Up to date Notes and Quotes - 9/12/2016
Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction (2nd
Edition)
David Gauntlett
MEN AND WOMEN TODAY
·
“If there is 'a battle of sexes' who is winning
nowadays?” (Page 3)
·
“The sexes today are generally thought to be
‘equal’, to the extent that the cover of Time Magazine wondered if feminism was
‘dead’ in June 1998”. (Page 3)
·
“A noisy minority argue that feminism has ‘gone
too far’ and that it is now men who have the worst deal in society” (Farrell, 2001; Nathanson and Young, 2001,
2006; Hise, 2004; Ellis, 2005). (Page
3)
LAURA MULVEY AND THE
‘MALE GAZE’
·
“Male
viewers identify with the (male) protagonist, and the female characters are the
subject of their desiring gaze.” (Page
41)
·
“Female viewers, Mulvey says are also compelled
to take the viewpoint of the central (male) character, so that woman are denied
a viewpoint of their own and instead participate in the pleasure of men looking
at woman. (‘Men look at women; women
watch themselves being looked at’, as John Berger had put it (1972: 47).) (Page 41)
·
“The female character has no importance in a
film Mulvey says, except as a spectacle” (Page
41)
·
“Heroes
that drive the story are always male, whilst female characters are passive
erotic objects” (Page 42)
·
“…
value in the idea that women come to learn
to view themselves and other women through the ‘male gaze’ given the dominance of male produced media, but to deny
the female gaze altogether does little service to women”. (Page
42)
WOMAN AND MEN IN MOVIES
·
“In the 1950’s the most popular films included High Noon (1952) and Rear Window (1954)… focused
on male heroes… these men typically made the decisions which led the story…
assertive, confident and dominant” (Page 50)
·
“Woman had important roles… far more likely than
men to be shown as frightened, in need of protection and direction and offering
love and support to the male lead characters” (Page 50)
·
“In 1960’s… all women characters cast as inept
or were always housewives” (Page 50)
·
“ Often the female characters function only to
serve the male lead”
·
“… or are gender stereotyped as the
dumb/ unintelligent character or just there for their looks”.
·
Polled over 1000 young women
aged 16-30; over half agreed that
women are not accurately represented in TV & Film. A further 37% also believe women are not even shown in a positive light.
·
Poor representation of women
could even be specific to genre. 42%
stated that horror films tend to portray women the worst, with romantic
comedies not far behind on 36%.
·
“… pressure on young girls today to look a certain way, be a certain weight and copy the
perfection they see on the cover of magazines and online.”
·
68% of women polled agreed that
women in TV & Film do not promote a realistic body image and 59% believe that for women in Film
& TV looks are the most important thing.
·
“Storylines should have a
heroine (as opposed to a hero) and shouldn’t involve a romantic relationship”.
MEDIA MAGAZINE 34 à THE CHANGE ISSUE: ENGENDERING CHANGE
·
“Men active: woman passive” – John Berger à (Page 65)
·
“In a world ordered by sexual imbalance,
pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and
passive/female”. – Laura Mulvey à (1985:306) (Page 65)
·
“a
generation of women who wanted to rebel against male dominance” The
Female Eunuch (1969)à (Page 65)
·
“The first appearance of a ‘girl’, in Dr No (UK, 1962), when Ursula Andress emerged
from the ocean in a bikini, emphasised that these women were sex objects”. (Page
66)
·
“… names were sometimes sexual puns – for
example, ‘Pussy Galore’ and ‘Honey Ryder’. “ (Page 66)
·
“Representation
of women across all media tends to focus on the beauty, size/physique,
sexuality, emotional (as opposed to intellectual) dealings and relationships”
·
Laura Mulvey
quoted as saying “Narrative fiction film created images of women used for the
gratification of men”.
·
“These
empowered, confident, sexy female characters could be seen as aspirational
figures”
·
“Women are
in need of strong role models and perhaps this surge of action movie heroines
could be the answer?”
MEDIA MAGAZINE 32 à THE HUMOUR ISSUE: IS NESSA BAD FOR OUR HEALTH
·
“...Characters body weight was linked to
narrative lines – fat people less likely to be shown having romantic
relationships and their plot lines generally had a negative narrative outcome” (Page 22)
·
“ bad things happen to fat people and good
things happen to thin people” (Page 22)
·
“ One believes that representations are
constructed in order to fit with mainstream hegemonic values” (Page 22)
·
“Identity is complicated, everyone’s got one” –
David Gauntlett
·
“Influential women in public life continue to be
sources of inspiration, but how much does the media challenge hegemonic
constructs of femininity”.
