This document discusses various representations and identities in media. It examines how media does not simply reflect reality but constructs new realities through stereotypes and essentializing of groups. The text also analyzes how discourses shape understandings of categories like gender, race, and class by limiting meanings and silencing certain voices.

1. Exhibits: Magazine ad
images: Representations
Categories: each table: 1) femininity 2)
masculinity, 3) class, 4), age, 5)
vacation/entertainment/entertainment 6) other
Identity patterns: create subcategories,
including interactions across categories
Note patterns/themes on post-its
Reflect on how images influence your identity
construction
Reflect on limitations of categories

2. Representation as Re-
present
Media do not simply reflect/mirror “reality”
Media create or re-present a new reality
“Reality” shows as a television “reality” drama
Media “mediate” how we construct our lives
Fashion magazine models mediate how they define
their identities based on feminity

3. Stereotyping: Fixes/limits
Meaning (Hall)
Stereotypes limits meanings assigned to groups
Shapes perceptions of that group
Leaves out/over-generalizes meaning
“Scientists as nerds”/ “Native Americans as alcoholics”
Contesting stereotypes by increasing diversity of images
that open up new possibilities of identity
“Where do images come from?”
“Who produces images?”
“How is meaning closed down in representation?”
“Who is silenced in the production of images?”

4. Problem of Essentializing
Groups
Essentializing differences in terms of
gender, class, and race reflects
stereotypes
“Boys always do X/girls do Y”
“Working-class people are like X.”
Essentializing fails to consider
variations in identities, contexts, and
cultures
It is based on biological/behaviorist

5. Gender as Performance vs. Essentialist
Categories
Problem of essentializing “male” versus “females” as
biological concepts
Gender as a cultural construction manifested through
performance
Madonna as conflicted parody of gender stereotypes
Social contexts as constituted by gender
Sports events as display of masculine performance
Afternoon talk shows as display of female agency

6. Construction of Masculinity
1780-1850: middle-class social
practices
Separation of work and “home” as
distinct gendered realms
Men’s clubs/Christian community:
moral commitment to service
Austere dress vs.aristocratic dress
Females: associated with home

7. Representations of Race
Power of white hegemony in
film/media
Predominating control/portrayal of
whites
People of color not shown as
subservient and not engaging in
“human”/complex practices
Blaxploitation films perpetuated
stereotypes

8. Representations of “the
Other”
Representations of the Other reflect the
operations of power
Said, “Orientalism”: representations of the
Orient from a European perspective
Orient as backward, mysterious, deviant
Presupposes European superiority
Media representations of gays as “different”

9. Representation and age
Representations of elderly as out-of-
touch and dependent
Example: Grandpa on The
Simpsons
Representations of adolescents as
self-indulgent and irresponsible
Example: the “Goonies”

10. Representation of urban vs.
suburban worlds
Representations of urban worlds as dangerous,
crime-ridden, poor
Representations of suburbia as bucolic, safe
escape from urban world
Or, representation of suburbia as shallow,
conformist, uniform “cooker cutter” world

11. Race: Create sitcom script
(Bird, 2003)
White group: largely white characters
Stereotypical portrayals of Indians
Mediated by media representations
Limited cultural tool-kit for
Indian group: aware of outside role
Rejection of stereotypes of Indians
White characters based on lived-
world experiences

12. Worlds: Discourses
Discourses: ways of knowing/thinking; serves to
limit/restrain ways of talking
Foucault: “madness”/hysteria
Rules for talking/defining knowledge
Subjects--represent discourse “mad” people
Social practices for dealing with people

13. Gee: discourses
Primary discourses: acquired in
childhood
Secondary Discourses: more
specialized, specific discourses
Academic, community, knowledge-
based
Discourses as “identity tool-kits”

14. Discourse of race: “Color-Blind
Racism”
Collective understandings/representations
Use of “racetalk” to avoid racist label
“Everyone is equal, but….”
“I am not prejudice, but…”
Denial of structural nature of discrimination
Criticism of government race-based programs
Use of storylines
“I didn’t own slaves”
“The past is past”

15. Discourses of class
Position: everyone is “middle class”
Social/power relations: “us” vs. “them”
Work/workplace: post-Fordist economy
“Second class” status: adjunct instructors
Cultural heritage: value/everyday life
Academia alienates working-class students
Lack of spaces for working-class students to
demonstrate expertise/agency

16. Bettie: Performing class
Performance: habitus: learned
dispositions
Passing and agency reflecting access
to cultural capital
Performativity: effects of social
structures on class inequality

17. Gee: SES and adolescents’ identities
Upper middle class: focus on
“portfolio-shape shifting”: acquire
“experiences”
Competition/achievement/cognitio
n
More expository, distanced
Working class: focus on everyday
interaction
Expression of feelings

18. Discourse of “business
manageralism”
Distanced, technocratic stances “which disallows the
speaking of concern, of welfare, of collective
experience” (Norman Fairclough, 2003)
Teachers as part of a larger corporate structure
Emphasizes productivity and efficiency
Disallows teachers from expressing alternative voices or perspectives
Need for “measurable” standards
Statistical measures as objective representations of
learning