Gender Location Para and Gender PARA 1: women in one role Flashcards
What does the location paragraph include?
As stated: Conflict theories such as Marxists and Feminists= the media plays a negative role in perpetuating gender stereotypes
Example: Women have been presented as being domestic servants and sex objects
Analysis: However other theories such as postmodernists believe that the new media has allowed media representations to change, allowing women to be represented in a more positive light.
Item point:
Item A states that : ‘Women are often seen as advertising cleaning and baby products whereas the majority of heroes in action films are men’
Sociological evidence
Feminists –> argue that women in the media have faced symbolic annihilation this describes the absence of representation, or under representation, of some groups in the media.
Sociologist 1: TUCHMAN argued that there was an under representation of women in a narrow range of social roles, while men are represented in a full range of social roles, this causes gender stereotypes to form.
Example: A washing powder adverts presented mothers and small daughters working together while men are covered in mud reinforce the idea to the audience that women only have one job which is to carry out doing domestic roles whereas men are able to go out and ‘get their hands dirty’
Sociologists 2: FERGUSON conducted a content analysis of women’s magazines and found that representations were organised around the cult of femininity, based on stereotypical female roles.
Link: Therefore suggesting that the media limits women’s aspirations and therefore creates negative stereotypes.
Evaluation
Point: Since the 80s women now occupy a much wider range of roles and quality with men
Sociologist: GAUNLETT argues that there has been an increase in the diversity of representations and roles of women since the 70s and a corresponding decrease in stereotypical representations, which reflect social changes
Contemporary Example: ‘This girl can campaign’ this campaign aimed to inspire and encourage girls to break stereotypes and try multiple different sports and occupations which are normally dominated by men
–> This may be girls in STEM or sports such as football and boxing
Link: These representations highlight the progression of media representations and suggest that women in the media are shown in a positive light.
