Lesson 12 Feminism and the Gender Depictions in Pop

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Lesson 12 Feminism and the Gender Depictions in
Pop Culture

• Robert Wonser

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Feminism

• Saw pop culture as a construct that was
  subservient to the desires of the male
  psycheessentially a male plot to maintain
  control over womens minds and, especially,
  bodies.
• Representations of women in movies, tv and in
  print were degrading to women and help promote
  violence against women
• Early archetypes probably were sexual
  cheerleaders or motherly homemakers
• Father Knows Best vs the Honeymooners or I Love
  Lucy

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• The sexualization of womens bodies also
  paradoxically played a critical role in
  liberating women from the previous constricting
  roles of mother and housekeeper
• More controlling of the male psyche than
  controlled by it?
• E.g. Madonna
• Is the display of womens bodies in a sexual
  manner exploitative or transgressive?
• Deep Throats perceived subversiveness was that
  women appeared to like sex as much as mena
  threat to males hegemony.
• Pornography continues to be a form of social
  criticism against political and religious
  authoritarianism.

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The Male Gaze

• The Male Gaze is the idea that women are
  portrayed in art, in advertising, and on screen
  from a mans point of view, as objects to be
  looked at.
• Fetishism of commodities
• takes on a whole
• new meaning

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Representations of Women

• This type of representation of modern, liberated
  womanhood is somewhat in contrast to the
  showcasing of femininity in the broad tradition
  of the sacred feminine of the Gaia myth
  wherein the goddess of the earth, Gaia, is
  purported to exercise power over Nature and
  mankind (literally mankind).
• Walt Disney (1901-1996) tapped into these mythic
  views of femininity, which representations that
  have been both controversial among early
  feminists and strangely popular among women.

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• Using mythology theory Disneys popularity is
  likely due to his sense of the mythic power of
  womanhood in human life.
• Ex Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is so
  popular, why?
• According to feminist theory, the movie was
  broadly embraced because it portrayed women as
  passive creatures waiting for their Prince
  Charming to come along.
• However, according to post-feminist criticism the
  power of women can be seen when probed beneath he
  textual surface.
• First, the only truly powerful characters are
  womenSnow White and the evil queen men are
  either dwarfs faithfully serving their mistress
  or a perfunctory role (such as providing an
  anonymous kiss).
• Snow white is a ruler of nature. All respond to
  her command from the animals to the dwarfs and
  prince who is beckoned by an implicit natural
  instinct
• Also evident in Cinderella (1950) and Sleeping
  Beauty (1959)

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• Feminist critics saw the movies as portraying a
  patriarchal view of womanhood which revolved
  around romance.
• Post-feminist critics rejected this
  interpretation
• Snow White, Cinderella and Tinkerbell the
  emergence of a powerful form of femininity and a
  deconstruction of patriarchy.
• Or is the construction of weak or stupid fathers
  only to make patriarchy seem unthreatening?
• The Little Mermaid, modeled after the
  Shakespearean story of Ariel, a mischievous
  spirit.
• Ariels departure into the world above her
  fathers Sea Kingdom saliently showcases the
  fading power of the patriarchal system.

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• Beauty and the Beast (1991) entails a clever
  reversal of roles, wherein the accursed prince
  who has to wait for his rescuer princess to come
  and save him. Belle has carved out a place for
  women to take control of their own identities.
• Also, in Pocahontas (1995) and Mulan (1998) the
  heroines are physically and instinctually
  superior to any of the films males while also
  possessing the feminine mystique found in
  earlier Disney characters (e.g. Snow White).
• Are Disney women archetypal female rescue
  fantasies with essentially passive fantasies?
• Walt Disney wedded art and mass media,
  revitalizing fantasy for our times. Fishwick

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Or

• Is Ariel the perfect metaphor for the
  stereotypical housewife in the making?
• Taking away a womans voice? The handsome price
  Eric tries to kiss her anyway (because men dont
  like women who talk anyway).
• Ariels happiness is tied to a heterosexual
  marriage after renouncing her former life.

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• At first glance Belle from Beauty and the Beast
  seems to be a rejection of hypermasculinity
  (Gastons a pompous idiot) but her reformation of
  the Beast Implies that women are responsible for
  controlling male anger and violence. If a woman
  is only pretty and sweet long enough, she can
  transform an abusive man into a princeforever.
• Belle is less the focus of the film than a prop
  or mechanism for solving the Beasts dilemma

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Disney

• Films seem to assign rigid roles to women and
  people of color
• Produce a narrow view of family values coupled
  with a nostalgic and conservative view of history
  that erases injustices (ex the Pocahontas movie
  bleaches colonialism of its genocidal history).
• Much of its attempts at displaying agency are
  through the participation in consumerism (yay for
  Hannah Montana clothing at Wal-Mart!).

