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Collective gender identity in lifestyle magazines: Glamour,
Cosmopolitan, loaded and men's health
Using the adverts within the magazines as an example of the
second media.
We will also look at how TV adverts create a collective
identity of gender
How do the adverts themselves reinforce a gender identity?
We will also be looking at the collective identity of gender in
music videos
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Consider the media as a whole, what
identity (or at this stage stereotypes)
does it suggest for the different genders?
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The concept of a collective identity refers to a set of
individuals' sense of belonging to the group or collective.
For the individual, the identity derived from the collective
shapes a part of his or her personal identity.
It is possible, at times, that this sense of belonging to a
particular group will be so strong that it will trump other
aspects of the person's personal identity.
To put it another way, Collective Identity is the idea that
through participating in social activities, individuals can gain
a sense of belonging and in essence an "identity" that
transcends the individual.
Therein are the rewards and risks of Social Networking. One
can derive great satisfaction and sometimes great risks from
participating. Within a typical collective, agreement is often
valued over debate, though even more often fierce battles
may erupt.
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Question one will usually discuss: to what
extent/ how far/ have an opinion or take a
view
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Question two will usually discuss: explain how
something operates/ explain/respond to a
quote or a statement.
Marking:
 Explanation/ analysis/argument (20 marks)
 • Use of examples (20 marks)
 • Use of terminology (10 marks)
Media and Collective Identity
 Discuss the contemporary representation
of a nation, region or social group in the
media, using specific textual examples from
at least two media to support your answer.
 How far does the representation of a
particular social group change over time ?
Refer to at least two media in your answer.
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How do the media form an identity for a group of
people?
What is the impact when that identity is
negative?
How do the media portray this identity as
negative?
Does the audience take the identity as a truth
rather than recognise it as a stereotype?
How does the dominant ideology/ collective
identity spread?
Are all the depictions in the media negative?
Should collective identity exist in our modern
world?
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How do contemporary media represent nations
regions and ethic/social/collective groups of
people?
How do contemporary representations compare
to previous time periods
What are the social implications of different
media representations of groups of people?
To what extent is human identity increasingly
mediated?
How media that are in public circulation now
represent groups of people in different ways
The effects in society of particular kinds of media
representation of collective identities
Debates around the idea that our identities are
increasingly constructed by or through or in
response to the media (and arguments against
this notion)
Gender- It is important to understand gender as
different from sexuality. Sexuality concerns physical
and biological differences that distinguish males
from females. Cultures construct differences in
gender
See gender handout
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIwWS2atEmc
&feature=related
The mainstream and mass media have
historically played a pivotal role in shaping
how girls think and feel about their bodies,
their lives and their ambitions. The creation
of a coherent self-identity is a process that is
universal (Giddens),
 Consumerism is one of the clearest ways in
which we develop and project a lifestyle
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Gidden allows us to consider how people form
their sense of self identity
Anthony Giddens focuses on how we create and
shape our identity in modern societies and how the
media might feed into this.
The fusion of individual actions and grand social
forces in one theoretical approach (Structuration)
The impact of late modernity where all activity is
the subject of social reflection, on social actors,
relationships and institutions
Some other interests such as globalisation, the state
and politics are less of an interest to us
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Suggests that we understand rules of society even though
they may not be written down or formally enforced, if
people go against these social expectations, people may
be shocked
In terms of gender, this form of social reproduction – When a
boy wears make up, the punishments comes through in
things like teasing- up holding what we expect to be the
rules of society
 Women who choose not to shave their armpits may also be
treated as deviants for ignoring a social convention about
feminine appearance
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Peoples everyday actions therefore reinforce and
reproduce a set of expectations and it is this set of other
peoples expectations which make up the social forces and
social structures (Macro)
 “Society only has form and that form only has its effects on
people in so far as structure is produced and reproduced in
what people do.
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He says that people have faith in the coherence of
everyday life. We could say that this is why some men get
angered when they see other men acting in an effeminate
manner- This behaviour challenges their everyday
understanding of how things should be in the world
 This suggests that gender is something that is learned and
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Human agency (micro level activity) and social structure
(macro level forces) continuously feed into each other. The
social structure is reproduced through repetition of acts by
individual people and can therefore change
He notes that this theory suggests that social life is more
random than individual acts but is not merely depicted by
social forces. – it is not merely a mass of micro acts but you
cant understand it by just looking at the macro. Instead micro
(human) and macro (social structure) are in a relationship
with each other which reproduces the structure
This means there is a social structure- traditions, institutions,
moral codes and established ways of doing things, but it also
means that these can be changed when people start to
ignore them, replace them or reproduce them differently
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The word tradition comes from the Latin traditionem, acc. of traditio
which means "handing over, passing on", and is used in a number of
ways in the English language:
Beliefs or customs taught by one generation to the next, often orally.
For example, we can speak of the tradition of sending birth
announcements. A set of customs or practices. For example, we can
speak of Christmas traditions.
Modernity typically denotes "a post-traditional, post-medieval
historical period", in particular, one marked by progress from
agrarianism via the rise of industrialism, capitalism, the nation-state,
and its constituent forms of surveillance (Barker 2005, 444).
Conceptually, modernity is related to the modern era and to
modernism, but is a discrete concept. I
n context, modernity can denote association with cultural and
intellectual movements occurred between 1436 and 1789 (for some
thinkers until 1895), and extending to the 1970s, or later (Toulmin
1992, 3–5).
Postmodernity (also spelled post-modernity or termed the
postmodern condition) is generally used to describe the economic
and/or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist
after modernity. This is the stage we are said to be in now
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When tradition dominates individual actions
do not have to be analysed and thought
about so much because choices are already
predescribed by traditions and customs
In post traditional times (modernity) we don’t
really worry about the traditions from the past
and options are at least as open the law and
public opinion will allow. All questions of how
to behave in society then becomes an issue
of how we need have to consider and make
decisions about.
Modernity is post traditional. A society cant
be fully modern if attitudes, actions or
institutions are significantly influenced by
traditions.
He suggests that self identity is inescapable in
a modern society
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Gidden argues we are not in a time of post modernism, we are in a
time of late modernity. Its modernity, just with bells on pre modern
(traditional culture) modern (post traditional) culture post modern
(extreme cases of fully developed modernity)
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The self is not something we are born with, and it is not fixed
Instead, the self is reflexively made- thoughtfully constructed by the
individual
We all choose a lifestyle
Relationships are increasingly like the pure relationship of equals,
where everything has to be negotiated and there are no external
reasons for being together
