Gender Representation

• gender rep hegemonic definitions

  connell

  1. paid work was central to central to mens identity and role
  2. females were culturally categorised primarily as homemakers

  argues these ideas about gender constituted a patriarchal ideology
• gender rep diversity of media

  Gauntlett

  points out sociological analysis of media representations needs to be cautious due to the sheer diversity of media
• gender rep limited roles

  Tunstall

  argued that women are generally represented in narrow range of social roles by various types of media, whilst men are shown performing a full range of occupational roles
• gender rep symbolic annihilation

  Tuchman et al

  describes the ways in which women achievements are often not reported or trivialised by the media
• gender rep women less newsworthy

  Gallagher

  the activities of women were rarely seen as newsworthy compared to the activities of men
• gender rep news coverage

  the association of women journalists 2000

  studied news coverage in 70 countries:

  only 18% of stories quote women and the number of women related stories came to barely 10% of total news coverage
• gender rep athletes

  Duncan and Messner

  notes that commentators ( 97% of who are men ) use different language when talking about female athletes

  Men are described as brilliant, gutsy whereas women described as weary, panicked
• gender rep cult of femininity

  Marjorie Ferguson

  conducted a content analysis of women's magazines from 1949 - 1974 and found that magazines are routinely organised around a cult of femininity which promotes a traditional ideal

  many of the modern female magazines are gradually moving away from stereotypes but they still focus on looking good for 'him'
• gender rep challenging Ferguson cult of femininity

  Winship

  argues women's magazines generally play a supportive and positive role in women's lives

  they tackle problems such as male dominated media and DV
• gender rep beauty myth

  Wolf

  suggest the image of women used in the media presents a 'beauty ideal' which transmits strong ideological message that women should treat their bodies as a project in constant need of improvement

  she argues that it is a myth that men want to date women who look like barbies - they date women of all different sizes
• gender rep male gaze

  Mulvey

  where the camera lens essentially eyes up the female characters
• gender rep mannequin image

  Killbourne

  media presents women as mannequins and killbourne notes this mannequin image is used to advertise cosmetics, health products
• gender rep women's magazines

  Tebbel 2000

  over 3/4 of covers of women's magazines include at least one message about how to change a women's bodily appearance

  Tv reinforces the importance of a thin body as a measure of a women's worth
• gender rep western media

  Becker

  the introduction of a western style media has led to an increase in eating disorders in several cultures
• gender rep view of women

  Gill

  argues the depiction of women in advertising has changed from women as passive objects of the male gaze, to active and independent

  3 stereotypes of women:

  1. the young physically toned and smart heterosexual
  2. the vengeful heterosexual beautiful women set on punishing her ex lover
  3. the ' hot ' lesbian
• gender rep gender quake

  Wilkinson

  aspirations have dramatically changed with education and career replacing a family as a priority
• gender rep contradictions with women in media

  Fiske

  argues that despite positive changes in media rep of women, there are also contradictions

  while soaps do portray women in a more positive form, they still repeat and conform to the hegemonic definitions of femininity - soaps often show women having a job but rarely pursuing a career