Gender - Media Representations

Symbolic Annihilation -Tuchman

Women’s achievements are often not reported, or are condemned or civilised by the mass media

Presentation of Women -Tunstall

Biased - women as busy housewives, ignoring the fact that well over half of British women work

• men often portrayed as active and in position of powers - little reference is made to men’s material and domestic status

Male Gaze - Mulvey

Camera looks at a women in the same way as a man does - sexual/decorative beings

• 2012 - 1300 news reports portrayed women in limiting roles

Objectifying Women - Bates

Media is guilt of sexually objectifying women in lyrics and videos

‘Just the Women’ Report

Women who had achieved some level of social status as politicians or actors were often denigrated and humiliated by the media

• Stalinas - journalists often pass negative comment on how women dress, their weight, looks, sexual and family lives

Equating Happiness and Popularity with Slimness - Orbach

Media perpetuates the idea that slimness equals success, health, happiness and popularity

• encouraging young girls to be unhappy with their bodies

• potential for eating disorders

• adverts encouraging dieting and cosmetic surgery

Media Empowers Women - Gauntlett

Magazines for young women today emphasise that women must do their own thing to be themselves

Media Empowers Women - Plant

Interprets if feminine technology that has the potential to destabilise patriarchy

• allows women to explore, subvert and create new identities

Negative Effect of New Media on Women

Women who use the new media may subject of everyday sexist reputations encountered in older forms of media

• women rights campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez subjected to 50 rape and murder threats every hour for two days in 2013

Men Representations - Children Now

Media Representations of men do not reflect the changing work and family experiences of most men

• violent, leader, problem-solver, confident, successful, athletic, rarely shown in workplace, rarely at home

• 1/3 boys had never seen a man doing domestic chores on TV

Demonisation of Men - McNamara

Media representations failed to portray the reality of masculine life

• 80% of media representations of men were negative - ‘irresponsible risk-takers’, incapable of communicating their feelings or controlling anger

Moving away from Traditional Masculinity - McNamara

20% of media representations show the metrosexual male - take care of their appearance in terms of consumering toiletries and fashion products and unafraid to express emotional vulnerability

Moving away from Traditional Masculinity - Gauntlett

Men’s Health transmit Metrosexual Values - “fundamentally caring, generous and good-humoured” on “helping men to be considerable lovers, useful around the home, healthy, fashionable and funny”

• moving away from traditional masculinity - embracing new forms: celebrate fatherhood and emotional vunerability

Media Representations on Gender - Liberal Feminists

Media representations are slow to change in response to women’s achievements: ‘cultural lag’

Media Representations on Gender - Mills (Liberal Feminist)

Newsroom is a very male culture that can be off-putting to females

Media Representations on Gender - Lauren (Liberal Feminist)

15 women accounted for only 27& of creators, directors, writers - disproportionately found in costume design, make-up and hair: less status and are paid less than male-dominated technical areas

Media Representations on Gender - Marxist Feminists

Stereotypical images of men and women in the media are economic - by-product of media conglomerates need to make profit in capitalist societies

• focused on the content of women’s magazines: media make profits from advertising rather than sales, promote ‘false needs’

• diet industry is worth $100 billion a year in the USA alone: encourages women to invest in the beauty market is an increasing emphasis in media content on retaining youth and resisting ageing

Media Representations on Gender - Wolf (Radical Feminists)

Media deliberately dupe women into believing in the ‘beauty myth’: women see these goals as central rather then competing with men for positions of power

• false consciousness

Media Representations on Gender - McRobbie (Radical Feminists)

Much of the media prosecuted towards young women today constitutes a form of ‘popular feminism’: “girl boss”/”girl power”

• new form of feminism: rejection of the feminism of previous generations that focused on patriarchal forms of exploration

• have to develop their own language for dealing with sexual inequality

Media Representations on Gender - Gauntlett (Postmodernists)

More positive about representations on gender - relationship between mass media and identity has challenged traditional definitions of gender and are in fact a force for change

• new emphasis in men’s media on men’s emotions and problems: producing a greater diversity of feminine and masculine identities

Media Representations on Gender - Pluralists

Concept of symbolic annihilation underestimates women’s ability to see through gender stereotyping and manipulation

• feminists are guilty of stereotyping girls as impressionable and easily influenced - no evidence that women take notice of media content or that it profoundly affects their attitudes or behaviour

• media simply reflects social attitudes and tastes - women were really unhappy in ways they were represented: would not buy media products which support this, such as women’s magazines