Feminism theory

Magazines

1) What examples are provided from the two texts of the 'male gaze' (Mulvey)?

Pan Am and Beyonce's Why Don't you love me?
2) Do texts such as these show there is no longer a need for feminism or are they simply sexism in a different form?

They both are the same interpretation and view of women as 'sex objects' and agree with Butler's view that this is a cliche and dominant construction of femininity which also links to Mulvey's theory that women are just here to please men and are for men to look at. The producers of these texts make sure that females are presented a certain way such as in WDYLM, it portrays typical roles of women. This is sufficient evidence for feminism to still exist in the modern day. 
3) Choose three words/phrases from the glossary of the article and write their definitions on your blog.

Post feminism- – An ideology in culture and society that society is somehow past needing 
feminism and that the attitudes and arguments of feminism are no longer needed.

Patriarchy – An ideology that places men in a dominant position over women.

Nostalgia- – A sentimental longing for the past, often only remembering the positives of the time.

Now read The Theory Drop: Gender Performativity (MM69, page 25) and answer the following questions.

1) How does the writer suggest gender performativity is established from a young age?

They suggest that your gender doesn't determine your interests and it all falls on 'nature vs nurture'. And the actions of your upbringing influences the bias of your performance

2) What does the phrase 'non-binary' refer to and how does it link to Butler's theory?

It is when someone confirms themselves as not 100% male of female but as a mix of both. This links to Butler's theory as they themselves, have realised that genders are culturally constructed and not permanently set in stone.  
3) How and why does the media help reinforce gender stereotypes? The writer provides several examples in the final section of the article.

Although there have been many initiatives to support alternative gender stereotypes, the predominantly male media enforces an overarching patriarchal influence which has been the norm - often challenged and criticised. 
 Things we learn from a young age have become dominant representations and we often accept that as the way things 'always' are. We are then used to making these presumptions that people have a predetermined gender due to cultural learning- arguably making viewers passive and more likely to conform to mainstream media.

YouTube video analysis: 

1) How might this video contribute to Butler’s idea that gender roles are a ‘performance’?

Beyonce portrays an image of women that are extremely popular and constructed such as they're always in the kitchen. This makes an argument that Butler's theory is reason to why this video is seen as sexist. Butler argues that our gendered identities are realised by a constant performance in gendered activities. Women are seen as 'objects' for men to look upon and that is a constructed gender performance quality that has been learnt through behaviour exhibited, often at a young age. 
2) What might van Zoonen suggest regarding the representation of women in this video?

As Beyonce8is dressed up here in sexually evocative clothes, van Zoonen's theory comes into play that women are 'spectacles'. This is said to be by van Zoonen " A core element of western patriarchal society" which has become the norm for many people. This theory is enhanced by the angles that focus on her body parts - further supporting the 'male gaze' theory

3) What are YOUR views on this debate – does Beyonce empower women or reinforce the traditional ‘male gaze’ and oppression of women? 

She reinforces the male gaze quite a lot in the video. Although this is about empowering women somewhat, this makes it seem that women are nothing but a 'spectacle' to be enjoyed by men. Furthermore, she is doing all housework, supporting the secondary role suggestion by van Zoonen. 

1) How does the video suggest representations of masculinity have changed in recent years?

The song is about how society idolises the perfect man and how they have to tick a certain criteria to achieve that role. This subverts that view and instead, make sit clear that masculinity is not defined by actions but indeed your behaviour and choice.
2) What does David Gauntlett suggest about representations of men in the media over the last 20 years?#

Since the 90s third wafve of feminism, Gauntlett suggests that the boom of media consumption in recent decades suggests that the more exposure we have to the media, the more likely we are to conform to those dominant or alternative stereotypes, based on influences. 

3) What is YOUR view on the representation of men and masculinity? Are young men still under pressure from the media to act or behave in a certain way?

I think in recent years, men have been given more freedom to express their masculinity how they want as opposed to expressing it via a set of strict and often outdated guidelines. Men are sometimes viewed as the 'problem of feminism' but that is not representative of all men, making them question whether they are 'man' enough. 

I think certain media outlets pressure men in acting certain ways such as GQ Mens - reinforcing typical stereotypes of men's interests. This 'interests' idea has been widely regarded as outdated and meaningless in recent times - supporting men to express their masculinity how they want.

Feminsim

1) Why did Laura Bates start the Everyday Sexism project?

She was harassed three times on one week.

2) How does the Everyday Sexism project link to the concept of post-feminism? Is feminism still required in western societies?

It also talks about the positive experiences that other people have from Sexism, meaning the actions they have taken/take to prevent anyone else becoming a victim of racism.
3) Why was new technology essential to the success of the Everyday Sexism project?

