Feminist theory: blog tasks

 Media Magazine reading - two articles on feminism and theory

Read Playing With The Past: Post-feminism and the Media (MM40, page 64 - our Media Magazine archive is here). This is a great example of sophisticated media analysis and an indication of the level we want to be writing at by the end of the two-year course.

1) What examples are provided from the two texts of the 'male gaze' (Mulvey)?

When analysing the lyrics of ‘Why Don’t you Love Me’ Beyoncé proves that she offers everything a man ‘could want or need’ in a woman, claiming: I got beauty, I got class, I got style an I got ass....I even put money in the bank account. Don’t have to ask no one to help me out. Whilst singing these lyrics Beyoncé reinforces her ‘credentials’ by openly rubbing her chest and body, whilst playfully looking down the camera, clearly submitting herself to sexual objectification and openly acknowledging the ‘male gaze’ (see glossary). A post-feminist reading of this might be that since Beyoncé is openly allowing herself to be objectified, indeed encouraging it by looking down the camera playfully and winking at the audience, she is controlling ‘the gaze’ and is thus empowered. However, like so many other post-feminist texts which openly acknowledge ‘the gaze’ in this playful postmodern ‘knowing’ way, we also see a simultaneous reassuring of patriarchal anxieties. The video confirms conventional gender roles, firstly through the lyrics and the song’s constant rhetorical questioning. The song has a direct mode of address, starting with the title of the song ‘Why Don’t You Love Me’ – a rhetorical question Beyoncé repeats throughout the lyrics pleading to understand why her ‘man’ doesn’t love her. She states that there is ‘nothing not to love about me’ and why, when she makes herself ‘so damn easy to love’ does he not love her? These are not the words of an empowered independent woman. They are passive and needy, and calming patriarchal concerns about independent women by reassuring them that even Beyoncé needs a man. Extreme close-ups on her tear-stained face as she pleads down the phone clutching a martini cocktail also connote her desperation and loss of control, again reinforcing her need for a man. Even Beyoncé with all her ‘credentials’ and ‘brains’ (which she also claims to have in the song) cannot hold onto a man, reinforcing the active male/passive female principle. The video proposes simultaneously that we are so beyond the Fifties, that women’s rights have moved on so much – yet it still reinforces patriarchal ideologies and concerns.

In the pilot episode of Pan Am we first meet the stars of the show – the stewardesses – through an image of Laura, one of the main characters, on the front of a magazine cover. It is interesting to note that this first image of the Pan Am stewardesses is one which is highly constructed and mediated, an image whose purpose is to be admired and aspired to by women, and visually enjoyed by men. The preferred reading of this could be that this is the public image of air stewardesses presented to the world, perhaps connoting that the rest of the episode and series will provide some kind of ‘real’ insight into the women’s lives. What  this magazine’s cover also serves to do is to acknowledge the image of the air stewardess as a constructed version of femininity, self- consciously acknowledging that this is simply a ‘glossy’ image, a fantasy not based on reality. The construction of the perfect ‘Pan Am version of femininity’ is one that is highly restricted. Pan Am air stewardesses are described in the airways magazine as ‘all college-educated, they can fly until they are married or turn 32’. In the pilot episode we see Laura having her weight and appearance checked, and being subjected to a humiliating girdle check (a type of support underwear worn at that time to control the stomach and upper thighs). However, it seems that at that time, being an air stewardess was not seen as a career for life; frequent references are made to finding a husband, one stewardess commenting on Laura’s magazine front cover, that ‘with a face like that you will find a husband in a couple of months’. Critical of these restrictions, like many post-feminist texts the show is aware of feminism, acknowledging the terrible sexism the women experience, and even punishing male characters who behave in a sexist way. Nevertheless, throughout the series the women use their appearance to empower themselves, frequently donning their uniforms to gain access to places they want to be, using their looks to their own advantage, and allowing us, the audience, to enjoy appreciating their bodies. The last sequence in the pilot episode provides a complex and ambivalent double address, with all the restrictions, limitations and sexism experienced by the air stewardesses forgotten in a nostalgic aspirational sequence. The sequence opens with a mid-shot of the four identikit stewardesses’ fragmented legs as they walk in unison through the airport, allowing the audience to relish in the rhythm of their walk and their bodies. As we cut to a long shot, slow motion provides even more visual pleasure as we can take in all the glorious period detail of their uniforms and of course appreciate their perfectly coiffed hair and make up. They cause male characters in the airport to turn and stare; while the stewardesses don’t acknowledge these looks, there is a knowing and empowered quality to their walk and facial expressions. One by one as they enter through the glass doors to board the plane the camera pans to a close up on a little girl’s face as she gazes through the window in admiration. The camera cuts to the child’s perspective, aligning the audience with her aspirational gaze; and as Laura turns to smile there is a post-feminist knowingness to her look.

2) Do texts such as these show there is no longer a need for feminism or are they simply sexism in a different form?

There will always be a need for feminism no matter which ever way you look at it as I believe that even if the texts were not trying to get the male gaze us as males still won't be able to control ourselves from where our eyes tend to look so women's in text should always show out their feminine side and show in the media's eyes that their bodies shouldn't be objectified as how it is in the texts provided above and remind viewers at home that women's are just as equally important as men. 

3) Choose three words/phrases from the glossary of the article and write their definitions on your blog.

