Representation of Genders in the Media

Re enteration of Genders in the Media cover Diary Entry 1Liesbet cutting edge Zo integrityn Feminist Media Studies (chapter 6, pp 87 104)1. snarfThe sixth chapter of cutting edge Zoonens book Feminist Media Studies, Spectatorship and the Gaze, provides a compelling establish workforcet to the argona of feminist snap studies, more specific everyy, to different issues surrounding the supposition of the inspect. Van Zoonen draws on the argu workforcets of Laura Mulveys work, who used psychoanalytic tools in relieveing why wo workforce atomic number 18 presented in the media as organism looked at and men as the ones who act. Van Zoonen stresses the difficulty of the proponents of psychoanalysis to apologise the pastimes of female informantship, which, nevertheless, can be accounted for by employing different perspectives on media studies. After discussing ideas regarding the male heed, Van Zoonen turns her attention to the focussing images of men ar presented in fashion able media, emphasising the fact that, out of worry that their image could be homosexualised, different methods and narrative codes are employed in high society to make the objectification of male bodies less evident. Hence, the traditional perception of men creation the ones who present the power and women the ones who are looked at is still in place in patriarchal cultures, even though at that place are signs of trying to put it aside.2. OUTLINEwomen are constructed in western prevalent media as being the unresisting object of the male gaze, whereas men as being the ones who act the psychoanalytical paradigm was employed to explain this enunciate of factsa) Laura Mulvey used psychoanalysis in her study of sexual urge media representations as a useful tool in explaining the pleasures of male spectatorship, though failing to explain the independent female pleasure of look at menscopophilia the deriving of sexual pleasures simply by tonenarcissistic realisation the th irst of men to identify themselves with other men, presented on the screen as unflawed charactersthe fill industry is cogitate to patriarchy, according to Laura Mulvey both scopophilia and narcissistic realisation are achieved by the commission filmmakers frame the action, including the objectification of women the male gaze vexation of castration the trauma suffered by boys when discovering the physical sexual practice inconsistencys is diminished by the way male spectators take control over womens bodies in the film industryone of the problems of the way Mulvey employed psychoanalysis it equates masculinity with being male and femininity with being femaleb) Mary Ann Doane contends the im possibleness of reversing the gender roles (i.e. men becoming womanly and women masculine)no preconditions of voyeurism in women in childishness women do not experience the distancing from their mothers that boys do because of the sexual differencesthe female spectator can become mascu linized by identifying with the male characters in the film or narcissistic ally identifying with objectified female charactersc) criticism of the psychoanalytic paradigm it reinforces the patriarchal norms by excluding the possibility of women to settle pleasure from viewing media productsWomen derive pleasure by looking at other women the psychoanalytical paradigm and beyonda) some suggest that the bonding between girls and their mothers creates the pre-conditions of finding pleasure in looking at other womenb) women bemuse coexisting latent homosexual and manifest straightaway confides Chodorows theory of female developmentc) Ar thathnot and Seneca assert that the psychoanalytic theory is concern with male spectatorship and thus not appropriate to examine female experiences and motivationsWomen derive pleasure by looking at mena) Christianity repressing the copiousness of nude representations of men made the patriarchal order imperceptible, whilst it still is the substr ate of most societiesb) the female gaze which is masculine by definition looking at the male system is less dangerous than the homosexual gazec) narrative and visual techniques lessen the degree of subjection of the male body to the gaze of the female spectatorshipe.g. staring back at the viewer, looking up or away from the camera, the text accompanying the images personifying male bodies and thus creating charactersmen presented as supple (e.g. signs of physical activity or labour) and in control, right happening to be looked at, not as posing specifically for being viewed by female or male spectatorsmale bodies presented desire romanticistic objects, not sexual ones (e.g. Playgirl)3. LITERATURE REVIEWThe three chapters I drop chosen Kaplans (1983), Staceys (1988) and Van Zoonens (1994) which do not offer a omnibus(prenominal) tidings of the issue of the gaze, draw on the psychoanalytic explanations of the male gaze and attempt to explain which are the pleasures derived by female spectators watching media products. Hence, all authors use Laura Mulveys and Mary Ann Doanes ideas as a starting point for their word of honor Kaplan argues that psychoanalysis is a useful tool , but not necessarily discovery internal truths about the human psyche (1983 23). She hike argues that it can explain only the current structural organization of society, which, I would argue, is a red perspective in her view, cinema is seen as a means of let go of the tensions created by the industrial society and psychoanalysis as a obligatory means to infrastand the causes of these (Kaplan, 1983). Stacey (1988) identifies the gaps in Mulveys line of argument, more precisely the discussion of the male as an erotic object (which Van Zoonen analyses) and of female homosexuality, and exploits the latter(prenominal) to head one of the issues tackled in little depth by Van Zoonen (1994) female homosexual pleasure, which has been ignored by studies within the psychoanalytic fr amework. Stacey (1988), like Van Zoonen (1994), draws on Mary Ann Doanes idea that womens pleasures are not related to to fetishism and voyeurism, as mens are and further acknowledges Mulveys argument according to which women bulk large between male and female identifications.In discussing possibilities for understanding and explaining the female gaze, all three authors argue that the reversal of roles is impossible without losing the specific gender identification the female spectator becomes masculinized and vice-versa, and thus the structure remains basically unvaried (Kaplan, 1983). Stacey (1988), as does Van Zoonen (1994), rhetorically asks if women necessarily have to occupy feminine positions and men masculine ones. I would suggest that masculine and feminine