Subtle Gender Stereotypes in the News Media and Their Role in Reinforcing a Culture Tolerating Violence Against Women

This paper examines how news media play a crucial role in tolerating genderbased violence by constantly reinforcing ‘subtle’ gender stereotypes. After presenting the institutional background in which media, gender stereotypes and gender-based violence have been studied over the last 30 years, subtle gender stereotypes are defined as those stereotypes that are less evident than the obvious ones and are not usually correlated to gender violence. Nevertheless, they can be detected in the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of women in the news, as measured by the GMMP (Global Media Monitoring Project), which is the longest and most extensive study on the representation of women in news media.