The effects of mass media on gender and the youth
The media is a powerful tool that plays a fundamental obligation in shaping the discernment of the community to the youth. The media portrays the majority of the youth during early as well as middle adulthood stages of their life as undergoing an experience of romantic relationships that are universally graded with sexual activities in adolescence. Class barriers play a significant role in shaping relationships together with psychological adjustments to lifestyle where early and middle adulthood individual who hail from lower class have higher tendencies of cohabiting accompanied by lower prospects for serious marriage (Rohlinger, 2002). The media also indicates that such people usually yearn for marriage but they are commonly restricted due to the insurmountable difficulties in attaining the essential pre-requisites to facilitate their successful marriage. The media also illuminates the high profile disadvantages that are encountered by young people in low class category in the society as they enter into adulthood which is an important stage in life that actualizes the potentials of an individual (Rohlinger, 2002). The media therefore presents a disgusting experience of the youth especially from the low socioeconomic status that marks the psychological adjustments to aging and lifestyle that occur within individuals during early and middle adulthood. Most of these images are presented in audio visual and printed magazines as well as documentaries which portray the urban culture. The media industry has concentrated on socially constructing youth in terms of lifestyle together with identity.
The media representation of the boys depicts them as the providers of excitement, romance as well as love and they are regarded as being highly sexual through being attracted to the emotionally as well as superficial inexpensive. The media offers some guidance to the girls to evade the bad male as well as their behaviours and get the good male as well as their behaviours. The media depict the success of life as well as the heterosexual life as the responsibility of the girls as a result to their willingness in making good choices as well as self regulation and self presentation in the most suitable manner. The writer presents the barriers as the absence of self esteem among the girls as well as the limitations in their efforts (Harris 2004). With the use of the “girl power” language in the feminist movement, there is little discussion on the politics as well as the patriarchal gender norms. In place of it, the media promotes persistent surveillance of the self, the boys as well as the peers. The media also illustrates confessional as well as embarrassing tales, opportunities as well as quizzes that rates as well as judging both girls and boys based on the photos as well as their profiles that entice the girls to fashion their identities through the use of cosmetics, consumerism, cloths as well as beauty items.
Sexual and romantic interactions among the early and middle adulthood people are critical in shaping their future relationships in terms of their seriousness and commitment. This is the starting point for cohabitation, marriage as well as parenthood. Development of peer relationships in the early and middle adulthood marks an important step in the social relationship development of the concerned people. The relationships are associated with unique potentials for engagement in sexual matters and sex has been documented as an important component in the romantic relationships that characterizes the early and middle adulthood (Rohlinger, 2002). Sex also plays a crucial role in the initiation of family formation and it is commonly nurtured during the early and middle adulthood. The young people in this stage of life are actively engaged in dating and it escalates the chances for non marital and unintentional pregnancies. Available statistics in the United States indicate that about 49 % of the recorded pregnancies and 30 % of all documented births are unintentional (Rohlinger, 2002). Therefore, the development of sexual experiences and romantic relationships in early and middle adulthood has a significant implication in the formation of future relationships.
The media also presents role of gender differences in health outcomes. Different genders responds differently to health issues as a result of a variety of social factors. The females for example encounter situations that commonly impede them from accessing the relevant skills to solve their health problems, their prevention as well as treatment. They are isolated from participation in the public spheres and schooling due to the separate domains that affect the natural role of male and female in the society (John, 2002). The females are assigned a ‘proper sphere’ in the domestic environment of housekeeping and child-rearing. The females are also anticipated to be submissive to males which result to role distinction between men and women. Male participate in roles in the public spheres while women live in the confinement of domestic responsibilities. Legal together with cultural considerations have also strengthened the confinement of women to the private life. The females lack the opportunity for active participation in professional occupations including field such as law and medicine, and they are also discouraged from higher education accomplishment (Sandman, Simantov & An, 2000). Sexual differences are a critical consideration to support spheres separations. The echelons of submission vary with cultural as well as geographical countries and patterns and they are more conspicuous in the developing nations. Factually, the life expectancy in the developing countries is lower than in the developed countries. However, some issues other than simply the lack of economic resources must need analysis to understand this health disparity. Poverty is a multidimensional because many people live under the poverty line. WHO (2014) argues that “poverty causes undermining of a range of human attributes, including health”, and in the world more than 70 percent of the poor are women (Ricci.2012). Here we can then argue that gender inequality is a significant determinant of health outcomes and that taking a gender perspective contributes to both understanding and combating diseases. Furthermore, there is a need to understand how health permeates in a household and therefore acknowledging that intra-household bargaining power is a crucial component of outcomes, a fact that cannot be understood in the absence of gender lens. In the modern-day society, melodramatic shifts in gender roles are apparent due to the inescapable participation of women in the public spheres. However, they are expected to strike a balance between work life and family life due to their responsibility in child rearing, home upkeep as well as serving their husbands.