We accept that all knowledge is provisional and may be proved
wrong in the future
We need trust in everyday life and relationships or we’d be
paralysed by thoughts of unhappy possibilities
We accept risks and choose possible future actions by anticipating
outcomes. The media adds to our awareness of risks
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Modernity and the self
 Change at every level
 Media and the self
 The reflexive project of the self
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How would you sum up in Giddens points in
terms of gender identity?
Ideology
 Semiotics
 Preferred/ secondary meanings
 Representation
 Macro
 Micro
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Diversion- escape from everyday life
 Personal relationships
 Personal identity
 Surveillance
 Information/learning/personal
identity/integration and social
interaction/ entertainment
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Gender- It is important to understand
gender as different from sexuality.
Sexuality concerns physical and
biological differences that distinguish
males from females. Cultures construct
differences in gender
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Patriarchy- A male dominated order that expounds
masculine values and excludes women from positions of
power and authority
it is a sociological way of saying that our civilization is
pervasively patriarchal (men hold the power, women are
secondary); which is based on bias in power based on the
socially constructed concepts of gender rooted in historical
premises.
Patriarchy is a key concept in Marxist and socialist feminism
from the biological (women are weaker) to the economic
(women provide domestic support for the working male,
and/or a cheap army of reserve labour) to the cultural
(masculinity and traditional masculine skills are valued above
femininity and traditionally female skills)
Scopophilia- Pleasure of looking
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Reception theory provides a means of understanding
media texts by understanding how these texts are
read by audiences.
Theorists who analyze media through reception
studies are concerned with the experience of cinema
and television viewing for spectators, and how
meaning is created through that experience.
An important concept of reception theory is that the
media text—the individual movie or television
program—has no inherent meaning in and of itself.
Instead, meaning is created in the interaction
between spectator and text; in other words, meaning
is created as the viewer watches and processes the
film.
Reception theory argues that contextual factors, more
than textual ones, influence the way the spectator
views the film or television program.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTz
MsPqssOY&feature=player_embedded#
at=63
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See Staurt Hall handout
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Contextual factors include elements of the
viewer's identity as well as circumstances of
exhibition, the spectator's preconceived
notions concerning the film or television
program's genre and production, and even
broad social, historical, and political issues.
In short, reception theory places the viewer
in context, taking into account all of the
various factors that might influence how she
or he will read and create meaning from
the text
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Suggest that a media producer may
‘encode’ a certain meaning into their
text which would be based on a certain
social context and understandings but
noted that when another person comes
to consume that text, their ‘decoding’ of
it, based on their own social context and
assumptions, is likely to be somewhat
different.
Reception theory- based on the idea that no
text has one single meaning
 We decode the texts we encounter in
individual ways
 David Morley- he said there are three main
types of reading for any media text
 Dominant (hegemonic)- the reader shares
the programmes codes and accepts the
preferred reading
 Negotiated reading- the reader partly shares
the programmes codes but modifies it in a
way which reflects their position and interests
 Oppositional (counter hegemonic) the
reader does not share the programmes code
and rejects the preferred reading bringing an
alternative frame of interpretation e.g a
feminist reading of a lads mag.
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Focuses entirely on what users / consumers / audiences do with
media texts
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Argues that meaning lies in the hands of the readers
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Elvis Costello – ‘You can only control what the words look like, not
what they mean’
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John Fiske – audiences / consumers act as ‘semiotic guerillas’ who
configure their own meanings from the texts produced by media
institutions
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Consider how people can react differently to the same stimulus –
different people have different tastes in what is funny / disgusting ,
acceptable / unacceptable, as the recent furore about Russell
Brand and Jonathan Ross shows…
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Web 2.0 and the melting of the line between producers and
audiences – the age of YouTube and post-modern ‘mash up’
culture and blogs and the ‘anti-journalists’ who work outside the
system and outside the rules – audiences are the masters now
To understand the concepts of Feminism
 To look at Judith Butler and gender
trouble
 To understand other key theorists
 Handouts- Judith Butler essay, Queer
theory Chapter, Feminism chapter
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Feminist media theory can be described as “an
unconditional focus on analysing gender as a mechanism
that structures material and symbolic worlds and our
experiences of them
First wave feminism- refers to early feminists including the
suffrage movement that fought to secure the vote for women
Second wave feminism – 1960’s including the women's
movement which campaigned for equal rights in
employment, marital relationships and sexual orientationDuring this period, women wanted to challenge the
dominant ideological definitions of femininity
See handouts
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Argues that sex (Male/ female) is seen to cause gender
(Masculine/feminine) which is seen to cause desire towards the
other gender. Her approach inspired partly by Foucault is basically
to smash the supposed links between these so that gender and
desire are flexible, free floating and not caused by other factors
Butler says “ there is no gender identity behind the expressions of
gender….identity is performitively constructed by the very
‘expressions’ which are said to be its result . Gender is a
performance, its what you do, rather than who you are
Argues that we all put on a gender performance, whether
traditional or not.
Her book gender trouble argues that gender identities are not fixed
rather they are only given meaning when acted out or preformed.
She shares Simone de Beauviours view that one is not born, but
rather becomes a woman
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Developed Foucault's work on sexuality with her own original contribution.
The acts by which gender is constituted bear similarities the per formative
acts within theatrical contexts
Gender is a performance and how it is performed constitutes what it means
to any given society or culture in a particular historical moment
Although gender is a process of acting out rather than being, it is
nevertheless subject to social norms and conditions which restrict the range
of gender performances it is feasible for individuals to enact.
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Gender play is not free for all
The way we view sex and gender is fundamental to the conventional roles
attached to gender. She suggests that until sex differences are disregarded
and people cease to be classed into either male or female, true equality is
impossible.
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See Judith Butler essay
What is Queer Theory?
 Queer theory is a set of ideas based around the idea that
identities are not fixed and do not determine who we are. It
suggests that it is meaningless to talk in general about
'women' or any other group, as identities consist of so many
elements that to assume that people can be seen
collectively on the basis of one shared characteristic is
wrong. Indeed, it proposes that we deliberately challenge all
notions of fixed identity, in varied and non-predictable ways.
 Queer theory is based, in part,
on the work of Judith Butler
(in particular her book
Gender Trouble, 1990).
 It is a mistake to think that queer theory is another name for
lesbian and gay studies.
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McRobbie has suggested that teenage magazines construct
a conservative ideology of femininity (looking at magazines
like Jackie)
Suggested that these magazines didn’t allow the readers to
act against patriarchal social order. Instead it promoted
values of gentility and domesticity
She said this was due to several issues
The code of romance pervades most articles in the magazine
especially in the short stories which showed
The girl has to fight to get and keep her man
