that to a man.

The Minnesota Lynx organization demonstrates successful women's sports leadership through their strategic use of their platform to advocate for social justice initiatives. The sports culture silently supports being homophobic towards men because wants to enforce traditional masculine norms. Sports culture supports powerful and forceful conduct, but it does not welcome people who show their emotions in ways that don’t align with sports. Sports media can establish equality through two methods": Removing stereotypes and showing support for marginalized voices, and by acknowledging their ability to drive social transformation through their platforms.

Week 7 Blog Post

Dec 2., 2025

Our media determines how society views specific social groups, which include women, people from different economic backgrounds and those with disabilities. Lind’s Positive Media Psychology demonstrates that media content with correct positive depictions leads to social benefits, but only when creators stop using stereotypes. The Bechdel Test and Finkbeiner Test serve as tools to analyze women's underrepresentation because their stories get drowned out in media. The Wolf of Wall Street demonstrates how it fails to meet the Bechdel Test criteria because women on screen participate in conversations that focus on men’s activities and sexual relationships. The women in the story function as objects, serving to support male characters and their achievements, and creating sexual interests.

The story describes and shows women as objects, supporting male accomplishments while showing sexual attractions to them. The way films reduce women to mere narrational elements prevents them from achieving their complete storytelling potential. The Finkbeiner Test reveals identical patterns which occur in journalistic content. The media often presents women scientists through introductory statements which describe their dual role as scientists and mothers of two children who manage their work and family responsibilities. Do we see them doing this to men? No….

The test opposes these stories because they use gender expectations, childcare responsibilities and emotions to present female success as an unexpected occurrence. A 2021 New York Times article about a female tech CEO dedicated multiple sections to her work life balance which media outlets do not typically discuss when writing about male CEOs; it’s usually all about the business. The way women appear through this perspective shows the current male-dominated social norms about which qualities make women valuable.

Media shows disabled people and homeless individuals through similar ways in their presentations, depicting them as helpless victims or as determined achievers. Media shows the homeless in tents contributing to crime, but fail to depict families, students and veterans who are living without permanent housing. Media representation about these groups reduces their human-ness, while hiding the root causes of their situation. This can include low wages, insufficient housing options, disability support services failing.

To change this, our media needs to show complete human beings instead of focusing on challenges or disabilities when it wants to create authentic and respectful portrayals. Storytelling enables people to tell THEIR stories, while building social connections between men and women, between people from different economic levels and those with various abilities.

Week 6 Blog Post

Starting off this new “blog chapter” of Race, Gender and the Media, we step into toxic masculinity.

The social construction of masculinity in American culture goes far past biological traits because it exists as a social creation. Boys receive their first lessons about masculinity through learning to become tough, suppressing emotions and learning they must dominate others and compete while maintaining a strong look. The Mask You Live In demonstrates how boys develop their "mask" to hide their emotions because society teaches them that showing feelings will damage the way they are perceived socially. Lind explains how our media upholds traditional masculinity standards through its description of male characters who link masculinity to independence, violence and sexual dominance.

In my opinion, toxic masculinity refers to a social definition of masculinity which should be criticized rather than all men being considered harmful. We have seen social media trends saying “Men or Bear?”, asking if a woman was in the woods would she choose to be with a man or a bear. This follows the saying “not all men, but all women have a story.”

The comedic films I Love You Man and Get Hard shown in Lind's "Honing Hegemonic Masculinity" demonstrate how male comedic characters use their humor to validate male pattern behavior, like violence and sexuality. Media teaches boys to shy way from any behavior which society sees as “feminine”, including showing emotions or being gentle. The way society defines masculinity through patriarchal systems leads to harming men because these definitions keep them tied to their assigned “male roles.” Young boys are constantly fed narratives that tell them to become men by following these three rules: show strength, avoid showing emotions and maintain control over others.

The media instructs boys to conceal their feelings because our society considers emotional display to be a weakness. Men face higher risks of developing depression, experiencing loneliness, substance abuse and suicidal thoughts. This is quite literally a cause and effect of what I described above: inability to express their emotions. Men have learned to become leaders, but in the way this is taught, it denies them the ability to show nurturing behavior and prevents them from seeking help when they need it. Men have the most control under patriarchal systems, yet these systems prevent them from having emotional independence/autonomy.

