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Teenage Girls and Female Television Presenters: an Ethnographic Study of Girls on Representations of Women in Television

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Teenage Girls and Female Television Presenters: an Ethnographic Study of Girls on Representations of Women in Television DOCTORAL THESIS Teenage Girls and Female Television Presenters: An ethnographic study of girls on representations of women in television Wayling-Yates, Amanda Award date: 2014 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 28. Sep. 2021 Teenage Girls and Female Television Presenters: An ethnographic study of girls on representations of women in television Amanda Wayling-Yates, BA Hons; MA (Middlesex 1985, Open University 2005) A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD Department of Media, Culture and Language University of Roehampton January 2014 Abstract This thesis explores the way in which teenage girls form relationships with female television presenters and how they incorporate these images into their everyday living. Furthermore, it investigates the ways in which girls are able to use collective discussion to articulate their understanding of images of women within television texts. Drawing on my ethnographic research with a group of female teenage peers, I suggest that girls use conversations about female television presenters as a way of communicating with their peers, exploring ideas of femininity and scoping out the female landscape in preparation for their own adult lives. I argue that these female presenters are representational and are used as cautionary tales and not as aspirational role models. The focus group members demonstrate that they are knowledgeable about and cognisant with the ways in which and how the media addresses women. This contradicts commonly held assumptions about teenage girls as susceptible and easily manipulated by media images, and it also reveals a complex gendered interaction with media texts. The ‘friendships’ formed with female television presenters are a way of negotiating these girls’ teenage years, and they offer an opportunity to create a roadmap for their futures, express their anxieties and reflect nostalgically on the passing of their girlhood. Through focus group sessions, and adapting Wood’s (2009) text-in-action method, I found that my transcripts of the focus group discussions could be broken down into themes. The most commonly occurring set of terms, which appear also to anchor contemporary feminist research, are choice, empowerment, sexualisation, equality, liberation and individualism. The transcripts can also be characterised through the terms ‘disparagement’, ‘affectionate disparagement’ and ‘knowingness’. This research will discuss the ways in which such terms account for young girls’ negotiation of images of women on television. I have discovered that it is easy to underestimate the ability of young girls – they are ii constantly conflicted by the media images they experience and their own sense of identity, and they work hard at negotiating through this conflict. iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank all the people who have been instrumental in supporting me in various ways which allowed me to complete this thesis. My Director of Studies, Dr Caroline Bainbridge, and supervisors Professor Heather Nunn and Dr Anita Biressi were very patient and constructive in all their advice and encouragement. Their copy and editing skills, particularly Caroline’s, were invaluable. In addition, they were able to see where I wanted to take this research and offered inspirational and sensible advice, keeping me on track and mostly rational throughout. Importantly they believed that my work was worthwhile, and their expertise has been invaluable. My work colleagues have been supportive and patiently covered for me whilst I have attended conferences and meetings – and I am therefore very grateful for their generosity. I would also like to thank all the girls who let me be part of their conversations about media images, television presenters and life. The time I have spent doing this over the past few years has been fascinating and rewarding for my understanding as a teacher and a researcher. I particularly want to thank the six teenage girls who agreed to take part in this research and whose transcripts have been endlessly illuminating and entertaining. Their insights into girlhood and the media have enriched this thesis significantly. Christopher and Gabriel Yates have offered constant encouragement from the initial stages to the final draft. Christopher in particular has acted as a sounding board, a counsellor and an editor for much of the work, and I appreciate the time and patience he applied in this respect. iv Contents Chapter 1: Ethnography and Method Questions…………………………... 1 Ethnography and cultural studies 14 Experience 16 Criteria of validity 25 The focus group profile 27 Ontology 29 Method 32 Methods of interpretation 33 Chapter 2: Women working in Television – the 1970s, 1980s and 2000s…….41 Establishing a balanced gendered landscape 47 Broadcasting legacies 57 Breakfast television 63 The feminisation and commercialisation of broadcast television 72 Women in front of the camera – television presenters 75 The influence of reality television 82 Chapter 3: Female Presenters Today …………………………………….…..96 Conceptualising the female presenter : Davina McCall 108 Fearne Cotton and Holly Willoughby 112 Television presenters and the political economy 118 Feminism, the political economy and neoliberalism 128 Chapter 4: Contemporary Girlhood …………………………………………. 135 Choice, empowerment, sexualisation, equality, liberation, 135 individualism Disparagement, affectionate disparagement and knowingness 142 Method 143 Chapter 5: Girls’ Talk…………………………………………..….………….152 Disparagement 153 Affectionate disparagement 172 Empowerment 174 Liberation/knowingness 182 Sexualisation 185 Knowingness 191 Choice 197 v Chapter 6: Conclusion…………………………………………………………202 Post-feminism 211 New femininities 221 Post-feminist debate and new femininities 230 Bibliography...…………………………………………………………………..249 Appendix ..…………………………………………………………………..259 vi Ethnography and Method Questions Chapter 1 This research, which has a long tail in terms of impetus and experience, focuses on teenage girls and their consumption of media images. I began collating background information in 2001, when I started my career as a part-time lecturer in a further education college. I completed the more formal ethnographic research more recently as a full-time lecturer, and I am still involved in observing and collecting the experiences and observing the language and conversations of teenage girls in further education. The following description provides some background to the research presented herein and illustrates what inspired me to develop my research and carry out an ethnographic study with six girls. The college where I have based my research is located in an affluent area of Surrey. To provide some background to the area, the average house price in the town is around £600,000 (average UK house price, £162,4621). The town has a Conservative District Council, a Conservative County Council and a Conservative MP, and its European Council representation is made up of four Conservative MPs, two Liberal Democrats, two UKIP MPs, one Green Party MP and one Labour Party MP. This is one of the wealthiest areas in the southeast of the UK and is largely conservative in its outlook. The town has a private estate, gated around its perimeters and guarded by security personnel manning the entrance and exits. It is widely recognised as one of the more affluent locations in the UK. Very few of the staff or students who attend the institution in which my research was carried out actually live in the town, so they commute from the surrounding area. This is largely due to the restrictive house prices and the average salaries of college lecturers and similar level professions. The student demographic varies, from students from comfortable middle-class homes in local surrounding areas to those from local areas of deprivation, as well as 1Land Registry index available at http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/public/house-prices-and-sales/search-the-index accessed January 2013. 1 students who live in Greater London. A recent Ofsted2 report describes the catchment area as having ‘significant numbers of young people and adults locally with low educational attainment’, whereas ‘[t]he local educational environment is particularly competitive, with many sixth forms in state schools and with significant private sector provision’. Very few of the students attending this college have had experience of a private education – students from the private sector do not tend to choose this local college for their further education, preferring instead one of the many sixth form colleges or independent schools in the surrounding area. A general further education (GFE) college usually attracts those students on a vocational career path, ranging across engineering, public services, hair and
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