Media Studies
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Number 025
Representing Gender for A2 Media The aims of this Factsheet are to: • Introduce some of the issues surrounding the representation of gender for A2 • Introduce gender theory as a way to analyse and critique gender representation for A2 • Explore some aspects of gender representation in contemporary texts
Activity Socialisation of gender roles comes from a range of sources, families, peer groups and schools are influential as, of course is the media. List a range of media texts that show how boys and girls or men and women are socialised into their gender roles.
Consider the following representations:
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http://www.neon-das.com/288.gif In our culture we understand these symbols easily and recognise that they signify a clear distinction between male and female. They are binary opposites and offer us a way to organise men and women into two clear-cut categories. There is no ambiguity in these representations; the one on the left connotes women and the one on the right connotes men.
Girl Toy and Boy Toy: Consolidating gender expectations and part of the socialisation process
Children’s advertisements for toys and the toys themselves often play on stereotypes.
o What differences are there in the way toys are marketed towards each gender?
These are culturally recognised iconic signs that signify the sexes. Deconstructing the two signs we can see that women are denoted using a cone–shaped symbol connoting a skirt which is associated with women and the oblong-shaped symbol connoting trousers which are associated with men.
o What types of toys are seen to be appropriate for males and females? o What types of gendered behaviour do you think is learnt from these divisions in the way the genders are encouraged to play?
Consider this scenario: A woman gives birth to a child and the first thing that the nurse says to her is, ‘It’s a boy/girl!’ At this moment we only know the biological sex of the child and this is determined by the sexual organs only and nothing else. As the baby grows, however, they will be expected to look, behave and adopt certain attitudes which conform to cultural norms which are dependent on this biological sex. These are gender expectations and by adopting them individuals can fit into society and avoid feeling alienated. We learn what these expectations from many sources as we grow up. This process is called socialisation.
Nineteenth Century Ideas of Sex and Gender Our contemporary attitudes to gender are based on a long historical tradition of different expectations of the two sexes. The Victorians based their attitudes on gender on clear cut ideas of normal and abnormal behaviour. There were, of course, many expressions of non-normalised gender behaviours but these were considered signs of deviant behaviour. The Victorian middle-class culture saw itself as operating in two distinct spheres; public and private and this roughly meant that the private sphere belonged to women and the public sphere belonged to men.
The following definitions are useful in order to clarify the difference between sex and gender. • •
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Sex - reference to biological categories Gender - socially or culturally defined categories - masculinity or femininity, or maleness or femaleness.
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Media Studies
025. Representing Gender for A2 Media
www.curriculum-press.co.uk
Public = Professional = Masculine
Private = Domestic = Feminine
Business Money-making Politics Industry Conflict
Home Sympathy Nature Nurturing Childrearing
Men crossed over into the private sphere when they left the work environment for the home where they were nurtured and ‘softened’ by their women. Women, however, were given limited access to the public sphere. As Sharpe says, “The active and passive dimension of traditional male and female roles and can be seen clearly in the way that a man’s major activities are outward directed (public) and a woman’s inner directed. (private)”. The way in which gender has been historically divided into these two spheres has meant that women are often targeted as consumers of leisure goods based on their domestic role whilst magazines for men focus on the male within the public sphere.
Activity Look at a range of women and men’s magazines. Bearing in mind the different target audiences, can you identify differences in the assumptions they make about their target audiences? ¾ What dominant attitudes, values, ideas can you find? ¾ Do they fall into the distinct domestic and professional categories? ¾ Do any offer a mixture of the two? Men’s magazines
Women’s magazines
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The cover of Working Mother illustrates the way women are seen as being associated with the domestic and the idea of being the nurturer. The image of the attractive women also suggests that not only must women be successful homemakers and child-rearers they must also be image aware and beauty conscious. This modern magazine does recognise she has a place in the professional sphere but the target audience is appealed to via her interest in domestic issues.
The cover of Men’s Journal illustrates the way that men are associated with the public, professional sphere. The man is placed outside in front of a stone wall connoting the outdoor life and the promise of adventure. The reference to the ‘U.S. Army’s Elite Taliban Hunters’ also consolidates the dominant idea that men are interested in politics and worldly affairs.
AQA/OCR/WJEC? All boards have a requirement that you understand and explore the key concept of representation and an understanding of gender representations is very important, be it in the unseen analysis module or within specific topics and case studies. In all the following modules gender and representation is a very useful. OCR (2008) – evaluation of coursework in the exam using representation AQA (2008)- Texts in Context, Independent Study, Comparative Critical Analysis WJEC (2008) – Individual Investigation, Text and Context
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Media Studies
025. Representing Gender for A2 Media
www.curriculum-press.co.uk
The Angel and Whore Dichotomy The dominant ideas about gender that were evident in the Victorian period are still present in some contemporary texts. The representation of the domestic goddess –a woman who was self-sacrificing and self-disciplining is, according to Sharpe, one of the ways in which ‘social inequality is maintained.’ Sharpe’s comments also begin to explore the way that dominant norms about women continue to be produced and reproduced and used as a framework by which definitions of what it means to be ‘feminine’ are measured. Social inequality is seen to come from this as the dominant norms about femininity are often seen as being reductive and limiting women’s options. These limitations are reinforced by representations. Traditional representations of the feminine have often placed women in two categories; the angel and the whore. These can be seen to reduce women into clichéd stereotypes which are determined by a set of behaviours within the domestic sphere. These behaviours are meant to provide a ‘function’ for the male in order to maintain harmony within the home by benefiting the male. The angel/whore dichotomy according to Barker highlights the way ‘limited views and interests that have already developed (in the mass media) and endorse the status quo by leaving out suggestions for the possibility or desirability of change.’ By this Barker argues that often representations reduce women’s options of ‘how’ they can see themselves and this in turn means that an acceptance of ‘what’ women should be is maintained. Both Angel and Whore - Nigella Lawson – A Case Study Nigella Lawson is a celebrity cook. She is referred to as ‘the domestic goddess’ (her book is called How to be a Domestic Goddess) the implications of which are that she is the perfect, archetypal ‘angel in the house.’
