G325 Representation

1. REPRESENTATION
Gender/Sexuality/Race/Sub-cultures

2. Overview of
what areas of
‘Representation’
are to be
covered:
Gender: Judith
Butler, Laura
Mulvey, Angela
McRobbie,
David Gauntlett
Sexuality:
Queer Theory,
Feminist
Theory
Race: Stuart
Hall, Edward
Said
Sub-cultures
and youth: Dick
Hebdidge

3. Gender: Judith Butler
 In her most influential book Gender Trouble (1990), Butler argued
that feminism had made a mistake by trying to assert that 'women'
were a group with common characteristics and interests.
 Butler notes that feminists rejected the idea that biology is destiny,
but then developed an account of patriarchal culture which assumed
that masculine and feminine genders would inevitably be built, by
culture, upon 'male' and 'female' bodies, making the same destiny
just as inescapable. That argument allows no room for choice,
difference or resistance.
 The very fact that women and men can say that they feel more or
less 'like a woman' or 'like a man' shows, Butler points out, that 'the
experience of a gendered... cultural identity is considered an
achievement.'
 Butler argues that sex (male, female) is seen to cause gender
(masculine, feminine) which is seen to cause desire (towards the
other gender). This is seen as a kind of continuum. Butler's approach
-- inspired in part by Foucault -- is basically to smash the supposed
links between these, so that gender and desire are flexible, free-
floating and not 'caused' by other stable factors.

4. Gender: Judith Butler
Butler argues that we all
put on a gender
performance, whether
traditional or not, anyway,
and so it is not a question
of whether to do a gender
performance, but what
form that performance will
take. By choosing to be
different about it, we might
work to change gender
norms and the binary
understanding of
masculinity and femininity.
Butler says: 'There is no gender identity behind
the expressions of gender; ... identity is
performatively constituted by the very
"expressions" that are said to be its results.'
(Gender Trouble, p. 25). In other words, gender
is a performance; it's what you do at particular
times, rather than a universal who you are.

5. Gender: Angela McRobbie
ANGELA MCROBBIE BELIEVES THAT CULTURAL FEMALE
EXPRESSION IS A SYMBOLIC REVOLT AGAINST THE
CONSTRAINTS ON GIRL’S LIVES
McRobbie puts distance between herself and those feminist writers who denounce
women's magazines outright. Whilst some of their content may be disappointing to
feminist readers, McRobbie notes, many of the messages are positive and
empowering to young women.
"The idea that sexual pleasure is learnt, not automatically discovered with the right partner, the
importance of being able to identify and articulate what you want sexually and what you do not
want, the importance of learning about the body and being able to make the right decisions
about abortion and contraception, the different ways of getting pleasure and so on, each one of
these figured high in the early feminist agenda. This was the sort of material found in books like
Our Bodies, Our Selves (Boston Women's Health Collective 1973), the volume which started as a
feminist handbook and went on to sell millions of copies across the world.”
- McRobbie
Post Feminism & Beyond Lecture by Angela McRobbie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wk-QIXlx2wk&feature=player_embedded

6. Gender: Laura Mulvey
 The theory of the ‘Male Gaze’ has a very simple idea behind
it. Mulvey believes that male audiences get a sense of power and
pleasure from watching women in the media who are often
represented as objects for male pleasure. This type of objectified
woman is the media norm. Most media representations of
women are mainly for men – for the male gaze.
 Mulvey’s theory argues that in nearly all media representations of
women, the viewer is put in the masculine subject position, with
the figure of the woman on screen as the object of
desire. Viewers are encouraged to identify with the hero of the
film, who is usually a man. Meanwhile, female characters are,
according to Mulvey, there just to be looked at. In this way, the
camera is like the eyes of a man, so we as the audience watch the
images through the male gaze.
 Most media representations present men as active and in control
and treat women as passive objects of desire… Women are not
allowed to be desiring sexual subjects in their own right. Such
texts objectify women in relation to ‘the controlling male gaze’,
presenting ‘woman as image’ (or ‘spectacle’) and man as ‘bearer of
the look’. Men do the looking; women are there to be looked at.

