Media theory presentation

Media theory presentation

• 1.
  Representation Lauren & Lucy (L-Train)
• 2.
  Gender
• 3.
  Judith Butler (1990) •Butler argues that feminism has made a mistake by asserting that women were a group with common characteristics and interests, which reinforces a binary view of gender relations in which human beings are divided into two clear cut groups of men and women, rather than opening up possibilities for a person to form and choose their own identity. • Butler argues that sex is seen to cause gender which is seen to cause desire to the other gender. • Butler’s approach is to destroy the links between these to that gender and desire are flexible and free floating, not caused by other stable factors. ‘There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender:… identity is performativity constituted by the very expressions that are said to be its results’ – gender is a performance; it’s what you do at particuar times, rather than a universal who you are.
• 4.
  Laura Mulvey (1975) •Male Gaze: women are objects for sexual pleasure only to be looked at. Male gaze theory denies women human identity. • ‘The pleasure in looking has been split between active male and passive female’
• 5.
  Scopophilia • Scopophilia istaking other people as objects, subjecting them to controlling and curious gaze. • (Love of watching) – We sit in a darkened movie theatre and observe the activities of people on the screen who are unaware that are being watched. (VOYEURISM)
• 6.
  Angela McRobbie • McRobbiefeels that the media (through magazines) influences us into what we should and shouldn’t do, telling us how to behave; example men are strong and women are weak. • ‘Sexual pleasure is learnt, not automatically discovered with the right partner, the importance of being able to identify and articulate what you want sexually, the importance of learning about the body and being able to make the right decisions about abortion and contraception, the different ways of getting pleasure and so on, each one of these figured high in he early feminist agenda’.
• 7.
  David Gauntlett • GirlPower – Women can do what they want, be themselves, sassy and sexy. • ‘To young women, feminism is something that belongs to their mother’s generation. They have to develop their own language for dealing with sexual inequality and if they do this is through raunchy language of ‘shagging, snogging and having a good time’
• 8.
  Sexuality
• 9.
  Queer Theory • Isa perspective that seeks to disrupt socially constructed systems of meaning surrounding human sexuality. • Sexuality is fluid and difficult to categorize. Queer theorists aim to expose the short comings of these labels and show how the function support systems of social power and privilege. Heteronormativity maintains the distinction between homosexuality and heterosexuality.
• 10.
  Feminist Theory • Thetheory focuses on the function of female characters in particular film narratives or genres and the stereotypes of society’s view of women. • ‘Female characters can possess the look and even make the male character the object of her gaze, but being a women, her desire has no power’ – Anna Kaplan
• 11.
  Race
• 12.
  Stuart Hall • Hallargued that race is nothing but a floating signifier, therefore illuminated our understanding of race being nothing but a social construct. • Discursive racism – racism expressed linguistically • Hall explains that discursive racism is more powerful than the random acts of racial attacks experienced by people of colour in the western world, and therefore explains why people of colour hardly gain recognition for their work.
• 13.
  Edward Said • Orientalismis a way of seeing that distorts differences of Arab culture as compared to that of Europe and US. It often involves seeing Arab culture as exotic, backward, uncivilized, and dangerous. • ‘The basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for elaborate theories, novels, social descriptions, and political accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, ‘mind’, destiny and so on’.
• 14.
  Subcultures and Youth
• 15.
  Dick Hebdige • Membersof the working class encounter daily hardships and alienation from the ruling hegemony • Younger generations don’t want to suffer this like their parents without protest, therefore develop distinct styles and practices with manifest their separate identity, condition and subversion • Media discovers the subculture, with a typical reaction of moral panic • Subculture expands, losing its rebellious edge by turning into a commerical consumer product or by the media rendering the members as harmless ‘clowns’ • Mainstream hegemony returns it it peaceful unthreatened state