·
“Practice stubborn sexism and misogyny that
fails to recognise or hold up any mirror on society, choosing instead to
reinforce prejudice and maintain unequal gender divisions”
·
“Reinforcing and celebrating sexism”
·
“ ..Analysing the dominant discourse of
Hollywood cinema, concentrating primarily on the notions of images of women as
spectacle and as fetishized object”.
http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc54.2012/RothlisbergerBabel/text.html - Leisa Rothlisberger
·
…”women
are victimized in association with their national labels”.
·
In 2013, women comprised less than a third of
speaking parts in the top grossing domestic films and only 15% of protagonists.
·
“ A growing disconnect… between what we might
perceive as being the current status of women in film and their actual status”
– Dr Martha Lauzen (Executive Director
of The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State
University)
·
“Truth…latest films… female characters are two
times more likely than males to be identified only by a life related role rather
than work related role… rarely portrayed as formal leaders” (Lauzen, 2015)
·
“Recent popularity of female heroines like
Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games series
and Tris in the Divergent series may lend to the impression that women
are represented equally and fairly”
·
“I feel like with young women, their bodies are
constantly objectified and used in a sexual context.”
·
“ With
older women [their bodies are] constantly the butt of a joke… seminal scene
that illustrates that is in About
Schmidt, when Kathy Bates gets into the hot tub and Jack Nicholson is
horrified and the audience is supposed to scream. … deeply offended by that
scene”
[Melissa
Block (2012) Sarah Polley: On Love, Desire and The Female Body. NPR]
·
In the top 100 grossing films of 2008 young
women were sexualised more often than men.
39.8% of women were wearing sexually revealing attire compared to 6.7%
of men.
·
30.1% of women were shown partially naked
compared to 10.3% of men.
[Stacy
L. Smith and Marc Choueiti: Gender inequality in cinematic content? A look at
females on screen and behind the camera]
·
2007 -2012: 28.8%
of women wore sexually revealing clothes as a opposed to 7% of men
·
“Women are shown on screen, they’re often
portrayed in a hyper sexualized way”
·
“31.6% of females were shown wearing
stereotypically “sexy” clothing”
Feminist Media Studies -Liesbet van Zoonen
Spectatorship and the Gaze
·
“…display of woman as spectacle to be looked at,
subjected to the gaze of the (male) audience.” (Page 88)
·
“Pornography
is the most obvious genre built on the exhibition of women’s bodies as objects
of desire, fantasy and violence” (Page
88)
·
“The incorporation of women’s bodies as
decorative ingredients in advertisements of drinks, tools and - most
notoriously – cars in common practice”
(Page 88)
·
“…
In TV game shows the assistant to the quiz master is the predictably attractive,
scantily dresses blonde” (Page 88)
·
“Hollywood cinema has a long standing tradition
of constructing women as a spectacle for voyeuristic pleasure” (Page 88)
·
“ This common feature of popular and high culture
alike – for in ‘art’ women’s bodies have been exploited in similar ways - suggests that in western society to be
looked at is the fate of women , while the act of looking is reserved to men.”
(Page 88)
Men looking at women
·
‘Scopophilia’ is defined as a basic human sexual
drive to look at other human beings, a conscious and concentrated way of
looking that causes particular feelings of lust and satisfaction that are not
directly related to erotogenic[1]
zones’ (Page 88)
·
“In mainstream Hollywood film, women function
simultaneously as erotic objects for the male audience who can derive
scopophilic pleasure from their presence, and as erotic objects for the male
protagonists with whom the male audience can identify” (Page 89)
·
“Cinema undermines women’s intelligence... they
don’t see us as a powerful economic force, which is incredible ignorance” –
Salma Hayek (Mexican – American actress)
·
“We must commit to equalizing the playing field
for women in Hollywood” – Jennifer Siebel Newsom (Director of documentary Miss Representation)
Gender Trouble - Judith Butler
·
“I read Beauvoir who explained that to be a
woman within the terms of a masculinist culture is to be the source of mystery
and unknowability for men” (Preface
1990) {Page 29}
·
“For the masculine subject of desire,
trouble became a scandal with the sudden
intrusion, the unanticipated agency, of a female ‘object’ who inexplicably
returns the glance, reverses the gaze and contests the place and authority of
the masculine position” (Preface 1990)
{Page 30}
THE COMPULSORY ORDER OF SEX/GENDER/DESIRE
·
“Although, the unproblematic unity of ‘women’ is
often invoked to construct a solidarity of identity, a spilt is introduced in
the feminist subject by the distinction between sex and gender”.
