Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Media representation
of Gender
- Traditional representations of Women
- Narrow range of social roles, men perform a full range of
social/occupational roles.
- Tunstall- media representations
emphasize women's
domestic/sexual/consumer/marital
activities. Media ignore the fact
women go out to work.
- Working women presented as
unfulfilled/unattractive. Working
mothers implied to have neglected
their child.
- Symbolic Annihilation- Tuchman. - women's
achievements not
reported/condemned/trivialised by media.
Sexuality more important than achivements.
- Newbold- women's sport
coverage tends to oversexualise.
- Women's magazines encourage
conformity to patriarchal ideals that
confirm subordinate position compared
with men.
- Ferguson- content analysis of women's
magazines between 1949-1974 and
1979-1980. Magazines organised around
a cult of femininity- traditional ideal
where excellence achieved through
caregiving/family/marriage/femininity.
- Wolf- suggests images of women
used by media present women as
sex objects to be consumed by the
Male Gaze. Bodys are a project to be
continuously improved.
- Content analysis of women's
magazines says that 70% focus on
beauty and fashion whilst only 12%
focus on education and careers.
SLIMNESS= HAPPINESS.
- Increasing number of positive
female roles- these reflect social
and cultural changes that females
experienced in the last 25 years.
- Gill- depiction of
women in
advertising
changed from
women as passive
objectives of the
male gaze to
independent
agents.
- Gauntlett- female role models
emphasise women can be
strong but sexy.
- Almy- media representations are
important because they enter social
conscience and reinforce hegemonic
ideas about gender which represent
males as dominant and females as
subordinate
- Gauntlett- points out sociological analysis of media
representations needs to be cautious because of media
diversity in Britain.
- Traditional representations of Masculinity
- Easthope= media transmits the view that
masculinity based on
strength/aggression/competition/violence
is biologically determined and thus a
natural goal.
- 1980's- glossy magazines for
men, GQ, Maxim, FHM, suggest
men are emotionally vulnerable,
should be more in touch with
feminine side, treat women as
equals, care more about
appearance, active fatherhood
worthwhile.
- Gauntlett argues there are still plenty of
magazines aimed at men which objectify
women and stress images of men as
traditionally masculine
- Rutherford- magazines are
symbolic of what he calls
retributive masculinity- an
attempt to reassert
traditional masculinity
authority by celebrating
traditionally male concerns.
- "the new man"- new type of masculinity
led to post-modern sociologists saying
that masculinity is responding to the
assertiveness of women.