A Level Media Theorists
Regulation and various other theory things
- Created by: Zoe Jones
- Created on: 13-04-12 17:36
Representation
Stuart Hall (1997)
Defines representation as 'the process by which members of a culture use language... to provide meaning'.
From this he says we can already see that representation can't be a fixed, unchanchangeable notion.
While culture and language evolve and grow with human society, the same must therefore be said of the perceptions of representation.
Representation: The description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or as being of a certain nature. How something is presented.
Feminist Approaches and Feminist Research
There are three main kinds of feminism
- Traditional Liberal Feminism
- Radical Feminism
- Post modern Feminism
Traditional Liberal Feminism
- concerned about 'cult of femininity' - that the media shape the identity of women
- Generally critically of women's magazines
- Against sex stereotyping
- In a backlash of feminism, they created a new stereotype - the 'superwoman' juggling family, work and sex (magazines like Cosmo, Elle)
Radical Feminism
- Belief that we live in a patriarchal society (men dominate and oppress women)
- At extreme they reject all male society
- Believe in having 'female' media, for example the feminist 'Spare Rib' magazine and the radio station 'Viva'.
Postmodern Feminism
- Reject idea that women are victims, duped by magazines
- No one's image of women but fractured, multiple identities
- More attention paid on how women read magazines
- Emphasis on irony and humour
Feminist Approaches and Feminist Research
Marjorie Ferguson (1983)
Analysis of Women, Woman's Own, Woman's Weekly 1949-1974
The magazines suggest that women should identify with the cult of feminity which focuses on
- Him
- Home
- and looking good
Feminist Approaches and Feminist Research
Janice Winship (on Cosmopolitan)
- IMAGE: found that Cosmo expressed passive images of women through the 'male gaze' despite feminist attitude
- SEX: Although 60% of readers are married, the magazine feels as though it is directed toward single women. Hetrosexual. Has humorous attitude to sex but is still seen as necessary for emotional health
- WORK: middle-class representations of success in workplace
So Winship says that Cosmo offer a muted feminism (the mutedness of one group can be inversely thought of as the deafness of the group that dominates ie men (Ardener, 1978))
- celebreates independence but is still full of adverts & glossiness
- so doesn't really attack routes of inequality in society
- still a product of a patriarchal society
Passive:
Accepting or allowing what happens or what others do, without active response or resistance.
Feminist Approaches and Feminist Research
Angela McRobbie- Postmodernism
Magazines such as: Bliss, Marie Claire
- Bold, brash, ironic references to sex
- Female sexual pleasure emphasised, romance demystified
- Sex sells magazines
- Freedom and independence emphasised
- Aimed at younger women who have has more opportunities & work
Feminist Approaches and Feminist Research
Joke Hermes- Reading Women's Magazines
- Women's magazines are liked because they are easy to put down
- Give opportunities for emotional learning
- Being a woman's magazines reader is a temporary identity that both men and women adopt
Feminist Approaches and Feminist Research
Laura Mulvey
- 'Film has been called an instrument of the male gaze, producing representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view' (Schroeder 1908)
- The concept derives from an article called 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' by Laura Mulvey, a feminist film theorist. It was published in 1975 and is one of the most widely cited articles in the whole of contemporary film theory.
- 'To gaze implies more than to look at- it signified a psychological relation of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze' (Schroeder 1998).
'You don't have to be anti-man to be pro-woman' Jane Galvin Lewis
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