à “One is not born a woman, but rather becomes
one” – Simone de Beauvoir
à “Strictly speaking, ‘women’ cannot be said to exist” - Julia Kristeva
à “Strictly speaking, ‘women’ cannot be said to exist” - Julia Kristeva
è
“ Woman does not have a sex” – Luce Irigaray
è
“ The deployment of sexuality… established this
notion of sex” – Michel Foucault
è
“ The category of sex is the political category
that founds society as heterosexual” – Monique Wittig
·
“Read it and weep: The gender ratio of men to
women in film is 3.4 men to 1 woman”
·
“For every female character that appears in a
movie there are at least three male characters in the same movie... Upsetting
right?”
·
“It’s hard to find a female character that
doesn’t fit into some type of degrading feminine stereotype”
·
“It’s time to cut the crap, Hollywood. We want
female movie leads that are clever, strong, independent and real... here are
nine female movie stereotypes that should be nixed immediately”.
·
“The cold
heartless boss, Miranda Priestly in The
Devil Wears Prada she’s callous, detached, and the main antagonist...
However, this can’t be the stereotype for all women in positions of power.”
“Instead we should portray female bosses as motivated or brilliant, which most
are in real life”
·
“The
damsel in distress, a broken woman with a troubled past and/or dark
secret is completely lost until she is often saved by an often shirtless male.
The problem with this stereotype is that it perpetuates the idea that women
need to be saved”
·
“Woman are completely capable of solving their
own problems without the help of a hunky man”
·
“The
sleazy journalist, most movies portraying female journalists
doesn’t do the career justice; these characters will always have some sort of
relationship with their male sources. Sometimes it’s a flirtation, but other
times it’s a sex-for-secrets trade-off. Trainwreck, Amy Schumer’s
journalist character has sex with the subject of her story after knowing him
for less than 48 hours”
·
“The
workaholic, she’s an
intelligent, ambitious, and driven working woman, she’s landed her dream job
doing something she loves and so she spends most of her time at the office.
When she finally falls for Mr. Right, her job interferes with the relationship,
and she’s forced to make a decision. Referencing The Devil Wears Prada once
again, Anne Hathaway’s character is the workaholic. After her career takes off,
her relationship with her boyfriend suffers. Why is it so unimaginable that a
woman can be as dedicated to her career as her significant other?”
·
The
Transformation Girl, The female character starts off wide-eyed and
innocent, but as soon as she meets her Prince Charming, she completely changes
her appearance, personality, and values in order to become the version of
herself she believes her man will want. (Sandy – Grease) This can have
detrimental implications for younger viewers, for the overall theme of these
movies is “don’t be yourself if you want someone to fall in love with you.” A
better option would be to have a female character that stays true to herself and
still gets the guy.
·
The
dead mother, the mothers that do appear in Disney princess
movies are usually the villain trying to covet the youth and beauty of our
young heroines.
·
The
forever single all-knowing best friend, while the main heroine
of the movie navigates through her own dark and twisted romantic adventures,
her best friend is always on the side-line giving out life-changing advice.
·
The
high school bitch, this stereotype is the most farfetched…
newsflash; pretty, popular girl isn’t always a soulless demon (Mean Girls & A Cinderella Story).
High school can actually be a positive experience.
·
The
desperate city girl, (He’s
Just Not That Into You) This female stereotype is desperate for a date,
although casual dating never seems to work out for her.
·
“... difficulties she faces as a woman in
Hollywood and the lack of non stereotyped roles she is offered” - Michelle Rodriguez
·
“I have such a strong sense of self, there are
certain lines I just won’t cross,” she said. “I’m really picky about the parts
I choose. I can’t be the slut. I cannot be just the girlfriend. I can’t be the
girl who gets empowered because she’s been raped. I can’t be the girl who gets
empowered and then dies”
·
“... going to have to create your own archetype,
doesn’t matter if you go broke doing it”
·
“... Michelle is not malleable, you’re not going
to influence her by shining fame and money at her”
·
“I’ve stuck to guns and I’m proud... also
carried a movie since Girlfight”
·
“...lack of female voices in Hollywood”
·
“... Million Dollar Baby – why’s she got to die
at the end, man? Would you do that to a male character?”