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The Slasher Film The Killer

• The Killer
• Propelled by psychosexual fury,
• a male in distress,
• usually in their 20s

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The Slasher Film Victims

• Victims
• Usually in their teens
• Now both girl and boy but still mostly girl
• Usually a sexual transgressor (how did young
  Jason die?)
• Often die, mid or postcoital.
• Boys die because they make mistakes
• Girls die because they are girls
• Male deaths are quicker and often shot further
  away with less detail
• The murders of women are filmed at close range,
  in more graphic detail and at greater length

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The Slasher Film Final Girl

• The one who did not die the survivor of the
  horrible ordeal
• Has to think the most about the possibility of
  death (her seemingly impending and her friends)
• Often show more courage and level-headedness than
  their cringing male counterparts

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Final Girls

• Intelligent
• Watchful
• Levelheaded
• The first character to sense something amiss
• Deduce from the pattern the threat facing them
• The only one whose perspective approaches our
  privileged perspective in the audience.
• We identify with the final girl

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Some Observations

• Males are dominant audience
• Cheer for killer until the final girl end portion
  where they cheer for her as she assaults the
  killer.
• Ostensibly then, the hero is female.
• How misogynistic is this?
• The camera angles represents the killers
  perspective
• We are forced to identify with the killer

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Masculinity

• The killer plunging his knife or blade into women
  is unmistakingly phallic.
• The killers masculinity is in questionhe often
  has psychological/mother issues, often a virgin
  or sexually inert, sometimes a transvestite or
  transsexual.
• Traditional masculinity does not fare well in
  slasher films.
• The man who insists on taking charge, who
  believes that logic or appeals to authority can
  solve the problem, or who tries to act as a hero
  ends up dead meat.

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Final Thoughts on the Slasher

• Do slasher movies authorize impulse towards
  violence in males and victimization in females?
• Or, is it rather than the victimization of
  females being exclusively borne of misogyny is it
  that
• The destruction of beauty on an aesthetic level
  bothers us and
• The fact that we are more likely to sympathize
  with a female victim than a male victim as some
  critics contend?
• What do we think of males begging for mercy
  versus females begging for mercy?

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Doves real beauty campaign

• Literal text of the ad Real women have real
  curves implying that Dove wants to celebrate
  those curves. The ploy is transparent. The real
  message is improve yourself, by Dove products

Dove Evolution commercials make over ordinary
women ? Cinderella subtext
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Plastic Surgery
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Gender and the Media

• According to the reflection hypothesis the media
  only give the pubic what it expects, wants, or
  demands.
• In other words, the media content mirrors the
  behaviors and relationships, and values and norms
  most prevalent in society.
• However, far from passively reflecting culture,
  the media actively shape and create culture.
• Ex the nightly news how much news can fit into
  22 minutes? ? they set the agenda for public
  opinion. The way the media choose themes,
  structure the dialogue, and control the debatea
  process which involves crucial omissionsis a
  major aspect of their influence.
• In addition to their role as definers of the
  important, the media are also the chief sources
  of information for most people, as well as the
  focus of their leisure activity.
• Evidence indicates many media consumers (esp.
  heavy TV viewers) tend to uncritically accept
  media content as fact.
• Although theres always intervening variables
  (e.g. kinds of shows, and behavior of real-life
  role models), the media do influence our
  worldview, including personal aspirations and
  expectations for achievements, as well as our
  perceptions of others.
• Symbolic annihilation refers to the medias
  traditional ignoring, trivializing or condemning
  of women.

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Gender Differences in Online Communication

• Internet is nearly evenly divided between women
  (45) and men (55).
• Research indicates that online communication
  mirrors in-person conversational styles
• Womens email messages are longer and more
  detailed than men.
• Women use more emoticons ? and more intensive
  adverbs (e.g. really, very).
• They are also more supportive and agreeable.
• Men make stronger assertions and use profanity,
  insults and sarcasm more than women
• Internet for sex?
• Men (56.5) were more likely than women (35.2)
  to surf for sexually explicit materials, men were
  more likely to look at pornographic sites and
  masturbate while women were more likely to engage
  in cyber-sex with an online partner.
• Explanation women use communication to build
  social connections and rapport with others while
  men use communication more functionally or
  instrumentally.
• Research also indicates online communication is
  mitigated by other social factors age, sex,
  income, educational attainment, status and type
  of message of both the sender and the receiver.

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The Written Word - Gender messages in newspapers
and magazines

• Regular reading of the newspaper in the U.S. has
  declined since the mid-1980s.
• More men than women read it why?
• Male centered stories. Womens are in the back,
  non-news section of the paper.
• Trivialization of women in the stories that do
  focus on them. For example the female
  attorney, the petite blonde, Dr. Smith, the
  wife of, or the feisty grandmother. Such
  details were rarely provided for men.
• Are feminists depicted as a small but vocal
  radical fringe group that most members of the
  general public dislike as portrayed by the media?
  