She can never trust another women unless she is old or ugly
Despite these trials, being a girl and romance are fun (2000)
She also suggests that there is a tendency to encourage
readers to conform to the norm- what society expects
The code of fashion and beauty
Aspirational feminism advocated by
women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan
 Says there is the ideology of individual
success and competiveness in the
magazines “I” rather than “we”
 To both Winship and McRobbie, success
means the achievement of romantic
attachments rather than career or
educational achievements
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Argued that the pleasures of cinema is Scopophilia- the pleasure of
looking a voyeuristic gaze directed at other people. She also
suggests that pleasure is gained by seeing oneself as the primary
character and identifying with them.
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In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking is split
between active/male and passive/female. The determining male
gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled
accordingly.
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Mulvey suggested that in their typical traditional exhibitionist role,
women are simultaneously looked at and displayed with their
appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they
can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness
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Male viewers identify with the male protagonist, and the females
are the subject of their desiring gaze.
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It also means that the female viewers have to take on the viewpoint
of the central male character so that women are denied a
viewpoint and of their own and instead participate in the pleasure
of men looking at women.
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Female characters only have importance in the film apart from as an erotic
figure both to the males in the film and the spectators in the cinema.
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Her role is to drive the hero to act the way he does. Male viewers would not
want the male hero as a sexual object according to the principles of the
ruling ideology.
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He instead is meant to be admired as an ideal version of the self.
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Within her model, the audience, both female is positioned so that they
admire the male lead for his actions and adopt his romantic/ erotic view of
the women.
This model denies the heterosexual female gaze altogether
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However it could be said “ Mulvey’s dark and suffocating anaylsis of patriarchal
cinema has lost ground to a more confident and empowering approach
which foregrounds the possibilities of “subversive” that is, non patriarchal
modes of female spectatorship
How Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory
could be applied?
 Discuss the impact for the male and
female reader if the male gaze theory is
applied
 Using the three types of reading in
reception theory, discuss what they
readings for these front covers are.
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John Fiske suggests that popular culture is made by
the people not produced by the culture industry.
(1989)
It is a step further from Stuart Halls encoding/decoding
model
Fiske suggests the power of the audience to interpret
media texts and determine their popularity, far
outweighs the ability of media institutions to send a
particular message or ideology to audiences within
their texts
He suggests that we can’t even talk about the people
or the audience because a singular mass of
consumers does not exist; there is only a range of
different individuals with their own changing tastes.
He suggests that people are not merely consumers of
texts, the audience rejects this role and becomes a
producer, a producer of meanings and pleasures
(1989)
This is similar to the concept that WEB 2.0 is turning
audiences into producers of their own media.
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Fiske also says that everyday media users snatch aspects of
the mass produced media and then (re)interpret them to suit
their own preferred meanings. The text is a source from which
the viewer activates meaning to make sense of their material
existence
He says that the meaning of a text is not complete until
interpreted by an individual within the context of their lives
He uses Madonna as an example in his work: he said
Madonna's image then becomes a site of semiotic struggle
between the forces of patriarchal control and feminine
resistance.
He also says “she contains the patriarchal meanings of
feminine sexuality and the resisting ones that her sexuality is
hers to use as she wishes
Perhaps in terms of collective feminine identity, women are
also shown this idea
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We often talk about people as if they have
particular attributes as 'things' inside themselves -they have an identity, for example, and we believe
that at the heart of a person there is a fixed and
true identity or character (even if we're not sure
that we know quite what that is, for a particular
person). We assume that people have an inner
essence -- qualities beneath the surface which
determine who that person really 'is'. We also say
that some people have (different levels of) power
which means that they are more (or less) able to
achieve what they want in their relationships with
others, and society as a whole.
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Foucault rejected this view. For Foucault, people
do not have a 'real' identity within themselves;
that's just a way of talking about the self -- a
discourse. An 'identity' is communicated to others
in your interactions with them, but this is not a fixed
thing within a person. It is a shifting, temporary
construction.
People do not 'have' power implicitly; rather,
power is a technique or action which individuals
can engage in. Power is not possessed; it is
exercised. And where there is power, there is
always also resistance.
Foucault developed different approaches
for his different studies, but his work can be
simplistically divided into 'early' Foucault,
where he worked on the ways in which
state power and discourses worked to
constrain people
 'later’ in which that idea of power as a
'thing' is broken down, and it is instead seen
as a more fluid relation, a 'technique' which
can be deployed.
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Althusser proposed that individuals are transformed into
subjects through the ideological mechanism of interpellation
(Chandler 181).
He explained that interpellation works primarily through
language and occurs when we are hailed by a message.
To illustrate hailing in the most straight forward way, Althusser
offered the following example: when a policeman calls out,
Hey, you there!, most people within hearing distance will
immediately assume that they are the ones being
summoned, even if they have done nothing wrong.
This reaction positions the individual as a subject in relation to
the general ideological codes of law and criminality (Brooker
122).
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Althusser believed that the dominant beliefs, values and
practices that constitute ideology serve a political function.
As we progress through the education system and enter the
workforce, ideology works through state institutions to
interpellate or construct us into particular subject positions in
which our work and lifestyle benefits those who control the
processes of production (Smith 208).
The subject positions which are most prevalent configure us in
terms of commercial culture - as consumers, taxpayers,
employees, automobile drivers, homeowners, or parents.
For instance, come election time, politicians continuously
address their audience in their speeches as voters or
taxpayers, thereby referring to the subject positions which
most benefit them in their capacity as political leaders.
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Key questions to consider:
How do these magazines create a collective
identity of gender for their readers
What do these magazines say about the gender?
How do they construct them?
How do each of these magazines create gender
for their readers and create gender of the opposite
sex?
Basically you will have so much information to help
you answer the question!
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How do contemporary media represent nations regions and
ethic/social/collective groups of people?
How do contemporary representations compare to previous
time periods
What are the social implications of different media
representations of groups of people?
To what extent is human identity increasingly mediated?
How media that are in public circulation now represent
groups of people in different ways
The effects in society of particular kinds of media
representation of collective identities
Debates around the idea that our identities are increasingly
constructed by or through or in response to the media (and
arguments against this notion)
Stereotyping? What is the impact?
 What power does the audience have to
resist?
 How do we measure the representations
we encounter? (think theories)
 How do we measure up against the representations we encounter?

