Picture our lives: Gender and images in Southern Media; A manual for trainers.

Imagine if an extra-terrestrial being were on its way down to earth, and had as its only introduction to life on earth the mainstream media. How would it picture our lives? To begin with, it would imagine that there are many more men than women. These men would be strong, aggressive and successful. They would mostly be wearing suits and a strange rope around their necks called a tie. The women would all be young, slim and beautiful, and the majority would be blonde. These fragile beings are also to be pitied, because they are frequently the victims of violent attacks. The extra-terrestrial being would be shocked indeed to land on earth and find equal numbers of women and men, ranging in age from babies to the mid-eighties, and in colour from the very pale to the very dark. This is reality. Is it what the media portrays? And what is the effect of the prevailing stereotypes--especially on women who have been both objectified and turned into victims? Picture our lives, a publication by Gender Links and SAMSO, provides penetrating insight into gender and photojournalism in Southern Africa. Developed by experts and practitioners in the field and targeted at trainers, the manual contains fifty-one handouts, a wealth of exercises and examples that will be an eye-opener to those who make and take images, as well as those who daily consume them. An invaluable tool for photojournalists, media training institutions and gender trainers in Southern Africa and further afield.

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Gender Links, South Africa & SAMSO, Zimbabwe, 2004