PPT 16/06

1. Power point – Issues and Debates
16/06/15

2. Women and the Media
ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS THIS THING CALLED SEXISM…

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTDaeR3eWxA

4. Deconstructing the Message…
Can you list the ‘meanings’ behind this apparently harmless
advertisement? What is the anchorage text?

5. You May Have Seen…?
What Might be the Cumulative Effect of Such
Advertisements?
Nails/lips –
attractive for
man
Man in suit -
breadwinner
Clinging onto him
- protector
Servant of a
man
Domestic rolePromoting idea of
marriage

7. Peggy Orenstein
Argues that too many toys are
directed and marketed towards
specific genders. This, in turn,
determines their whole future …
From “baby pink” to “hot Barbie
pink” – these narratives tell girls
how they should be behaving,
creating an ideological norm

8. Women and the Media
Research:
The American Psychology Association has found that the more mainstream media girls
consume the more they believe beauty and sexiness to be important.
Most fashion models are thinner than 98% of American women (Smolak 1996).
‘The deception in these images goes largely unnoticed, which leads women down a road of
destructive self-comparison’. (Berberick, 2010)

12. Laura Mulvey – The Male Gaze

13. The Feminist Movement
* First Wave – 1809 – 1928
* Second Wave – 1963 – 1980
* Third Wave – 1991 - 2011

14. First Wave

15. Second Wave

16. Third Wave

18. Radical Feminism

19. Anti-Feminism

20. Liberal Feminism

21. Post-Feminism
This idea suggests that Feminism is no longer relevant/needed as everything in now equal:
* In politics
* In education
* In the home
* In the media
Is this true?

22. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jeremy-corbyns-lack-women-leading-6449246

23. So how do we view people who rebel
against this image
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM4Xe6Dlp0Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prmeYbolXRY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScxAvd-Md4c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18hBof_NneI

24. Women and the Media
Annual expenditure on books, magazines, special foods, classes and other aids to weight loss:
UK - £11 billion
US – between £40 - £100 billion.
‘We are in the midst of a violent backlash against feminism that uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against women’s
advancement.’ (Naomi Wolf)
See link below for how young US feminists are fighting back.
Q3: In what way might sexist definitions of beauty be used to undermine female ‘advancement’, as Naomi Wolf argues?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gJrFS_40iA
(Bell, Lawton, Dittmar, 2007): Refer to evidence that after exposure to Barbie dolls, 5 – 7 year olds were found to have a desire to be
skinnier.
Becker et al (2202):In Fiji, a country where dieting has traditionally been discouraged and where disordered eating is rare, researchers
found a significant increase in disordered eating following the introduction of Western TV, to the islands. The percentage of girls
scoring high on tests of disordered eating increased from 12.7 to 29.2, while the proportion of girls who reported that they made
themselves vomit in order to control their weight increased from 0 – 11.3%.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2018900.stm
See link below: Why might the male professional panellists have been so surprised about Susan Boyle’s assigning talents? Does their
reaction tell us about anything about how women are judged more broadly?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk

25. Some Consequences…
http://www.surrey.ac.uk/mediacentre/press/2011/69535_are_sex_offenders_and_lads_mags_using_the_same_language.htm?utm_sour
ce=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
http://www.care2.com/causes/whats-the-difference-between-a-mens-magazine-and-a-rapist.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18187449
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21698522
1 in 3 teenage girls tell of sexual
abuse by their boyfriends
• Sexual exploitation rife in relationships, says NSPCC
• Quarter of young women are beaten up, poll shows
Reported in the Guardian, 2009.

