Identities and the Media: Feminism

Discussing feminism and learning a range of feminist theory is an essential part of A2 Media Studies.

Are we living in a post-feminist state? Do you agree there is still a need for feminism? To what extent does the media contribute to the identity created for women in popular culture? These are some of the questions we need to consider in this next section of our Identities and the Media unit.

Complete the following tasks on your blog:

Media Magazine reading

1) Read Playing With The Past: Post-feminism and the Media (MM40, page 64 - our Media Magazine archive is here).

Here’s a representational issue which has become particularly problematic in recent years – the representation of gender in a post-feminist world.

feminism, post-feminism is now a ‘movement’ (and should not be confused with third wave feminism – see glossary) it is better described as the current ‘set of assumptions’in contemporary society and culture.

 Post-feminism can be defined as the current ideological belief in culture and society that we are somehow past needing feminism – that the attitudes and arguments of feminism are no longer needed;

of post-feminist mediatexts which utilise the past to reinforce dominantpatriarchal ideologies.

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

• HBO’s Pan Am
• Beyoncé’s music video for ‘Why Don’t You Love Me’ 
• Both use the historical settings of the 50's and early 60's - time before the feminist movement - to reinforce post-feminist ideologies.

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

Pan Am - (first broadcast on ABC in 2011) 
period drama set in the early Sixties focusing on the lives of pilots and stewardesses working for the Pan American World Airline.
This period is usually viewed through a nostalgic lens seeing it through glamour, gloss and sophisticated stewardess being the focus.
The movie celebrates the exciting lives of the pilots and stewardesses living in expensive hotels, travelling giving it an aspirational and nostalgic tone creating the post-feminist work it is.  

Mulvey's male gaze aspect comes into play when the first star of the show is introduced through a highly constructed and mediated image which has the purpose to be admired and "aspired to by women, and visually enjoyed by men." The preferred reading may have intended to be that this glossy cover is in fact not reality and we will gain an 'insight' into her real life but also the cover also serves to "acknowledge the image of the air stewardess as a constructed version of femininity, self-consciously acknowledging that this is simply a ‘glossy’ image, a fantasy not based on reality."

The presentation of being an air stewardess of the time highlights how it wasn't a career for life through frequent references being made to finding a husband "Critical of these restrictions, like many post-feminist texts the show is aware of feminism,acknowledging the terrible sexism the women experience, and even punishing male characters who behave in a sexist way." Despite these circumstances the women find ways to use their appearance to empower themselves. 

"The last sequence in the pilot episode provides a complex and ambivalent double address, with all the restrictions, limitations and sexism experienced by the air stewardesses forgotten in a nostalgic aspirational sequence." There represenation is described as "allowing the audience to relish in the rhythm of their walk and their bodies." and "They cause male characters in the airport to turn and stare" This highlights how the are the subject to the male gaze and are obectified and are profroming almost for visual pleasure for males" However they are also described as " while the stewardesses don’t acknowledge these looks, there is a knowing and empowered quality to their walk and facial expressions." suggesting that in the post feminist era the male gaze is used to empower women rather than them being passive. Also "close up on a little girl’s face as she gazes through the window in admiration." reinforces Mulveys idea that women are subject to male gaze but also watch themselves being admired. That is whats being described. Again this is turned into empowerment by showing "Laura turns to smile there is a post-feminist knowingness to her look." 

Beyoncé- 
"Her star construction perfectly encapsulates the contradictions of post-feminist culture, simultaneously declaring herself as an independent woman, whilst objectifying herself for the camera and the ‘male gaze’." The intertexual reference to the iconic 1950s pin up girl Betty Paige creating a character of B.B Homemaker, a frustrated housewife. This nostagic reference is again made playful exploring the "performative nature of femininity." This all to a males pleasure. The gaze into the camera that highlights the objectification but again it is much more active, they know they look good and are the subject to this male gaze. "A post-feminist reading of this might be that since Beyoncé is openly allowing herself to be objectified, indeed encouraging it by looking down the camera playfully and winking at the audience, she is controlling ‘the gaze’ and is thus empowered." However this is also bad as it can be seen as a simultaneous reassuring of patriarchal anxieties. "They are passive and needy, and calming patriarchal concerns about independent women by reassuring them that even Beyoncé needs a man." He presentation of desperation for a male again makes women passive and in 'need' for a man reinforcing that men are active and women are passive. 

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

These texts try to empower women by making them more active in their presentation, they are 'choosing' to fall object to the male gaze and are 'manipulating' them in this manner. They are almost being validated through this in order to suggest a post-feminism culture. Their parody nature in which they try to make light of the matter suggest they see we can use the representation of females in a funny way without it undermining them - a post feminism society. 

However i would have to disagree. The sheer fact that people are still having to analyse these texts and understand if they are objectifying or not reflects that patriarchal ideologies are still ingrained in our minds and its too early to use them as a joke. They are also feeling this empowerment' through an almost validation by males which, i don't think, is the point of feminism, our validation should not lie in male hands. 

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

No More Page 3

1) Research the No More Page 3 campaign. Who started it and why?