Our social world uses these same methods to develop femininity as it does to create masculinity. Women face cultural expectations to demonstrate nurturing behavior while maintaining beauty standards, being graceful and exhibiting selfless behavior. The media section in Lind's chapter Sex Sells—But Gender Brands shows how advertisements create unattainable beauty expectations for women while simultaneously diminishing their mental capabilities. Look at what’s happening in our country: predominantly female jobs have been declassified as “professional”; it is a direct attack on women.

The media presents women as commercial products, getting cosmetic procedure before being presented to consumers. There’s nothing wrong with this at all if it’s your choice, but unfortunately women feel pressured by society to attain the unattainable. Society forces people into strict gender categories while treating them as if they exist naturally instead of being socially constructed. Media needs to change its content by fighting the current limits that exist.

Media representations of men who display emotional weakness, practice open communication, seek help and show compassion will establish new standards for male behavior. Media content that shows women in different roles than beauty, romance and not “in the kitchen” helps to remove gender-based restrictions. The process of transforming gender expectations needs DRASTIC new approaches, which will replace existing traditional narratives. The growth of social definitions about men and women enables people to reach their full potential while creating better conditions for all members of society.

A Closer Look

Welcome to my media analysis blog!

This section is a blog composed for my senior class, Race, Gender and the Media: A Methods Approach. Throughout the Fall semester, we are to write a blog post about what we learned in the week’s readings, videos, podcasts, etc. The first five blog posts are written for the first half of the course, and the later five posts are in the second half of the course.

As both a journalism student and media consumer, I want to share how important media literacy is in a progressing and healthy democracy. Understanding how messages are made, which voice is the loudest and who is silenced allows us to critically examine what we see and hear, rather than just looking and scrolling. These posts show not only what I’ve learned through our class, but also my own reflections as a student of journalism.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog posts and my analysis of our weekly learnings. I hope it encourages you to look closer at the media surrounding you and think about how it shapes identities, cultures and stereotypes in our world today and in the future.

Blog Post Week 1

Oct 7, 2025

During week one, we went over media literacy and why it’s important. Media literacy is “the ability to analyze stories presented in the mass media and to determine their accuracy and credibility”, according to Wikipedia. It helps everyone recognize how race and gender identities are represented, the stereotypes being used and whose voice is the strongest, or in that case, silenced. A lot of the stereotypes we see regularly are women shown only as caregivers or homemakers, men as leaders and minority groups depicted as criminals or impoverished.

As much as people want to believe it, the media is not neutral in any aspect. Media reflects who is at the head of the company (take CNN as a more democratic news network and FOX as a more conservative news network). Mainstream media has regularly had white, affluent males at their forefront, with others being marginalized. Media literacy teaches us that people will make their own judgements on media because of their life experiences. A representation that may lift up or speak to one group may feel harmful and stereotypical to another. This is all because of audience interpretation with media literacy.

Media literacy is able to show us viewpoints from a different lens. An example of this would be Black women facing “double marginalization” compared to white women or Black men. Race and gender don’t just exist on their own; they overlap with sexuality, age and class.

Our media shapes our cultural norms, beauty, gender roles and so much more. Media literacy will show how repeated topics or images can influence public opinion, perception, policy and self-perception. For example, once big-name fashion brands started hiring models that were more body positive, t=a movement for acceptance of all bodies began. This is an example of how media literacy helped promote the acceptance of all body types. In short, media literacy helps us to break down how race and gender are made out in the media. It can help us challenge harmful stereotypes, push for diversity, accuracy and inclusivity.

Next time you’re reading or watching the news, let this blog come back to you. Think to yourself: “Who is producing this?” or “What perspectives dominate others?” and maybe “Why is this being depicted in this narrative? “

Blog Post Week 2

Oct. 7, 2025

By definition from dictionary.com, the term “implicit bias” means “an unconscious favoritism toward or prejudice against people of a particular ethnicity, gender or social group that influences one’s actions or perceptions.”