Increasing media= increasingly
mediated?
 Re-presentation by others and ourselves

Today- Sexualisation?
 Past- Patriarchal?
 Feminism?
 Similarities and differences
 Use clear examples from the past

Analyse the ways in which the media
represent one group of people you have
studied
 The media do not construct identity, they
merely reflect it. Discuss

Know your case study
 Keep hunting out your own examples
 Adapt them to the question
 Look at both sides of the argument
 Refer to critics/theorists

Gauntlett- Media, gender and identity
Patriarchal ideas
Women as the ‘happy housewife heroine’
Women with careers as a masculinisation
Working until marriage and children
Fulfilling expected gender roles
Male editors constructing the female
identity
 Magazines Clearly identifying the role for
women
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Winship- inside women's magazine bookalthough feminist ideas, admitted that
she enjoyed female magazines
 mixed messages to women, lack of
consistent ideas
 Ideas always followed the norm- e.g
hetrosexual relationships
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Media theorists say that belonging to a
collective group is a misrecognition
 Instead we should approach it in a triangular
approach
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How does a magazine
represent its own gender
to another gender?
How does it represent
its own gender to the
reader?
How does it represent
the other gender to its
reader?
We are not considering the way that magazines are constructed is
post modernism
 Instead we are considering whether a secondary audience might
create post modern readings of these products
 Pick and mix our media, select how we form our identities in relation
to the media
 Gauntlett- Need to be constructed and negotiated in a post
traditional society/ Magazines allow readers to check is this ok?
 Relavatism- A realist position –nothing has any meaning anymore,
people will create their own meaning.
 It would mean that there was no harm in making a gender specific
statement in magazines- readers are given more credit than to just
accept this idea- Pick and mix reader
 We can not assume that people are simply influenced
 A feminist perspective would view the way that men and women’s
Mags present women/female gender as: objects, decorative,
subordinate. They might view the post modern ideas with concern
as they may appear too relaxed
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See chapter handouts
What has Gauntlett suggested about magazines today?
“Women's magazines are of course, all about the social construction
of womanhood today”
Gauntlett- Relationships pg 190 (past or present idea?)
In general, women’s magazines speak the language of popular
feminism- Assertive, seeking success in work and relationships and
demanding the right to both equality and pleasure. Do you agree?
The pick and mix reader pg 196 (as discussed in postmodernism and
magazines slide
Think about some research into real women and ask them about
what they think about our key publications-What do they reveal
about gender assumptions with women today.
Women’s magazines offer a confusing and contradictory set of
ideas
Many of the messages are positive- Assertive, independent
Looking beautiful, generally inescapable
Overemphasising the power of the text and underestimating the
ability of the reader
However we could still be absorbing ideas about society (through
the magazine)
Some examples of feminism/ however contradicting ideas
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Using Gauntletts chapter: key questions to ask
Is the goal the same but the path different?
Women as the ones doing the seeking?
Are they showing that women should be in control? What articles reveal this?
Does this reflect a shift in power?
Do they make us feel bad about ourselves?- unachievable goals?-What
articles/adverts do this?
Are magazines giving us the tools for emotional and physical health, only to
break them down again?
Contradicting ideas? What are they and what themes?
Are there examples of positive and empowering articles?
What are we using it for? Uses and gratifications- What would actually learn?
Am I using it as a measuring tool for my own identity?
Is it making me feel better/worse about my life?
Do they promote feminism?
As a reader, what do we come away with?
‘The pleasure and perhaps sometimes a
certain sadness of consuming these
magazines, is the gap between the
fantasy of self indulgent luxury and the
more complex, grittier reality of my life’
 Is there a difference between the reality
and the fantasy of magazine life?







Independent in attitude
Attractive in looks
Looking for/ have a man
Career minded
“Sexy, beautiful, Intelligent, Superwoman”
Is she being presented as someone who is
secure? –Or are the magazines playing up
to these insecurities?










