Stereotyping - Harmful effects on the audience

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  • Created by: fayegriff
  • Created on: 02-06-15 12:12

UNIT 3 - TOPIC 5

Media Stereotyping Harmful Effects On The Audience

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Female Sex Object in ***********

RADICAL FEMINISTS

DWORKIN --> In the 1960s the sex object stereotype had largely violent effects.

  • Women represented as being the subservient recipients of male sexual desires.

= leads to increased sexual violence against women in society, particularly ****.

- Critics argue that Dworkin's Hypodermic approach ignores that there is no established link between watching *********** and ****. Rapists are no more likely to watch *********** than men that are not convicted of ****.

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Lesbian Sex Object in ***********

RADICAL FEMINISTS

WHELEHAN --> Lesbian women have found their own way of repsonding to the stereotype.

  • Lesbian **** films like Kissing Jessica Stein achieved box office success that offer an unrealistic portrayal of lesbian women simply represented for the sexual gratification of heterosexual men.

=This socialises men into thinking that lesbians, as well as heterosexual women, simply exist to serve men's sexual needs.

- Critics who favour recpetion analysis: reject hypodermic view and argue that lesbian women in the audience are not put off using mainstream representations of women for their sexual uses and gratifications. 

E.G: Xena: Warrior Princess --> became a cult series in late 1990s. There's no explicit lesbian sexual activity but revolves around the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle.

=This demonstrates the variety of interpretations (recpetion theory) that audiences use.

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Beauty Stereotype

MARXIST FEMINISTS

CONNELL --> Through women's magazines can lead to eating disorders amongst young girls.

  • Media promotes the 'beauty myth' that women should be assessed according to their appearance as they attempt to fulfil the hegemonic definition of female beauty or as a sex object to find and keep a man.
  • Women are expected to be young and attractive.
  • Predominance of cosmetics, fashion and plastic surgery advertisements in womens magazines can be linked to eating disorders / anorexia as the unattainable ideal of a size zero beauty is presented.

NEO-MARXISTS --> The Cultural Effects Model

  • Effects tend to be gradual and long-term like a 'drip feed'.
  • Media continually present an image of the perfect female form, likely to filter into the audience's consciousness and may cause disorders in the long term.

POSTMODERNISTS --> MCROBBIE : men also facing the same body anxieties as women/also becoming sexualised objects like in The Sun had a 'Hall of shame' series pictures in 2005 showing the different sizes of men's breasts (moobs) which then other tabloids followed to critise  flabby stomachs - 'holida podges' and love handles.

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Terrorist Stereotype

NEO-MARXISTS

Aimed at Muslim groups leading to increased racial tension between white and muslim groups.

  • Media representations have helped to provoke anxiety in muslim and non-muslim communities.
  • Since 9/11 and 7/7, has been a moral panic about Islam and coverage of the Muslim culture has been very negative.
  • Young Muslim men have been labelled as potential terrorists

HARGRAVE (2002) --> The identity 'Muslim' has become stigmatized which brings harassment and fear for many British Muslims who have little sympathy with Islamic fundamentalism.

+ Recognises how the news media do in fact stereotype Muslims as terrorists and that the muslim community themselves are unhappy with these representations.

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Distorts The Public's Perception of WC Strikers

NEO-MARXISTS

PHILO (1990) from THE GUMG --> Reception Analyis of the 1984/85 Miner's Strike

  • Majority of participants shown photographs took a dominant view and believed the media accounts.
  • The way the groups interpreted the message wasy dependent on cultural experiences of the strike.

E.G - a politically conservative couple from Kent took an oppostional view and rejected the dominant media accounts because of personal experience. They had met miner's families whileon holiday in the North of England and couldn't believe they were violent types.

+ Useful for demonstrating that the media has significant effects. Most people believed the media reporting = supports the cultural effects model and the hypodermic syringe model, especially when the media was the main source of information.

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