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

IntroductionIn the first section of my paper I shall focus on globalization as a cultural phenomenon. There are important contradictions among all those theorizing about globalization but there are certain common ideas about the globalization and it is my intention to focus on this common ground as a starting point. In the second section of my paper I shall focus on the role of the media in the globalization as a cultural phenomenon. There are important factors in the development of our actual media that parallel the development of the economic system. The deregulation of the economic market was taken as the best step to be taken for other types of products. I try to bring forward this cornerstone in the recent media history that turned information into a product to be sold to all potential buyers. In the third section of my paper I shall argue that the media is in fact contributing to the globalization as a cultural phenomenon offering a sense of community but this is not always for the best. Instead of contributing to the emancipation of the village the deregulated media corporations are mainly globalizing gender stereotypes. It seems almost impossible to analyze the whole media phenomenon. Moreover important studies have been written about the sexism in the Hollywood movies, the news or infotaiment. A more recent debate concerning the deregulated media is focused on children advertising. I consider that the main vehicle for globalizing stereotypes through the media is children advertising and I shall try to prove it in the last section of my paper.Thus, my article can be summarized this way: globalization is also a cultural phenomenon. The deregulated media play the key role in the globalization as a cultural phenomenon. Instead of contributing to the emancipation of the people living in the village the media are generally globalizing gender stereotypes. One of the most important media channels contributing to the globalization of gender stereotypes is children advertising.1. Globalization as a Cultural PhenomenonThe quest for new territories and world domination is certainly not a recent trait of human society. From the times of Alexander the Great till recent times the human history has been shaped by those tendencies. Today's domination does not necessarily imply armed conflict. Economists, sociologists and philosophers are talking about economic domination because, the global market as democratic and free at it may seem has its winners and losers, and, in most cases the winners tend to be the former colonial powers. Even the most enthusiastic fans of the globalization acknowledge the fact that this is not a process taking place from within. The free market system is not the offspring of third world economies, it is rather the economic system adopted in the most powerful economies that is being transferred to other parts of the world. The 20th century globalization is relating the political factors to the economic ones while trying, in theory, to separate them. This type of globalization is related to the neoliberal political agenda - the big winner of the Berlin Fall. As most political theorists agree, once the Ex-Soviet Block ceased to exist everybody fell in love with the market and its political counterpart, liberal democracy. There were still several critiques regarding this type of political and economic system but few were willing to listen once the communist threat was finally gone. It is not until recently as a direct result of the financial crisis that this type of political and economic system has lost important followers. What is important to acknowledge is the fact that the neoliberalism is globalizing rules for the economy and not for the society. In order for the transnational major corporation to function it is necessary that the governments should be capable of allowing the free trade. That is, the free circulation of goods and capital, free labor markets, stable banking systems and political stability. …