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However, Lawson’s representation combines wholesome homemaker with that of the seductive temptress. Her programme is called Nigella Bites, and this double entendre implies she is capable of cooking swiftly and that she is also a lustful animal of some sort. Most of the representations of Lawson involve her putting something in her mouth seductively and are suggestive of a sex act. The ice-cream is especially indicative of how her representation mixes childlike innocence and sexualised flirt. However, her representation is non-threatening as it tries to balance the angel with whore so she will appeal to both men and women.
Activity Identify contemporary texts that uses a representation of a woman as one or other side of this dichotomy Can you think of any representations which combine the two representations?
Qualities
Angel
Whore
Mother Nurturer Virgin Damsel Pure Innocent
Sexually available Wild Dangerous Seductive
Representations? Combined Angel/Whore Representations?
Activity Discuss the following:
The representations of men and women can never illustrate the ‘truth.’ Hollywood mainly operates in gender binary opposites. Gender can only be understood in relation to the culture that produces it. Gender stereotypes are a useful way of understanding culture.
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Media Studies
025. Representing Gender for A2 Media
www.curriculum-press.co.uk
Challenging Binary Opposites In the late 20th Century the economic structure of society was changing. More women were gaining access to education and as a result were becoming part of the workforce and accessing the professional sphere. As a consequence the association of the professional with the male and the domestic with the female was beginning to become blurred. Many women were becoming financially independent and therefore the roles that women and men had traditionally occupied were changing, for example the notion that the man was the main breadwinner in the household. This loss of a concrete gender identity has meant that there are complex representations of gender roles found in many contemporary texts. When thinking about gender in today’s society, Butler’s idea that gender is more about how we act rather than who we are is very useful. According to Butler gender is about adopting roles, whether these are feminine or masculine and the relation between the two is fluid and not fully dependent on an individual’s biological sex. A man can demonstrate feminine qualities in the same way a woman can demonstrate masculine qualities and they can change from one to the other depending on the context. Butler refers to this as a ‘sliding scale of gender’.
Case Study: Boston Legal – Complex Gender Representations Boston Legal (2004) is set in the U.S. law firm Crane, Poole and Schmidt and represents the everyday working of a busy law firm. Most of the settings in Boston Legal are focused on the public sphere. The office is a masculinised environment as it asserts the idea that success comes from being financially and intellectually astute and, at times, ruthless. However, gender representations are not encoded in simplistic terms. http://www.rtl.nl/soaps/bostonlegal/components/ images/Boston-Legal-cast_426x306.jpg
Brad Chase Brad Chase is represented as the man of action; the ex-marine turned successful and wealthy lawyer who is aggressive and controlled in court. On a physical level he represents conventional masculinity as he is heterosexual, physically strong, active and competitive. However, he is often made to look foolish especially in his relationships with women l . y i m g . c o m / and this signifies the text’s intention to img.tv.yahoo.com/tv/us/img/ identify that the traditional male is no s i t e / 3 3 / 7 1 / 0000033371_20060926215222.jpg longer the ‘ideal’ man for a woman. Brad represents the ideology that female behaviour is framed in terms of the angel and the whore. An example of this is when he finds a girlfriend’s use of the word ‘vagina’ to signify her genitalia strange and threatening. He does not understand anything that deviates from ‘naturalised’ notions of feminine behaviours such as passiveness and submissiveness.
Alan Shore Alan Shore’s public persona is situated in the courtroom where he is represented as the political, rational and focused male, but his private persona is represented in a more feminised way. He has night terrors and freely admits to being frightened and seeks the comfort of others in order to help him. He also nurtures his staff and frequently represents them in court in order to help them. In this way he exemplifies Butler’s ideas of how certain gender roles are acted out according to context. He is not threatened by female sexuality and in this sense he is presented to us as the binary opposite to Brad Chase Shirley Schmidt Shirley Schmidt is represented in a more masculinised way. She is powerful within the company and her dress code (trouser suits) signifies she has become part of ‘the man’s world’ of law. To signify her difference from the predominantly male focused sphere she has more feminised aspects such as her soft hair, jewellery and make-up. She is rarely emotional and keen to protect her public persona in order to ensure her success, for example when she wants to stop the publication of erotic photographs that were taken when she was young as she feels this will undermine her professional status.
Denise Bauer Denise Bauer offers a more problematic representation of gender. She is represented as the successful woman, but also demonstrates some of the attributes of the traditional mother. She represents a ‘contemporary new woman’. When she falls pregnant she has to make choices and deal with how this conflicts with her desire for success in the masculinised public sphere. This is in h t t p : / / l . y i m g . c o m / sharp contrast to how the father (Brad img.tv.yahoo.com/tv/us/img/ Chase) is seen to be able to exist in the s i t e / 5 0 / 3 0 / 0000035030_20061021051200.jpg public sphere without any problem. Her sexuality, when played out in the private sphere, is a mixture of the angel and whore, but in the office she must adopt a more predatory nature commonly associated with masculine behaviours.
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She exercises her power within the firm in order to maintain her public image. However, she also indicates that the gender boundaries are blurred as she is accommodating and loving to her close friends.
Conclusion • • •
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Gender representation is complex and problematic Gender representation is intrinsically linked to the culture in which it was produced The use of theory and wider contexts is crucial to your development of gender exploration and analysis
Acknowledgements: This Media Studies Factsheet was researched and written by Di Naylor
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