As a society we share similar ideas and attitudes about who is valuable, how men and women should behave, and when we can have sex and with whom.  One way to understand the meaning and value of something in society is to look at how it is represented in the media. Stories and images in the media shape people’s opinions, feelings and behaviours. The problem is that despite a complex social reality, messages and images in the media remain strongly stereotypical. In reflecting these stereotypes, media also reinforces them presenting them as natural.

To a great extent we depend on media for information, entertainment, and pleasure. We are affected by a barrage of mass media messages from the time we wake up in the morning to the time we go to bed. Sexuality is one area where our thoughts are continually being shaped by media.

The questions in this module are designed to:

• To identify gender stereotypes that appear and are reinforced in media;

• To understand what is pornography;

• To examine and discuss the ways media and pornography shape our conceptions of gender, sexuality, intimacy, and violence;

• To encourage a critical understanding of media images and content;