Mayer et al (2011) (Excerpts)
Media representation within a discourse of gender and madness through Foucauldian theory
What are the variables studied in the 5 texts that the authors examine?
Examines five recent texts in media studies: Mediating Madness: Mental Distress and
Cultural Representation (Cross, 2010); Madness, Power and the Media: Class, Gender and Race in
Popular Images of Mental Distress (Harper, 2009); Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth about
Guilty Pleasure TV (Pozner, 2010); Media Representations of Female Body Images in Women’s
Magazines (Bale, 2008); and Bad Girls: Cultural Politics and Media Representations of Transgressive
Women (Owen, Stein, & Vande Berg, 2007).
What is the authors’ thesis ?
The authors argue that media fixation on a rhetoric of women and girls in crisis contributes to our
cultural discourse of madness and insanity.
Why is madness constructed as feminine?
Madness is constructed as feminine through media discourses that situate women’s behaviors in
relationship to culturally constructed gender norms.
As Foucault (1965) observes: Language is the first and last structure of madness, its constituent form;
On language are based all the cycles in which madness articulates its nature. That the essence of madness can be
ultimately defined in the simple structure of a discourse, does not reduce it to a purely psychological body; such
discourse is both the silent language by which the mind speaks to itself in the truth proper to it, and the visible
articulation in the movements of the body. (p. 100, emphasis in original)
Why is ‘madness’ related to language?
A discourse of madness is concerned with the language used to define madness, which contains
psychological consequences for identity, and ultimately can be articulated through the body as illness,
distress, or erratic behavior. Thus, media discourses situate women’s behaviors in relationship to
culturally constructed gender norms.
How did the ancient Greeks explain the development of madness?
Traced back to ancient Greece where madness developed as a result of ‘‘overevaluation of male
sexuality associated with male fear of mature female sexuality’’ as a result of dramatic age differences
between marital partners.
Why did clinicians link madness with sexrole?
Diagnostic medicine developed, women’s madness was constructed through ‘‘assumptions about sex
roles made by clinicians,’’ which often exhibit a ‘‘sex bias in judgments about social functioning’’
What variables play significant roles in identifying madness within cultural systems?
Gender, sexuality, and power play significant roles in how madness is identified, articulated,
and enacted within cultural systems.
How do the authors link women and madness?
Each of these authors link the representation of women in various mediated contexts to the
problem of madness, which results in the manifestation of this ‘‘girls in crisis’’ narrative.
How does the explanation of a mad person illustrate ‘Foucault’s conceptualization of the subject as
constituting rather than constituted’?
Foucault’s (1965) observation ‘‘on language are based all the cycles in which madness articulates
its nature’’*shifting the language would simply shift the cultural normalizing function of discourse
and reconstitute madness in similar, yet ‘‘new’’ terms (p. 100). This framing is distinctly gendered, as
1
madness is metaphorically and symbolically represented as feminine, even when experienced by men
(p. 67). Thus, subjectivity is determined by the cultural process of coding madness, illustrating
Foucault’s conceptualization of the subject as constituting rather than constituted
How do narratives in movies gender differentiate discourse of madness?
Using specific texts containing characters suffering from mental distress as evidence, Harper examines
how different film genres engage a discourse of madness from a ‘‘fetishization of tragic femininity’’
(Sylvia, Iris, The Hours), which contrasts with the psychological enlightenment experienced by male
characters suffering mental distress in biopics (Shine, A Beautiful Mind, Pollock) (p. 76). Even
ambitious ‘‘madwomen’’ behaviors are seen as ‘‘therapeutically useful’’ as opposed to the ‘‘artistic
strivings’’ of their ‘‘genius’’ male counterparts in dramas (p. 77), while female protagonists in
comedies are generally seen as ‘‘not responsible’’ and ‘‘unable to take charge of their destiny’’ (One
Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Bridget Jones’s Diary, House of Fools) (p. 84). According to Foucault
(1965), madness is often culturally defined as ‘‘our blind surrender to our desires, our incapacity to
control or to moderate our passions’’ (p. 85). The split in film is clear*men who surrender to their
desires and passions become geniuses; women become subjects of their own self-destruction, eliciting
at best pity and sympathy.
