Feminism Flashcards
Basics of feminism…
Inequality between men and women is universal and the most significant form of inequality
Gender norms are socially constructed not determined by biology and can thus be changed.
Patriarchy is the main cause of gender inequality – women are subordinate because men have more power.
Feminism is a political movement; it exists to rectify sexual inequalities, although strategies for social change vary enormously.
Radical feminist views on the media…
Donna Allen & Dana Densmore, 1977 identify 10 key aspects of the media and the role it takes in women’s lives.
1 - Media: The Source of Power and Key to Women’s Progress
2 - In History, Women Made Progress When They Had A Means of Communication
3 - Individual Communication and the Technological & Economic Structure of Mass Media
4 - Women’s Criticism of Mass Media as A National Communications System
5 - The Disseminators of Information as A Causal Factor in History
6 - Efforts to Expand Communication.
7 - Mass Media Response to the Demand for Expanded Media to Convey More Information
8 - Philosophical Basis for a New Communication System.
9 - Finding the Way.
10 - Women’s Role in the Restructuring Process.
In History, Women Made Progress When They Had A Means of Communication…
The “muckraking” period of early 1900s when mass magazines were devoted to exposes to obtain certain reform legislation.
This made their names known and created an audience for whatever they wrote.
Example, Ida Tarbell, Now able to reach the public, women used the media to provide information on their issues of peace and women’s rights, as well as humanitarian, economic and political reforms.
But before men could take back the media they had provided (as they did do on the peace issue), World War I was on and they extended their media further to encourage women to take up new options outside the home in new fields of employment replacing men going to war.
The Present - Women established their own media and obtained mass media coverage of some of their information by demonstrations, sit-ins, legal actions.
Women used these media to tell their stories about women’s experience and analyse the politics of sexism. They gave new information about discrimination against them; about health, abortion, child care possibilities; about new occupations and new lifestyles, personal and political, not previously offered.
But….
However, Mass media are trying to withdraw their media as a means of conveying women’s programming or articles conveying women’s rights information, and they have begun to describe women as extremists, “aggressive,” or “bra-burners,” showing them to be as violent as men and as criminally inclined, or always fighting among themselves whenever they get together, or dedicated to destroying the family, or portraying them as sex objects suitable for attack by men out on the street.
The Disseminators of Information as A Causal Factor in History…
Those who control the means of communication could in every period from the earliest times decide what information people had (about things outside their knowledge from first hand experience), upon which they based their judgments.
All of history needs to be re-examined, looking at mass media not as simply supplying an account of what happened but as a cause of events by providing information on which people made their decisions.
Finding the Way…
WIFP believes there are many other possible communications systems that can promote equality and that the matter is purely a technical one, given the desire to restructure.
Many alternatives are already being used experimentally.
For example, cable television can provide unlimited communication channels for the public. Satellite communications are being investigated by women’s organizations, which have been granted satellite time by NASA. On a smaller scale, many proposals have been made for more systematic access to the public through the existing broadcasting structure, such as “free speech messages” and the expansion of Public Service Announcements.
The government has invested billions to put up satellites by which private companies provide communications services. But technology has not yet been turned, with equal (and greater) Constitutionality to providing a democratic national communications system.
Women’s Role in the Restructuring Process…
Almost no research has been done on women’s role as a natural communicator and how this might assist them in supervising any restructured communications system. Why do women care particularly about a more equitable communications system, if they do; and if they do, how can this concern be utilized? What is the experience of women’s media that distinguishes it as a form of communication from the established, predominantly male media? How can this distinction be preserved and included?
The key point to remember…
Women are displayed as sex objects in the media to satisfy men’s desires, with women being portrayed, for example, as sex objects, with penetration being the main source of sexual pleasure. For instance, in ‘The Female Eunuch’, Germaine Greer states: “every human body has its optimum weight and contour, which only health and efficiency can establish. Whenever we treat women’s bodies as aesthetic objects without function we deform them.”
This is easier to remember and is what examiners like to see so please do focus on this but I wanted ot ensure you didn’t solely have a simplistic understanding.
Critique of radical feminists…
Radical feminist makes wider feminism appear ludicrous to outsiders. They make all of feminism appear insane to many who do not differentiate between liberals and radicals. Luckily many liberal feminists such as Betty Friedan have realised this and criticised radical feminism.
Liberal feminists…
Radical feminists thus argue against the liberal feminist idea of women being able to proudly display their sexual confidence, believing that it has adverse effects, as it serves only to maintain the patriarchy’s sexual desires, and lower women’s confidence.
Beyoncé, generated a massive amount of publicity in 2014 when she sang her hit song ‘Flawless’ at the 2014 MTV Music Video Awards (VMAs) against a backdrop with the word ‘FEMINIST’ displayed in a large font behind her. In addition to performing against this backdrop, the song included a speech from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, taken from ‘We Should All Be Feminists’.
The excerpt states “We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls, you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful. Otherwise, you would threaten the man” (Ngozi Adichie 2014).
Critique of liberal feminists…
Many radical feminists, however, criticised Beyoncé, arguing that by claiming to be a feminist on a platform as influential as the MTV VMAs, she was only doing so to generate publicity and word-of-mouth, not trying to seriously bring about a revolutionary change in women’s lives.
Liberal feminists - there is still hope…
Liberal feminists would agree that the media serves to maintain prejudices held against women in society by enforcing gender stereotypes, and are therefore against current portrayals of women. However, as an optimistic theory, liberal feminists also maintain hope and believe (with reform) that it can possibly help to bring about equality, with public relations being a significantly essential tool in achieving this. With brands and figures such as Beyoncé, for instance, using the power of PR on an international stage to promote feminist values, the media as a platform is therefore slowly (but surely) becoming more of an aid, rather than a hindrance, in women gaining full equality in society.
Black difference feminists…
The media experiences of Black women in Britain have changed over the decades but among what has remained consistent are struggles against their limited and derogatory depiction in ‘controlling images’ (Hill Collins 2000).
Constant challenges that such women face include contending with hostile and racist media institution environments when in pursuit of industry work, and the prospect of dealing with discriminatory backlash from the public when featuring on-screen and becoming hyper-visible in the media.
Since the days of events and collective work in the 1980s led by Black women in Britain concerning their media experiences and material conditions, increased availability and accessibility of digital devices and content-creation processes has resulted in new opportunities for Black women to relatively autonomously produce media, depict themselves, and generate discourse that counters dominant narratives (Sobande 2020).
Critique of black difference feminists…
One of the main critiques often leveed at black and difference feminist is the breaking down of unity for the movement.
Marxist feminists…
Marxist feminists look on class and gender inequalities as dual systems of oppression, with both being very powerful and independent systems. Marxist feminists often argue that class and gender inequalities reinforce each other and create groups that are doubly oppressed.
Rosemarie Tong (1989) notes Marxist feminists identify how work shapes consciousness, and women’s work shapes her status and self-image. Therefore Marxist feminists are primarily concerned with the division of labour that keeps women in the domestic sphere of the family and men in the workplace. One tool to shape women’s consciousness and work place is the media for example in kids cartoons do we see many business women? Or stay at home moms?
