Gender and the Media

Question 1

What did Tuchman discuss?

Answer 1

Symbolic annihilation

Question 2

What does Tunstall argue?

Answer 2

The presentation of women in the media is biased because it ‘emphasises women’s domestic, sexual, consumer and marital activities, men are seldom presented nude and their domestic and marital roles are ignored’

Question 3

What did the report ‘Just for Women - 2012’ find?

Answer 3

Selective reporting perpetuates stereotypes about victims of sexual violence
Photographs and reports focus on womens appearance, and behaviour that conforms to stereotypes
Reporting/advertising glamorises and erotises violence against women

Question 4

What did the Fawcett Society find?

Answer 4

Cbeebies
Only 30% of the main characters were female
All the narrators were male and most of the anchors

Question 5

What did Tebbel find regarding womens magazines

Answer 5

They have 10.5 times more adverts and articles promoting weight loss than mens magazines do
75% of covers of womens magazines include at least one message about how to change a womens body appearance - by diet, exercise or cosmetic surgery

Question 6

What does Gauntlett argue?

Answer 6

Recent movies have featured self-confident, tough, intelligent female lead characters
Female pop stars sing about financial and emotional independence, inner strength, and how they don’t need a man - Beyonce - Independent women

Question 7

What did Tunstall state regarding traditional representations of masculinity?

Answer 7

Men are rarely presented as sex objects as women are, or judged by the media in terms how how well they conform to a feminine idea of an ideal mate

Question 8

What did the ‘new man’ content suggest?

Answer 8

Men are emotionally vulnerable
They should be more in touch with their ‘feminine’/emotional side
They should care less about their appearance
Treat women as equals

Question 9

What does Mort argue about the ‘metrosexual male’?

Answer 9

Mens masculinity was changing in the late 1980’s in response to increased economic independence and assertiveness on the part of women

Question 10

What did Mort and Rutherford argue about the metrosexual male?

Answer 10

Advertising aimed at men focusing on clothing and toiletries reflected changes in masculine social attitudes

Question 11

What does Edwards argue about the metrosexual male?

Answer 11

This new masculinity was just a product of advertisers who wanted to sell designer brands to young affluent men

Question 12

What does Collier note about retributive masculinity?

Answer 12

Mens magazines are contradictory in their representations of masculinity
They continue to define success in traditional terms - work, salary, materialism - while women are objectified in an explicitly sexual fashion

Question 13

What does Rutherford suggest about retributive masculinity?

Answer 13

The content of ‘lads’ magazines is symbolic of what he calls retributive masculinity - a attempt to reassert traditional masculine authority by celebrating traditional male concerns (birds, booze, football)

Question 14

What did McNamara say about retributive masculinity?

Answer 14

Skeptical that media representations of masculinity positively celebrate being a man
Analysis over 6 months - men are predominately portrayed in the media as villi ans, aggressors, perverts and philanderers
Men are widely demonised, marginalised, trivialised and objectified by the mass media

Question 15

What role do Liberal Feminists think mass media plays a major role in?

Answer 15

The social construction of gender roles
Mass media emphasis of females and domestic goddesses and sex objects - believe it has a limiting effect on young womens behaviours and aspirations

Question 16

What do Liberal Feminists believe?

Answer 16

There is cultural lag between the media which still ignores or trivialises women and social and economic change

Question 17

What do Marxist and Socialist Feminists believe?

Answer 17

The roots of stereotypical images of men and women are economic - they are a by-product of media conglomerates desire to make profit - aim to attract largest audience possible so emphasise traditional role models

Question 18

What do Marxist and Socialist Feminists argue the content of womens magazines is influenced by?

Answer 18

Advertising
It is in the interests of magazines/the media to create ‘false needs’ around beauty, size and shape in order to attract advertising revenue from the cosmetics, diet and fashion industries

Question 19

How much is the diet industry alone worth per year in the USA?

Answer 19

Estimated - $100 billion

Question 20

What do Marxist and Socialist Feminists argue staying youthful is another form of?