Importance of sex difference in the study of health outcomes
Introduction
The implication of gender is the relationships, values, attitudes, behaviors, traits, influence, and relative power ascribed to the two sexes by the society. The roles and characteristics of gender are relational because they are interrelated. Its definition relates to the two sexes through the relationship between males and females. Sex implies to the biological differences while gender implies to the social differences between the two sexes. Researchers have focused on the role of gender in health with a particular interest in the differences of gender in vulnerability to a specific health conditions as well as their impact (Carol, 2007). The findings from investigations have indicated that gender has an influence on conceiving and implementation of health policies, the mode of development of contraceptive and biomedical technologies, and the response of the health care systems to the female and the male customers. The social scientists have also focused their investigations on the effects of gender on health, and they have documented that biological differences cannot explain the behavior of men and women in health issues in isolation. They have suggested the inclusion of economic as well as social factors as important considerations in understanding health outcomes. Political and cultural situations in the society also play a critical role in determining health outcomes. An understanding of health issues and illness requires the contribution of gender and sex (Carol, 2007). Gender is a complex social practice and relations which point at the biological sex. The concept is a key socio-cultural factor that influences health as well as health-related behaviors. Some researchers have suggested that men and women of similar disadvantages in the social sphere are likely to encounter poor outcomes due to chronic illnesses, disability, rates of injury and mortality. However, they also indicate that gender lens is insufficient to deconstruct the health status of men
(Joan, Blye, John, & David, 2010).
Women outlive men in almost all countries of the world.However, they suffer from greater morbidity. In Europe and the US, during the period of early adulthood, young men are victims of more violent and accidental deaths than women and during their sixties, their higher mortality results from diseases such as cardiovascular disease or cancer. However, these data are not uniform across the world and in most developing countries the gap between men and women’s lifespan is closing and sometimes, like in South Asia the trend is reversed (Pollard and Hyatt.1999). The reasons for these variations in health outcomes are highly contentious. The biomedical interpretation argues that differences in health outcomes and health-related behaviours are a matter of pure, or mostly, biology (Evans et al. 2010). TheWorld Health Organization (2015) has acknowledged that gender -the psychological, social, and cultural aspects of maleness and femaleness are the most important factors influencing health and health-related behaviours.It“affects the attainment of mental, physical, and social health and well-being”(WHO. 2015). The WHO argument puts forward the idea that gender is a crucial component that must be studied to support men and women, to promote better policies, to improve strategies for diseases preventions and health intervention. Therefore, there is a need to go beyond the well-known wisdom of “men die quicker, but women are sicker” (Matthews. 2015: ix). Indeed, gender promotes contrasting risks and protections for diseases and contributes to the development of different behaviors relating to illnesses and health seeking. Gender also impacts the perception of the other on health, for example, it can influence the treatment given to the patients, research as well as financing.
This essay is going to argue that gender is a significant determinant of health outcomes through addressing the role of sex differences in health outcomes, masculinity and femininity, and the effects of sex differences in health outcome.
Opposition to the ideology of separate spheres has contributed to the advent of gender-based institutions of education due to the need of satisfying affirmative action that promotes equality and participation in the public domains irrespective of gender. Gender has a crucial influence on the patterns of food consumption which then determines health outcomes. In the industrialized countries, gender is also influential as a social determinant of nutrition, but at varying degrees of manifestation. For instance, gender is a determinant of the risk factors in eating disorders, and therefore, influences health and nutritional outcomes. The situation prevails in binge eating, bulimia nervosa as well as anorexia nervosa. The phenomenon manifests through psychological and biomedical theories such as hormonal imbalance, genetic explanations, emotional problems as well as brain serotonin malfunction which appear through their association with food. Gender influences on health outcomes are also studied in western cultures through sociological deductions such as the importance of the ‘ideal’ shape of the female body. Researchers have placed focus on the urge to please other people as an important sociological factor in gender influence to the health outcomes in ladies. A comprehensive explanation of sociological factors points at the ‘negative femininity as the behaviours of unassertiveness, low self-esteem, passivity, and dependence. The females use bingeing and dieting in enhancing their self-esteem as well as body image. The adolescents, in particular, lead sedentary lives and have a high intake of calcium which influences their body image.