7.  According to Mulvey, this is a patriarchal society. This means that it recognizes
the male gender and the sexuality of men as the dominant norm. The media
offers a system of representation based on the male pleasure of ‘looking’ – an
erotic realm using the language and images of the patriarchal culture. It satisfies
and reinforces the masculine ego and represses the desires of women.
 Laura Mulvey’s theory of the ‘male gaze’ is
important; she contends that scopophilia (the
basic human sexual drive to look at other
human beings) has been ‘organised’ by
society’s patriarchal definition of looking as a
male activity, and being looked at as a female
‘passivity’. Male power means that any social
representation of women is constructed either
as a fetishised spectacle or as a spectacle for
the purpose of male voyeuristic pleasure.
Gender: Laura Mulvey

8. Sexuality: Queer Theory
Queer Theory
“Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the
dominant. There is nothing in particular to which it necessarily refers. It is an identity
without an essence. 'Queer' then, demarcates not a positivity but a positionality vis-
à-vis the normative.”
Queer theory is derived largely from post-structuralist theory, and deconstruction in
particular. Starting in the 1970s, a range of authors brought deconstructionist critical
approaches to bear on issues of sexual identity, and especially on the construction of
a normative "straight" ideology. Queer theorists challenged the validity and
consistency of heteronormative discourse, and focused to a large degree on non-
heteronormative sexualities and sexual practices.
The term "queer theory" was introduced in 1990, with Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick,
Judith Butler, Adrienne Rich and Diana Fuss

9. Sexuality: Queer Theory
“…a rough summary of Queer Theory is that we
should not be defined by which sexual acts we
perform, just like our gender is not defined by
the things we do. According to Queer Theory,
the current labels we have for people don’t
work. That’s especially important because we
have only one label for sexual behavior between
opposite sexes – heterosexual, while there are
lots of labels for non-heterosexuals: gay, lesbian,
trans-gender, queer, bisexual.”
angelawd.wor
dpress.com

10. Sexuality: Feminist Theory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2987BtXC-U
Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical or philosophical discourse. It aims to
understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's social roles, experience, and
feminist politics in a variety of fields, such as anthropology and sociology, communication,
psychoanalysis, economics, literary, education, and philosophy.[1] While generally providing a
critique of social relations, much of feminist theory also focuses on analyzing gender inequality and
the promotion of women's rights, interests, and issues.
Feminists have taken many different approaches to the analysis of cinema. These include discussions of the
function of women characters in particular film narratives or in particular genres, such as film noir, where a
female character can often be seen to embody a subversive sexuality that is dangerous to males and is ultimately
punished with death. In considering the way that films are put together, many feminist film critics, such as Laura
Mulvey, have pointed to the "male gaze" that predominates in classical Hollywood film making. Through the use
of various film techniques, such as shot reverse shot, the viewer is led to align themself with the point of view of
a male protagonist. Notably, women function as objects of this gaze far more often than as proxies for the
spectator. Feminist film theory of the last twenty years is heavily influenced by the general transformation in the
field of aesthetics, including the new options of articulating the gaze, offered by psychoanalytical French
feminism.

11. Race: Stuart Hall
 Hall's work covers issues of hegemony and cultural studies, taking a post-Gramscian stance. He
regards language-use as operating within a framework of power, institutions and
politics/economics. This view presents people as producers and consumers of culture at the same
time.
 culture is not something to simply appreciate or study, but a "critical site of social action and
intervention, where power relations are both established and potentially unsettled.”
 Hall has become one of the main proponents of reception theory, and developed Hall's Theory of
encoding and decoding. This approach to textual analysis focuses on the scope for negotiation and
opposition on part of the audience. This means that the audience does not simply passively accept
a text — social control. Crime statistics, in Hall's view, are often manipulated for political and
economic purposes. Moral panics (e.g. over mugging) could thereby be ignited in order to create
public support for the need to "police the crisis." The media play a central role in the "social
production of news" in order to reap the rewards of lurid crime stories.
 His works — such as studies showing the link between racial prejudice and media-have a
reputation as influential. They serve as an important foundational text for contemporary cultural
studies.
 Hall believes identity to be affected by history and culture, rather than a finished product, he sees
it as ongoing production
 Hall has also widely discussed notions of: cultural identity & race and ethnicity

