Gender and the media

Question 1

Who looked at the emphasis of media representation of women?

Answer 1

Tunstall (2000)

Question 2

What are the key ways that the media represents women according to Tunstall?

Answer 2

• Underrepresentation and symbolic annihilation
• Women as sex objects
• Misrepresentations
• Bodies as a project

Question 2

What did Tunstall say?

Answer 2

Media representations emphasize women’s domestic, sexual, consumer and marital activities to the exclusion of all else
- Generally ignore that majority of British women work
- Men seldom presented nude or defined by their marital or family status
- Working women portrayed as unfulfilled, unattractive, unstable and unable to sustain relationships
- Implied that working mothers rather than working fathers are guilty of emotional neglect of children

Question 3

What is meant by underrepresentation and symbolic annihilation?

Answer 3

Women’s achievements go unreported and recorded in the news, films and etc.
- Achievements are always 2nd to their looks

Question 4

Whose research contributed to underrepresentation and symbolic annihilation?

Answer 4

Newsbold (2000)

Question 5

What was Newsbold’s research?

Answer 5

His research into TV sport presentation shows that the little coverage of women’s sport tends to sexualise, trivialise and devalue women’s sporting achievements

Question 5

Who looked into the cult of femininity?

Answer 5

Ferguson (1993)

Question 6

What is the cult of femininity?

Answer 6

Research into women’s magazines suggests that they strongly encourage women to conform to ideological, patriarchal ideals that confirm their subordinate position compared with men

Question 7

What was Ferguson’s study?

Answer 7

Conducted a content analysis of women’s magazines from between 1949, 1974, 1979 and 1980

Question 7

Who did research into misrepresentations?

Answer 7

Giroux

Question 7

What did Ferguson note about their study?

Answer 7

• Such magazines are organized around a cult of femininity: promotes a traditional ideal where excellence is achieved through caring for others, the family, marriage and appearance

Question 8

What about supportive magazines?

Answer 8

Winship (1967) argued that women’s magazines play a supportive and positive role in the lives of women
- such magazines present women with a broader range of options than ever before
- tackle problems that have been largely ignored by the male dominated media (DV and Child abuse)

Question 9

What’s supporting research for Giroux?

Answer 9

Historical representations of female characters in Disney films
- Typical female character is a sexualised yet delicate princess who needs to be rescued by a stronger male character

Question 9

Who looked into women as sex objects?

Answer 9

Wolf (1990)
Kilbourne (1995)

Question 10

What did Giroux find?

Answer 10

Found that women were represented in a narrow, restricted and distorted range of roles

Question 11

What is the male gaze of the camera?

Answer 11

Puts the audience in the perspective of the heterosexual man
- Women displayed as a sex object for both the characters in the film and the spectator
- Man emerges as the dominant force and woman is passive under the active (sexual) gaze of the man

Question 11

What did Wolf suggest?

Answer 11

Images of women used by the media that present women as sex objects are further confirmed by what Mulvey calls the Male Gaze

Question 12

What did Orbach suggest?

Answer 12

(1991) many encourage the idea that slimness = happiness and consequently suggests that such media imagery created the potentials for eating disorders

Question 12

What does Kilbourne say?

Answer 12

Media representation presents women as mannequins: tall and thin, often US size 0 with very long legs, perfect teeth and hair and skin without a blemish

Question 13

What does content analysis of british teenage magazines show?

Answer 13

• almost 70% of the content and images focus on beauty and fashion, compared with only 12% focused on education or careers

Question 14

What did Westwood claim?

Answer 14

We are now seeing more transgressive female roles on British TV as a result (eg: going beyond gendered expectations)

Question 14

What does Wolf say about bodies in need of improvement?

Answer 14

Media encourage women to view their bodies as a project in constant need of improvement

Question 15

What is meant by the media as empowering

Answer 15

Reflects the social and cultural changes that females have experienced in the last 25 years especially the feminization of the economy
- Meant that women are now more likely to have aspiration, a positive attitude towards education, careers and an independent income

Question 16

What did Gill argue?

Answer 16

The depiction of women in advertising has changed from women as passive objects of the male gaze, to active, independent and sexually powerful agents

Question 16

What did Gauntlett argue?