• Most of the staff at major newspapers are men.
• When women are on the staff they tend to have the
  same definitions of what experts are as men do,
  thereby seeking people like men to comment.

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Gender and Magazines

• Newspapers seek the masses, magazines are
  targeted to smaller populations.
• Traditionally womens magazines have promoted a
  cult of femininity that is, the definition of
  femininity as a narcissistic absorption with
  oneselfones physical appearance, occupational
  success, and with success in affairs of the
  heart.
• Intensified focus on sex in both adult and teen
  magazines in recent years. Emphasis on boldness?
• Makeovers ? buy stuff, improve you because you
  are flawed!
• Mens magazines finance/business/technology,
  sports/hobbies, and sex.
• Sex in womens magazines is usually discussed in
  terms of interpersonal relationships but in mens
  magazines objectify and depersonalize sex.
• Like womens magazines, mens magazines only
  promote normative masculinity.

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Television The Ubiquitous Gender Socializer

• Most important media socializer.
• Americans spend 33 of her/his leisure time
  watching TV. More than any other leisure
  activity (including socializing with others
  7!).
• Women watch more TV than men do, adults more than
  children (although TV watching consumes more time
  than any other non-school activity).

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Prominent Messages in TV

• Women are less important than men.
• Fewer women than men on prime-time TV (39 of all
  major characters)
• Characters played by women tend to be younger and
  less mature than male characters and therefore
  less authoritative.
• 65 of female prime-time characters are in their
  twenties and thirites12 are in their forties and
  22 of male primetime characters are in their
  forties.
• Young female characters are typically thin and
  physically attractive.
• In general males are given more leeway in their
  appearance. 46 of women on TV compared with
  just 16 of men are thin or very thin.

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Gender Messages on TV

• There have been important changes in the
  portrayal of men and women in recent years.
• Female more likely (than before) to work outside
  the home, be strong and independent women who
  rely on themselves to solve problems. Shown
  interacting with other characters in an honest
  and direct way.
• males more likely to be shown as ideal husbands
  and do their share of housework. Even though
  theyre less likely to be shown doing it vs women
  (1-3 compared to 20-27).
• Gender stereotypes still persist Preoccupied
  with romantic relationships, shown on the job or
  not, defined by marital status or occupation,
  using romantic charm or force to get what they
  want.
• Since the 1970s the incorporation of womens
  rights and gender equality themes, often
  presented from what could be considered a
  feminist perspective.
• Gender stereotypes frequently intersect with
  racial and ethnic stereotypes on TV.
• Racial or ethnic people are still
  underrepresented (male or female) on TV.
• Over 80 of primetime characters are White, 12
  are Black, 2 are Asian American and 1 are
  Hispanic. this data is a little dated 90s
• Greatest strides towards equality local
  newscasts.

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Gender Messages in Advertisements

• Does Sexism sell?
• Ads sell less a product and more a lifestyle,
  needs and desires.
• advertisers portray an image that represents the
  interpretation of those cultural values which are
  profitable to propagate.
• For men the message is to buy a particular
  product to get the sweet young thing associated
  with it, for women buy the product in order to
  be the sweet young thing.

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Sexism in Advertising

• Sexism in advertising can be very subtle.
• What does the way models pose tell us?
• Women in subordinate and men in dominant
  positions.
• Killing Us Softy
• Gender stereotyping is also prevalent.
• Ex Occupation
• Sexually exploitative use of women had increased
  in ads since 1970.
• Women used as purely decorative.
• Use of men as decorative has also increased.
• Men as either Rambo or Himbo.
• Evidence that the industry confuses gender
  equality with sexual permissiveness or
  exploitation.
• The Lolita syndrome advertisings increasing
  use of children, especially girls, in sexually
  exploitative ways.
• Emphasis on youth denigration of the elderly
  (particularly women)
• Rarities in ads Hispanic Americans, Asian
  Americans, Native Americans, gay and lesbians or
  people with disabilities.
• Average American sees more than 37,000 ads just
  on TV a year!

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Images of Gender in the Media

• What are the effects? Do people believe what the
  media depicts? Some do
• Research suggests TV viewing may affect an
  individuals self evaluation as well as more
  general perceptions about gender.
• Several factors that mediate TVs effects
• Age the ability to correctly judge whether a
  program is fact or fiction increases with age (by
  10 or 11 most children can do this)
• Judgments about the programs plausibility of a
  programs content are unrelated to viewer age.
• Instead, plausibility is related to viewing
  frequency heavy TV viewers tend to judge
  programs as more realistic than light viewers do.
• Same is true of gender stereotypes.