Geena Davis discusses the everyday images including the cartoons that not only we are exposed to but our children. The images are highly sexual and stereotypical and when the women do get a hold of a gun and “kill a rapist” then, it becomes shocking that women are engaged in “violence” rather than self-defense. By portraying women as weak, sexy and “eye candy” per se, it becomes difficult to accept women in any other way hence why Britton found that only one of her study subjects in a supervisory role was female. In part, Davis believes that the messages sent through the media over and over are reinforcing the stereotype that women are worth less than men and the disparity of representation in the movies, programs and cartoons need to change.
Because we live in a patriarchial society, the man tends to be in charge both at home and at work as he is viewed as a natural leader and therefore seen more often in powerful positions across the board in a lot of industries. Due to this stereotype, some “old guards” who had been on the job for many years still held beliefs that the prison was no place for women as it is a place that could potentially be violent and women could not handle the violence or because it would require that they step out of the gender role and leave their sexual dignity aside as they will be working in front of the “worst of the worse” in prisons and they would be exposing themselves to sexual harassment.
In addition, other (male) prison guards expect that women prove that they are capable of taking care of themselves by engaging in physical violence because if a woman in a position that is clearly dominated by males then she should be able to handle what the job entails. Overall, males are associated with strength even if they are of a smaller stature and unless the media delivers a more fair representation of female attributes, occupations in law enforcement will continue to be gendered.
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