Media Studies - Power and the Media (Van Zoonen and Feminism)

 How would Van Zoonen's ideas on gender be treated by today's standards?
- How are genders portrayed in modern media?
- What debates are there surrounding gender in the media?
- How have media companies adapted to this shift in social values?

Van Zoonen believed that gender is an identity that is built up through portrayals in the media. In todays ever-changing media landscape, gender ideology has become a heavily controversial topic that has gained prominence due to the change in social values that modern feminism has brought about. Specifically, many people are now inclined to believe that people are free to "choose" their gender, and deny the existence of a "biological" gender. This is often described as a characteristic of woke culture. The media has thus conformed to these ideas and shown and promoted people who identify as transgender, to improve their prominence and liking amongst this new community. An example of this happening in recent times would be how the alcoholic beverage company Bud Light aimed to be more inclusive and broaden their audience by including a transgender influencer in their marketing campaign. Specifically, Bud Light worked with the transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote their "Easy Carry Contest", where Mulvaney posted promotional videos urging people to post themselves trying to carry as many Bud Light beer cans as possible. This then escalated heavily and led to an outrage from conservative audiences. This is mainly because, people who would describe themselves as conservatives have values that go against the modern progressive view of how gender should be represented equally, and how transgenderism is completely normal. In this case, conservatives were appalled at one of their favorite beer companies conforming/giving in to this woke culture by working with transgender celebrities to appear more inclusive. This further led to a massive boycott of Bud Light beers which saw the companies overall sales drop by over 11% in the first month of the boycott, from April until May of 2023. However, this is by far the contrary belief to the general consensus of LGBTQ ideologies, as most people in society would look to support this representation of transgender issues. This is a perfect example which showcases the public's opinions on Van Zoonen's theories about gender have changed heavily. Van Zoonen was considered incredibly progressive by stating that gender is an identity and sex is biological, but now stating that one is forced into a biological sex is considered incredibly transphobic. In this modern societal landscape, people believe that they can choose their sex, and are not only defined by the terms "male" and "female".