Answer 20

Exploitation that Marxists comment on - the media fuels womens anxieties and ageing, and in doing so creates a consumer market for body related products

Question 21

What do Radical Feminists feel strongly about?

Answer 21

Media reproducing society
In patriarchal societies men dominate positions of power and have a vested interest in keeping women in subordinate positions
Traditional images are therefore transmitted by male-dominated media to keep women in this subordinate position

Question 22

What do Radical Feminists believe?

Answer 22

Media fool women into believing in the ‘beauty myth’ - that they should conform to media stereotypes (male dominated) of what it is to be a ‘proper’ women - women are encouraged to link these goals/ideas to personal happiness

Question 23

According to Radical Feminists, what can the beauty myth create?

Answer 23

A form of false consciousness in women and deters them from making the most of opportunities available to them

Question 24

What do Radical Feminists claim about retributive masculinity?

Answer 24

Mens magazines than celebrate and encourage retributive masculinity are examples of a social backlash directed against the gains made by women which attempt to compensate for the crisis in masculinity as mens economic and social power declines

Question 25

What does McRobbie, who is a post/popular Feminist, argue?

Answer 25

Contemporary media directed at young women today is a form of popular feminism that promote the concept of girl power
This type of Feminism looks like a rejection of feminism of previous generations that focused on patriarchal forms of exploitation

Question 26

What does McRobbie argue about popular Feminism?

Answer 26

It is now a part of mainstream commercial culture whereas earlier forms of feminism were marginalised

Question 27

What did Gill, who is a post/popular Feminist, suggest?

Answer 27

Media presents women as more empowered in recent year

Question 28

What are the three stereotypes Gill suggested there are in recent advertising?

Answer 28

The young, toned smart heterosexual using her sexual power to control men
The vengeful heterosexual beautiful women set on punishing her ex-lover
The hot lesbian

Question 29

What does Gill argue?

Answer 29

That although adverts claim to empower women, in fact these stereotypes conform to traditional templates of male sexual fantasy with very narrow standards of beauty and sex appeal

Question 30

What does Gaunlett, who is a Postmodernist, focus on/argue?

Answer 30

Mass media and identity
He argues that the mass media today challenge traditional definitions of gender - can be seen as a force of social change
Media provides consumers with a great deal of choice as identity is more fluid

Question 31

What does Gaunlett reject?

Answer 31

The idea that young men are attracted to media that focuses on retributive masculinity because of a crisis of masculinity
He believes that young men have grown up with women as equals, and do no feel threatened of emasculated by powerful women

Question 32

What does Gauntlett argue?

Answer 32

That we no longer have one idea of masculinity or femininity, but that audiences bowwow ideas from lots of different sources to construct their own idenities

Question 33

What do Pluralists believe?

Answer 33

Feminist critiques underestimate womens ability to see through gender stereotyping and media manipulation
Feminists are guilty of stereotyping women as easily influenced
Media simply represents social attitudes and tastes - the media is meeting both mens and womens needs, and if women were really unhappy about the way they are represented they wouldn’t but some types of media products

Question 34

What is representation?

Answer 34

Process by which the media interprets the world
Can be seen as ‘second hand’ information
Form of social construct

Question 35

What is mediation?

Answer 35

The process all representations go through
Any media product is subject to mediation - and the production process will have changed the meaning in some way
E.g. photoshop

Question 36

How have the roles women are allocated been limited?

Answer 36

Allocated limited number of roles
Less visible in the media than men
Presented as ideals
Selected to appeal to men
Men = aggressors, women = victims

Question 37

What did Newbold find about representation?

Answer 37

TV sport presentation

Little coverage - but when there is it tends to sexualise, trivialise and devalue womens sporting accomplishments

Question 38

What did Mulvey find about sex appeal?

Answer 38

Film makers employ a ‘male faze’ whereby the camera lens essentially ‘eyes up’ the female characters, providing erotic pleasure for men

Question 39

What do mens magazines (FHM) encourage young men to do?

Answer 39

Dress, smell and consume in particular ways