Concepts and various theoretical frameworks of feminism and mass media
- 1. Concepts And Various Theoretical Frameworks of Feminism and Mass Media By: Zarmeen Durrani
- 2. FEMINISM • By general definition, feminism is a philosophy in which women and their contributions are valued. It is based on social, political and economical equality for women. • Feminists can be anyone in the population, men, women, girl or boys. • Feminism can also be described as a movement or a revolution that includes women and men who wish the world to be equal without boundaries.
- 3. VARIOUS THEORIES OF FEMINISM Cultural Feminism • Which is the theory that there are fundamental personality differences between men and women, and those women's differences are special. • This theory supports the idea that there are biological differences between men and women and sexism can be overcome by embracing the "women's way."
- 4. Radical Feminism • This theory began during the Sixties. This ideology focuses on social change, in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts. • Radical feminists view society as fundamentally a patriarchy in which men dominate and oppress women.
- 5. Individualist/Libertarian Feminist This feminism is based upon libertarian philosophies, with the focus on autonomy, rights, liberty, independence, and diversity. Liberal Feminism A theory that focuses on the idea that all people are created equal and that education is the primary means to change discrimination.
- 6. Feminism and the Media • One feminist concern is the media portrayal of women. • Women have historically been exploited by patriarchal systems. They have been reduced to sex slaves and to confined housewifery, forced either into prostitution or marriage. • It is commonly believed that such exploitation is a thing of the past, and that modern women have moved beyond the limitations of these options.
- 7. • Certainly some progress has been made, for women are now a significant percentage of the working population, and increasingly experience the freedom to do with their lives whatever they wish. • However, to some very real degree such exploitation made visible and continues by the modern mass media.
- 8. • women are exploited by many various forms of media, from film and television to print and advertising; they are consistently confined to traditional roles or used purely as sexualized objects. • Because of this exploitation, women become further entrapped by old stereotypes (such as those suggesting that a woman's place is in the kitchen), may feel pressured by the unreasonable standards which media upholds.
- 9. • Such media stereotypes are harmful to women and the society. • Women are all too often described in terms of what they look like, rather than what they think or what they do.
- 10. Hegemonic Role of Mass Media • It is argued that women’s position as oppressed in patriarchal capitalism has been reproduced and maintained by the aid of ideological practice via media (Grossberg & Treichler 1987) • Many feminist media studies have identified that, in diverse media texts, women have long been depicted as sex objects and devoted homemakers within the bounds of “true womanhood submissiveness, and domesticity”
- 11. • scholars have also discussed a mythical representation of the women in family system in media (responsible for divorce and nuclear family system) • The appearance of popular feminism, however, indicates change in the representation of women and the patriarchal family system in media.
- 12. • most feminists acknowledge the presence of feminist concerns in many popular forms, and some are optimistic about popular feminism because images in media texts are open to feminist reformulation • But many scholars still say that these popular forms of feminism do not really serve to change the present social order based on gender discrimination because, in order to enter the mainstream, feminism can be appropriated into the dominant ideology; then, it loses its radical potential and becomes attached to more conservative agendas
- 13. • Many scholars, in fact, have documented in detail that media representations re- contextualize feminist advances in ways that make them ultimately function to reify dominant patriarchal codes and discourses