·
“... 80% of the writers out there are men”
·
“... it’s our fault as women for not penetrating
that market”
·
“ it’s disappointing to see film makers turning what
is a life saving medical procedure for transgender people into a
SENSATIONSLISTIC plot device”
·
“... films announcement comes at a time when
Hollywood is coming under increasing pressure to clean up its negative
portrayals of LGBT people.”
·
“ Glaad accused studios of falling behind
trailblazing television shows such as Orange is the New Black... when it comes
to fair and relevant representation”
Ben Beaumont – Thomas
·
“ The Far from the Madding Crowd actor argues
there is a still ‘ a lack of great stories for women’”
·
“the film industry is still hugely unequal”- Carey Mulligan
·
“In terms of the amount of interesting roles
there are for women it’s obviously massively sexist”
·
“There’s a lack of material for women.”
Ink Stained Amazons & Cinematic
Warriors - Superwomen in modern
mythology
Modern Myth, Meet Feminism
·
[After watching Cathy Gale in The Avengers]
women were leaving their homes, their kitchens and their crèches in droves and
going out and starting to throw men over their shoulders” (Page 29) à Patrick Macnee
·
“Mrs June Cleaver… the sweet and patient
homemaker of TV’s ‘leave it to Beaver’ late 1950’s series… revolved around
stereotypical suburban nuclear family – continues to serve as American symbol
of… cultural ideas about roles of women (Page
29)
·
“...wives usually deferred to their husband’s
judgement” (Page 30)
·
“ ... the life of a suburban housewife like the
aforementioned Mrs Cleaver was the only proper lifestyle choice for women, and
that in fact, it was something to aspire to” (Page 30)
·
“...painful contortions of a women’s daily life
might, in fact be heroic” (Page 30) –
Susan J Douglas à Where the girls are; Growing up female with the
mass media
The Birth of Modern Mythology and the Mother of
Female Superhero’s
Post Second World War and the 1950’s
·
“It’s hard to decide which stereotype is more
offensive, the housewife or the woman whose curiosity is a plague” (Page 28)
Feminism & Popular Culture
è Investigating the post feminist mystique
Introduction: Wonder Women “All the world is
waiting for you”
The Post Feminist Mystique
·
“... the highest value and the only commitment
for women is the fulfilment of their own femininity”. (Friedan) {Page 9}
‘Post Feminism’ or ‘ghost feminism’
·
“Feminism’s perceived ghoulishness” (Page 18)
The return of the repressed
Feminism, fear and the post-feminist gothic
·
“As an attempt to draw attention to issues and
injustices which might otherwise pass unheeded, feminism – like the Gothic –
has repeatedly turned its attentions to what goes on behind closed doors, in
women’s private lives” (Page 135)
·
“… seeking to intervene in the legislation of
women’s choices and experiences, feminism necessarily trespasses on the dark
‘Gothic’ territories of power, sex and violence, demonstrating the mutual
investment of the two discourses in narratives of female victimization, sexual
violation and domestic abuse”. (Page 135)
Academic Journal: Film Quarterly
Demystifying the female
body à two interviews
Anne Severson – Near
the big Chakra
Yvonne Rainer –
Privilege
·
“Reflect the determination of many filmmakers to
work for healthier cinematic representations and responses to the female
body... for an understanding and a relation to the body as an organism, an
evolving process, rather than as a conventially erotic, static icon” (Page 18)
·
“minorities in Hollywood” should “stop stealing
all the white people’s superheroes” and “make up [their] own”
GENDER BIAS WITHOUT BOARDERS
è AN INVESTIGATION OF
FEMALE CHARACTERS IN POPULAR FILMS ACROSS 11 COUNTRIES
Dr Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti, & Dr
Katherine Pieper
Assistance from: Yu – Ting Liu & Christine
Song
Sexualisation
·
“The objectification of individuals is a growing
concern worldwide”
·
“… attention focused on girls and women and the
degree to which the media shows them in a sexy and potentially demeaning
light”.
·
“Research reveals that exposure to sexualize and
thin content can contribute to or reinforce body shame, appearance anxiety, or
internalization of the thin ideal among some females.”[2]
·
“…We measured four key attributes: sexually
revealing clothing (i.e., tight, alluring, revealing apparel), nudity (i.e.,
part or full exposure from mid chest to high upper thigh region), thinness
(i.e., minimal amount of body fat and/or muscle), and attractiveness (i.e.,
verbal/nonverbal utterances that communicate the physical desirousness of
another character).”
