women revised Flashcards
symbolic annihilation
Tuchman et al - women poorly represented in media - eg women’s achievements often show narrow roles and reduced down to looks and sex appeal
Tunstall - representation of women is biased - depicted as busy housewives and sex objects
example: Loose Women - targeted towards women - trivial topics such as fashion for housewives - ignores 75% of women work
Martinson et al - few media stories about women’s expertise such as politics being dominated by men
Example: BBC radio 4’s today programme - 84% host and guests were male (Cochrane)
Packer et al - 2012 London olympics 4.5% of articles were related to women’s reports and fell to 2.9% in 2013
male gaze
Mulvey - the male gaze is when the camera looks at women in the same way a man does - due to male-dominated media
Naomi Wolf (RF) - myth of beauty - women’s bodies need constant improvement
media often presents women in as mannequins - tall, thin, perfect teeth and hair
Just the Women - report - content analysis of 11 national newspapers - tabloid press often focused on women’s appearance and reduced them to be sexual objects to be consumed by the male gaze
Journalists - often talk about appearances eg weight
- ex-leader of Scottish National Party - Nicola Sturgeon - after newspapers made negative comments about her appearance - feared it would put young women off from politics
New media:
Laura Bates - music industry guilty of sexually objectifying women in lyrics and videos eg Blurred Lines
Orbach - media perpetuates the idea that skinniness = success - leading to eating disorders and plastic surgery
Barnyard - only 5 minutes of exposure to ‘thin and beautiful’ images - causes feelings of low self-esteem
Symbolic annihilation in new media
Dietz - 41% of video-games - no female characters - 28% sex objects
Zoella - maintains traditional gender identities (false needs - Marcuse)
Green and Singleton - women’s participation in communities such as mumsnet reinforce notion women should perform emotional work for the family
Diane Abbott - labour mp - racist and sexual abuse - 45% of personal hate comments towards politicians prior to 2017 Uk elections - most abused MP - asian - intersectionality
Postmodernism
individuals are no longer restricted by gender - social characteristics dont shape identity
Gauntlett - 21st century media aimed at young women - changed from media 20 years ago
- no longer singular message of one type of femininity - girl power eg malala
emphasise women’s independence and strength
2017 - the advertising standards authority launched guidelines on avoiding gender stereotyping
sport england running campaign - this girl can - since 2015
The new media
metoo movement - 2017 - encourages solidarity online
green and singleton - new digital media - women are more empowered - destabilising patriarchy - women can explore identities
Women’s marches in america, Laura Bates’ everyday sexism
- however whitewashed, declined, radical feminist - victim mentality
Liberal feminism
media representations - slow to change - cultural lag due to women rarely achieving high positions in media organisations
Mills - newsroom has a male culture which is off-putting to females
2017 - 65% of all news and business articles written in times, financial times, guardian and daily mail by men
women in financial times threatened to strike in 2017 - 13% pay gap
Marxist feminism
roots of stereotypical images - economic - product of media conglomerates
media professionals - usually male - aim to attract largest audience
media presents an image of femininity that is difficult to achieve, capitalist groups are assured profit and growth
diet industry alone is worth 100 billion dollars in USA
Radical Feminism
media dupes into the beauty myth - Naomi Wolf - women adhere to particular ideal in terms of appearance
encouraged by media to see these as goals central to happiness - false consciousness
patriarchy is a structural force embedded in the media
Pluralism
concept of symbolic annihilation underestimates women’s ability to see through gender stereotyping and manipulation
feminists are guilty of stereotyping women as impressionable
media simply reflects social attitudes and tastes - if women were really unhappy at the way they were being represented - would not consume