Recognizing the limitations of film as a genre, Harper (2009) argues that television offers more
diversity in the representation of mental distress, but that this in turn complicates the analysis of those
images
What are women’s magazines various sets of advice for its readers that would help them overcome
‘madness’?
While magazines like Marie Claire, which offers a ‘‘Real Life Therapy’’ column every month (p.
162), often advise women that being content with one’s life is the key to mental health, they imply
that gendered needs must be filled to overcome madness and offer ‘‘retail therapy’’ as a solution
Women’s magazines are centered on mental health advice in conjunction with gendered demands of
physical beauty (for instance, how Glamour magazine offers suggestions on how to energize
your brain through shopping), the cultural assumption that women are ‘‘mad’’ by definition is
reinforced
The management of mental health, just like physical health, is most often constructed as an obligation
of femininity, while mental distress is something that occurs in and is overcome by men
How does ‘reality’ programs frame women?
Pozner reveals how media frames women as irrational, helpless, and mentally distressed through
reality programming, noting that the ‘‘reality’’ label allows these images to perpetuate a discourse of
‘‘real women acting badly.’’
In relation to Foucault’s (1965) observations on madness, the women succumb to their desire for
heterosexual romance rendering their ensuing acts as subjectified to the humility that accompanies
either rejection or conditional acceptance. The narrative emphasis on the ‘‘happy ending’’ creates a
vision of women as fundamentally flawed, second-class citizens, capable of anything to secure the
fantasy, which codes them for consumption as ‘‘mad’’ or ‘‘crazy.’’
What do the UG students found in the 12 magazines?
In 2005, 99.3% of female body images in these 12 magazines viewed most by female undergraduate
students were ‘‘thin.’’ This percentage suggests a connection between undergraduate women’s
consumption of media, particularly women’s magazines and the development of body image
dissatisfaction, ultimately becoming ‘‘an issue of life or death for some undergraduate women
2
How does F’s framing of madness explain the ways in which women are being treated in society?
Through a Foucauldian frame, madness is ‘‘immediately perceived as difference: whence the forms of
spontaneous and collective judgment sought, not from physicians, but from men of good sense’’ to
determine the appropriate means of confining madness (Foucault, 1965, p. 116, emphasis added).
Women are encouraged to establish self-constituting body politics that align with culturally acceptable
standards of beauty, standards that confine the body into the smallest possible space.
What was the experience of the sports reporter and how was it interpreted and explained? What
would F call such an interpretation?
Based on the actual experiences of sports reporter Lisa Olson, Sports Night’s reporter, Natalie, is the
victim of attempted sexual assault during an interview that takes place in a men’s locker room during
episode six. The authors explain this incident as a means of relegating women in journalistic fields to
the ‘‘appropriate’’ rank of sexualized object rather than the suggested position as a critic of male
performance through the transformation of the locker room as contested, gendered space. Natalie is
seen as a cultural threat, tamed through the ‘‘hysterization of women’s bodies’’ as ‘‘saturated with
sexuality’’ (Foucault, 1980, p. 104)
How do the public imagines soldiering of the female, her body and gender identity? How would F
interpret these films’ interpretations of soldering?
The authors also deconstruct the coding of American female soldiers through films with Gulf War
narratives such as G.I. Jane, Courage Under Fire, and The General’s Daughter. These films pose and
answer questions about gender, the female body, and military combat. Women in these three films are
viewed as ‘‘prey’’ in integrated military settings, their trustworthiness is debated, and double
standards are often employed. Representations of women soldiers frame their bodies as strong but
ultimately vulnerable. Linking back to Foucault’s (1965) observations about madness, the women
always pay a price for their (mad) bodily transgression; some even face the ultimate price of death. By
examining soldiering through the publicly imagined female body and gender identity, the authors
conclude that in G.I. Jane ‘‘the female body is the primary problem that needs ‘solving’’’
3