Mengjie Gao 520013870

Dorothealll Li 550074528

Zhiyao Ye 550394828

Kangjia Tian 540296857

Be considerate, virtuous, and caring for the family

2. Background: Space, time, politics

3. Basic principles and strategies to be used

4. Objective: To enhance social awareness and enrich the image of women. + Propose the first strategy: posters

5. The second strategy: Create a female image, shoot a short film

6. Conclusion

The short drama "Shes"(They) featuring diverse female images (Released on TikTok)

We will collect the public's true imagination of "her" through online questionnaires and social media. Collect key words such as "anger", "exhaustion", "humor", "power", "silence", etc., and create a series of one-minute short plays around these key words to break the single setting of the "ideal woman" in the media.

Each episode presents a vivid and multi-faceted "her", such as "The Her who can avoid smiling" and "The imperfect but free Her".

The plot is close to daily life, such as workplace pressure, appearance evaluation, family constraints, etc.

At the end, add a guiding question: "Who says women must be gentle?" Invite the audience to interact and leave comments.

Step 2:

Gender swap experience scenarios

We will design a series of gendered social scenarios and invite men to enter these "female perspectives" to experience the social discipline they face in reality.

Situations such as being harassed on the subway but ignored by others, being interrupted when speaking in a meeting, and being criticized for being "too revealing" in terms of dress, etc.

Men enter the role as "women" and record their reactions, emotions, and thoughts;

The video clips of the event will be posted on short-video platforms, along with quotes and reflections, such as: "I finally understand why she doesn't want to laugh."

Step 3:

Online interactive challenge # She can be XX if she's not XX

Launch a social media topic challenge to encourage netizens to upload their new imagination of "her". For example:

She is not only a beautiful independent woman, but also capable of cooking and doing housework.

She is not always gentle and in need of protection; she can still step forward at critical moments.

The event will trigger public participation and promote the shift of gender discourse power from "being narrated" to "self-writing".

Over time, media representations of women have shifted from the housewife of the 1950s to today’s so-called “empowered” woman. Yet this shift is largely superficial. In East Asia, female characters may appear as professionals, but narratives still position their ultimate value in domestic sacrifice or romantic resolution. In Australia, the ideal has evolved into the “superwoman", a figure who must succeed at work while maintaining emotional labour at home. These portrayals reflect not liberation, but a quiet intensification of expectations.

In space, the stereotype adapts to cultural logic. East Asian media draws from Confucian norms that frame women as moral anchors within the family. Australian media, while outwardly liberal, promotes a narrow vision of success tied to whiteness, motherhood, and self-management. Both exclude alternative identities such as queer, migrant, single from the definition of respectable womanhood.

Politically, Australia has more institutional support for gender equality, but cultural production remains conservative. Media is governed by market logic, not equity. In East Asia, slower reform is paired with state-endorsed narratives of traditional femininity, reinforcing women’s domestic roles as culturally and economically necessary.

Gendered status: Australian society is relatively open, and laws and policies generally support gender equality and the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community. However, gender stereotypes still exist in mass media such as advertising, television, and movies. For example, female roles are still often represented in traditional roles such as housewife and mother, while men are more often portrayed as strong, decisive leaders.

Cultural influences: The multicultural background of Australian society means that gendered representations are also influenced by the cultures of different ethnic groups. For example, gender roles in indigenous cultures may differ from those in mainstream society, and some indigenous Australian advertising and media may present a more culturally consistent view of gender.

Asian countries

In some Asian countries (e.g. China, Japan, Korea), gendered presentation is often influenced by stronger traditional cultural and social habits. For example, women tend to be portrayed as weak, docile characters, while men are portrayed as strong, rational leaders. In addition, the entertainment industry in places like Japan and South Korea often emphasizes women's looks and sex appeal at the expense of their abilities in other areas.

