The media is not the gender police. There is no law that requires men and women to be shown equally throughout the various media, and thus, they are not. I am not saying that this is a good thing, but I do think that the media does not have the ethical responsibility to try to level the playing field.

Why should there be some sort of unwritten rule that the media has to portray men and women equally? Men and women are different; of course different aspects of their respective lives will be played up in the media more than others, it's a simple fact of life. There are also many cases in which celebrities want to be portrayed as what the media shows them as. It is a win/win situation, especially in the case of Christina Aguilera:

"Just because I have a certain image, everyone wants me to be this role model. But nobody is perfect, and nobody can live up to that. I'm living my life." - Christina Aguilera in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, July 6, 2000

So why are people so up in arms about women being portrayed as too sexy and seductive? Many times, these women do it to themselves, in order to draw more attention to themselves with the hopes of helping out their career.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to portray women equally. In an ideal world, this would happen without question. The only problem is that the world seems to be almost male-dominated. The reason that women receive the type of stereotyping that they do in media is that many men choose to show them as what they believe women to be: most often, unemployable sex objects, as in the case of many movies and television shows. This may not be an accurate picture of real life; however, who says that it needs to be? It may not be one hundred per cent fair, but the media does not have a legal responsibility to show men and women in the same types of roles on a consistent basis.

Is it right to show men and women in the respective "roles" that they play in movies, music, television and magazines? The media plays a critical role in developing and eliminating stereotypes and biases that affect the way women are viewed in society at large and in the workplace. Media organizations need to closely examine their "diversity demographics at all levels; review their coverage for accurate diversity portrayal and possible distortions; and establish an award for the media organizations that consistently puts forth accurate and positive reflections of women and minority groups" says René Redwood for In Motion Magazine (http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/glass.html, 1). But do they really? Is what the media does truly negative, or is it just not what feminist groups like to see? Where should the line be drawn?

I think that the real problem, having nothing to do with the media, is the way in which men and women interact with each other in the ongoing "battle of the sexes". People try so hard to shed a positive light on women that they wind up degrading men even further. The determination not to portray women in stereotyped roles has the side effect of diminishing the good that men do. Men are often pigeonholed as murderers, and rapists, but who ever mentions the hundreds of men who work to prevent rape and murder? Overcompensation is a problem that has tainted the media and peoples' perception of gender roles, but it is not even overcompensation on the part of the media, but overcompensation by the people who see what is in the media. The main role of the media is to show their ideas to the masses, but it is not their responsibility what the masses choose to make of these images and ideas.

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