In our Lind book of chapter one, Laying a Foundation for Studying Race, Gender and The Media, we learn that these stereotypes or biases are learned by culture and exposure to particular messages (p. 1-12). In short, this means that even when journalists (and audiences) think they’re being objective, biases can still show through coverages and interpret events.

An example of bias in media coverage is Black criminality. In our Lind readings, we also see that our news outlets overrepresent Black men as criminals, all-the-while underrepresenting them as victims or in a professional field. In our chapter Black Criminality and the Persistence of Stereotypes in the 21st Century (p. 19-23), we see the explanation of how our media commonly draws an association between Black people with danger, which reinforces the harmful and cultural narrative.

Biased content spreads because of agenda setting because the media often talks about race and crime stories. It allows the media to almost manipulate the public to see this as a prioritized social issue. We can draw an example of media manipulating the public to Nazi Germany. The Nazi Party took over all media outlets in Germany when they achieved leadership, ensuring absolutely no media was in opposition to the Nazi belief. Jewish people and Allied country’s citizens were described as “disgusting” and enemies of Germany. This continued to instill fear and hate towards a group of people by controlling the media.

The news media doesn’t do much of challenging inequality, but rather protecting the status quo. Since the media has repeatedly compared marginalized groups to negative traits, the media allows social “tiers” to still exist. As the Lind book tells us in the chapter titled The Social psychology of Stereotypes (p. 13-18), stereotypes exist to simplify a very harsh reality. Although in doing this, they also reinforces prejudice and inequalities.

Blog Post Week 3

Oct. 7, 2025

The media does a lot in our day-to-day lives. It allows us to gather information, lets us know breaking news and gives us the ability to speak about urgent issues.

The other thing it does is shape our perceptions and our world.

When we look at history, we also look at how women have attributed. They way women navigated journalism, how thy are portrayed to this day and what our stereotypes are all have one common factor: the constant fight against inequality and feminism. Throughout decades and especially in the last ten years, we have better understood the barriers on women and the possibility of change.

The history of women in the journalism field is filled with exclusion and persistence. Lind’s section Historical Contexts of Women’s and People of Color’s Access to Broadcasting (p. 274-280), we see how minorities and women did not have access to equal opportunities in media, which limited them to roles that were “lesser” or left out completely. Even when women did have the opportunity, their work was looked at as uninteresting and unimportant. Women journalists had to fight tooth and nail for credibility in a field of masculinity.

News media has always portrayed women differently than men, and media continues to do so. The chapter Never About My Work, Never About My Motivations (p. 269-263) details how women journalists of color are judged by their appearance, race and gender as opposed of skills. This flows into the broader stereotyped portrayal of women who are astonishingly beautiful and family oriented, while men are portrayed as leader, pioneers of their field or experts.

Different media theories like symbolic annihilation, social cognitive theory and the framing theory all show how inequalities are shown. For symbolic annihilation, we see women not really being covered in major media unless it is applicable. The social cognitive theory illustrates how women are portrayed as passive or a decorative “object”. This is so harmful to gender identity because it reduces our role in society to nothing more than just a mannequin. The framing theory explain how media shapes interpretation. For example, female politicians are framed by their clothing or tone of voice while male politicians are framed by their policies and activities.

A feminist approach to mass media would challenge these stereotypes by questioning whose stories are prioritized, who gets to speak and how power can be gender-ized to help shape coverage. Lind’s Framing Feminism (p. 118-123) demonstrates how feminist critique actually exposes how restricted mass media is and how we can have more equal representation. Cameron Russell’s TED Talk Looks Aren’t Everything does a great job at reminding us that even women who are “benefited” by beauty standards are still held down by them.

By analyzing our history of underrepresentation of women, we can have a better understanding that women have always fought for their place, regardless of the ride. We can move towards the conclusion that women are valued for their voices, work, skill and for their humanity, not just their appearance.

Blog Post Week 4

Oct. 7, 2025

This week went over how the stories we share and the stories we silence shape our culture’s understandings of race. From the incredibly misleading term “colorblindness” to the work of The Black Press, we learn that the media doesn’t just hold power in what it reports, but also in how it challenges our world’s norms.