26. And ‘liberal’ Hollywood? http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/dec/01/hollywood-women-
inequality-film-industry

27. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embe
dded&v=iLYOdm1_gik&utm_source=supporter_messag
e&utm_medium=email

28. ‘Symbolic Annihilation’ – George Gerbner
http://www.xpowerpoint.com/Cultivation-Theory--University-of-Maryland-College-Park--PPT.html
‘Symbolic annihilation’ is used to highlight the erasure of peoples in popular communication. George Gerbner coined the
term to describe the “absence,” “condemnation,” or “trivialization” ( Tuchman 1978) of a particular group in the media.
Generally applied to women, racial and sexual minorities, symbolic annihilation points to the ways in which poor media
treatment can contribute to social disempowerment and in which symbolic absence in the media can erase groups and
individuals from public consciousness.
To illustrate, popular communication often overlooks, stereotypes, or ridicules black people, who have been confined to
the roles of coons, mammies, jezebels, brutal bucks, etc. ( Bogle 2001 ). The use of language in the media also
contributes to the trivialization and condemnation of racial groups such as black people in popular communication.
For example, in a critical, cultural analysis of the → news , it was concluded that reporters may ignore the effects of
(neo-)colonialism by describing African countries as “third world” and “underdeveloped” rather than “overly exploited.”
Comparatively, the US and western Europe are referred to as “first world” and as “superpowers” ( Moore 1992 ).

29. ‘Symbolic Annihilation’ – George Gerbner
Gaye Tuchman (1978) divided the concept of symbolic annihilation into three aspects: omission,
trivialisation and condemnation. This multifaceted approach to coverage not only vilifies
communities of identity, but work to make members invisible through the explicit lack of
representation in all forms of media ranging from film, song, books, news media and visual art.
“Representation in the fictional world signifies social existence; absence means symbolic
annihilation.” (Gerbner & Gross, 1976, p. 182)

30. Women and the Media
Berberick (2010): ‘The Objectification of Women in the Mass Media’
• Berberick found:
• A clear relationship between the extension of the media’s reach (i.e. the evolution of the internet)
and eating disorders and associated deaths, low self esteem as well as increases in the rates of
plastic surgery.
• In 2010, following a set of three studies that “examined the associations among sexist beliefs,
objectification of others, media exposure and three distinct beauty ideals and practices,”
researcher Viren Swami and colleagues found that sexism exists where beauty ideals and
practices are rigidly consumed and followed, (Swami et al. 2010:367).
• ‘The representation of women in the media has always been exploitative. It has, throughout the
years, reduced women to being nothing more than objects to be won, prizes to be shown off, and
playthings to be abused. It has also created a definition of beauty that women compare themself
to. Also, men compare the women in their lives to what they see on television screens, in
magazines, and on billboards. Both the self and society has suffered because of the objectification,
sexism, exploitation and assessment.’ (Berberick, 2010)
• Q2: In what ways might ‘society’ in general have suffered the consequences of media
representations of women as well as women in particular?

31. And What of Pop Culture?
http://www.rewindreframe.org/
Are Page Three girls just a ‘harmless British tradition?’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7WHingsuxs
Is ‘Blurred Lines’ actually empowering to women?
Did Lilly Allen get this all wrong? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZfxS7c942I
By portraying an overtly sexualised public persona, is Miley Cyrus striking a blow for gender equality?

32. Women and the Media
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/bank-tells-staff-dont-forget-the-lipstick-girls-1522530.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3370562/Female-accountants-sent-on-course-to-learn-how-to-dress-
appropriately.html
Y. Yamamiya et al (2005): just 5 minutes exposure to thin and beautiful images of women leads viewers to feel
more negatively about their body image in comparison to viewing neutral objects.
The same effects have been replicated in studies using music videos and TV commercials. (Bell, Lawton, Dittmar,
2007)
Harper and Tiggemann (2008): A study found that 94% of women’s magazines featured a model/celebrity on
their covers who conformed to the thin ‘ideal.’
- Magazines focused on improving your life by changing appearance
- Implication that thin = lovable, happier, sexier.
- Australia: the researchers found that women who view magazine adverts featuring thin models felt more
dissatisfied and anxious about their bodies, and viewed themselves in more objectified ways.