WEEK 6: Gender, Identity & Representation

The concept of gender roles in society changes over time with the evolution of culture; their definitions are specific to time and place. ​With ​gender identity and representation explored and reflected on more openly now in the media, many debates have risen:

• Gender & Power Structures (cultural patriarchy, the male/female gaze)
• Gender as an Identity Base
• Essentialism v. Structuralism (inherent or learned?)
• Gender Behaviour & Performance (socio-historic conditioning, cultural anchors, reiteration -> sedimentation -> perpetuation)
• Societal Attitude to Gender
• Representation & Cultural Ideals (societal expectations of male and female bodies)
• Gender/Consumerism Relationship

Of course, with gender being a social construct as opposed to a natural property, these debates root in society itself. In today's day and age  they are most prominent in the media, where cultural ideals and gender norms can be openly discussed and challenged.

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CASE STUDY: 'Gender Advertisements' - Erving Goffman

'Gender Advertisements' is an analytical work by Erving Goffman, considering and discussing gender representation in 60s-70s adverts.

Goffman notes that this era of advertisement maintains strong running themes:

• Binary gender representation: it was very much 'masculine male' and 'feminine female' - there was no mention or consideration for trans, non-binary or genderqueer identities.​

 

• The gendered body: there were very clear cultural ideals and expectations for both male and female bodies. Where men were portrayed as active and forceful, women were seen as passive and yielding - women were branded as more emotional than men, with weaker strength but greater tactility. 

 

• Gender roles & power dynamics: men were the 'breadwinners' and women were 'housewives', often seen in formal and homely attire respectfully - this heavily reinforced the patriarchal power structure.

 

• The subordination of women: women were seen as below men - objects to surveyed, wives to serve their assertive husbands.

Though many aspects of society's views on gender are still troublesome, it is clear we have come a long way in just a few decades.

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Style Magazines & Gender Representation

"Commercial sites of intensified masculinity/femininity" - Angela McRobbie, 1999
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Style magazines are hotspots for gender-based debate and exploration. Their content directly reflects cultural changes towards sexuality and gender, producing a response to society's ever-changing views.

They link gender identity to consumerism by targeting specific audiences, exploiting different 'tricks' to do so. For example, it is not uncommon for a style magazine to address the reader informally and directly; inclusive terms such as "we"/"our"/"you"/"your" recognise the reader as 'part of the group', enticing them with an inclusive vibe. The use of celebrities as role models of success is also a huge tool for the promotion of both products and cultural ideals.

REGRESSIVE ARGUMENT
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On one hand, you could say style magazines have a negative effect on society's gender views; that they encourage backwards thinking. They can include unrealistic role models, wrongly pressuring people to conform to a certain gender or body ideal - in this sense especially, many magazines still have a firmly heterosexual/cisgender outlook which excludes non-binary gender identities. Many would also argue that patriarchal power structures are still reinforced in style magazines.

PROGRESSIVE ARGUMENT
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On the other hand, you could view style magazines as engaging postmodern texts; works of humour, emotion and self-consciousness that encourage readers to relate, explore and discuss their views on gender identity. Readers can find a sense of community and comfort in this relation, and build confidence and pride in their identities. 

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CASE STUDY: 'The Male Gaze' - Laura Mulvey, 1975

In the 1975 paper 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema', Mulvey presents the concept of The Male Gaze. This theory suggests that in the media, women are viewed from the perspective of a heterosexual man as passive objects of male desire.

"...the determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly."
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To explore this, Mulvey uses the world of narrative cinema as an example. She notes that in films of that time period, the protagonist was almost always a cisgender, heterosexual male. Through camerawork, acting and design, he was portrayed as a powerful character - an often egotistical individual with the active means to command the stage and control the plot.

At the other end of the spectrum, women were portrayed as passive characters - objects to be displayed, viewed and owned. Female protagonists were rare, and women tended to play the roles of love interests or erotic distractions (in other words, they were virtually irrelevant to the plot without connection to the male protagonist).

Mulvey notes that the camerawork in these films is significantly different when filming the female figure. The paper points to three perspectives in filmmaking; camera perspective, character perspective and audience perspective. Unlike the filming of men, the filming of women involves heavy focus on typically-feminine aspects of the body - this emphasises the use of women in cinema as erotic leitmotifs (eg. pin-ups, strip-tease, etc).

To conclude, Mulvey's paper points out the voyeuristic, scopophilic instinct of the male gaze in narrative cinema, and the portrayal of the female figure as a passive object of male pleasure and erotic impact.

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Lecture Notes