INST 205-Review Sheet-Section Three: Representation, Language, and Culture
Learning Objectives
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To understand how language and the mass media shape how we see gender.
To decipher how images and language contribute to our understanding of gender and
race.
To see both the perpetuation of gender and racial stereotypes in culture and language as
well as the resistance to these.
Section Summary
Cultural ideas about what it means to be a woman and what it means to be a man affect everyone
in the culture. Powerful cultural institutions like the media and the language we speak shape how
we see ourselves and the world around us.
 Culture is a set of shared ides about the nature of reality, standards of right and wrong,
and concepts for making sense of social interactions.
 Languages, including English, enforce gender differences that privilege men.
 The mass media transmits dominant cultural ideals and guides how we understand
masculinity and femininity in a way that advantages masculinity.
 Race and ethnicity shape these representations of gender.
 Some cultural images challenge mainstream understandings of gender, race, and beauty,
and subordinated groups often construct alternative systems of cultural meanings.
Reading 11: Laurel Richardson, “Gender Stereotyping in the English Language”
The English language perpetuates stereotypes of men and women in the United States.
Language patterns are consistent with gendered patterns in the culture, and influence attitudes
and behaviors.
 When the word “man” or male pronouns are used to refer to all people, most people
understand the words to be about men and not women.
 Occupations and non-human objects are gender-typed in a way that promotes male
dominance and female subordination.
 The words “lady” and “girl” are often used to categorize women as lesser, incompetent,
or immature.
 Everyday language often sexualizes women and associates them with prostitutes while
signaling that men are the sexual aggressors.
 A woman is often defined by her relation to a man while men are usually defined by their
relation to the world.
 The connotations of some words that originally had neutral connotations now have
negative connotations if they are associated with women and positive connotations if they
are associated with men.
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Boxed Insert: Lauren Sandler, “The Ms. of Baghdad”
Estabarak Al Shamre began the first women’s magazine in post-Saddam Iraq, called Nisf Al
Dunia. While this magazine, and its founder, may seem very different from Western notions of
feminism, this magazine is important because it exposes women’s oppression in Iraq.
 Saddam’s regime did not allow people to express dissent, but magazines like Nisf Al
Dunia are able to expose problems that existed under Saddam and the bitter realities of
the war in Iraq and post-war life.
 The freedom to talk openly about these problems is revolutionary for Iraqi women.
Reading 12: Debra Gimlin, “Cosmetic Surgery: Paying for Your Beauty”
Interviews with one cosmetic surgeon and twenty of his patients investigate the complicated role
of surgery in the construction of modern standards of beauty. The women who had cosmetic
surgery were actively negotiating narrow cultural standards regarding age, race, ethnicity, and
gender.
 Women (and men) are having cosmetic surgery at increasing rates. Ninety percent of
cosmetic surgeries are performed on women.
 The women who had plastic surgery were largely satisfied with their results, but they
believed they had to defend their decision to others, so the surgery itself could not make
them entirely happy.
 Some of the women chose to have cosmetic surgery in order to boost their self-esteem
and improve their social interactions. None of the women believed they had the surgery
to please others.
 Each woman believed that the aspects of her body with which she was unhappy were
beyond her control and inaccurately reflected her identity.
 The women were not necessarily interested in becoming beautiful, but they wanted to
look “normal,” which primarily meant having young Anglo, feminine features.
Additionally, this definition is tied to understandings of beauty, gender, and class.
 Many who had plastic surgery believed that a person’s body was a physical manifestation
of their character.
 Doctors who perform cosmetic surgeries have enormous power over and responsibility to
their patients. Additionally, doctors can impose their own ideas of beauty on their
patients.
Boxed Insert: Roberta Galler, “Myth of the Perfect Body”
Galler describes how the feminist ideal of perfect anatomy is unrealistic and unattainable.
Disabled women have been left out of and need to be reincorporated into the feminist definition
of woman.
 Disabled women are seen as both asexual and unattractive, which can lead to dangerous
consequences.
 Disability alters and enhances the feminist critique of the perfect body as not only
unattainably beautiful but also unrealistically superhuman.
 Other women often distance themselves from disabled women.
 People are dependent upon one another, and through understanding disabled women this
becomes all the more clear.
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Reading 13: Ingrid Banks, “Hair Still Matters”
Interviews with 43 African-American women and girls show that the female body is politicized
as a place where race and gender are enacted. Black women understand that their hair is an
important demonstration of their relationship with the world, particularly concerning their race,
gender, and sexual orientation. These women discuss how they feel about their hair and how
others interpret Black women’s hair.
 Society has often judged black women using the white female body as the standard.
White women’s long flowing hair is seen as the ideal for all women’s hair. Race,
ethnicity, and class are important aspects of American beauty ideals.
 Hair is an important aspect of femininity, and particular hairstyles like the “afro” and
long braids have political significance for African Americans.