Are they harmful?
Do they make question every aspect of your life?
Are women creating unachievable, stereotyped, patriarchal ideas
of what it means to be a woman?
Women telling women how to be, yet claiming to be some kind of
sisterhood- Cosmo factor- Women against other womenCompetitiveness, it is I not we (Winship)
Creating contradicting ideas for ourselves
We are led to believe men are very different from us, (Very
stereotype)
How does the magazine portray the male sex?
Is it a patriarchal idea? Does it fulfil dominant ideologies of the male
gender?
Do they make women believe that they are better than men and
that need looking after by us, but that we must not let men know
this?
Makes men look emotionally immature and incapable?
What does the media pack reveal about
the women who reads it
 (see media pack)

The word cosmopolitan means worldly and
knowing. This carefully chosen title carries
connotations and a mode of address which
associates its readers and brand image with a
modern and sophisticated lifestyle and image.
Sex is a popular sell line for
The often large central
targeting both genders. On
image
the cover the word appears
is carefully constructed to often.
target its
Examples of sensational
market of ‘fun, fearless
language include the titles
of feature articles displayed
females’ in a number of
ways. The Model often has such as ‘Sex uncensored’
and a ‘Chick Behaviour
adopted a pose which is that Baffles the Hell Out
open and uninhibited,
of Guys’. Additionally
signifying fearlessness
there is striking use of
alliteration; the repetition
and confidence.
Secondly the often smiling of sounds such as the sss in
sex and censored and the
facial
expression and direct gaze b sound in behaviour and
baffles makes the words
at the reader
easier to skim read and
communicates
remember.
a positive and fun attitude
to life.
We will be discussing:
 The past
 The present
 The future
 The essay will be mainly on the present
but we must discuss the past and present
at least once in the essay


When I was born,
they looked at me
and said: 'What a
good boy, what a
smart boy, what a
strong boy!' And
when you were
born, they looked
at you and said:
'What a good girl,
what a smart girl,
what a pretty girl!'"


Families, friends, teachers, and community leaders all play a
role in helping boys define what it means to be a man.
Mainstream media representations also play a role in
reinforcing ideas about what it means to be a "real" man in
our society. In most media portrayals, male characters are
rewarded for self-control and the control of
others, aggression and violence, financial independence,
and physical desirability.
In 1999, Children Now, a California-based organization that
examines the impact of media on children and youth,
released a report entitled Boys to Men: Media Messages
About Masculinity. The report argues that the media’s
portrayal of men tends to reinforce men’s social dominance.
The report observes that:
 the majority of male characters in media are heterosexual
 male characters are more often associated with the public sphere
of work, rather than the private sphere of the home, and issues and
problems related to work are more significant than personal issues
 non-white male characters are more likely to experience personal
problems and are more likely to use physical aggression or violence
to solve those problems
 Children Now conclude that these dominant trends in the media’s
portrayal of men reinforce and support social attitudes that link
masculinity to power, dominance and control.
 In Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity,
Jackson Katz and Jeremy Earp argue that the media provide an
important perspective on social attitudes—and that while the media
are not the cause of violent behaviour in men and boys, they do
portray male violence as a normal expression of masculinity



Although most contemporary research on the portrayal of masculinity in the
media has focused on violence, research has also begun to examine the
portrayal of masculinity in men’s magazines such as Playboy, Maxim, GQ,
and Esquire. These magazines, which focus on matters such as health,
fashion, sex, relationships, and lifestyle, play a part in defining what it means
to be a modern man.
Some critics argue that these magazines represent an improvement in media
portrayals of gender since they focus on topics previously thought to be
solely the concern of women. But others argue that such magazines still rely
on stereotypical portrayals of men and masculinity, featuring handsome,
white, well-built and well-dressed men, interested only in acquiring the finer
things in life.
Media commentators argue that these magazines continue to relegate
women to the background and, in doing so, are examples of social backlash
directed against specific gains made by women in the paid labour force,
mass media industries and other professions. They say that it is no
coincidence that as women are achieving greater social, political and
professional equality, these magazines symbolically relegate them to
subordinate positions as sex objects.
While magazines such as Playboy and Maxim are criticized for
objectifying women’s bodies, recent discussions about men’s
magazines are focusing on what these magazines say about men
and masculinity. Academics argue that the recent popularity of
these magazines is a reflection of men’s uncertainty over the roles
they are expected to assume in society, at work, and in their
relationships.
 In her 1983 discussion of Playboy, Barbara Ehrenreich notes when
the magazine emerged in 1953, American men were beginning to
feel constrained by the demands of marriage, work and
fatherhood—and Playboy unapologetically celebrated the
bachelor’s lifestyle.
 She argues that Playboy painted an idealistic picture of the welleducated, confirmed bachelor who appreciates the finer things in
life: wine, jazz, scotch, art, and women. Playboy’s success was built
on its celebration of male independence from the domestic
responsibilities of marriage and fatherhood.


See chapter handouts
There is a need to investigate whether these new publications
are in fact a progressive force in society.
The term 'progressive' asks the question of whether these
magazines have a positive influence over the readership -such as by helping men come to terms with their personal
idea of what it means to be male in a world that is becoming
increasingly feminized, or by providing advice on masculinity
and introducing a desperately needed 'men only' orientated
form of entertainment.
On the other hand, these magazines may be a negative force
in society as they are seen as being sexist, objectifying
women.

Unlike women's magazines, which also feature women on the
front cover, lads magazines usually have scantily clad or
even naked women as their come on and many people
believe, that despite being very successful, they are far from
being a progressive force in society and are little more than
an anti-feminist backlash.

"While women become 'friends' with their magazines there is
an inbuilt male resistance to the idea of a magazine that
makes public and shares ideas about being a man. To men it
is an unacceptable contradiction. Self-consciousness is
permissible, even attractive, in a woman; it is perceived as
weak and unmanly in a man."
(Campaign, 26/7/85: 37)

"…giving readers the thing they seem to crave but dare not admit:
advice."

This is certainly true in part. Increasingly these magazines seem designed not simply to
celebrate masculinity, but also to shore it up. The endless 'how - to' articles on sexuality
actually offer precious little advice, instead providing men with a great deal of hand holding. In the pages of a recent Men's Health, for example, one finds an article
promising to explain the "Mysteries of the Breast.“

The piece is filled with extravagantly simpleminded -- even apologetic -- recitations of
the obvious, gently nudging manly men into a vague recognition of their partner's
needs, all the while reassuring them that simple consideration isn't a sign of incipient
sissiness.

