Newspapers - Feminist Theory
Feminism
Third Wave Feminism - Van Zoonen, bell hooks and Butler
- A response to those who thought Feminism had achieved its purpose.
- Emerged in the 1990s.
- Worked against the idea that feminists were victims.
These contrasted with the fierce anti-pornography/female exploitation element of feminism in the Second Wave of 1960-1990. Second wave feminism held the idea of "victim feminism", viewing pornography as encouraging violence towards women. New feminists hold that ability to make autonomous choices about self-expression can be an empowering act of subversion of the dominant male cultural norms, not simply the oppression of women.
What are social and cultural significance of representations of femininity?
The campaign's objective is to encourage women to participate in physical activities. It constructs its appeal by encoding an image that challenges the dominant ideology. The caption anchors a specific meaning to be read by the audience, one that subverts conventional ideas of femininity. Despite the tag of sweating like a pig, the overall representation is positive.
Stereotypically, women have often been thought of as the weaker sex, particularly in sport. This campaign challenges these stereotypes with the intention of convincing women of their potential.
The woman is represented as independent, confident, and happy. The shot selected is one that uses the rule of thirds to focus on her face, and her expression of elation.
There is a 'rawness' to the image that emphasises the idea of 'real' women as opposed to the knowingly crafted magazine gloss of so many products that target women. It is also counter-intuitive to the glossy finish advertising conventions of designer sporting goods companies such as Nike or Reebok, or to that of the manufacturers of home sports equipment or gyms. The intention is clearly that the audience are able to identify with this woman and this image. She is in this way aspirational in the true sense rather than a manufactured image of woman should aspire to emulate.
The campaign, "This Girl Can" plays on the noun "girl" as a term to represent and call out to the whole of the female population, to make them all feel included. Like the C4 Paralympics campaign, there is a sense of representing women as a force to be reckoned with, a team, united by purpose and strength.
Bulter - Gender Performativity
- Gender and biological sex are different.
- Biological sex relates to your biological make-up which means you have XX or XY chromosomes leading to physical differences.
- GENDER IS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT.
- Gender is constructed through performance.
- These actions and tasks start to inform our perceptions of gender.
- When we perform these tasks on a regular basis as a ‘ritual’, we start to believe these actions are an integral part of gender.
- People may start to believe that you must play sport, act aggressively, sexualize women etc. to create masculinity because we have observed these actions for many years.
Butler’s model of performativity explores the ways that cultural and social constructions create our reality through actions we participate in every day.
An example might be that in marriage vows, women promised to ‘love, cherish and obey’ making that power relationship seem real and natural.
Queer Theory
- Butler is a part of Queer Theory.
- ‘Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant.’
- Can be applied to any media product, including newspapers.
- Can be applied particularly to lifestyle sections of newspapers, where the performance of gender may be demonstrated in fashion and make-up advice.
- Does not explain anything specific to newspapers as it is a high-level theory of gender.
- The theory is unfalsifiable- it cannot be proved true of false
Van Zoonen - Feminist Theory
- Discourse- people learn about gender from the media
- Beliefs about gender change depending on the historical and cultural context (interesting discussion in Covid-19 of regression to traditional female occupations)
- Women objectified by the media because we live in a PATRIARCHAL society
- Women often represented as emotional, nurturing and domestic.
- Men represented as individual, suited to business and politics.
- Men’s bodies are ‘spectacle’- something they have worked for
- Van Zoonen believes the media portray images of stereotypical women and this behaviour reinforces societal views. The media continues this behaviour because they believe it reflects dominant social values (what people believe in) and male producers are influenced by this. This is a patriarchy (a society ran by men for men) which dominates and oppresses women.
- Feminists are particularly interested in the contribution made by the media to society’s dominant ideas about gender roles.
- And in this, the mass media play a crucial role in socialisation in teaching us how to behave and think in ways that our culture finds acceptable.
- A significant part of this socialisation process is to provide answers to questions like: What does it mean to be a woman? and What does it mean to be a man?
- Can be applied to any media product, including newspapers.
- The concept of patriarchy may be applied to the ownership and control of newspapers, the recruitment and ethos of newspaper professionals, news values and the representation of gender in newspapers, especially the representation of women’s bodies.
- Does not explain anything specific to newspapers as it is a high-level theory of patriarchy.
- In prioritizing gender inequalities, the theory is not useful at looking at other forms of inequality (i.e. race, class etc.)
- Feminism can be approached in three ways: liberal, socialist (not covered) or radical.
- Liberal Feminism
- It is essentially a reformist approach , which tends to see more equal gender relations being brought about by equal opportunities policies and affirmative action programs . It does not appear to question the power dimensions in society that maintain male superiority of status and female inferiority
- Instead it concentrates on sex role stereotypes, prescriptions of sex-appropriate behaviours, appearance, interests, skills and self-perceptions (Van Zoonen, 1991: 121 ).
- Patriarchy a social system in which all men are assumed to dominate and oppress all women, accounts for women’s position in society. Radical feminists have been in the forefront of exposing male abuse of women and politicizing issues formerly considered as private, such as domestic abuse and more recently, sex tourism and trafficking in women.
- Few media studies have been conducted from a radical perspective. The main focus is on pornography and rather polemical: “Pornography exists because men despise women, and men despise women as pornography exists (Dworkin, 1980:289).
- Van Zoonen believes the media strategies of radical feminism are straightforward: women should create their own means of communication and try to free themselves completely women must cut off all ties with men and male society.
- Mass media are in the hands of male owners and producers , they will operate to the benefit of a patriarchal society.
bell hooks - Feminist Theory
- No capital letters for her name. Does not want to define herself by her name.
- Women and feminism: Feminism is the struggle to stop patriarchal society. Look for evidence of people trying to fight the patriarchy and establishing equality.
- Feminism is a political commitment. You must be actively fighting to be a true feminist.
- Women are not all discriminated against in the same way. Discrimination and oppression are related to class and ethnicity (INTERSECTIONALITY). https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=en
How the theory is useful for news:
- Can be applied to any media product, including newspapers.
- Intersectionality draws attention to misrepresentation and stereotypes based on the interrelationship of gender, race, class and sexuality in any newspaper representation.
- Does not explain anything specific to newspapers as it is a high-level theory of patriarchy.
She discusses how students she taught in White, privileged schools feel a sense of entitlement about their future in a way that people of colour students in poorly funded schools do not imagine for themselves. hooks’ students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds have jobs, children and other responsibilities that shape their expectation of the future. It is not that hooks’ students from Harlem were any less brilliant, the issue is that they exist in a reality where the education system only deemed to provide them with the basic “tools” to get a job, rather than to enhance their lives in a more profound way.
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