 Hair has often been an important issue for black women because they have been labeled
as inappropriate or “too ethnic” in their workplace or in popular media if they wear their
hair in natural or braided styles.
 Sexuality and sensuality has often been tied to the length of women’s hair, and many of
the African American women viewed long hair as feminine. Women with “too short” hair
are often viewed as lesbians. Men’s sexuality was not questioned when they had long
hair, however.
 Hair is also part of a global market. Hair is traded across the globe and hairstyles are
debated worldwide.
Discussion Questions
Reading 11: Laurel Richardson, “Gender Stereotyping in the English Language”
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2.
3.
What English words for a woman does Richardson find to be demeaning? Why? What
other words for woman have negative connotations?
How does language reinforce differing expectations for men than for women? How can
non-sexist language change the gendered expectations of occupations and other aspects of
culture?
How do sexist language and linguistic stereotyping affect people?
Boxed Insert: Lauren Sandler, “The Ms. of Baghdad”
4.
5.
What is Ms. Magazine? Why does Lauren Sandler call Nisf Al Dunia “The Ms. of
Baghdad”? How might Nisf Al Dunia be similar to or different from Ms.? How might
feminism in Iraq differ from mainstream American feminism?
What does Nisf Al Dunia focus on? What makes this magazine and its stories
“revolutionary”?
Reading 12: Debra Gimlin, “Cosmetic Surgery: Paying for Your Beauty”
6.
The doctor selected the women Gimlin interviewed. How might this affect her finding that
the women were satisfied with their surgery? How might Dr. Norris’s strict criteria for
weeding out patients also have affected this study?
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7.
8.
9.
If most doctors Gimlin interviewed believed their patients were “obsessed and impossible
to please” or that the flaws these women saw in themselves were “insignificant,” why
would they perform these surgeries?
Gimlin compares cosmetic surgery to going to the gym and to hairstyling. How are these
practices similar or different? According to Gimlin, how are the women who go through
these procedures different from others?
Do you believe the women who have plastic surgery have internalized misogyny? How
have some of them internalized racism, ageism, or class standards?
Boxed Insert: Roberta Galler. “Myth of the Perfect Body”
10. Discuss the idea of “independence” versus interdependence. Why does feminism need to
rethink its focus on the independent woman?
11. According to Galler, how are disabled women viewed in terms of sex and gender? How
else might gender matter for disabled women and men?
Reading 13: Ingrid Banks, “Hair Still Matters”
12. In what ways is Venus Williams politicized regarding her race and gender? Can you think
of other celebrities who have caused a stir because of their demonstration of ethnicity or
race through their hair, clothes, or body?
13. Why did the women Banks interviewed like long hair? How did race, gender, and sexuality
factor into this?
14. Think about your hairstyle. What are the reasons you picked your style? What would your
friends, parents, or partners say if you changed your style? How do you “do gender” and
race through the way you style your hair?
Film: Representations of Gender in Advertising: Show Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising's Image
of Women in class. Jean Kilborne demonstrates advertising’s powerful influence on American
gendered beauty standards in this powerful documentary. This 34-minute film provides imagery
and commentary that is current and moving. More information on the film, including a study
guide is provided at:
http://www.mediaed.org/videos/MediaGenderAndDiversity/KillingUsSoftly3/#logistics .
Gendered Language of Sex: This assignment helps students to understand how the words in the
English language for sex and for being sexually active have gendered connotations that affect
how we think about sex and gender. Ask students to make a list of the verbs we use to describe
the act of sex. In these words, who is assumed to be the actor (male/female)? Now ask students
to list words for people who are sexually active. How are the connotations of these words
different for men than for women? Do we use these words to describe other actions? If so, what
does that also say about gender?
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Breaking Free from Gender Stereotypes: It is important for students to think about how current
media forms that challenge gender stereotypes differ from mainstream media, as well how these
forms often do not challenge all gender stereotypes. Provide students with a moment to think
about a popular media outlet (magazine, website, television show, film, music, etc.) that breaks
gender stereotypes. Ask students to describe how the images of women (or men) in this medium
are different from other popular images. Does this medium use language, clothing, or hairstyles
that are not mainstream? How might the medium they are thinking of still uphold some gender
stereotypes?
Bodies: Ask students to interview a woman about her body. Have students reflect on the way
images of age, race, and gender in the media are reflected in what these women say. How do
these women actively challenge or contribute to popular ideas of beauty? What do these women
believe their bodies say about themselves? How important is the woman’s mobility (if she is not
disabled) to her understanding of herself?
Gender and Representation in Magazines: This assignment is designed to provide students with
some insight into the implicit messages society sends about gender—including how gender is
represented with race, class, and age. This assignment will also introduce students to content
analysis. The goal is to get students to think critically about the role of media representations in
gender socialization. The students should be asked (as outlined on the syllabus) to read a few of
the readings in this section of Feminist Frontiers before doing this assignment. Ask them to
bring to class one magazine of their choice that has advertisements, and list this on the syllabus.
