Professional Documents
Culture Documents
WS203 Lectures
WS203 Lectures
Woman as images:
Focus on women as a singular thing
Every image constructs an empty sign for women themselves
Ex: woman as an image for the male gaze
This type of theory is contextualized in such a way that it constructs this
male spectatorship the viewer must take on a male spectatorship
position to make any sense of the text
Develops in the later second-wave feminism period
Females need to take the role of a male to be able to get the joke
Masochism:
identification with the female victim
Ex: we identify with the rape victim who is seeking justice (most of the
time she does not achieve justice but we identify with her pain)
We don't identify with her power, but only identify with her pain (as a
victim)
3) Commodification:
- Trading on an idealized image of ones self in exchange for power
- Here you are trying to be a perfect object, but youre trading your sexual
power for money, career or something else that you could get indirectly
rather than directly (like through your sexual power)
- i.e. in treat me deadly, the women trades her sexual power in order to get
clues from mike
- i.e. Julia Roberts trades her sexual power (as a prostitute) for money, a
good life and happily ever after
Female Resistance: Mary Ann Doane
Only possibility for female resistance:
- Denaturalize/deconstruct images of passive femininity
Mulvey:
Identification with female protagonists to explore contradictions of power
and the lack of equality within patriarchy; images of women interrupt male
narrative about garages in a cinema of delay
Doane:
Denaturalizes the patriarchal norm of masculinity by making it appear
narrow through parody
Williams:
shock of recognition underscores the restrictions of patriarchal gender
norms and leads to humour
Stacey:
Pretty Women
Male narcissism
o Make spectator sees himself in the male hero
o Camera angle allows us to see him acting in his own ways
o Male hero desires female object
Male subject, female object
Doesnt identify with her as an object
Fetishism
o Reducing the female to a part of the body to satisfy the male
needs
o Camera is focused on her body
Boobs, and barely any of her face
We dont want to see women as a human so that we dont
identify with her feelings and needs
Voyeurism
o Tracking her off in the distance
Emo Gender
Emo boys are cool, i personally am one :) i DO have long black hair dat i
swoosh across my face and i do wear tight jeans and band t shirts but i am
definitly NOT a faggot anyone hu thinks otherwise (usually other guys) is clearly
wrong :) me and my friends are all emo and i dont think any of us cut our wrists
but i do write poetry wen i feel down and i often get called "sweet" and "nice"
and i tend to look at relationships more for love dan just sex like a lot of uther
guys do :)
Metrosexual
- A heterosexual, single male, with concerns for his appearance, and a lifestyle
or attributes stereotypically associated with gay men
- Associated with male version of female narcissism; known as the mirror men
concerned with (their own) image (and creating that own image) the male
shopper who has expertise in the fashion industry
- Considered evidence of the deconstruction of masculine norms due to the
mainstreaming of gay culture and lifestyle through
same-sex marriage legislation (Canada; 2006)
media (Queer Eye for the Straight Guy; 2003-2007)
- A shopper associated with the feminine pleasures and choices of consumerism
and identity construction
Metrosexual in Pop Culture
Examples:
- Ryan Seacrest
- David Beckham
Ubersexual:
- created by marketers to counter the ambiguous gender and sexual
orientation of the metrosexual
Colonization of the Feminine:
- Colonization of the new feminine power associated with consumption
- ryan seacrest beckham
Bear Masculinity
- The teddy bear became an image for sexualized masculinity
- The rugged, hairy, man represented masculinity
Rooted in gay culture:
- Mid-1980s
- Began in leather clubs
Gender
- Ursula: Lesbian bear
- Increasing inclusion of transgender bears
Bears in Pop Culture
Magazines:
- Bear Magazine:
- 1987-2008
Comedy:
- Bear with Me:
- Online comic strip
Movies:
- Bear City and Bear City 2: The Proposal
Peter Hennen
- Bear Bodies, Bear Masculinity: Recuperation, Resistance or Retreat
(2005)
- Bear represents body as cultural text
Resistive to phallocentric sexual practice
Broadens gay body image
Addresses masculine self-confidence and self-esteem; part of politics
of fat
- repudiating effeminacy:
Reinforces hegemonic masculinity
- become part of the fat movement,
- because the media tried to create a broader image of masculinity (that
was different from thin, effeminate male) through the bear image, this
also reinforced male masculinity
Bro Culture
15-24 males from mid-1980s
Frat boy aesthetic:
Pop-collared polos, caps, Birkenstocks
The Bro Code:
Disciplining by other males into hegemonic masculinity
Rape and sandwich jokes; jackass humour
Beer and sports markets
Movies:
The Hangover
Masculinity Video Clip
- violence is associated with masculinity
- some of the most serious problems in contemporary male society is
associated with male violence
- through society and the media, we tell males that they are suppose to be
violent and then not talk about their feelings we are encouraging a
very problematic cycle
Menstruation
The Politics of Representation
-
Dominant Discourses
Religious:
- Cross-culturally considered pollution
- Talking about mensteration is immoral in the Christian religon
Cultural:
- Intersecting oppressions of gender and class
- mean laundry to be done by maids and laundresses for the upper
class
Moral (advertising):
- Kotex concerned that copy in initial ads would not be published for ethical
reasons
- Albert Lasker, the advertising genius who resolved the problem of
advertising something you could not talk about in the 1950s
- Persistent themes in menstrual advertisements:
2)
Symptom of patriarchy:
- The motherlessness of the heroines is the clue to the male framing of
the desiring female gaze
- Primacy of paternity; no model of feminine identity
- Not just absence of the mother, but her non-existence
- If there is a mother-daughter bond, it is ruptured by marriage, as heroine
abandons both mother and active sexuality represented by the mothers
body
Motherhood and Third Wave Feminism
Third wave feminist concerns with identity
- Public relationship between Rebecca Walker and her mother, Alice
Walker, estranged since the birth of Rebeccas son in 2004 :
The truth is that I very nearly missed out on becoming a mother thanks to being brought up by a rabid feminist who thought motherhood
was about the worst thing that could happen to a woman.