·
“Each of these sexualisation indicators varied
by gender.[3]
Females were over two times as likely as males to be shown in sexually
revealing attire (24.8% vs. 9.4%), thin (38.5% vs. 15.7%), and partially or
fully naked (24.2% vs. 11.5%). Appearance comments were directed at females (13.1%)
five times as frequently as males (2.6%). Given these pronounced differences,
we looked at female and male sexualisation separately across these four
indicators by country.”
Action/Spectacle Cinema: A sight and sound
reader
è BFI Sight & Sound Reader
Jose Arroyo
The body beautiful as blur
·
“Feminine masculinity is one manifestation of
this gender meld. It also identifies star image indelibly with the demands of a
role.” (Page
48)
·
“The central spectacle of Moore’s body beautiful increasingly blurs the
line between the role and the star” (Page
48)
·
“ More of Jordan there may be as the film proceeds, but her worked on,
worked out, built up body is still Moore’s” (Page 48)
·
“It may seem an obvious point, but if Jordan shaves, Demi does too; if
Jordan’s pecs swell, so do Demi’s. But is the Moore we see any more real than
Jordan?” (Page 48)
·
“The body of Demi Moore is a costume, a mask, a masquerade conveying
Jordan’s development... Moore also carries through into all those photo calls
with Bruce and the kids”. (Page 48)
·
“Female self- and body image are inextricably inter-twined” (Page 48)
·
“Female stars have to fight to control the inevitable link made between
the body of the role and their bodily public image?” (Page 48)
·
“ Moore’s roles are at least as characterised by the tragic
manipulability of femininity as by its real power to control, are symptomatic
of the risks she is taking as a star” (Page
49)
·
“Jordan’s press-ups also highlight the woman’s body as a weapon” (Page 49)
War on Weakness
·
“GI Jane... a solitary woman trying to forge a path for other woman to
follow in a sexist institution” (Page
49)
Representation: Second Edition – Stuart Hall,
Jessica Evans, Sean Nixon
·
“……. two processes, two systems
of representation, involved. First, there is the ‘system’ by which all
sorts of objects, people and events are correlated with a set of concepts or mental representations which we carry
around in our heads. Without them, we could not interpret the world
meaningfully at all. ” (Page 3)
Maintaining the Double Standard: Portrayals of
Age and Gender in Popular Films – David Dozier & Martha Lauzen
·
“There are only three
ages for women in Hollywood: babe, district attorney, and driving Miss Daisy”
(Schroeder, Swerdlow, & Wilson, 1996). This line sums up the unfortunate
alchemy gender and age conjure for women in film.” (Page 437)
surveillance in undergraduates: Results of a 2-year
panel study. Journal of Communication, 56(2), 366-386. Harper,
B., & Tiggemann, M. (2008). The effect of thin ideal media images on
women’s self-objectification, mood, and body image. Sex Roles, 58(9-10),
649-657. Fredrickson, B.L., & Roberts, T.A. (1997). Objectification theory:
Toward understanding women’s lived experiences and mental health risks. Psychology
of Women Quarterly, 21, 173-206. Roberts, T.A., & Gettman, J.Y.
(2004). Mere exposure: Gender differences in the negative effects of priming a
state of self-objectification. Sex Roles, 51 (1/2), 17-27. Grabe,
S., Ward, L.M., & Hyde, J.S. (2008). The role of the media in body image
concerns among women: a meta-analysis of experimental and correlational
studies. Psychological Bulletin, 134(3), 460- 467.
[3] All four appearance indicators varied
with gender: sexually revealing clothing: X2 (1, 5,484)=229.66, p<.01, phi=.21; nudity,
X2 (1, 5,487)=145.27, p<.01,
phi=.16; thinness, X2 (1, 4,281)=275.16, p<.01, phi=.25; physical beauty, X2 (1, 5,799)=245.98, p<.01, phi=.21. Nudity was
collapsed prior to analysis: none vs. some (partial or full nudity). Some
nudity featured 803 instances of partial and 45 instances of full nudity. Thinness
also was collapsed into two categories: not thin vs. thin. Finally,
attractiveness was transformed into a binary: attractive (1 or more references)
vs. not attractive (no references).
Word Count: 3,740
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