Identities: Feminist and gender theory

 key notes

Judith Butler: gender roles

Butler believes traditional feminists are wrong to divide society into ‘men’ and ‘women’ and says gender is not biologically fixed.

By dividing men and women, feminists accidently reinforced the idea of differences between the two genders

Butler believes gender roles are ‘a performance’ and that male and female behaviour is socially constructed rather than the result of biology.

Butler and the media

If gender is a ‘performance’ rather than biological, we then need to think about what is influencing that ‘performance’.

And that’s where the media comes in. How might the media influence our behaviour in terms of gender roles?

Angela McRobbie: empowering women

McRobbie is a British cultural theorist known for her work analysing magazines aimed at women and teenage girls in the 80s and 90s.

McRobbie highlights the empowering nature of magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour, taking a different perspective to traditional feminists.

This idea of ‘popular feminism’ fits into the idea of post-feminism and challenges the radical feminism of the 1970s.

Gauntlett: feminism & masculinity

David Gauntlett wrote extensively on gender representation and the importance of role models in the media in the late 1990s – early 2000s.

He looked particularly at theorists such as Butler and McRobbie: “Although the popular remix of feminism is accepted by young women, it remains the case that most women and men remain somewhat constricted within particular gender roles.”

Gauntlett looked at men’s lifestyle magazines in the same way McRobbie looked at women’s magazines. He found a new, quite different representation of masculinity – reflecting changes in women’s magazines. 

Importantly, he disagrees that masculinity is in crisis – a popular view in the media in the last 15 years. 

blog tasks

1) What are the two texts the article focuses on?

The First piece of text that is focused on is Pan Am on ABC (in 2011) set in the early 1960's on the lives of female and male pilots.

The second is Beyonce's famous music video, 'Why dont you love me"

2) What examples are provided from the two texts of the 'male gaze' (Mulvey)?

In the magazine cover, Pan Am shows that stewardesses are  highly constructed and mediated as it is stated that “image whose purpose is to be admired and aspired to by women, and visually enjoyed by men.” This explains and inevitably  shows the strong correlates with the theory of male gaze as the the male audience is the main and bigger audience therefore their concerns are more valued.

Similar in Beyonce's  music video for the song ‘Why Don’t you Love Me’ she appears to be parodying the stereotype of the 1950s housewife which cleans, cooks and appears to be very tending to a man's needs at all the. This can be shown in the dress code used includes “tight high-waisted knickers, a vintage style bra, Fifties pedal pushers with cats-eye-shaped glasses.” She also uses the lyrics in her music video to reinforce the conventions of male gaze theory as she talks about how she want to please the men in her life and subtly tells women that is the most important factor of being a women.

3) Do texts such as this show there is no longer a need for feminism or are they simply sexism in a different form?

This text can interrupted  as empowering or belitting women.

I firmly believe that texts shown above only further highlight the need for feminism and further need for liberation.

However, both of these texts are sexualizing female for the male audience. I feel that this is sexism in a disguised way.

4) Choose three words/phrases from the glossary of the article and write their definitions on your blog.

Patriarchy : An ideology that places men in a dominant position over women.

Nostalgia : A sentimental longing for the past, often only remembering the positives of the time.

Music video analysis

Watch the Beyonce video for ‘Why Don’t You Love Me?’: 

 

1) How might this video contribute to Butler’s idea that gender roles are a ‘performance’?
Butler's theory states that we reinforce conventions due to performance rather than biological. which is highly arugable and i agree with as beyonce's music video is the embodiment of females  role within the industry2) Does this video reinforce or challenge the view that women should perform certain roles in society?
In my opinon, although it is a parody and this is noteworthy. i feel like it still correlates to the position women are in within today's society and highlights the further need for feminism and ridden of sexism. 

3) Would McRobbie view Beyonce as an empowering role model for women? Why?
As the idea of tending to a man as long as it is optionable and also the liberation to sexualise themselves on their own accord is perfectly great example of empowerment.

Watch the Will Jay music video for 'Gangsta':

1) How does the video suggest representations of masculinity have changed in recent years?

This video highlights that boy no longer need to be striving to be the most exhibiting extreme forms of masculinity to be considered a Man. This is something that as individual you can dictate and claim without any form of shaming or emasculating towards the idea of being a less manly man.

2) What is YOUR view on representations of men and masculinity? Are young men still under pressure from the media to act or behave in a certain way?

i think that The pressure to uphold the traditional idea of masculinity can be very harmful to a young male individual as it leads them to suppress natural emotions such as sadness into more aggressive traits such as fighting. The old-fashioned view of being a man  meant that talking about feelings was highly taboo.