Further feminist theory: blog tasks

1) What definitions are offered by the factsheet for ‘feminism ‘and ‘patriarchy’?

Feminism is a movement which aims for equality for women – to be treated as equal to men socially, economically, and politically

patriarchy (male dominance in society)

2) Why did bell hooks publish her 1984 book ‘Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center’?

She had identified a lack of diversity within the feminist movement,
and argued that these diverse voices had been marginalised, being
put outside the main body of feminism.

3) What aspects of feminism and oppression are the focus for a lot of bell hooks’s work?

Here hooks argues that feminism’s goal to make all women equal to
men is flawed; not all men are equal to men as a result of oppression,
sexuality, ethnicity. hooks used her work to offer a more inclusive
feminists theory that advocated for women within a sisterhood to
acknowledging and accepting their differences. hooks challenged feminists to consider gender’s relation to sex, race, class and intersectionality. She argues that male involvement within the equality movement was important, encouraging men to do their part.

4) What is intersectionality and what does hooks argue regarding this?

The term intersectionality is used to describe overlapping or intersecting
social identities and related systems of oppression, domination or discrimination. It could also be said that it's Intersectionality is defined as the common point of two forms of oppression and how they work against a particular group of people. For example, black feminism addresses both gender and race discrimination.hooks argues that understanding intersectionality is vital to gaining political and social equality and improving our democratic
system. hook describes intersectionality as something which can create
and maintain systems of oppression and class domination. “Feminism
is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression”

5) What did Liesbet van Zoonen conclude regarding the relationship between gender roles and the mass media?

Van Zoonen concludes that there is a strong relationship between gender (stereotypes, pornography and ideology) and communication, but it is also the mass media that leads to much of the observable gender identity structures in advertising, film and TV.

6) Liesbet van Zoonen sees gender as socially constructed. What does this mean and which other media theorist we have studied does this link to?

Van Zoonen has a postmodernist understanding of science as something which is socially constructed and grounded in the social experiences of its practitioners. Scientific feminist research always includes 3 perspectives: the individual, the social and the cultural influences in order to understand the different meanings of media content. For van Zoonen, culture is seen as “ways of life” or, as she quotes theorist John Corner, “the conditions and the forms in which meaning and value are structured and articulated within a society”

7) How do feminists view women’s lifestyle magazines in different ways? Which view do you agree with?

For many years, feminists have criticised women’s magazines as commercial sites of exaggerated femininity which serve to pull women into a consumer culture on the promise that the products they buy will alleviate their own bodily insecurities and low self-esteem. But it is difficult, when applying a feminist perspective, to reconcile the pleasure women get from consuming women’s magazines, and the political correctness surrounding hegemonic constructions of gender identities. Van Zoonen argues that women’s magazines mediate images that tell women “how to be a perfect mother, lover, wife, homemaker, glamorous accessory, secretary – whatever suits the needs of the system”. Feminists of the 1970s saw the ‘media-created woman’ – the wife, mother, housekeeper, sex object – as a person only trying to be beautiful for men.In a way I agree with Van Zoonen's view as a lot of the time magazines try to tell women how to live their lives however during recent times I think there has been an improvement as to how women are represented in the media. 

8) In looking at the history of the colours pink and blue, van Zoonen suggests ideas gender ideas can evolve over time. Which other media theorist we have studied argues this and do you agree that gender roles are in a process of constant change? Can you suggest examples to support your view?

The association of pink with femininity and blue with masculinity was made in 19th century France. In the 18th century however, a pink silk suit was regarded as appropriate attire for a gentleman. Gender should therefore not be seen as a fixed property of individuals, but rather as a part of an ongoing process where subjects are constituted, often in paradoxical ways as van Zoonen suggests. These underlying cultural structures build our perception of our environments and things that we look at and interpret. It can be described as a process of constructing the world according to the inherent sign systems. But vice versa do the objects we are looking at also construct our personality, gender roles.

9) What are the five aspects van Zoonen suggests are significant in determining the influence of the media?

•Whether the institution is commercial or public
•The platform upon which they operate (print versus digital media)
•Genre (drama versus news)
•Target audiences
•The place the media text holds within the audiences’ daily lives

10) What other media theorist can be linked to van Zoonen’s readings of the media?

I believe that Van Zoonen builds on Stuart Hall's negotiated readings, arguing that the negotiated readings and subsequent focus on the way meanings are encoded and decoded "implies acknowledgement of gender construction as a social process in which women and men actively engage.”

11) Van Zoonen discusses ‘transmission models of communication’. She suggests women are oppressed by the dominant culture and therefore take in representations that do not reflect their view of the world. What other theory and idea (that we have studied recently) can this be linked to?

Another idea we can link to this is Hall's constructivist approach which is about how the way audiences respond to texts is impacted because of their own perspectives and conceptual map. 

12) Finally, van Zoonen has built on the work of bell hooks by exploring power and feminism. She suggests that power is not a binary male/female issue but reflects the “multiplicity of relations of subordination”. How does this link to bell hooks views on feminism and intersectionality?
This links to bell hooks views on feminism and intersectionality as it goes over the fact that power imbalance can infact not be defined as being something between males and females, Van Zoonen discusses how intersections just complicates this 'power' even more.