Exam #1: Section 5: Femininity Flashcards
What is something that has changed to define in the last 50 - 70 years?
Feminism
What is the percentage of men and women who identify as feminists?
16% Men
23% Women
What has received negative connotations in society?
Feminism
What is the history and timeframe of the first wave of feminism?
1840-1920
Defined by the right to dismantle coverture
Women’s legal rights subsumed by those of her husband
What is the history and timeframe of the second wave of feminism?
1960s-early 1980s
Before the 1970s, women’s place viewed as in the home, devoted to life to husband and family
Employment opportunities limited: secretary, nurse, teacher, domestic worker
What is the history and timeframe of the third wave of feminism?
Early 1990s-2010
Increased diversity of voices
Less rigid in terms of ideology, more inclusive
What is the history and timeframe of the fourth wave of feminism?
2008-now?
Intersectionality
Online activism
Women’s March, #metoo
Although, we have made progress with women’s rights, what have we still lacked in the United States? FOUR PARTS
A) 24/100 US Senators are women
B) 120/432 members of the House of Representatives are women
C) Only 5% of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are female
4) And in terms of media, woman are vastly underrepresented
What were the results of the USC Anneberg Study and what is it? ? 4 PARTS
Analysis across platforms: broadcast TV, cable TV, streaming, and film
A) Directors: 85% male, 15% female
B) Writers: 71% male, 29% female
C) Top executives: 80% male, 20% female
D) Women are missing from storytelling
According to the USC Annenberg Study, how often do women speak?
33.5% compared to males who are at 66.5%
What is the bechdel Test?
Benchmark for movies developed by Alison Bechdel
What does a movie need in order to pass the Bechdel test?
Have at least two named women in it
Who talk to each other/have a conversation
About something besides a man (anything else!)
What are the characteristics of likeability? Eight parts
A) Nice B) Caring C) Not too opinionated D) Not too aggressive work E) to make everyone around you happy 7) Becomes reflexive 8) Exhausting
What do we need to teach girls about likeability? 3 Parts
1) Teach girls to reject likeability
2) Teach them to be honest, kind, brave, able to speak their minds
3) Teach girls they don’t need to be liked by everyone
What is the confidence gap?
Correlation between women’s confidence in real world and what we see about women in the media
What is the question around the confidence gap?
Would women be more confident if there was more variety of multi-dimensional, confident women in our media representation?
What is Kellner’s quote around the confidence gap?
The media contribute to educating us how to behave and what to think, feel, believe, fear, and desire. The media are forms of pedagogy which teach us how to men and women.”
What has been the focus on importance?
Female appearance has remained constant–even amplified
What does culture and media tell women?
The most important and powerful thing they can be is beautiful
What is women’s value in?
Women’s value is in their beauty rather than in their intelligence and their abilities
What are some statistics about beauty and women? 2 parts
Girls and women are 10x greater risk to suffer from an eating disorder
90% of all plastic surgeries are performed on women in the United States
What are the 5 cultural ideas of beauty?
1: Beauty requires time, energy, money #2: Beauty is thin #3: Beauty is youth #4: Beauty is sexy #5: Beauty is a white ideal
How much do women in the U.S. spend on their face during their lifetime?
$300,000.
What is Beauty as a cultural ideal:#1 Time, Energy Money?
Studies have found that subtle makeup made women seem more attractive, likable, and competent
What are some Body Image stats? Related to Beauty As cultural Ideal: #2 Beauty is Thin
53% of 13 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies
78% of 17 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies
65% of women and girls have an eating disorder
What is the double standard women face with beauty as a cultural ideal? #3 Beauty is Youth
Double standard: men are allowed to age, women are not
Men become distinguished and women become
What is Usc Anneberg stasts on beauty is youth and in media?
Women over 40 made up only 26% of all women shown
Men over 40 made up 74% of all men shown
How is Beauty as cultural ideal: #3 beauty is youth, showin media?
Flim: Third person
Male is 51, female is 29, 32 year age difference in real life
What is Beauty as cultural ideal: #4 beauty is sexy/sex appeal? Three parts
Beauty is in part defined by appearing sexy
Must project sex appeal to be considered hot
Glee sexual photo shoot photo shoot
How is sexiness defined? 4 parts?
Passive
Submissive
Women wearing stilettos
Playing into male fantasies
What is beauty as cultural ideal: #4 beauty is sexy/sex appeal?
Focus on female sex appeal at the expense of other aspects of girls’ and women’s humanity leads to objectification
What is the definition of objectification?
turning a person into a thing, not fully human
Who is Laura Mulvey?
Created the term Male Gaze?
What is Male Gaze?
In the media, the normative gaze (or dominant way of looking) is male and heterosexual
EX: Megan fox in trhansformer. Men by photos and posters of women’s bodies, where they are headless.
What is the problem with the male gaze?
The dominance of the male gaze.
What is important to note about the male gaze? Three parts.
girls and women internalize this
Learn to see themselves as they think men would see them
In turn, judge other girls and women by this gaze
What is Beauty as a cultural ideal: #5 beauty is a white ideal? Two parts.
Mainstream beauty ideal is almost exclusively white
When we do see women of color represented as beauty icons in the media, they almost always already approximate a white ideal: light skin tones, straight hair, etc.
Who created the codes of gender? Who is he?
Evring Goffman, he is a sociolgoist
What is the codes of gender?
Study the advertisements, and what they say about masculinity / feminity
What does Erving say about the Codes Of Gender? 4 parts.
Believed ads were an exaggerated, concentrated form of culture
Advertisements use codes to communicate
Codes are short-hand language
Codes are so deep that almost appear natural
What is advertising?
Commerical realism
What the four codes of gender for women?
What is the 5th item to code of gender to women
1) First code: The feminine touch
Self touch, barley holding onto objects, hands, delicate touch
2) Second code: The Ritualization of subordination
Laying down
Defensivless, hard to look at your sorroundings
3) Traditional code: Child like, Defensive, powerless, and submissive.
Finger to mouth
Sexual availability
4) Licensed Withdrawal
Spaced out, not paying attention, knocked out, etc
Infantilization
Young girls increase with mature womanhood, use the codes of adulity femininity, and become sexualized.
What are the key ways men are shown in advertising?
Strong and muscular bodies are shown: Active, doing things in the world
Opposite of femininity:
Hands are shown in power,
Up right and balanced,
DO NOT see the canting posture,
Arms crossed/ hands in the pocket :looking in control of their environment
Calm and Control, laid back
How are female athletes positioned?
Finger in the mouth, sexualized by wearing less clothing, bikinis, in underwear
Shown as sexual available
What does Gail Dines say about beauty sick?
If tomorrow, women all over the world, looked in the mirror and if they liked what they saw reflected back at them, we would have to reshape capitalism as we know it. Because how many industries survive on the fact that women are incredibly self-loathing, which of course did not come from nowhere. It came from the media. What young women need to understand is that you are being exploited and you are being manipulated into hating yourself as a way to generate astronomical profit for a handful of corporations
What do Maxim and Cosmo covers show?
Mazim- Ashley tisdale, no shirt, jacket, underwear, sexualized
Subheading “Dreams do come true–Sexy dreams!”
Cosmo- Miley Cryus, same as ashley with a blazer and no shirt underneath, but wearing pantts with a subheading “Your best sex ever”
