Example Essay

Representation and Gender

Misogyny: dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.

Sex: the biological characteristics that define men and women.

Gender: refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.

 

This boy's magazine includes superheroes, gaming and football. It uses a lot of dark blues and bright reds, which are stereotypically associated with boys. This contrasts against the girl's magazine which has lots of pinks and yellows on the front cover and mainly focusses on displaying female celebrities such as Ariana Grande.

Are gender representations deeply engrained in the cultural psyche?

Yes, representations are engrained in culture as we are taught these stereotypical roles and behaviour from a young age - when we are easily manipulated. 

Can gender representations change over time?

I believe that representations can change over time if there is more awareness made and enough people decide to change their points of view.

Feminine

• Beauty (within narrow conventions).
• Size/Physique (within narrow conventions).
• Sexuality (as expressed by the above).
• Emotional (as opposed to intellectual) dealings.
• Relationships (as opposed to independence/freedom).
• Often represented as being part of a contact and working/thinking as part of a team. In drama, they tend to take the role of the helper (Propp) or passive rather than active (Mulvey).
• Men are represented as TV drama characters up to 3 times more frequently than women, and tend to be the focus of news stories.
• Women are often linked to the domestic situation - women as housewives or mothers and women as sex objects represented to entertain the male.
• In advertising and magazines, women are shown as young, slim, overwhelmingly white and conforming to our image of the ideal beauty.
• In non-fictional media, womens roles tend to be smaller and fewer than their male counterparts. Due to the patriarchal nature of our society, women are less likely to be the source of leading news stories.

Masculine

• Strength - physical and intellectual.
• Power
• Sexual Attractiveness - may be based on the above.
• Physique
• Independence - thought, action, finances.
• Isolated - not needing to rely on others (the lone hero).
• Male physique is becoming more important.
• Earp and Katz (1999) - a widespread and disturbing equation of masculinity and pathological control and violence. The media is responsible for a steady stream of images that define 'manhood' as connected with violence, dominance and control.
• The Meterosexual - e.g, a young single man with a high disposable income, living in the city as it is near to the best shops. Meterosexual is not gay but is often confused with homosexuality. He is objectified and sexualised which goes against traditional representations of masculinity. 
• The Fool/Buffon - the bundling father in TV ads and sitcoms. Usually well intentioned and light hearted, these characters usually range from slightly inept and completely hopeless in work or parenting and domestic situations.

How does society treat people who do not conform to gender norms?

Whilst some people still exclude and alienate people who do not conform to gender norms, there is more acceptance now. For example, Ru Paul is a drag queen who hosts a show 'Drag Race' - this show has just won an Emmy.

What is our society's dominant ideology about gender?

Many people in society believe that gender is directly linked to your sex, but it is more diverse than this. Although, there is more knowledge about different genders today.

Vern & Bonnie Bullough

Gender roles are equated with masculinity and femininity - the male as the provide and the female as a nurturer. These two concepts can help us understand how gender is a social construct directly linked to heterosexual roles.

Gender identity - self conceived.

Gender role - as it is perceived by others.

Gender Bending

Gender bending refers to a person who dresses and behaves in a way characteristic of the opposite sex. 

Generic Theory

Representation: this means the way ideas, objects, people, groups and life forms are depicted by the mass media.

  

How are women represented in the media?

In the media, women are objectified and portrayed in ways that will appear satisfactory for men - for example, in the images above the women are both naked and covering themselves by the way they are sitting. Women are all unique and there is not one single beauty standard - the below image is how I believe women should be represented.



Mediation: the process of selection and shaping, creating meaning from an original event.

  

Both of these newscasts refer to sexual assailant Brock Turner as "Stanford Swimmer" to remind people of the model student he supposedly is. The first image even fails to mention his crime.

David Buckingham (2008): identity is complicated/complex. “A focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups.”



If you follow a particular person or group of people, you are more likely to believe in what they are telling you and selling you. For example, many members of the Kardashians promote Bootea and this has lead to an increase in people buying the product. Scott Disick has clearly copied this caption from his email and so obviously does not believe in the product. This means the whole of his followers are being deceived.