12. Race: Stuart Hall
Hall's paper 'Encoding/decoding' published in 1973 had a major influence on cultural
studies, and many of the terms it set forth remain influential in the field.The essay
takes up and challenges longheld assumptions on how media messages are
produced, circulated and consumed, proposing a new theory of communication.
Hall's essay challenged all three components of the mass communications model. It
argued that:
(i) meaning is not simply fixed or determined by the sender
(ii) the message is never transparent
(iii) the audience is not a passive recipient of meaning
, a documentary film on asylum seekers that aims to provide
a sympathetic account of their plight does not guarantee that audiences will also view
them sympathetically. Despite its being realistic and recounting facts, the
documentary form itself must still communicate through a sign system (the aural-
visual signs of TV) that simultaneously distorts the intentions of producers and evokes
contradictory feelings in the audience

13. Race: Edward Said
 Said explained that at the start of European colonization
the Europeans came in contact with the lesser developed
countries of the east. They found their civilization and
culture very interesting and established the science of
orientalism (the study of the orientals/people from these
exotic civilization).
 Said argues Europeans divided the world into two parts;
the east and the west or the civilized and the uncivilized-
an artificial boundary
 The Europeans used orientalism to define themselves.
Some particular attributes were associated with the
orientals, and whatever the orientals weren’t the
occidents were. The Europeans defined themselves as
the superior race compared to the orientals; and they
justified their colonization by this concept. They said that
it was their duty towards the world to civilize the
uncivilized world.
Orientalism by
Edward Said is a
text of cultural
studies which
challenges the
concept of
orientalism or
the difference
between east
and west.

14. Race: Edward Said
 The main problem, however, arose when the
Europeans started generalizing the attributes they
associated with orientals, and started portraying these
artificial characteristics associated with orientals in
their western world through their scientific reports,
literary work, and other media sources.
 What happened was that it created a certain image
about the orientals in the European mind and in doing
that infused a bias in the European attitude towards
the orientals. This prejudice was also found in the
orientalists (scientist studying the orientals); and all
their scientific research and reports were under the
influence of this. The generalized attributes associated
with the orientals can be seen even today, for example,
the Arabs are defined as uncivilized people; and Islam
is seen as religion of the terrorist.

15. Sub-cultures and youth: Dick
Hebdidge
'Hebdige's Subculture: The Meaning of Style is so important:
complex and remarkably lucid, it's the first book dealing with
punk to offer intellectual content. Hebdige [...] is concerned with
the UK's postwar, music-centered, white working-class
subcultures, from teddy boys to mods and rockers to skinheads
and punks.’-Rolling Stone
Dick Hebdige argued that a subculture is a subversion to normalcy. He wrote that
subcultures can be perceived as negative due to their nature of criticism to the
dominant societal standard. Hebdige argued that subcultures bring together like-
minded individuals who feel neglected by societal standards and allow them to
develop a sense of identity.

16. In 2007, Ken Gelder proposed to distinguish subcultures from
countercultures based on the level of immersion in society. Gelder
further proposed six key ways in which subcultures can be
identified:
i. through their often negative relations to work (as 'idle',
'parasitic', at play or at leisure, etc.);
ii. through their negative or ambivalent relation to class (since
subcultures are not 'class-conscious' and don't conform to
traditional class definitions);
iii. through their association with territory (the 'street', the
'hood', the club, etc.), rather than property;
iv. through their movement out of the home and into non-
domestic forms of belonging (i.e. social groups other than
the family);
v. through their stylistic ties to excess and exaggeration (with
some exceptions);
vi. through their refusal of the banalities of ordinary life and
massification
Sub-cultures and youth: Ken Gelder