Feminism – A movement aimed at defining, establishing, and defending women’s rights and equality to men.

Male Gaze – The gaze referring to Laura Mulvey’s seminal article ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ which argues that main stream Hollywood films subject female characters to the ‘male gaze’ of the camera, fragmenting and objectifying their bodies.

Post-feminism – An ideology in culture and society that society is somehow past needing feminism and that the attitudes and arguments of feminism are no longer needed.

Now read The Theory Drop: Gender Performativity (MM69, page 25) and answer the following questions.

1) How does the writer suggest gender performativity is established from a young age?

Children are taught to perform their gender from early on so that they align themselves with certain tastes and behaviours befitting their gender category. If you shopped entirely at Primark or Mothercare, you’d be teaching girls to be passive, caring, responsible for the happiness of others, and boys to do what the hell they like because it’s cute, attractive and roguish. Fast forward 30 years and you can possibly trace a line between these early messages and the startling number of women who suffer abusive relationships.

2) What does the phrase 'non-binary' refer to and how does it link to Butler's theory?

The phrase ‘non-binary', referring to someone who doesn’t define themselves as either wholly male or female, is increasingly in common usage. This links with Judith Butler's theory as she wrote a book called 'Gender Troubles'. When Butler wrote Gender Trouble in 1990, she used transvestism as an example of an identity which upsets the status quo of manly men and ladylike women. But in the 30 years since, society has come a long way and there is significantly more ‘trouble’ when it comes to binary notions of gender. 

3) How and why does the media help reinforce gender stereotypes? The writer provides several examples in the final section of the article.

Media products contribute to the social construction of gender roles because most products do conform to stereotypes. Whilst there have been more progressive representations on some platforms (online, on demand services), the mass media still has a way to go. It’s worth thinking about whose interests are served by perpetuating these roles. When females (and non-white, working class, LGBTQ+, disabled etc.) are presented as inferior, males (white, wealthy, heterosexual, able-bodied etc.) come out as superior. Of course the mainstream media relies on gender stereotypes for other reasons, mostly as a shortcut to meaning. Narratives (in film, TV, print, online) are easier for audiences to understand if the characters, subjects and story lines conform to a set of ideas that are already fixed in our heads from an early age. That’s a whole load of telling and explaining that the magazine cover, advert, sitcom etc. doesn’t have to do.

Music video analysis

Finally, write up our analysis of the two music videos we studied in class. This is your opportunity to develop your own opinions on these crucial media debates.

Watch the Beyonce video for ‘Why Don’t You Love Me?’ again: 

1) How might this video contribute to Butler’s idea that gender roles are a ‘performance’?

Beyonce in this video supports Butler's idea very well that gender roles are a 'performance' as Beyonce is being the stereotypical woman and being vulnerable in some parts of the music video and being scared and crying which is again her acting as the stereotypical female. However she does subvert the ideas of being a stereotypical female as during in the beginning of the music video we did see certain elements and traits that normally we would see in a male do which is Beyonce trying to fix her broken engine of her car instead of waiting for someone to come and help her which shows and subverts the idea of how women are meant to act. 

2) What might van Zoonen suggest regarding the representation of women in this video?

The video clearly represents the idea that women are viewed as a spectacle as Beyoncé consistently wears very revealing clothing throughout the entirety of the music video and can establish the view that its the only way to appeal to men in this patriarchal society through this media of a music video which may have been felt not to be responded to correctly or with attention from the media and male audiences if it was not filmed exactly as it was in the video further reinforcing the idea of a 'male gaze' in media products but also that the media will reinforce the gender role of the woman to be subservient to men in this way.

3) What are YOUR views on this debate – does Beyonce empower women or reinforce the traditional ‘male gaze’ and oppression of women? 

In my opinion, I think Beyonce does both in this case as she empowers women by showing in her music video her doing masculine stuff such as trying to be her own mechanic and fixing her car and trying to look dominant instead of being shy or scared. However we do see her reinforce the idea of the 'male gaze' due to her costume in the video she was wearing as she is wearing tight clothing and showing off a lot of her body which again reinforces the idea of the 'male gaze' as she's making herself be seen in a sexual and objectified way which could be pleasing to some men. 

Watch Will Jay's video for ‘Gangsta’ again:



1) How does the video suggest representations of masculinity have changed in recent years?

This video shows representations of masculinity as it subverts the idea of how men should act and that they should act more feminine and soft and not always be seen as how the media might interpreted them as strong and less emotional as in Jay's video it shows him doing a lot of various things that normally a female would do which changes the idea of how men should act such as him using a dumbbell prop in his video and him conveying and showing struggle that he can't lift it and him actually as well doing some ballet dancing which is seen as a more female thing to do. 

2) What does David Gauntlett suggest about representations of men in the media over the last 20 years?

That masculinity is not in crisis and is instead evolving and the media explosions of the 80's and 90's allowed for the chance to actively reconstruct men's own identities and move away from traditional stereotypes.

3) What is YOUR view on the representation of men and masculinity? Are young men still under pressure from the media to act or behave in a certain way?

Yes I heavily do think that young men are still under pressure from the media to act or behave in a certain way as if men do begin to fall or crumble and begin to act in a different way that isn't the traditional way of how men are meant to act that they'll be seen by not just the media and but by the people around them in a unusual way and in the wrong way and be seen more as a joke or not be taken too seriously by their fellow peers around them no more.