really refer to a set of characteristics associated with men and women respectively only because it has traditionally been thought that they occur more often in the specific gender from which their names derive. Hen ce, they are not intrinsic to men or women. However, there remains the problem that they are in opposition, not on qualified terms. Moreover, if these names which refer to gender and sexual roles would be disregarded, I imply it would not be a problem for female spectators to adopt an active (masculine) stance anymore.Further discussing the feminine and masculine spectatorships, Stacey (1988) contends that the subjectivities of spectators should be also taken into account, even if their standpoint is seen as masculine. Kaplan notes, drawing on Mary Ann Doanes argument, that if attempting to jaw female spectatorship an active role and not masculinizing it, there is the danger of denying pleasure and of disembodying their spectator (Kaplan, 1983 28). An active main female character nearly eer loses her traditional feminine characteristics in so doing of kindness, humaneness, motherliness (Kaplan, 1983 29). The problem with this report is that all these characteristics of femin inity are actually constructed in the same way as concepts like active, sexually desirable etc are. Therefore, Kaplans statement does no umpire to the role of the female spectator.The dominant images of women, all male constructs, as Kaplan (1983) emphasizes, are the objects of male fetishism and voyeurism, as all three authors mention. In admission to Van Zoonens (1994) overarching discussion of these Freudian concepts, Kaplan (1983) points at three male gazes in customary media, identified by Laura Mulvey that of the film-maker, of the film viewer and of male characters in the film. According to this explanation of females position in the film framework, Kaplan argues, the man owns the desire and the woman (1983 27), whereas female spectators only receive and return the gaze but cannot act upon it (1983 31). Hence, male and female spectatorships are different in essential respects.All three authors have a feminist standpoint in common from whence they look at the representation of women in popular media. Stacey (1988) is probably the most dedicated of all three to the feminist cause, discussing issues which are taboo for other scholars (feminist or not) the homosexual female spectatorship. The arguments they bring fore overlap, being complementary in the respect that all offer in the raw information. However, they do not discuss each others contribution to the feminist parameter mainly because all three (Stacey to a lesser degree) offer an overview of the arguments brought anterior by Laura Mulvey and Mary Ann Doane. All three concluded by pointing to the exigency of further discussing the sources of pleasure for female spectators both in relation to men and to other women. Moreover, the problem of confounding gender identifications with sexuality in film studies has also been stated as being an issue.4. CROSSCUTTING THEMESThe issues concerning the representation of genders in the media is one of the most important areas of concern for feminist schol ars because of the many assumptions hidden under what comes across as common-sense. Nevertheless, this is only one of the issues in which feminists are interested. Among the full general concern with the resources of conferring women a secondary role in patriarchal societies, feminists address issues of work and employment, and of motherhood. These two themes have several links with those raised by Van Zoonens chapter on the male and female gaze in popular media.One of the most evident crosscutting themes is that of womens passivity and male activity and control. As we have seen in Van Zoonens chapter (1994), female spectatorship is constructed as being passive and to be looked at, whilst male spectators act upon women by looking at their objectified bodies. Witz (1993/1997) asserts that women have traditionally been seen as having the natural duty to do the domestic work, not men, and that feminists struggled to determine the official recognition of this second job women performed . At least since the 18th Century, when the capital of Seychellesn Domestic Ideology constructed women as passive, men have had the active role in a family, working in order to earn a wage for the household. Women, on the other side, have been seen as confined to the private sphere of life and, thus, as being passive since they did not have an active role in the public sphere, as men did. This way of seeing women as inferior to men has survived until the present day, when women have also acceded to work positions, and it can be easily seen in the structure of the labour market and in the representation of women in the media.The images of women in popular media, as objects of the male gaze, are opposed to representations of motherhood in different cultures. Reynolds notes that the good mother is endlessly patient, forgiving, nurturing and, most important of all, immortal in her love (1996 41) this characterization powerfully contrasts with the images of women as sexualized objects o r as secondary characters who only disrupt the narrative. For children, mothers are the main characters of their stories and are alone feminine (whereas the character of a mother in popular media would be either masculinized or it would be the object of the male gaze). Nevertheless, as Reynolds further argues, the problem is that in reality mothering is synonymous with subjugation (1996 42). Moreover, motherhood is linked with psychoanalysis and the way boys suffer a trauma when they discover their difference from their mothers.In conclusion, the chapters I have looked at on different topics compose by feminists share the same view that women are currently crush in patriarchal cultures. Women share subordination roles in media, at work, in the family etc. However, the hegemony of patriarchy is most evident in media representations of women.ReferencesKaplan, E. Ann (1983) Women and Film both Sides of the Camera, capital of the United Kingdom and New York Routledge, pp. 125-141Reyn olds, Kimberly (1996) Mothers in Madoc-Jones, Beryl Coates, Jennifer An Introduction to Womens Studies, Oxford Blackwell, pp. 38-61Stacey, Jackie (1988) Desperately Seeking diversion in Gamman, Lorraine Marshment, Margaret (Eds.) The Female Gaze Women as Viewers of Popular Culture, London Womens Press, pp. 112-129Van Zoonen, Liesbet (1994) Feminist Media Studies, London Sage, pp. 87 -104Witz, Anne (1993/1997) Women and Work in Robinson, Victoria and Richardson, Diane (Eds.) Introducing Womens Studies, 2nd edition, London MacMillan, pp.239-58