A2 MEDIA RESEARCH BLOG 1

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

SOURCE: David Guntlett- Media, Gender & Identity.
First edition (2002)

USEFUL QUOTATIONS INCL PAGE NO:



Fluidity of identity and the decline of tradition-
1The traditional view of a woman as a housewife or low status worker has been kick boxed out of the picture by the feisty, successful 'girl power' icons.
2 Although gender categroies have not been shattered, these alternative ideas and images have at least created space for a greater diversity of identities.
3 Popular media fosters the desire to crete new modes of life - within the context of capitalism. Whether one is happy with capitalism, or seeks its demise, it must surely be considered good if modern media is encouraging the overthrow of traditions which kept people within limiting compartments.

The knowing construction of identity-
4 Magazines, bought on one level for a quick fix of lossy entertainment, promote self-confidence (even if they partly undermine it, for some readers, at the same time) and provide information about sex, relationships and lifestyles which can be put to a variety of uses. Television programmes, pop songs, adverts, movies and the internet all also provide numerous kinds of 'guidance'- not necessarily in the obvious form of advice-giving, but in the myriad suggestions of ways of living which they imply.
5 The media provides some of the tools which can be used in this work.
6 It contains some useless ones; some that might give beauty to the project, and some that might spoil it.

Generational differences-

7 the mass media has become more liberal, and considerably more challenging to traditional standards, since then, and this has been a reflection of changing attitudes, but also involves the media actively disseminating modern values.
8 expect role models to have an impact on individuals
9 role models serve as navigation points as individuals steer their own personal routes through life.


Masculinity in crisis?
10 We saw in chapter one that contemporary masculinity is often said to be 'in crisis'; as women become increasingly assertive and successful, apparently triumphing in all roles, men are said to be anxious and confused about what their role is today. In the analysis of men's magazines (chapter eight) we found a lot of signs that the magazines were about men finding a place for themselves in the modern world.
11 whilst young females are taking to the full spectrum of school subjects and jobs, their male counterparts still generally avoid subjects and work that they see as 'female'. These things are continually crumbling, though.


Girl power
12 'girl power', a phrase slapped into mainstream culture by the Spice Girls and subsequently incorporated into the language of government bodies as well as journalists, educationalists, culture critics, and pop fans themselves.
13 Magazines for young women are emphatic in their determination that women must do their own thing, be themselves, and/or be as outrageously sassy and sexy as possible.


Popular feminism, women and men


14 Angela McRobbie calls 'popular feminism' - the mainstream interpretation of feminism which is a strong element of modern pop culture even though it might not actually answer to the 'feminist' label.
15 To [many] young women official feminism is something that belongs to their mothers' generation. They have to develop their own language for dealing with sexual inequality, and if they do this through a raunchy language of 'shagging, snogging and having a good time', then perhaps the role this plays is not unlike the sexually explicit manifestoes found in the early writing of figures like [feminist pioneers] Germaine Greer.
16 McRobbie further argues that 'This dynamic of generational antagonism has been overlooked by professional feminists, particularly those in the academy, with the result that the political effectivity of young women is more or less ignored' .


Gender trouble
17 the idea that the existing notions of sex, gender and sexuality should be challenged by the 'subversive confusion and proliferation' of the categories which we use to understand them. The binary division of 'male' and 'female' identities should be shattered, Butler suggested, and replaced with multiple forms of identity - not a new range of restrictive categories, but an abundance of modes of self-expression
18 Butler, as we noted, did not make direct reference to the mass media, but it seems obvious that if there is to be a major proliferation of images in the public eye, then the media must play a central role.
19 Some advertising - ...had reminded viewers of the similarity of genders, hinting that it wouldn't matter which of the attractive male or female models you chose to desire. Other ads ....playfully teased heterosexual desires only to reveal that the lust object was more interested in their own sex, pointing audiences to the unpredictability of sexualities.


Media power versus audience power
 
20 The media disseminates a huge number of messages about identity and acceptable forms of self-expression, gender, sexuality, and lifestyle.
21 The media's suggestions may be seductive, but can never simply overpower contrary feelings in the audience.
22 Neither the media nor the audience are powerful in themselves, but both have powerful arguments.


Contradictory elements


23  even quite specific parts of media culture put out a whole spectrum of messages which cannot be reconciled. 
24 It is impossible to say that women's magazines, for example, always carry a particular message, because the enormous range of titles target an equally diverse set of female audiences.
25 Furthermore, even one magazine will contain an array of viewpoints.
26 like almost all media producers - are far more interested in generating 'surprise' than in maintaining coherence and consistency.
27 the multiple messages contribute to the perception of an open realm of possibilities.
28 we no longer get singular, straightforward messages about ideal types of male and female identities (although certain groups of features are clearly promoted as more desirable than others). Instead, popular culture offers a range of stars, icons and characters from whom we can acceptably borrow bits and pieces of their public persona for use in our own.
29 In addition, of course - and slightly contradictorily - individuals are encouraged to 'be yourself', and to be creative - within limits - about the presentation of self.


Change


30 Views of gender and sexuality, masculinity and femininity, identity and selfhood, are all in slow but steady processes of change and transformation.
31 it is worth reasserting the obvious fact that things do change, because some authorities within the disciplines of media studies and gender studies tend to act as though things do not really change over periods of ten or twenty years.


Finally:


32 Furthermore, people are changing, building new identities founded not on the certainties of the past, but organised around the new order of modern living, where the meanings of gender, sexuality and identity are increasingly open.




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