Van Zoonen

• Van Zoonen outlined feminist discourse from the different liberal, radical and socialist perspectives.
• Liberal feminism reflected the dominant ideology that insisted women should remain in the domestic world while men go out to work. They fulfil traditional roles of mother and wife.
• In liberal feminist discourse Van Zoonen noted that the mass media was considered to be a socialising agent that communicated this message to “secure continuity, integration, order and the transmission of dominant values”.
• If young girls only saw women represented as housewives in the media, other aspirations might be diminished and they would grow up to mimic the behaviour of their role models. Albert Bandura called this learning process symbolic modelling.
• Only by competing in male-dominated fields, such as the media industry, can women break free from old stereotypes and acquire social and economic power.
• Van Zoonen referred to the rise of the superwoman stereotype in the media – an “independent and assertive career woman” who is also a “successful wife and mother” and is “still beautiful”. Van Zoonen was concerned this new representation was a distortion of reality because it was almost impossible to achieve in real life.
• Radical feminists argue that the media reinforces patriarchal ideologies which are oppressive to women. This viewpoint has been criticised for being too simplistic and not taking into account the complexities of gender relations.
• Radical feminists argued our social system was designed to let men “dominate and oppress all women”.
• Since the codes and conventions of mass media reinforced the patriarchal society, van Zoonen summarised, “women should create their own means of communication”.
• Advancements in technology mean there are more opportunities for radical feminists to deliver their own narratives - where women are no longer reduced to bit-parts in the male protagonist’s story.
• Socialist feminism used the intersection of gender and social class to explain the imbalance of power between women and men.
• Social - Theresa May argued for an investigation into the gender pay gap and set up a task force to explore flexible working which would help parents further their careers while still having the time to support their young children. (real world application)
• Van Zoonen believed the narrow representation of women in the media was unrealistic:

  Very few women are like the “femme fatale” of soap operas and mini series, and women’s desires consist of a lot more than the hearth and home of traditional women’s magazines.
• She acknowledged that a more realistic portrayal of women was problematic. Although gender stereotypes may not reflect women’s actual lives and experiences, they do have their “social counterparts” in the “real” world. Some women aspire to be housewives. Others may want to focus solely on their careers. If a woman wants to watch soap operas or read fashion magazines in her free time, it is her choice.
• Van Zoonen strongly criticised feminist models of communication which seemed to assume the audience was passive and would simply interpret a media text according to its preferred reading.
• She argued that radical and liberal feminist discourse often defined gender as binary because it was the “inevitable consequence of sex differences”. Femininity was “composed of emotionality, prudence, compliance etc.” whilst masculinity was “rationality, efficiency, competition, individualism, ruthlessness etc.”.
• van Zoonen argued gender is a construct and its meaning will depend on the cultural and historical context. (echoes Butlers idea of gender performativity)