Such distorted imagery reinforces sexist attitudes and exacerbate discriminatory conditions and behavior. For instance, hundreds of studies exploring the impact of television have found a correlation between heavy TV viewing in children and teens and stereotyping of occupational roles and domestic chores; increased agreement with statements such as "women are happiest at home raising children" and "men are born with more ambition than women"; and the exhibition of greater sex- typing behavior for gender related qualities and activities e.g. independence and an affinity for sports in boys; warmth and an interest in cooking for girls (Signorelli, 1992)
Teenagers are especially targeted by advertisers and therefore by the media they support. And the dominant messages embodied in the media most popular with kids — video games, movies; magazines — are often the most profoundly anti-social. This is doubly disturbing considering that teenagers are at an unusually vulnerable stage in their developmental process, making them more sensitive than ever to messages about physical appearance, identity and peer acceptance. For girls, in particular, these trends appear to have increasingly significant consequences. Appreciating what is known about the self-esteem issues faced by girls as they move through their teens to young adulthood, the preponderance of messages about the impossible-to-attain feminine ideal (constructed through the use of exceptionally thin models that have invariably been graphically enhanced), expected sexual availability, and limiting career opportunities need to be challenged and counteracted. And although the precise extent to which mainstream advertising and entertainment products exert a negative influence on young women's self-esteem and body image is difficult to determine (and complicated by many other variables), health professionals, educators and parents readily recite the consequences observed anecdotally.
The media are one among many influences that contribute to gender role acquisition. Researchers studying the effects of stereotyping in the media typically begin with some general assumptions of gender role acquisition and apply it to the issue of media. Three approaches to gender role acquisition predominate in the literature on the effects of media on gender learning. These are the Psychoanalytic theory, Social learning theory and Cognitive developmental theory.
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