2. PRESENTATION OUTLINE!
! CHAPTER OVERVIEW!
! ANALYSIS INCLUDING IMAGES!
! GENDER COMMUNICATION WITHIN MEDIA!
! CONCLUSION!
3. CHAPTER OVERVIEW!
INTRODUCTION!
! Media as a plural--NOT the media (there is no such thing as
the media )!
! [Media] is used as an expansive understanding of media to
counter a class bias !
! Distinction between MEDIA and ART!
! Characteristics of Media:!
! Ephemeral (ie. what is popular one year may not be the next)!
! Contradictory !
! Variety of Forms and Content!
4. CHAPTER OVERVIEW!
MEDIA AS A SOCIAL INSTITUTION!
! MEDIA ECONOMICS: Media messages are not simply artifacts created for
art s sake--economic processes and institutional patterns govern them.
Commercial television is first an economic medium !
! MEDIA AND POWER: Media exert power over how people do gender. A
movie is an advertisement and is never JUST a movie. Provide models of
what it is to be feminine or masculine.!
! MEDIA AND HEGEMONY: Viewing media as an institution of civil society
that shapes the cognitive structures through which people perceive and
evaluate social realities.!
! MEDIA POLYVALENCE AND OPPOSITIONAL READINGS: Oppositional
interpretations of mainstream media texts should be understood in their social
contexts.!
5. CHAPTER OVERVIEW!
IT S NOT ABOUT SEX DIFFERENCE!
! DIFFERENCES AMONG WOMEN: Differences in reception to
media messages exist across races and within sexes. Although
all women may be held to beauty standard, the standard is not the
same for all women !
! SIMILARITIES BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN: Media
representations are a location where hegemonic masculinity is
identifiable--especially when relating to sports.
Representations of model men are important because they
present an image to which other men can aspire !
6. CHAPTER OVERVIEW!
MEDIA CONSTRUCT (AND CONSTRAIN) GENDER!
! THE GAZE(S): Focuses on media construction of the audience. !
! MEN ACT AND WOMEN APPEAR: Men look at women and women watch themselves being looked at; this
determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves !
! OPPOSITIONAL GAZE: Must consider the perspective from which we look and ask ourselves with whom we identify
with. One must also recognize the degree in which he or she participates in culture. An oppositional gaze moves from
social critique to political action.!
! MEDIA CONTENT AND MEDIA EFFECTS: Focuses on the
product--what is the content of media? (These topics in particular will be covered in detail later on)!
! WOMEN, MEN, AND VIOLENCE IN MEDIA!
! MEDIA DEPICTIONS OF RAPE!
7. CHAPTER OVERVIEW!
MEDIA AS ALWAYS LIBERATORY AND CONSTRAINING!
! GENDER IS CONSTRUCTED AND THUS IS ALWAYS IN
FLUX!
! RE-SECURING GENDERS BORDERS MASCULINITY IN
CRISIS !
! PROGRESSIVE REPRESENTATIONS RE-SECURE
TRADITIONAL GENDER NORMS: MR. MOM AND
ELLEN !
! NEW TECHNOLOGIES REPLICATE OLD GENDER
NORMS!
8. MEDIA AND POWER!
“INSTITUTIONS ARE ORGANIZED IN ACCORD WITH AND PERMEATED BY POWER”!
!
Media Forms also always influence
social norms that concern: gender,
race, class, nationality etc. They
provide models of what it is to be
feminine or masculine.!
!
Ex. The Film “V For Vendetta”!
!
9. MEDIA AND HEGEMONY!
MASS MEDIA HAVE CONSIDERABLE POWER OVER AN AUDIENCE OR A “HEGEMONIC HOLD”!
!
[Media] “...churns out products which keep the audience blandly entertained but passive, helping to
maintain the status quo by encouraging conformity and diminishing the scope of resistance” !
(Gauntlett, 2002)!
The BRING IT ON series is an example of this idea!
10. REPRESENTATION OF FAMILY !
REPRESENTATIONS OF FAMILY DISTRIBUTED BY MEDIA INFORM EACH PERSON’S
UNDERSTANDING OF THE MEANING AND BEHAVIOR OF FAMILY!
!
“...whether the representations are in the form of ‘family values,’ sound bites from politicans or in the form
of the idealized family life of the Camdens on the WB’s [now CW] 7th Heaven or the McNamaras’
dysfunctional family life on FX’s Nip/Tuck”!
Leave It To Beaver is an example of 7th Heaven is a different example of
the “ideal family” a four person the idealized family life but perhaps a Nip/Tuck exemplifies a
family with two kids. ! more modernized version with dysfunctional family but in a fictional
Honey, I’m home!! religious influences.! sense. !