People communicated their experiences through the internet - connecting everyone.

4) Will there be a point in the future when the Everyday Sexism project is not required? What is YOUR view on the future of feminism?

I think that feminism will not be needed in 20 years. The equality will become the norm and people will just accept each other regardless of whatever gender they are. 

People like Laura Bates will be known as leaders in the social community as she pushed for change and I think sooner or later, the world will be dominated by people that know how to prevent sexual harassment. In the next 20 years, the amount of people who commit such hateful atrocities will be educated or rightly punished. We are heading towards an inevitable turning point in equality.

Media Magazine:

1) Summarise the questions in the first two sub-headings: What is networked feminism? Why is it a problem?

Networked feminism is also known as 'the fourth wave'. This is a movement that began around 2010 where feminists used the power of social media to express societal concerns about modern day feminism.

2) What are the four waves of feminism? Do you agree that we are in a fourth wave ‘networked feminism’? 

1st wave; suffragettes
2nd wave; equal pay and rights (1960-1990)
3rd wave; Challenging stereotypes
4th wave; digitalised version of 3rd wave

3) Focus on the examples in the article. Write a 100-word summary of EACH of the following: Everyday Sexism, HeForShe, FCKH8 campaign, This Girl Can.

Everyday sexism is a website launched by Laura Bates who set it up due to her being harassed three times in one week. The website encourages victims of sexism to share their stories to make both men and women aware of the things that go on that they might not necessarily see. The aim of the website is to empower women and men to stand up to acts of sexism. Recently, the website has been getting a lot of submissions of how different people around the world have each tried to prevent acts of sexism taking place. This is a clear example of utilising the internet to spread the message of sexism, known as the fourth wave.

HeForShe is led by multi award winning actress, Emma Watson. Although sexism occurs mainly with females, men can also be exposed to sexism, we just don't see it often. She advocates for change and to unite both sexes instead of separate them. She aims to have a 'non-man hating' type of feminism and thinks it will be successful. This however, has been criticised due to making the idea of feminsim as too reliant on men and misses out the 'strong woman' message that feminism tries to push out. This relies on the old stereotype that women rely on men in order to get everything done.

The FCKH8 campaign is one of the most successful and popular digital campaigns for feminism. They utilise their YouTube channel to use women as a vehicle through which they can both share their experiences as well as promote a fairer, more equal society. Their 'Potty Mouth Princess' video is particularly strong as it gets little girls to swear - which catches the viewer off guard but could put a negative message about how they can influence young girls in particular. They also sell merchandise which has been seen as greedy as they are taking advantage of feminism for their own financial gain.

This Girl Can is a fitness campaign. This came around because some women were too ashamed to post pictures of themselves due to their figure. This is the first fitness campaign that allows women to share their photos where they don't get excluded or insulted about their body. This empowers women to feel confident about themselves as they can get lots of mean and sometimes sexual comments if they do post something online. This has gotten backlash however, as the website isn't regulated user-by-user so without commenting, some sexual things could take place. 

4) What is your opinion with regards to feminism and new/digital media? Do you agree with the concept of a 'fourth wave' of feminism post-2010 or are recent developments like the Everyday Sexism project merely an extension of the third wave of feminism from the 1990s?

I think that we are still in the third and final wave of feminism. The recent rise of feminism on the digital connected platform has only amplified the movement that started in the 90s. I think that feminism will have no place in society in a few decades as everyone will be thoroughly educated by the sprawl of feminist platforms in recent years.

Feminism is a great movement that pushes for equality between males and females. There are many great initiatives that support this fast growing movement such as HeForShe and Everday Sexism which both push for equality and encourages others to stand up and be confident. 

January Assessment LR

1) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential).
Q1 needs to be more specific with your subject specific terminology and what meanings may be implied for audiences by these. 

Q4 is really good but I still believe that you could be more evaluative of the theories in relation to the question. You clearly know all the theories but consider analysing the significance of these such as technopanics- being unregulated due to the nature of internet as a new media.

2) Read the mark scheme for this assessment carefully. Identify at least one potential point that you missed out on for each question in the assessment.

Include for AND against arguments in Q4 with theories, not only opinions, supporting both sides of the argument. 

3) On a scale of 1-10 (1 = low, 10 = high), how much revision and preparation did you do for this assessment? You may also want to think here whether you had completed all the original blog tasks from last term before doing the assessment.

8

4) Look at your answer for Question 2. Did you manage to write about three different strategies and three different benefits? It's vital you read the question and follow it exactly.

I didn't really explain the benefits in much detail as I could have. it's very important to explain why something is something.