It may sound like a page straight out of a sensitive training manual, but the bottom line
on the breast is simple: "Find out what your partner enjoys - and do it," writes Curt
Presman, the author. Then to assure his readers that real women actually appreciate this
novel technique, he quotes several. "Girls like guys who ask them what to do during sex,"
says Debbie a 21-year-old estate agent. Several paragraphs down, Presman finds
another appreciative young woman who assures him that, "the more a man pays
attention to my breasts, the better I feel about my body."




Provocative images of women's partly clothed or naked bodies are
especially prevalent in advertising. Shari Graydon, former president
of Canada’s MediaWatch, argues that women’s bodies are
sexualized in ads in order to grab the viewer’s attention. Women
become sexual objects when their bodies and their sexuality are
linked to products that are bought and sold.
Media activist Jean Kilbourne agrees. She notes that women’s
bodies are often dismembered into legs, breasts or thighs,
reinforcing the message that women are objects rather than whole
human beings.
Although women’s sexuality is no longer a taboo subject, many
researchers question whether or not the blatant sexualization of
women’s bodies in the media is liberating. Laurie Abraham,
executive editor of Elle magazine, warns that the biggest problem
with women’s magazines is "how much we lie about sex." Those "lies"
continue to perpetuate the idea that women’s sexuality is
subservient to men’s pleasure. In her study of Cosmopolitan and
Playboy magazines, for example, Nicole Krassas found that both
men and women’s magazines contain a single vision of female
sexuality—that "women should primarily concern themselves with
attracting and sexually satisfying men."
The presence of misinformation and media stereotypes is disturbing,
given research that indicates young people often turn to media for
information about sex and sexuality. In 2003, David Buckingham and
Sara Bragg reported that two-thirds of young people turn to media
when they want to learn about sex - the same percentage of kids
who ask their mothers for information and advice.


Many researchers argue that the over-representation of thin
women in mass media reinforces the conclusion that
"physically attractive" and "sexually desirable" mean "thin."
Amy Malkin’s study of magazine covers reveals that
messages about weight loss are often placed next to
messages about men and relationships. Some of her
examples: "Get the Body You Really Want" beside "How to
Get Your Husband to Really Listen," and "Stay Skinny" paired
with "What Men Really Want."
The fascination with finding out what men really want also
tends to keep female characters in film and television busy.
Professor Nancy Signorielli reports that men are more likely
than women to be shown "on the job" in movies and
television shows. Female characters, on the other hand, are
more likely to be seen dating, or talking about romance.
Advertising
The
second media

It is important to note the significance of gender in
advertising.

According to Sut Jhally, gender is probably the social
resource that is used most by advertisers… [they] seem to be
obsessed with gender and sexuality.' The reason for this is that
'gender is one of our deepest and most important traits as
human beings.
Our understanding of ourselves as either male or female is the
most important aspect of our definition of ourselves as
individuals… What better place to draw upon than an area
of social behaviour that can be communicated almost
instantly and which reaches into the very core of our
definition as human beings?' (Jhally, 1987:135).
Thus, advertising has become a central socialising agent for
cultural values connected to gender.






In its study of masculinity and sports media, the research group Children Now found that
most commercials directed to male viewers tend to air during sports programming.
Women rarely appear in these commercials, and when they do, they’re generally
portrayed in stereotypical ways.
In fact, in his analysis of gender in advertising, author and University of North Texas
professor Steve Craig argues that women tend to be presented as "rewards" for men
who choose the right product. He describes such commercials as "narratives of playful
escapades away from home and family." They operate, he says, at the level of
fantasy—presenting idealized portrayals of men and women. When he focused
specifically on beer commercials, Craig found that the men were invariably "virile, slim
and white"—and the women always "eager for male companionship."
Author and academic Susan Bordo (University of Kentucky) has also analyzed gender in
advertising, and agrees that men are usually portrayed as virile, muscular and powerful.
Their powerful bodies dominate space in the ads. For women, the focus is on
slenderness, dieting, and attaining a feminine ideal; women are always presented as
not just thin, but also weak and vulnerable.
These critics and others suggest that just as traditional advertising has for decades
sexually objectified women and their bodies, today’s marketing campaigns are
objectifying men in the same way. A 2002 study by the University of Wisconsin suggests
that this new focus on fit and muscled male bodies is causing men the same anxiety
and personal insecurity that women have felt for decades.

Genderfuck refers to the self-conscious
effort to "fuck with" or play with
traditional notions of gender identity,
gender roles, and gender presentation.It
falls under the umbrella of the
transgender spectrum
The effect of unstable signifying practices in a
libidinal (The psychic and emotional energy
associated with instinctual biological drives:
Sexual desire and manifestation of the sexual drive)
Economy of multiple sexualities… the destabilisation
of gender as an analytical category, though it is
not, necessarily, the signal of the end of gender…
the play of masculine and feminine on the body…
subverts the possibility of possessing a unified
subject position.
-- June L. Reich on ‘Genderfuck'.

Since the mid-1990s, advertising has increasingly
employed images in which the gender and sexual
orientation of the subject(s) are markedly (and
purposefully) ambiguous.
 As an ancillary to this, there are also a growing
number of distinctly homosexual images - and
these are far removed from depictions of the
camp gay employed as the comic relief elsewhere
in mainstream media.
 We need to consider how these depictions
undermine conventional gender role stereotypes
and the norm of heterosexuality that dominate
advertising and the media at large.


The revival of the Women's Movement in the 1970s
directed an onslaught of criticism towards post-war
images in which women were 'usually shown as
being subordinate, passive, submissive and
marginal, performing a limited number of
secondary and uninteresting tasks confined to their
sexuality, their emotions and their domesticity'
(Strinati, 1995:184). Subsequent to pressure placed
by liberal feminists on the media and advertising
industries, the more 'positive' image of the
independent 'New Woman' emerged, followed by
the 'New Man' in the 1980s

By way of semiology, and a consideration of the motives of
advertising and consumer industries, feminist analysis of these
representations in the early nineties, however, warned of their
latent sexist meanings.

