Deregulating Markets, Deregulating Media:The Globalization of Gender Stereotypes in the Age of Corporate Media
Deregulating Markets, Deregulating Media:The Globalization of Gender Stereotypes in the Age of Corporate Media

Summary/Abstract: There are a lot of discussions and theoretical concerns surrounding the economic process of globalization. There are theorists who speak of “globalized localism,” of “cultural imperialism” or “corporate control.” My aim is to shift our attention to a more confined field of investigation: the gender stereotypes in the globalization era. As we all know, the globalization process is not a purely economic one. It is also an important cultural process that involves an important and subtle transfer of values and norms. It is also common knowledge that the globalization process started when the Soviet Block collapsed and the whole planet “fell in love” with the free market economy and its political counterpart – liberal democracy. The deregulation process is a key factor in understanding this economic and cultural phenomenon for it is not possible to have a global market economy without deregulating markets. But markets were not the only ones being deregulated. The neoliberal agenda of the eighties stated that “government is not the solution to our problems, the government is the problem.” This is why the media were deregulated opening the gate for big corporations to emerge and take control over this newly created type of market. The deregulation of the media is not a mere coincidence: the media had an important role to play in the global arena. It was designed to offer a sense of community for those now living in the “global village.” Theorists are reluctant to accept this hypothesis but they all agree that this type of deregulated corporate media plays an important role in the globalization as a cultural process. My contention is that far from contributing to the emancipation of women worldwide, the corporate media are only imposing a set of conservative “classical” stereotypes regarding the role women have to play in our society. In order to achieve this objective I will focus my attention on the advertising designed for teenagers in order to bring forward the values that are marketed to teen population throughout symbolic advertising.

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