• 23rd January 2015 - Sun stopped page 3 after 2 and a half years of campaigning 
• it had been running for 45 years! Since the 1970's
• They used various methods like movies, adverts, billboards, magazines and music videos
• They had:  250 000 signatures 
• 60 charities and organisations and over 160 cross party MPs
• Started in August 2012 by Actress and Author Lucy-Anne Holmes
• Lucy describes that moment as being a ‘huge slap in the face. A reminder that it’s a man’s world’. 
• They are now working against 'sexist news'

2) What reasons did the campaign give for why Page 3 had to go?

• women are sexually objectified, belittled and ignored
• its normalised through making it rather like a crossword puzzle - provision rather than finding
• it puts more importance in objectification and sex than other things later on in the paper
• the men weren't presented in such a way, they were more important and successful 
•  feed into the mindset that allows female bodies to be viewed as open to public scrutiny and comment?
• without consent man-handeling, catcalling encouraged almost

3) Read this debate in the Guardian regarding whether the campaign should be dropped. What are Barbara Ellen and Susan Boniface's contrasting opinions in the debate?

• "In 1970, pictures of ladies’ boobs were difficult to come by. To put them in a newspaper sold copies, titillated the masses, and funny as it may seem to us in 2015 was actually seen as being a bit feminist. Those early Page 3 girls considered they were sexually empowered and celebrating the female form."
• "the No More Page 3 campaign is it began at a point where society was evolving." 
• "Rupert tweeted he thought it was old-fashioned"
• "there a lot of other far more serious, demeaning or damaging things in the world that women don’t consent to we could be campaigning about instead?"
• Barbara Ellen
• "It’s bizarre to defend it on the basis that there are “worse things” – there’s no sliding scale for institutionalised sexism" 
• "The very passivity of Page 3 is offensive"
• FSF
• "The same right you have to choose not to buy the Sun?"
• "It’s that paper, run by that man, read by that sort of person, and you find the combination distasteful." 
• BE 
• "Page 3 is the Old Order – reeking of male dominance, of women as sexualised and neutralised objects (Stripping celebrities at least bring a sense of their public personalities)."
• FSF 
• "Someone somewhere will always be offended by something."
• "And Page 3 was tame"
• BE 
• "it’s about a major news outlet recognising that Page 3 is outdated insulting and tragic " 
• FSF
• "boobs mean different things to different people, and the campaign for No More Page 3 is sort of insisting they must all mean the same to all of us"
• "tell our brothers that feminism is about having the right to choose?"
• BE
• "This isn’t about puritanism, snobbery, or censorship, it’s about women being reduced to smutty sideshow turns within the context of family newspapers. "
• "Women exposing their breasts on news pages – it’s bizarre, not to mention insultingly easy. If people want porn, however “soft”, at least make them work for it. "

4) The main campaign website has now been replaced by a site called Sexist News, designed to highlight sexism in the media. Give an example of a recent story the website has highlighted. Do you agree with the view of the website?

eg. LITTLE MIXED UP ABOUT WHAT TO WEAR? " Little Mix set the cat amongst the pigeons and lit up the fire of feminist in-fighting by daring to bare on a so-called ‘family show’." 
"the hyper-sexualisation of the mainstream was damaging to all women and that soft porn had it’s place in a consenting adult environment." "For young women the prevailing narrative is that sexy is powerful and freedom looks like…wearing not very much. " "Little Mix can and should wear what they like, but it can’t hurt to ask, ‘why that?’"

I understand that she is stating that on a family show it may be seen as objectifcation and creates a negative view our bodies amongst the youth. However, the example she has given isn't the best, that is little Mix brand image, its who they are and itv knew that whilst signing them. Their clothes aren't even that bad, im sorry but that just proves the current hypersexual view society has of the female body. The are singers and pop stars it has a different impact on an audience, honestly i think encouraging female staff to wear make up and short skirts in a professional work place is far worse.

5) How can the No More Page 3 campaign and Sexist News website be linked to the idea of post-feminism?

they are showing that this isn't yet the era of post feminism, we still need it and need to steer it in the 'right direction' 

6) What are your OWN views on these campaigns? Do you agree with their aims? Is there still a need for these campaigns in the media?

Yes, i think there still is a need for these campagins. I completely agree with the ban of page 3 due to the fact that it was 'soft porn' on a family based magazine that isn't necessarily chossen to be looked upon - sun is a free newspaper. The women were also very passive in their presentation and its an innaproite oobjectification enjoraging normalised objectification. 
i do also agree with the sexist news campaign just not the example given. If their is sexism where we recieve our 'unbias' and 'information' which would make this deeming view more normalised than it should be and to a higher status and validity. 

7) Finally, do you agree that we are in a post-feminist state or is there still a need for feminism?

we still need feminism, there is still the hypersexualisation of the female body - showing stomach, shoulder etc. is NOT meant to be so 'hot' or 'sexual'. There are still inequalities in the workplace with the dress code, pay etc. Women are still not treated equally in terms of freedom as men, there are still issues of rape, grapping, harassment by men who don't see women as equals and human beings. Untill there isn't global change there is no post feminism. i feel that certain patriarch views are becoming more internalized than ever eg. women seeing it as 'empowering' being actively objectified by men, wearing excessively revealing clothing will still evoke a negative response, the ideologies haven't been tackled so you are playing right into the patriotic views and ideologies but are doing so actively, this is not feminism let alone post feminism. (MY OPINION)