MIGRAIN: Feminist theory

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

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

Marvel's Captain marvel and Cat woman were the two texts that were the ones that appeal to the "male gaze".

2) Do texts such as these show there is no longer a need for feminism or are they simply sexism in a different form?
I think that this shows that people just need a better view for what feminism was like in it's initial stage of when there was an actual use of having equal rights and such instead of just saying that men are more dominant and need more oppression.


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

Simulacrum: a likeness, or similarity; an image which replaces the reality with its representation.

Hyperreality: the state of the world, according to Baudrillard, where nothing is real because

everything we consume is filtered through the Media.

Para texts: Additional texts surrounding a central text – trailers, reviews, posters, ads, credit sequences, texts within the text etc.

Now read The Theory Drop: Gender Performativity (MM69, page 25) and answer the following questions.


1) How does the writer suggest gender performativity is established from a young age?
They are taught to behave in certain ways and to dress in certain ways that the parents think that is right for them and how this is reinforced by clothing having a certain colour set to them and them having some sort of text or image on them representing their intended genders.


2) What does the phrase 'non-binary' refer to and how does it link to Butler's theory?
Non-binary meaning "not two" as binary means two, Butler then talks about how we are all taught a certain way to act and such and how it is all affect by external influences and how that it is set at a very young age in which makes children more inclined to believe those.


3) How and why does the media help reinforce gender stereotypes? The writer provides several examples in the final section of the article.

Some of the media says that there is only two genders, however there is the other side in which says that there are more than one the example given in the text is about how children are gendered via clothing and the images that are shown on them.

1) How might this video contribute to Butler’s idea that gender roles are a ‘performance’?
The gender performance is how the person acts due to it being and environmental affect, in this case the people in the video talk about how the man left the woman and the kids and in the visual aspect of the video we can see that the women are being quite sexualised due to their very exposing clothing.


2) What might van Zoonen suggest regarding the representation of women in this video?

They may refer to the objectification of women in the video and how they are being sexualised to Western beauty ideals.


3) What are YOUR views on this debate – does Beyonce empower women or reinforce the traditional ‘male gaze’ and oppression of women? 

In a way I think that she is empowering women as she talks about education and women and how they are smarter than they seem, however the costumes presented in the video show very revealing clothing which would otherwise reinforce the sexualisation of women.

1) How does the video suggest representations of masculinity have changed in recent years?

I think that in the video he talks about the "usual" representations of men being "tough" and how they have this "gangsta" persona and then you see him in the video showing that he talks about not needing any of these qualities.


2) What does David Gauntlett suggest about representations of men in the media over the last 20 years?

He says that he "disagrees that masculinity is in crisis" and that usual representations of men in media have affected a lot of individuals as they pick up the same persona they have online and get influenced and then they go out and act like them.

3) What is YOUR view on the representation of men and masculinity? Are young men still under pressure from the media to act or behave in a certain way?

I think that men are somewhat under pressure of the media in a certain way to behave or act as they want them to be as they would be the future and they would need some way of preserving the future. However there are people that say that it is wrong to set standards for men and they try, but then the vast amount of media will say otherwise that it is better to be manly.