Biological factors also play a role in health outcome. They include hormonal factors, differences in the physiological features in the life-cycle, reproductive factors, and genetic vulnerability to diseases. Recent researchers have experimented with the male model and generalized the findings to females which are a deviation from history whereby clinical research focused specifically on gender. The exception to this generalization is during the female reproductive phase. The exclusion of the pregnant women in the clinical experiments aimed at protecting them from potentiallyundesirable effects to the individual as well as the unborn child. In the United State, however, such generalizations have been disputed due to the differences in gender in the determination of health outcomes and illnesses.
Social determinants interact positively with biological determinants of differences in gender and health outcomes. Biological differences can be suppressed or enhanced through socialization and the response of the society to gender-specific behavior. The social norms that endorse a trend of behavior are likely to aggravate actions like violence or enhance the propensities like nurturing. On the contrary, socialization may suppress the positive or the negative tendencies.
Masculinity and femininity
Masculinity can be expressed gender ideology in men and masculinities and implies to the social construction that depends on particular time in history, locality as well as culture. The concept must engross the complexity of the male life which is characterized by individuality and “inexhaustibly various.’’ The unitary essence of masculinity differentiates men from the feminine principle which define the female. Masculinities exists in the society as hegemonic and dominant(Joan, Blye, John, & David, 2010). The social constructionist and the feminist theorist emphasizes on the norms of masculinity in dependence, avoidance, and self-reliance that facilitate access to control and power for among men. The reactance theory proposes a proximal technique that focuses on the motivation to evade loss of control that influences over the tendency to avoid seeking professional assistance (John,2002). The theory points at unconstructive psychological condition in reaction to an episode that can potentially threaten the autonomy or freedom of an individual making the person to adopt a behavioral pattern which can restore the freedom. A visit to a doctor for example requires a sense of sacrificing some control such as the need to wait for the physician, adherence to medical procedures, and attentiveness to physical examinations (Pituskin, et al. 2007). Reactance ideology can also explain the reluctance of men to seek assistance despite persistent encouragement by friends and family members. Men associate such acts of compliance in seeking professional assistance to loss of control and denial of autonomy in the process of decision making.
The efforts of an individual in retention of control through avoidance of professional assistance facilitates in the establishment of masculinity through autonomy preservation at any cost. The difference in context of assistance seeking moderates the impact of the gender norms, hence potentiating masculinity. The work in ‘risky’ environments that can lead to pain and hardship, and that is an illustration of gender operation within a potent as well as informal ideology of differences in gender (Lohan,2007). Men are reluctant to seek help from the traditional services of help despite the fact that they encounter a myriad of problems in their daily lives. Different norms gender roles and ideologies of masculinity discourage men from seeking assistance. They are unwilling to request for assistance when confronted by problems. Empirical research findings indicate the reluctance of men to seek assistance from professional health care providers. Problems such as depression, stressful events, substance abuse, and physical disabilities are common in the society and affects people from both genders. Whereas women are quick to seek professional assistance when they encounter such hardships, men will tend to be self-supportive when dealing with these issues. Men are also less likely to seek the services of psychotherapists, counselors, and psychiatrists than women. The females have been documented to seek psychiatrist assistance and professional services at a higher rate as compared to males when they are in comparable emotional situations (Robertson, 2001). Women can easily identify non-specific emotional problems than men. With particular reference to depression, males are more reluctant to sort the assistance of friends and experts as compared to females, and they may opt to consult a psychotherapist for depression issues.
The effects of sex differences in health outcome
Men of different social background, political status, age, and ethnicity are reluctant to consult health care professionals for mental as well as physical health complications as compared to women. The relative unwillingness to seek assistance represents an unadulterated contrast to the severity as well as the range of the complications at hand. The case can be illustrated by the high number of deaths of men in the United States who are of a younger age than women due to the numerous causes of death affecting men (Sandman, Simantov& An, 2000). Enhancement of health-sustenance habits including seeking professional assistance is a possible approach of enhancing the health status for men. Gender differences in the uptake of health care services can be utilized in raising awareness in public forums for health to highlight the obstacles that confront men in need of assistance (Carol,2007).. The members of the family, health care providers, community leaders as well as men can benefit from the facts that men underutilize the accessible assistance in the relevant institutions.
Indeed, without using a gender lens when studying health outcomes it is not possible to understand the social construction of diseases, which influence health-seeking behaviours as well as health outcomes.Some diseases, illnesses and disorder such as depression, breast cancer, prostrate and testicular cancer and anorexia are perceived by many men as linked with femininity or weak masculinity. The consequence of this biased perception result from their vision of masculinity and can impact their will to seek help as well as their mental health. As we have seen in the previous paragraph, health behaviours are linked to the very idea of masculinity, however express differently depending on which theory is taken into account.
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