! !
11. DIFFERENCES AMONG WOMEN!
MANY MEDIA COMMENTATORS ATTEMPT TO FOCUS ON MEDIA’S REPRESENTATION OF FEMININITY
AS THE PRIMARY PLACE IN WHICH WOMEN ARE SOCIALIZED TO BODY IMAGE IDEALS!
!
“Although much has been made of the lower incidence of anorexia in communities of color, its incidence is on the rise, in
part because of mediated images of beauty submerge racial and ethnic differences between bodies such that all women are
held to a SINGLE STANDARD attainable not only by very few women but perhaps not by anyone, considering the degree
of airbrushing used in magazine images”!
(Bordo, 1997)!
CELEBRITIES WITHOUT MAKEUP AND AIRBRUSHING!
REALISTIC BEAUTY vs UNATTAINABLE BEAUTY!
!
12. SIMILARITIES BETWEEN
WOMEN AND MEN!
MEDIA REPRESENTATION ARE ONE LOCATION WHERE HEGEMONIC MASCULINITY IS
IDENTIFIABLE , PARTICULARLY IN RELATION TO SPORTS COVERAGE!
!
HOW IT’S DEFINED:!
! POWER IN TERMS OF PHYSICAL FORCE/CONTROL!
!
OCCUPATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT!
!
REPRESENTATION OF FAMIAL PATRIARCHY!
!
FRONTIERSMAN/OUTDOORSMAN!
!
HETEROSEXUAL DEFINED!
!
13. MEDIA DEPICTIONS OF RAPE!
NOT UNTIL THE 1988 FILM “THE ACCUSED” WAS RAPE DEALT WITH FORTHRIGHT IN A
MAINSTREAM HOLLYWOOD MOVIE.!
!
“Vivid depictions of rape potentially repeat, commodify, or eroticize the trauma; when deciding whether to
reproduce vivd narratives of rape, one should consider how those whose stories are told would want their
stories told”!
14. THE GAZE !
THE GAZE NOT ONLY REFERS TO WOMEN’S ‘TO-BE-LOOKED-AT-NESS’ BUT ALSO BUILDS THE
WAY A WOMAN IS TO BE LOOKED AT OVER THE COURSE OF THE FILM ITSELF!
!
“The way the camera, the audience and the male character (with whom all spectators--male and female--
identify) look at women reinforces the male as active and female as passive”!
THE 1953 FILM “HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE” IS SHOT IN A WAY THAT THE AUDIENCE IS LOOKING AT
WOMEN THROUGH THE EYES OF A MAN. ESPECIALLY DURING THE FASHION SHOW SEQUENCE.!
!
15. MEDIA AS
COMMUNICATION!
MEDIA IS A MEDIUM THAT IS OFTEN USED TO COMMUNICATE IDEAS WITH THE GENERAL
PUBLIC. NOVELS, FILMS, MAGAZINE, TV SHOW...etc ARE ALL MEANS OF COMMUNICATION BOTH
BETWEEN THE TWO GENDERS AND WITHIN THE SAME GENDER.!
!
16. MEDIA AS
COMMUNICATION pt.2!
FOCUS ON: THE INTERNET!
!
MEDIA HAS CHANGED THE WAY WE
COMMUNICATE AND THE INTERNET PLAYS A
LARGE ROLE IN THAT. THIS IS WHERE WE
BEGIN TO SEE THE DIFFERENCES IN MEDIA
USAGE BETWEEN GENDERS. WOMEN USE
MEDIA (SPECIALLY THE INTERNET)AS A
MEANS TO STAY IN TOUCH (COMMUNICATION
PURPOSES) WHEREAS MEN PRIMARILY USE IT
FOR GATHERING INFORMATION AND
ENTERTAINMENT.!
MEDIA HOWEVER, ALSO ALLOWS THE TWO
GENDERS TO COMMUNICATE IN NEW WAYS
TOO. THE INTERNET PROVIDES SOCIAL
MEDIA SITES AS WELL AS DATING SITES THAT
ALLOW BOTH SAME AND DIFFERENT
GENDERS TO COMMUNICATE WITH EACH
OTHER IN A NEW WAY.!
17. CONCLUSION!
! MEDIA DEPICTS GENDER DIVERSITY!
! ALLOWS MORE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN GENDERS!
! CAN BE USED AS A SYMBOL !
! CAN BE REPRESENTATIVE OF GENDER ROLES
(SOCIETAL AND FAMILIAL)!