We need to images that are now becoming prevalent in
advertising.

analysis of the progressive depictions of men and women
(and androgyny) by advertisers.
Androgyny is a term, which refers to the mixing of masculine
and feminine characteristics,


And consider the role of the New Woman and New Man,
and then from New Woman/Man to gender-ambivalent
queer images.

. In Images of Woman (1975), Millum analysed adverts in
women's magazines by looking at the characteristics of three
central elements in the images: props, setting and actors
(1975:114). In his classic study Gender Advertisements (1976),
Goffman analysed adverts that he had selected 'at will' from
current popular magazines that were chosen on the basis
that they appeared to delineate 'a discrete theme bearing
on gender'. Goffman justifies his seemingly haphazard
approach by discussing 'how pictures can and can't be used
in social analysis' claiming that 'themes that can be
delineated through pictures have a very mixed ontological
status and that any attempt to legislate as to the order of
fact represented in these themes is likely to be optimistic.'
Significantly for our purposes, he asserts that his study takes
issue with two of three methodological questions: discovery
and presentation, but not proof (1976:24).


In as much as behaviour is the process of living life,
the development of behaviour sets, which can be
thought of as roles, may be employed for the
purpose of simplifying the task: the idea was first
proposed by William James (1890). 'Some roles,
James believed, we choose for ourselves ... Other
roles are prescribed for us by virtue of our position
in life'.
The ideas of James have been further developed
by a number of sociologists; notably Merton (1957),
Mead (1934), Parsons (1951) and Goffman (1959).

In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life,
Goffman's main contribution to the
discussion concerns the analysis of
characterisation. His suggestion that the
performer attempts to present an idealised
version of the character (page 45) which
reflects the values of society - since the
notion of the ideal is one which is derived
from society - is somewhat reminiscent of
the Freudian concept of super-ego.

Goffman suggests that belief in a particular role by
an individual performer, is related to perceived
reality. (page 28) Hence there is considerable
importance attached to the clothing worn by the
performer whilst in character, which primarily serves
to increase belief in the role. The wearing of an
appropriate costume enables the character to be
donned more readily which, in turn, contributes to
the definition of the situation: 'the more the
individual is concerned with the reality which is not
available to perception, the more must he
concentrate his attention on appearances.' (page
241)

This aspect of 'appearance' is part of what Goffman identifies
as 'front'; and, in performance terms, it is closely related to
'manner'. The appearance and manner of the performer
serve to enrich the quality of performance, and they will
normally operate in harmony. 'We often expect, of course, a
confirming consistency between appearance and manner'.
(page 35) Front distinguishes between the public part of the
performance and backstage, or off-stage, action which is still
carried out within the scope of the role: it is 'that part of the
performance which regularly functions in a general and fixed
fashion to define the situation'. (page 32) It also encompasses
'setting'; the furniture and props that make up the set for a
particular act.

Non-verbal communication in the form of gestures
which are made by the performer 'during the
interaction' (page 40) serve to add a confirmatory
emphasis: Goffman uses the example of a baseball
umpire who's body language is actually
communicating his decision whilst he is in the act of
processing the information upon which it is to be
based. Related to this, there is a possibility of
accidentally misleading an audience with
unintended body language. For this reason, it is
suggested, the performer keeps non-relevant
gestures to a bare minimum. (page 59)

Erving Goffman’s perspective on
advertisements is that they do not
necessarily depict how men and women
actually behave, but that they are a good
representation of the way we think they
behave. Print advertisements, therefore, do
not offer an exact snapshot of real life but
instead offer a perspective on a certain
aspect or aspects of life; they
conventionalise our conventions, and stylise
what is already a stylisation (Goffman, 1979:
84).

Advertisements can be offensive, and not just in the most
palpable way; by being openly crude and distasteful. They
can also cause offence in more subtle ways; by portraying
men and women in stereotypical roles that suggest certain
implications about their capabilities. Every culture has
accepted routine forms which indicate how men and
women are supposed to look, act, and relate to each other
in a wide variety of social situations (Leiss, Kline & Jhally, 1986:
166). These ‘norms’, when represented in advertising reinforce
certain stereotypes. The concept of stereotyping was coined
by Walter Lippman, who refers to it as the guarantee of our
self respect, value, position and rights; he goes on to state
that stereotypes are highly charged with the feelings
attached to them (in Dyer, 2002: 11).

Betty Friedan studied the way in which women
were portrayed in the forties and fifties in women’s
magazines. She had previously found, in the late
thirties, that women were portrayed (in
advertisements) as autonomous heroines, but this
representation had made way for the ‘glorified
housewife’ image by the forties. Friedan
concluded that manufacturers had decided to
make women better consumers of home products
by reinforcing the concept of total fulfilment
through the wholesome role of housewife and
mother


The advertisement has the
tagline ‘She has the recipe…
for good citizenship,’ which
puts forward the message
that women should be
accomplished in the kitchen
in order to be successful,
‘good citizens.’
The notion that, in advertising,
manufacturers try to create
an image that will maximise
the sale of their product
brings up the question of
causality. This looks at
whether advertising merely
reflects reality, or directly
influences and shapes reality
by providing role models.
Goffman states that selfdefinition is guided and
externally dominated; that
advertisements try to
convince us that this is how
men and women are, want to
be, or should be, in relation to
themselves, and in relation to
Courtney and Lockeretz’s report A Woman’s Place: An Analysis of
the Roles Portrayed by Women in Print Advertising sampled various
advertisements from 1970, with specific regard to the number and
sexes of the people appearing, their occupations and activities,
and the types of products they were shown associated with
(Courtney & Whipple, 1983: 10).
 Some of the most significant figures obtained from the research are:
45% of males were depicted as working outside of the home,
compared with only 9% of women; of the 9% of women, 58% were
entertainers, and the remainder were depicted in low-status jobs; no
women were depicted as a high-level professional or executive.