Answer 16

Magazines aimed at young women emphasize that women must do their own thing and be themselves
- Female pop starts like Lady Gage sings about financial and emotional independence

Question 17

What about men?

Answer 17

• Men as aggressive muscular and traditional
• The new man or metro-sexual

Question 18

What does Easthope talk about in relation to men as aggressive and strong?

Answer 18

Argues that a variety of media especially Hollywood films and computer games, transmit the view that masculinity based on strength, aggression, competition and violence - its also biologically determined and thus a natural goal for boys to achieve

Question 19

What about the new man?

Answer 19

1980s saw the emergence of a new breed of glossy magazines aimed at middle class young men such as GQ, Maxim and FHM

Question 20

What did the content of such magazines suggest?

Answer 20

• Men are emotionally vulnerable
• Should be in touch with their emotions or feminine side
• Should treat women as equals
• Should care more about their appearance
• Active fatherhood is an experience worth having

Question 21

What did Gauntlett say despite this new masculinity?

Answer 21

Still plenty of magazines aimed to men which sexually objectify women and stress images of men as traditionally masculine

Question 21

What is meant by a new type of masculinity?

Answer 21

• Magazines were seen by some commentators as evidence of a new type of masculinity
• Post modern sociologists speculate that said masculinity is a response to the growing economic independence and assertiveness of women

Question 22

What about metro-sexuality?

Answer 22

Media trumpeted the metrosexual male, a type of masculinity that was focused on appearance and fashion
- championed masculine values as caring and generous
- thought to be in touch with his feminine side, useful around the home and considerate towards his female partner

Question 23

What did Rutherford suggest about a new type of masculinity?

Answer 23

These magazines are symbolic of what he calls ‘retributive masculinity’
- an attempt to reassert traditional masculine authority by celebrating traditionally male concerns in their content

Question 24

What did Whannel say?

Answer 24

Contradictory mass media stories and images of David Beckham
- Stress Beckham as representative of both metrosexual and retributive masculinity
- Media represents of him are fluid, his good looks, his football skills, competitive spirit and his commitment mark him out as a traditional ‘real man’
- Balanced out through his emotional commitment to family and the time, effort and money spent on his image (metrosexuality)

Question 25

What do the liberal feminists say?

Answer 25

Media representations lag behind the reality of social and economic conditions
- Acknowledge that representations of women have changed significantly for the better in last 30 years
- women’s progress as media professionals has slowed down in recent years
- Majority of media owners are male and influential positions within the media (eg: media executives) dominated by men

Question 26

What do marxist feminists say about the roots of gender and media?

Answer 26

Believe the roots of the stereotypical images of men and women in the media are economic
- are a byproduct of the need of media conglomerates in capitalist societies to make a profit

Question 27

What do marxist feminists say about images of men and women?

Answer 27

• Male dominated media aim to attract the largest audience possible = an emphasis on the traditional roles of men and women in sitcoms, game shows and soap operas
• Alternative images of women encouraged by women
• Dont fit easily into male dominated media thus are ignored, devalued or treated critically

Question 28

What do Marxist feminists say about media emphasis on women’s bodies?

Answer 28

Acts as a project as a result of the growth of the cosmetic and diet products industries
- Estimated that the diet industry alone is worth $100 billion a year in the USA
- marketing strategies of these industries deliberately manipulate women’s anxieties to be exploited as consumers of body related products

Question 29

What do radical feminists say?

Answer 29

Traditional hegemonic images of femininity are deliberately transmitted by a male dominated media to keep women oppressed into a narrow range of roles

Question 30

What do these hegemonic images do?

Answer 30

Created a form of false consciousness in women and deters them from making the most of opportunities available to them = men’s patriarchal power is rarely challenged

Question 31

What else do radical feminists say?

Answer 31

No coincidence that at the same time as women are achieving greater social and political equality, media products symbolically relegate them to subordinate positions as sex objects or mother housewives

Question 32

What does Gauntlett say about postmodernism?

Answer 32

Focuses on the relationship between the mass media and identity
- mass media today challenge traditional definitions of gender and are actually a force for social change

Question 33

What does post modernism say?

Answer 33

Been a new emphasis in men’s media on mens emotions and problems. challenged masculine ideals such as toughness and emotional reticence
- Media are now providing alternative gendered images and ideas
> producing a greater diversity of choices for people in constructing their gender identities