Read the instructions on the following handout aloud (they explain the purpose of this exercise),
and then divide the class into groups of approximately four students each. These groups will
have about a half-hour (depending on how the groups are progressing) to discuss in groups the
following list of questions regarding their magazines, the readings, and their reactions to what
they have read. The class will then come back together to discuss the groups' findings.
Gender and Representation in Magazines
Instructions: In American society (and increasingly in other Western and non-Western
countries), children and adults alike are being socialized by the mass media as well as by parents,
peers, schools, and other institutions. Advertising is a particularly interesting medium because it
is meant to turn a profit. Much money is spent to induce you, the consumer, to have certain
emotions and to feel certain needs. Advertisements can be viewed as very effective tools of
socialization that suggest the statuses that are available within a society. They can also give
insight into the values of a society.
In this assignment you are asked to break yourselves into groups to examine the advertisements
in the magazines you brought with you to class. As a group, answer the following questions
(please keep a copy of the group’s findings for yourself so you can contribute to the discussion
when the class reunites):
1) What magazines did you examine? At what audience is each directed? How can you tell?
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2) What roles in society are defined by these ads? Are they represented in any way that defines
who (i.e., race, class, gender, age, ethnicity) should be in these roles?
3) What emotions are being elicited by these ads?
4) How is beauty portrayed in these ads?
5) What do these ads have to say about gender? What gendered norms are reinforced by these
ads?
6) How might these ads be different from ads of the past? For example, can you see changing
attitudes about men and women's work? Have ideas of beauty shifted—even in your
lifetime?
7) Do you think these ads contribute to the gendered "problems" of eating disorders, sexual
victimization, or cosmetic surgery? What would today's author have to say about what you
found?
Web Links
Against the Theory of “Sexist Language”
Not everyone is comfortable with the idea of non-sexist language. At this website, you can hear
from one person who challenges the notion that reality is socially constructed through language
that diminishes women’s status and power. Compare and contrast this piece with the work of
Laurel Richardson in Reading 11 “Gender Stereotyping in the English Language.”
http://www.friesian.com/language.htm
American Society of Plastic Surgeons
As Debra Gimlin points out in “Cosmetic Surgery: Paying for Your Beauty” (12) patients who
seek cosmetic surgery do so for a variety of reasons and plastic or cosmetic surgeons have
opinions about these procedures as well. Use this website to explore plastic surgeons
understanding of cosmetic surgery.
http://www.plasticsurgery.org/
Cosmetics: U.S. Food and Drug Administration
What does the federal government have to say about cosmetics? Find out at this website.
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-toc.html
Cosmetic Surgery
Many feminists criticize medical interventions designed to change women’s bodies to conform to
patriarchal beauty standards. In this paper, “Cosmetic Surgery in a Different Voice: The Case of
Madame Noel,” Kathy Davis analyzes the motivations of one early woman surgeon who felt
called to plastic surgery as a means of empowering women.
http://www.let.uu.nl/~Kathy.Davis/personal/cosmetic_surgery.html
Cosmetic Surgery: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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The federal government provides information on cosmetic surgery including how it is related to
body image for many women. There are additional links to other topics related to body image.
http://www.4woman.gov/BodyImage/cosmetic.cfm
Feminist Majority Foundation: Feminist Campus Music
There are a variety of artists who evoke feminism and discuss gender in their music. This site
provides links to a verity of these artists. It is worth noting, however, that there are no rappers or
hip-hop artists listed. Why might that be?
http://www.feministcampus.org/know/links/feministgatewayresults.asp?category1=arts%20and%20media&category2=music&category3=folk
Feminist “Zines”
This website is a portal into the world of internet zines (short for magazines) where feminist girls
and women discuss “feminist theory, politics and activism and their impact on our lives.” This
site provides links to various forms of media that challenge the sexism, racism, and/or classism
found in most mass media forms.
http://grrrlzines.net/index.htm
Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising's Image of Women
Jean Kilborne demonstrates advertising’s powerful influence on American gendered beauty
standards in this powerful documentary. This 34-minute film provides imagery and commentary
that is current and moving. This website provides more information on the film, including a
study guide.
http://www.mediaed.org/videos/MediaGenderAndDiversity/KillingUsSoftly3/#logistics .
Non-Sexist Language
As Laurel Richardson (11: “Gender Stereotyping in the English Language”) points out, many
English language traditions are sexist. Many seek to refrain from using sexist language. These
websites provide information on the how to incorporate non-sexist language into written and oral
English.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_nonsex.html
http://www.stetson.edu/artsci/history/nongenderlang.html
http://www.apa.udel.edu/apa/publications/texts/nonsexist.html
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/info/antisxla.html
Teens and Cosmetic Surgery
On this website, British feminists take on the issue of teens and cosmetic surgery.
http://www.thefword.org.uk/features/surgery.live?skin=textonly
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