Identities: Applying Feminism factsheet

Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet #86: Applying Feminism. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets - you'll need to save the factsheet to USB or email it to yourself in order to complete this at home. Read the factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) Briefly list or describe the different waves of feminism.

• First wave: early 20th century, suffragette movement (right to vote).
• Second wave: 1960s – 1990s, reproductive rights (pill), abortion, equal pay.
• Third wave: 1990s – present, empowerment, reclaiming of femininity (high heels, sexuality etc. See Angela McRobbie's work on women's magazines).
• Fourth wave? 2010 – ongoing, use of new technology and digital media (e.g. Twitter) for activism. Many commentators argue that the internet itself has enabled a shift from ‘third-wave’ to ‘fourth-wave’ feminism. What is certain is that the internet has created a ‘call-out’ culture, in which sexism or misogyny can be ‘called out’ and challenged. This culture is indicative of the continuing influence of the third wave, with its focus on challenging sexism and misogyny in advertising, film, television and the media.

3) List the five different types of feminism with a one-sentence definition for each.

• Radical Feminism - cause of women's oppression as men; men deliberately exploit women in order to benefit them. Main aims of this theory is to address concerns over violence against women (sexual relationships). 
• Liberal Feminism - mainly concerned with gender socialisation in order to show that gender roles are not biologically determined. The main aim of this type of feminism is to change the ways children are socialised into stereotypical gender roles and to attempt to change social policy to improve the position of women within the family.
• Marxist-Feminism - looks at women’s oppression in relation to capitalism and the class system. One of the aims of this type of feminism is to look at the role of domestic labour within capitalism, namely that women work in the home for ‘free’, and the role women play in producing the next generation of the labour force.
• Black Feminism - primarily concerned with black and Asian women’s experiences of oppression and exploitation. It combines ideas about capitalism, patriarchy and anti-racism.
• Postmodern Feminism - associated with third wave feminists. It acknowledges the diversity amongst women and encourages individual women to find feminist ideas that combine with their own experiences of life to create a brand of feminism suitable for them.

4) Summarise Laura Mulvey's analysis of Hollywood film:
Laura Mulvey wrote Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema in 1975 and it is probably the most well-known and most often used piece of feminist writing for Media Studies students. Mulvey posited that the cinematography of classic Hollywood films objectifies women; the camera ‘looks’ at women as if were a male and the woman is a desirable sexual object. She called this the male gaze and suggested that women are either viewed in a ‘voyeuristic’ way, which makes them ‘whores’, or in a ‘fetishistic’ way, making them ‘madonnas’ or virgins. Mulvey thought the only way to alter the representations of women in film was to completely change the cinematography of films by creating a new avant-garde style of feminist film-making.

5) What does Jean Kilbourne argue regarding advertising and the impact on women?
Jean Kilbourne started analysing the representations of women in advertising in 1979 with the documentary Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women. Much of what Kilbourne discusses in the Killing Us Softly documentaries is the notion that advertising is selling more than products; it is also selling ideas of what it is to be ‘normal’ in our society. She claims that the advertising industry makes a women’s appearance the most important thing about her.

6) Summarise Naomi Wolf's theory of 'The Beauty Myth'.
Wolf’s ideas in The Beauty Myth (1991) follow on from Kilbourne’s analysis of representations of women in advertising. Wolf claims that the notion of ‘beauty’ is entirely socially constructed and patriarchal. By this she means that men in a given society create rules of what is considered beautiful in women but this alters from culture to culture. For example, for Western women, blond hair, a slim figure and flawless skin are considered beautiful but in Mauritania, West Africa, women are seen as beautiful if they are obese and have stretch marks. Wolf believes that, even though women have achieved more equality in terms of voting rights and regulations in the work place, male dominated society continues to oppress women by making them focus to such a great extent on how they look and whether they are ‘beautiful'.

7) List the texts discussed in the section 'feminism and music videos'. Do you believe that the representation of women in music videos can have an impact on how people behave in real life?
The representation of women in R&B and hip-hop videos has been an area of contentious debate for feminists in recent years. Many feminists have looked at the lyrics and images used in these musical genres and there has been disagreement about whether the women portrayed are victims of patriarchal oppression or empowered female role models. Some examples include Nelly’s video for Tip-Drill, Beyonce’s Who Runs the World (Girls), NineteenPercent’s feminist response Who Runs the World (Lies). I feel that derogatory music videos are not just content, they inadvertently reinforce stereotypes in viewers - causing changes in real life behaviour as a result.

Feminist theory: Factsheet research

Media Factsheet #125: Gender for A2 - Focus on Judith Butler
This Factsheet offers much more depth on Judith Butler and her work in Gender Trouble (1990) - the argument that gender is a process or performance and not biologically set. It explores how Butler fits into wider media theoretical perspectives (e.g. Structuralism and Post-Structuralism) and also criticisms of her approach. One key criticism is the difficulty in applying Butler's ideas to feminist campaigns in the real world - relevant to our recent work on the possibility of a fourth wave of feminism.

Media Factsheet #125: Gender: Beyond Butler

This Factsheet explores a wider interpretation of the representation of women in media and society. It offers a historical perspective, looking particularly at the 1970s and British television. It also builds on Factsheet #89 and Jean Kilbourne's work on advertising and the representation of women. Finally, the Factsheet addresses masculinity and the changing representations of men in the media over the last 30 years.