Cultural influence: Traditional Confucianism (especially in China and Korea) has a strong influence on gender roles, with women often expected to shoulder domestic responsibilities and men to shoulder social and economic responsibilities. Media in Japan and South Korea, especially in the fields of entertainment and fashion, have strictly divided gender roles, with women mainly given the image of "beautiful" and "cute", while men emphasize "strong" and "independent".

Middle East and North Africa

The current state of gendered presentation: In many MENA regions, the presentation of gender roles is still heavily influenced by traditional religious and cultural perceptions. The representation of women in the media is often limited to family and traditional roles, while men are more often portrayed as patriarchal. Especially in more conservative countries, where gender expression is limited, women often have very limited roles in public life.

Cultural influence: Islam and local tribal cultures have a strong influence on gender roles in these areas. For example, in countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, women in the media are often depicted in traditional clothing such as abayas or hijabs, while men are presented as leaders and dominators, and women's images in society and the media are subject to many constraints.

Conclusion

The cultural background of different regions determines the characteristics and acceptability of gendered presentations in mass media. In more open societies (such as Australia ), gender stereotypes continue to influence media content despite greater advocacy for gender equality. In regions where traditional cultures have a strong influence (such as Asia and the Middle East), gender roles tend to be more conservative and gender portraying in the media is more normative. Therefore, it is important to adopt flexible and inclusive strategies to promote a more equal and diverse gender perspective, taking into account regional and cultural differences in the design of communications campaigns that address gendered representations.

In the process of designing of the female characters in the demonstration who are standing at the opposition of the stereotyping characters, female characters mainly followed the hegemonic femineity theory. Through the research, we found that female characters usually present as the opposite of the masculinity. Thus, in the design process, our group directly involves the masculinity character into the design in order to create a strong shock to the audience. Then, with the involvement of the reverse narrative, it will allow individuals to have a stronger sense of breaking though of the traditional social stereotype.  

Despite of creating the poster and film, we believe that poster and short film shall not only serve as a type of instrument to distribute the message of new generation of female. Moreover, the power and short film are serving media to develop a strong emotional connection for female audiences for a broader discussion of the common social stereotype in the society and the experience of the gender discrimination under the social stereotype. Thus, in the demonstration, our group design the discussion group in the social media, which allow the female audiences to share the personal experience from the online platform. Through the sharing the emotions and personal experience on the gender social stereotype, our team expect to assist the female audiences to form connective action in order to increase the social impact of the demonstration, after the distribution of the demonstration to the public.

References

Anderson, M. K. (1991). Working Matilda: the representation of women and their working lives in Australian cinema. New York: American University.

Smith, S. L., Pieper, K., & Choueiti, M. (2015). Gender Bias Without Borders: An Investigation of Female Characters in Popular Films Across 11 Countries.UN Women.

Xu, H., Zhang, Z., Wu, L., & Wang, C. J. (2019). The Cinderella Complex: Word embeddings reveal gender stereotypes in movies and books. PloS one, 14(11), e0225385.

· Background: The Problem

Women in film and television are often shown in limited roles:

Traditional family figures (wives, mothers)

Emotionally dependent or decorative (“sexy lamp” effect)

Sacrificed to advance male characters’ development (tragic mothers)

These images reinforce stereotypes about women.

· Campaign Objective

Raise awareness: Help audiences realize how female characters are often stereotyped

Encourage reflection: Prompt viewers to question why women are usually shown this way

Spark conversation: Invite broader thinking about who women can be on screen

· Strategy 1: Visual Poster Series

This poster series is themed "Stereotypes of Women in Film and Television Media". It extracts the types of female characters familiar to the audience from classic film and television dramas. Each poster focuses on a typical character type, such as sacrificial mother, emotional girlfriend, vase-type foil, etc. The content of the poster includes character descriptions and examples that appear in mainstream film and television works.

Interactive Feature:

A QR code on each poster links to an anonymous online poll:

“What kinds of women would you like to see more often in media?”

Viewers can vote or submit their own suggestions

Responses will be used in our final presentation to reflect audience voice