At first, colorblindness does sound like equality: the idea that if we don’t “see”race, we treat everyone with the same regard. But as Lind’s chapter "Trust Me, I’m Not Racist (p. 212-217) says, we get into how colorblindness is hindering the progress of equality. The term is problematic, as it erases people of color’s experiences and turns a blind eye to racism in real time. Pretending race doesn’t matter allows racial inequalities to develop even more, and then it becomes a privilege- a privilege that lets white Americans turn away from the uncomfortable while others live through it.

The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords tells how Black journalists built their own platforms to tell truths that mainstream white press outlets refused. Newspapers like the Chicago Defender and Pittsburgh Courier reported lynchings, the realities of segregation and Jim Crow laws when the white papers would not.

Key and Peele’s comedy sketch Is This Country Song Racist? does a great job at using humor to truly show that racism is still very much a problem even though laws have changed and it is wrong. By presenting a skit where country singers casually used racist innuendos and lyrics, the duo exposes white privilege and how it allows some people to ignore the racism in our very culture, especially Southern culture. This ties into Lind’s How Not to Interrupt the Intractable Whiteness of Late-Night Comedy (p. 154-159), which argues that satire is both a weapon and a shield: highlighting racial bias, but also limited by whiteness platforms that share it.

The Black Press wasn’t just another news outlet; it empowered people and gave them the confidence to tell their stories. The coverage helped so many movements come to fruition, like the Great Migration and the Double V Campaign. These papers gave Black people a voice for reason in a time where they felt unheard completely. The courage and grit of the journalists working under constant threat shows how powerful storytelling and reporting can be.

Blog Post Week 5

Oct. 7, 2025

In a social culture where bodies must be perfect, hair must be voluminous and lips must be kissable, beauty has become less about self-expression and now about self-surveillance. The readings this week and Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly 4 do a great job at uncovering how ads and media have created unattainable beauty standards, but also how they have weaponized them, turning insecurity into dollars.

As Kilbourne expounds on how beauty standards aren’t natural in Killing Us Softly 4, we start to unravel the money side of our beauty standards. These standards are made by advertisers to sell products and keep a hand on social control. These ideas were born decades ago, the marketing that linked thinness, youth, and perfection to women and their worth. The “perfect woman” you see in ads are just that: an advertisement. Her body is digitally manufactured and airbrushed so there isn’t a pore to breathe, her skin is lightened shades above what it is naturally and her identity is reduced to what is on screen.

This isn’t just vanity, it’s power. When young girls are taught to value their looks over their smarts or individuality, it teaches them to not love their uniqueness and quirks. Instead, it keeps them insecure, easier to influence and hinders their self-expression. We see this in The More You Subtract, The More You Add (p. 131-136) Lind reading.

The effects of these controlled advertisements go way further than looking in the mirror. Girls today internalize these beauty standards, going as far as restricting their food and editing their pictures. We read about this in Body Image and Adolescent Girls’ Selfie Posting, Editing, and Investment (p. 30-35). These constant self-comparison is the perfect foundation for anxiety, low self-esteem, body dysmorphia, eating disorders and sometimes much worse.

This harm isn’t just tailored to women and girls. Men and young boys are affected by the patriarchal idea of strength, dominance and emotional repression. These pressures lead to body-image struggles and emotional disregulation. People of color face even more harm: beauty standards stemming from whiteness diminish darker skin representation, textured hair and non-European derived features.

The 2025 Super Bowl Carl’s Jr. “Hangover Burger” ad featuring TikTok and Instagram influencer Alix Earle proves how little beauty standards have changed. Despite the growing awareness and demand for representation, advertisers and companies still exploit sex appeal for views and attention. To change this harmful cycle, we have to push advertising “big leagues” to embrace ethical representation- use real, diverse bodies and genders, stop digital manipulation and shift the focus from appearance to authenticity.

If ads can sell insecurity, it can 100% sell empowerment and truth. The industry has so much power, and it’s time we push the industry to use that power for good. We can redefine the way beauty is sold- as confidence, individuality and self-acceptance. Media literacy isn’t just about understanding a message, it’s about reclaiming the narrative. Beauty doesn’t need to be filtered- it just needs to be real.