5) Look at your answer for Question 3. Did you follow the question guidance and write about both the BBC and commercial broadcasters? What could you have added to this answer to reach a higher mark?

include opposite argument into effect, talk about more how commercial broadcasters make their money and why - linking the comparison.

6) Now look over your mark, teacher comments and the mark scheme for Question 4 - the 20 mark essay question on media effects theory. Write a new paragraph for this question based on the suggested theories/answers in the mark scheme. Make sure it is an extensive, detailed paragraph focused on the question and offering examples from the wider media. 

However, people's reactions to certain type of media can be positive. The two-step flow model suggests that it's not only the industry that effects consumer decisions, it's also people called 'opinion leaders' who have a great social impact, where they can express their views - biased or not.

However, the media is not all doom and gloom. Although the media is portrayed as a puppetmaster that plays with and takes advantage of our emotions in a negative way, it can make us feel happy at times. We can apply Blumer and Katz's theory of Uses and Gratifications. The way they categorised these types of shows are: Personal relationship, personal identity, diversion and surveillance. The first three are particularly important as they can make us feel very happy as they make us relate to a character or allow us to escape from our busy lives. 

Representation blog task

1) Why is representation an important concept in Media Studies?

Depending on what you would like to convey, you might need to consider representations to simplify or to suggest that the world has moved on. We use historical, social and cultural contexts to justify the uses for our own choices to represent an individual or group in a specific way.

2) How does the example of Kate Middleton show the way different meanings can be created in the media?

The British media love to talk about the patriotic royal family. When Meghan Markle married into the family in 2018, the media despised her simply for the fact that she was American and not British. This is a stark contrast to Kate. The public praises her and reveres Kate as a caring yet strong person. The historical context could be that British media prefers things closer to home, the social can be that Harry is marrying a member of public/ not a member of nobility. This is different to the photo. The picture where she has the glass of wine in her hand, shows and represents Kate as perhaps, an alcoholic maniac. This is an alternate representation of the Royal Family as they are people who are posh and reserved and Kate is being discreet yet very obvious here.

3) Summarise the section 'The how, who and why of media representation' in 50 words.

When implementing representation into media texts, producers need to consider a few things: the expectations and the needs of the target audience, the limitations provided by genre codes and their institutional remit. 

All representations are made up of strands of media choices. Different representations can be used to convey different ideas and the naturalisation of these ideas, as suggested by Barthes,  hide ideologies from common views.
4) How does Stuart Hall's theory of preferred and oppositional readings fit with representation?

The alternative and dominant representations could be seen as a key of distinguishing whether things agree with stereotypes or not. Hall's theory could suggest that the Preferred meaning is the dominant suggestion as the producer likes to use dominant representation as a shorthand to convey a lot of info in a short space of time and they like using preferred as that is what they intended to display. The same can be said for alternative representation, this is similar to the oppositional meaning where a media etxt can defy stereotypes and challenge the 'typical' intended view of the producer.
5) How has new technology changed the way representations are created in the media?

Social media has taken rapid growth in the last few years and with that, more and more opinion leader who influence 'social change' have found a platform to persuade an unprecedented amount of impressionable people. These accounts can be used to positively or negatively represent a particular group 

6) What example is provided of how national identity is represented in Britain - and how some audiences use social media to challenge this?

The Sun sent 22 million newspapers to households across the UK. This represented its own concepts of ‘Englishness’ by symbolic references – queuing, the Sunday roast, Churchill and The Queen – to heroes, values and behaviours that the paper (and its owners, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corps) defined as appropriate expressions of ‘English identity’.

However, social media forums and comment pages allowed many people to voice their rejection of the messages.Through self representation, they were able to show that they distanced themselves from the values in the tabloid newspaper.


7) Finally, think about this week's representation theories. Watch the trailer for classic action movie Taken and write an analysis of the representation of people, places and groups in the trailer using terminology and theories you have learned this week:

A British working class family's holiday used to be in Blackpool but now is in Spain, this is an evident use of Perkins' theory as the representation changes over time. This is linked wth the film as the daughter gets taken in Paris.

The kidnappers become represented as cruel and evil entities who disgust the viewer. Neeson's 'set of skills' are displayed in this short snippet and the actir is represented as violent yet calculated. This agrees with with the dominant stereotypes that Americans are violent.

Mulvey's theory can be applied here as well due to the fact it is the WOMAN who gets taken, implying that the media states that a MALE must come save her.

We can also apply Dyer's theory as thr portrayal of EasternEuropeans are seen as enemies show that those who have more power are more likely to enforce stereotypes and the less powerful are more likely to follow and agree with that stereotype.