Blog #13

There are many images of correctional officers popularized in the media. Movies tend to give them an either bad guy or good guy role. When they are working for “good” they are typically well behaved and honorable men. When they are playing the “bad” role this takes completely different form. Often times the prison guards will be abusive, physically and sexually, into prison crime (such as drug smuggling or wheeling money) and ridiculously strict. In particular if a there is a women correctional officer, they are power obsessed. They often have behavior associated with the opposite gender role and are displayed at times as homosexual. Women’s sexuality is questioned in these types of movies than are men’s.
I believe that these differences between images of male correctional officers and female correctional officers help the cycle of reinforcement of gender roles in the work place. According to the course material Power Point, this becomes a way of gendering through culture by the “construction of images, symbols, and ideologies that justify, explain, and give legitimacy to institutions, organizations, and occupations”. This makes it very difficult for women to believe that they may find themselves satisfied in this type of field.
Male correctional officers in male prisons are portrayed as being tough, but being able to deal with the situations at hand. They are set as being in charge of unruly men and restoring order to them. On the other hand when men are displayed at correctional officers in female prisons, they tend to play a different role. Their authority often is greater of these prisoners. They tend to not need as much help with unruly prisoners and can take care of the situations with more ease.
This shows us how men are displayed to be dominate over all types of prisoners, although female correctional officers may be dominate over only female prisoners.