Quadrant-I (e-Text) Module name/ title: Feminist Theory and Media Content Paper: Gender, Media and Society Component I: Personal Details Role Name Affiliation Principal Investigator Prof. Biswajit Das Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Durgesh Tripathi University School of Mass Communication, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi Paper Coordinator Dr.Mausumi Centre for Journalism & Bhattacharyya Mass Communication, (CJMC), Visva-Bharati , Santiniketan, West Bengal Content Writer/ Dr.Mausumi Centre for Journalism & Author(s) Bhattacharyya Mass Communication, (CJMC), Visva-Bharati , Santiniketan, West Bengal Debastuti Dasgupta Research Scholar , (CJMC), Visva- Bharati, Santiniketan,West Bengal Content Reviewer Prof. Biswajit Das Centre for Culture, Media & Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi Language Editor Mr. P K Satapathy Department of English, School of Open Learning, University of Delhi Component II: Description of the Module Items Description of Module Subject Name Media and Communication Studies Paper Name Gender Media and Society Module Name/Title Feminist Theory and Media Content Module ID P8-M20 Media M20 - Feminist Theory and Media content &Communication P8 - Gender, Media and Society Studies Quadrant-I (e-Text) Pre-requisites The reader must have knowledge about communication theories and feminist theories. Objectives To depict the relationship between different feminist theories and media content. Keywords Feminist Theory, Media Content, Communication Theory, Gender Portrayal in media Introduction The role of media and press are understood as major component for social development. The level of social advancement is often ascertained in terms of the mass culture of the society. The role of press is understood from normative theories of mass communication: 1. Authoritarian theory: As per this theory media is not directly under the control of the State and ruling classes but is expected to respect the lawmakers. In this theory, journalists can be empowered with censorship. 2. Libertarian theory/ Free press theory: In this theory the foundation stresses on the basic right of any human begin to his freedom of speech and expression. 3. Social Responsibility theory: This theory focuses on the need of the responsible press as a preconceived notion in its own. 4. Soviet Media theory: This theory lays a stress on the ideology ‘the ruling class ideas are in every period the dominating ideas’. 5. Development communication theory: This theory focuses on laying the foundation of development through the means of media content. 6. Democratization theory: This theory of press explains the need of giving the power of medium in the hands of layman or communities for process of development. The media influences various aspects of everyday’s life such as class, religion, gender, etc. Amongst these, gender is an important parameter of the social structure. Gender studies is an interdisciplinary discipline which focuses on gender politics as a means of bringing about social change and an egalitarian society. Media M20 - Feminist Theory and Media content &Communication P8 - Gender, Media and Society Studies Quadrant-I (e-Text) This area comprises of women’s studies (related to feminism, women, politics and gender), queer studies and men’s studies. Media and Gender Studies: The Beginning Mass media is an important part of mass communication. The work of feminists in the field of communication originated during the early 1960s – 70s women’s movement. The seminal work of Betty Friedan - The Feminine Mystique (1963) catalysed women’s movement in North America and Western Europe assumed a global momentum. She was critical on mass media and its representation of women. The period of 1975-85 was acknowledged as Women’s International Decade by United Nations. It was indeed a political movement well supported by feminist academics and practitioners from different walks of life. Gallagher (1992) noted that “ the media was held for being deeply guilty in the arrangement of biasness operating against women in society, arrangements, which through the trivialization, absence or conviction of women in media content to their "symbolic annihilation". The concept of “symbolic annihilation” was developed by Tuchman (1978). According to Gallagher (1992) over time the feminist media studies revolved around two main areas: 1. A test of structures of ability and domination 2. Focusing upon the representational politics and knowledge production where women were objects instead of being active subjects. These double interest were tended to in numerous early investigations of the later years of 1970s and mid 1980s under issues of "women in profession" and "pictures of women in media". Yet, the points progressively met up to deliver an unpredictable investigation of the structure and procedure of portrayal. The contemporary feminist communication field inquiry seems largely dissimilar from the nearly uncomplicated ground engaged by 'women and media’ studies more than two decade ago. Liesbet van Zoonen (1991) and Leslie Steeves (1987) both offer detailed critiques of the work which has brought us from there to here, grouping it into basic divisions– liberal, radical socialist, cultural studies - intended to indicate its political and theoretical underpinnings. Feminist turn in communication theory The media was controlled by man and through his vision and ideologies. The women were just his subjects with no independent insights. The mid 1980s was marked by increase in appreciation in media and communication studies such that it became impossible for communication scholars to ignore the existence of feminist politics and its challenge to the field of communication and media. This period was considered as “feminist turn” in communication studies where the major agenda of interest with media were as follows.Gallagher (1992): 1. Male violence: The “man” made media content used images of male violence over women where women were always under oppression. 2. Sexuality: The stereotypes sexual images made the media content worthless as it propogate politically incorrect messages. Media M20 - Feminist Theory and Media content &Communication P8 - Gender, Media and Society Studies Quadrant-I (e-Text) 3. Pornography: The female body was used for business and visual pleasure was provided from male gaze. 4. Language as Control: The need for gender neutral language came when media content language was recognized to be male biased. 5. Verbal Harassment: Apart from visual dominance, the harassment towards female continued in words also. 6. The body: The female body was objectified and subjective emotions and needs were always neglected by media content. 7. Beauty: The concept of beauty in media content was often seen as problematic as it supports brands for corporate benefits. 8. Consumerism: It is also criticised that media content promotes consumerism which changed equations of economic order. 9. Women’s genre – magazine, soap opera, melodrama and romance. The feminist theoretician believed that the personal and individual issues that women faces within the confinement of home and private life is not just personal but also play important role in reproduction of unequal power relations in society. Not only that any attempt to address these problems faced by the women would necessitate political interventions into what is considered as private life. This evoked the famous notion of “personal is political”. The theory of Liberal feminist media has its base in different things; the theory urges that media fails to bring any transformation within society including women’s role within it. , Gaye Tuchman in her writings ‘The Symbolic Annihilation of Women by the Mass Media’ (1978), states that wherever women are not present or not represented well, reflects as an outnumbered group within the texts of media, as a matter of fact they are being annihilated symbolically. She speaks of Gerbner to recapitulate this point ‘absence is annihilation’ (Tuchman, 1978). Tuchman supports the idea that media never reflects change in the society, describing that ‘mass media accords in symbols, and their symbolic embodiment might not be contemporary’ (1978). Approaching Media content through feminism At the central part of cultural politics in feminism is an analysis of media content and its connotation in gender composition. The debate has been continuing since the analyses of content in media stereotypes and sex roles which exemplified feminist scholarship of the 1970s where quantitative social science methods were favoured. In the seminal essay 'Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema' (1975), Laura Mulvey concluded that in built motifs of contentment and identification in the mainstream narrative films impose masculinity as a 'point of view'. Briefly summarised, Mulvey's psychoanalytic critique turns on the notion of a filmic shape of male filmic structure of male 'gazing' and female 'to-be-gazed-at' which imitated the construction of dissimilar power relations among men and women. Two particular aspects of Mulvey's argument have preoccupied feminists ever since: 1. her idea that 'the determining male gaze' invites even the female spectator to identify with masculine pleasure and its objectification of the female. Media M20 - Feminist Theory and Media content &Communication P8 - Gender, Media and Society Studies Quadrant-I (e-Text) 2. her call for the analysis of 'destruction of pleasure' to force a break with 'outworn