Courtney and Lockeretz found that women were portrayed as
buyers of articles like cleaning aids and cosmetics, whereas men
were shown to be buying important, expensive items such as cars,
industrial goods and bank services. Some of the general stereotypes
encountered, therefore, were: a woman’s place is in the home,
women do not make important decisions, and women are
dependant on men for protection.





His study sampled approximately five hundred print
advertisements, with six major areas for analysis: relative size,
the feminine touch, function ranking, the family, the
ritualisation of subordination, and licensed withdrawal.
In print advertisements, social weight, i.e. power, rank,
authority, and renown is echoed expressively in social
situations through relative size (Goffman, 1979: 28).
More often than not, in advertisements depicting both men
and women, the man will be higher up in the picture
(sometimes simply because of a superiority in height, but also
because of the relative positions of both parties). This is one of
the most obvious symbols of status and holds certain
assumptions about the social standings of the subjects
involved.
Think about today’s adverts and try to consider the future

Figure 2 is an advertisement for an
exercise aid, the ‘Relax-a-cizor’, and
depicts an attractive (and scantily
clad) woman at the feet of a toned
(presumably because of the effects of
the product) man in a suggestive state
of worship and awe. This advert not
only suggests the social superiority of
the man, but also highlights the
passivity of the woman, who has done
nothing but watched and swooned as
the man has performed the executive
role: the act of transforming himself.
The principal aim of the advertisement
is to induce the reader into purchasing
the product by using the woman as a
‘potential reward’ for using the
product. This is a common technique
used by many advertisers to play on
the fantasies of males; the fact that the
woman is in a state of undress further
serves as feature in the ‘fantastical’
world the advert creates. The woman
is, in effect, being used as a
decoration.

Goffman states that women, more than
men, are pictured using their fingers and
hands to delicately trace the outlines of
an object, or cradle or caress it, thus
demonstrating the ‘feminine touch.’ He
asks us to distinguish this form of ritualistic
touching from the utilitarian kind that
grasps, holds, or manipulates (1979: 29).

This picture is a good
example of what Goffman
is referring to because it
depicts the contrast
between the two kinds of
aforementioned touching.
As is evident in the picture,
the male hand is ‘grasping’
or ‘holding’ the object in a
strong, firm manner,
whereas the female hand
is delicately ‘caressing’ the
male hand in a ‘barely
touching’ fashion.

Goffman’s study found that, in
advertisements depicting
both sexes, women were
largely found to be portrayed
in subordinate roles; whether
occupational or recreational.
The man, it would seem, is
likely to perform the executive
role, in a hierarchy of functions
(Goffman, 1979: 32). The
picture is a good example of
this because, even though the
male is barely in the picture,
he is no doubt performing the
executive role (with regard to
function ranking). The
woman’s purpose is in the
advertisement is, once again,
as a decoration

The traditional images of how the sexes
behaved did not come about by accident.
Advertisements were based on
characteristics of the sexes that had
become conventions; figures prove that
more men than women worked outside of
the home for example. Goffman suggests
that advertisements serve as a tool to
implement stereotypes upon society in
order to influence people into purchasing
certain products or services.

Role theory 'is based upon a theatrical
metaphor in which all social behaviour is
viewed as a kind of performance…
[people] behave in ways that are socially
prescribed… To be a man [or woman]… is
to play a certain role. Masculinity [and
femininity] represents just a set of lines and
stage direction which males [and females]
have to learn to perform' (Edley &
Wetherall, 1996:100).



Sex role theory was established in the 1930s when Terman &
Miles (1936) claimed that masculinity and femininity have
been constructed as two opposing types of 'personality'.
Social learning theory accounts for how these sex roles are
appropriated and internalised; men and women imitate
others of the same sex (role models) and are consequently
rewarded by society for their sex-appropriate acts, thus
encouraging them to repeat this behaviour (conditioning
and reinforcement).
Role models are made available through 'socialising agents'
which include the family, school and the media (see Gross,
1996:172-174, 587-589). Therefore, if in an advertisement, a
young girl observes a conventionally beautiful woman being
admired by men, she is likely to learn that to attract a man
she must also make herself beautiful.
The social constructedness of sex roles, and therefore their
contingency, is the basis for queer theory.

In Gender Trouble (1990), key queer theorist Judith Butler questions
the 'compulsory order' between sex, gender and desire. Sex (malefemale) is seen to form the basis of gender identity (masculinefeminine) - but as sex role theorists have established, all gender
behaviour is socially constructed and 'performative'. Or as Butler
puts it: 'Gender is always a doing, though not a doing by a subject
who might be said to preexist the deed… There is no gender identity
behind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively
constituted by the very "expressions" that are said to be its results'
(1999:33).
 The unity of sex and gender is maintained by its oppositional and
binary nature; because 'one is one's gender to the extent that one is
not the other gender,' masculinity and femininity differentiate
themselves 'through an oppositional relation to that other gender it
desires (ibid:30).
 Hence, heterosexuality is naturalised and rationalised.



Butler also points to the notion of a pre-discursive (i.e. given)
sex - that is, we can only choose between male or female:
'And what is "sex" anyway? Is it natural, anatomical,
chromosomal, or hormonal, and how is a feminist critic to
assess the scientific discourses which purport to establish such
"facts" for us… Is there a history of how the duality of sex was
established, a genealogy that might expose the binary
options as a variable construction?… this construct called
"sex" is as culturally constructed as gender' (ibid:10).
Butler calls for 'variable constructions of identity' (ibid:9) to be
made visible in order to subvert this genealogy; that is,
anything that demonstrates the ambivalence of sex divisions,
the unity of sex and gender, or the unity of sex and
oppositional desire (i.e. homosexuality). It is this that genderambivalent and homosexual advertising imagery can be
seen to do.



Lack of female
identity? Sex objectDoesn’t even
deserve a face
He also looks very
feminine
Genderfuck?
DISMEMBERMENT
 • The use of dismemberment
 in advertising is an example
 of the male gaze at work.
 • Women’s bodies are
 cropped/masked in order to
 emphasise sexualised body
 parts.