Collective Identity: the individuals sense of belonging to a group who share a set of traditions and values.



Each of the girls in this photo from St. Trinians 2 belong to a clique - emos, chavs, indies, posh totty etc.

David Gauntlett: 'identity is now consciously constructed, and the media provides some of the tools to help us construct our identities. The media contains a huge number of messages about identity and acceptable lifestyles. At the same time the public have their own diverse set of feelings. The media and media consumers are engaged in a dialogue in which neither overpowers the other.'

This theory refers to how the media acts as a hypodermic needle, filling us with information and views that we accept and begin to believe. This is all down to the encoding of news articles as this is the final product that we take in. This shapes who we are as people and as a society in whole. Although, the media does not control all of our thoughts as we are active viewers of life and can form our own opinions. This can also be a result of people decoding a media text.

Anthony Giddens: 'there is a social structure which shapes our lives (traditions, institutions, moral codes, established ways of doing things), but it relies on individuals following these structures. When they act differently the social structure can change. Structuration is the process in which human agency and social structure are in a constant relationship ± the social structure is reproduced by the repetition of acts by individual people (and can therefore change).'

This means that society and its individuals live in cohesion. An example of this is gender stereotypes. These stereotypes are put into place by society and, as individuals, we are expected to carry out these cliches. The social structure can change depending upon the relationship between society and the individuals.

Collective Identity Essay

Collective identity refers to an individual's sense of belonging to a group. This group will share the same traditions and values that are a part of the individual's identity. Representation is a result of a person's collective identity. This refers to the way that ideas, objects, people and groups are depicted by the media. The main part of representation is the fact that portrayed by the media. This means that it could be an incorrect or extreme representation of a person or group as this will draw readers in and evoke certain emotions from readers. For example, during the London Riots, young people were represented as the largest and most dangerous group and so were ostracised and teenagers were labelled as criminals.

Mediation is the process of selection and shaping or creating meaning from an original event. This is extremely important as it is the process through which representations are created. An event will happen, which will then be mediated and placed within the systems and values of an institution - for example, BBC News. They will then represent their version of reality to the public, which will inevitably cause us to think or view an event/group in a certain way. With mediation, it can make it hard to differentiate between a true representation and what we are being made to believe and feel towards a certain group or topic. This can relate to the Hypodermic Needle Theory. This theory suggests that we are all passive and will digest any information that is given to us without questioning it. 

Hegemony can have a significant impact on mediation. This is the leadership or dominance by one state or social group over others. In other words, it is the beliefs of a dominant group being pushed upon another group. This is something that is constantly happening in the media - especially within newspapers. One way newspapers can reinforce hegemony is in terms of politics and voting. The newspaper that you read can have a large impact over what political party you vote for. For example, people who read The Guardian are most likely to vote for Labour, whereas those who read The Telegraph are more likely to vote Conservative. This is due to the content that they release and the bias' that the editors/newspaper owners have, as they have the power to portray people however they wish to. 

In conclusion, collective identity is completely different to representation. Whilst your collective identity have certain values and traditions, this can be completely twisted by the media by the representation and mediation of your social group. Most institutions will manipulate the portrayal of particular groups or topics in order to benefit themselves.

447 words.

Collective Identity

This photo shows a group of young adults sitting together, all on laptops, iPads or smartphones. This represents how today's youth all have easy access to technology and this is important to this generation.

This image depicts a house party. The current teenage generation tend to spend a lot of time partying with friends. 

This shows a girl applying make-up. This represents how girls of this generation are pressured to focus on 'looking good' and fitting into the ideal look.

This picture shows a group of students sitting an exam. This portrays how teenagers spend most of their time in school preparing for their exams.

The images above are the front pages of two newspapers during the London Riots. The pictures used show young people as the criminals as older people as the victims (for example, the police officers). The people partaking in the riots - stereotypically young people - are described as yobs and the way that they are portrayed is to represent all young people.