You see, my mum taught me that children enslave women. I grew up
believing that children are millstones around your neck, and the idea that
motherhood can make you blissfully happy is a complete fairytale.
Contemporary feminist theory on motherhood
- Susan J. Douglas and Meredith Michaels critical of the new Momism
(2004) and the use of the term Mom to discipline women
- New momism: you have to be a self-sacrificing women
you have to be rewarded into being a mother whether it's a good thing
or not
Disneys Brave
- mother-daughter relationship takes central role in the plot
- most of the story is her mother being a bear
- shows lack of importance of mother in the real world
- has little political influence
- mother-daughter are working psychologically on their relationship
but doesn't happen in the public or cultural sphere (their relationship is in
private, this is problematic)
- you want a mother who is involved in her life
- we need to see those sorts of relationships of mother and daughter that
impact their lives in the real world
Mommyblogs
- we need to open up a space where we can talk about the realities of
motherhood
Blackfords Findings
Girls do not identify with the female protagonist
- Not over-identification or female narcissism
- Focus on difference, or difference/play (Derrida), among available
identities
Cf. to Jackie Staceys theory on the fascination between women
Girl readers identify with the fantasy
- Not realism, but reelism
- Going off world for insight
- Imagining oneself outside of the text
- Active identity construction
Beyond the Romance: Popular Genres for Identity Construction
- Suspense
- Action
- Quest (this goal to figure out who you are to make that work for the
female protagonist)
- Gothic form (the more fantasy/ unrealistic, the easier it was for the girls to
play with the characters, rather than over-identify with them)
Cyborg
- half human/ techno body (a human body that is partially technology)
- being half robot, provides women with more power
Lady Gaga and Madonna have played with this image
- uses a resistive image to power a very intelligent female body
Madonnas music video
- she was a powerful women who was violent and killed men
- but Madonna drives into a pole at the end and kills herself
- shes kind of masculine (in her power/ violence) but looks very feminine /
sexualized
suggests women of power must die/ end tragically in order to exist
- do you know what it feels like to be a girl
- uses shock to show people how hard it is to be a women
Popular Feminism and the Limits of Resistance
Current Debates within the Feminist Study of Popular Culture
Popular Feminism:
Jennifer Baumgardner
Angela McRobbie
The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change (2009)
- new form of sexual contract:
- Sexual contract under patriarchy: second-wave theories of womens
political, social and economic subordination
weve actually bought into a new contract where we have to sell
ourselves sexually
in previous periods, we were selling on our productive power to get
rights, now we depend on our sexual power
sexualization as empowerment, is selling us a false sense of feminism
we will no longer have a feminist consciousness left if
- Faux-feminism: words like empowerment and choice are used
particularly by the media and popular culture to sell a false brand of
feminism that ensures that feminism will never re-surface
we think that women have power because the media tells us that we
do
but those
- Womens subordination and experience of inequality, though changed,
remains unequivocal and substantial
Consumption
From Marxist Feminism to Theories of Resistance
Marxist Backgrounds
Capitalism produces surplus value from working class labour to be
exploited by owners
Fordism in particular at the mid-twentieth century represented the
rationalization of industry that extended into domestic spaces,
emphasizing efficiency and time-management
Production is understood in Marxist thought as an active, rational,
masculine site of social identity
Consumption is understood in Marxist thought as the passive,
irrational, and feminine adoption of meanings prescribed through the
production process
Second Wave Approaches:
Marxist Feminism
womens work is never done classic slogan of the second wave
Margaret Benston, The Political Economy of Womens Liberation
(New Left Review, 1969)
Identified men and womens differing relation to production
Distinguished production for exchange, which is paid for and
controlled by men in the public sphere from production for use,
which is unpaid and performed by women in the home
Unpaid labour limited womens economic independence and only
served the capitalist class of owners
Called for women to join in the struggle against capitalism
Required cooperative/collective forms of childcare and domestic
service
Second Wave Approaches:
Socialist Feminism
Tried to make gender and class equal terms of analysis
Emphasized womens reproduction of a labour force on which
capitalism depended
Critical of Marxist feminism for not going far enough in its analysis
Heidi Hartmann, The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism
(1981)
o Used the term capitalist-patriarchy, instead of simply
capitalism, to emphasize the equal importance of class and
gender in labour analysis
Quest
Gothic form
Theorizing about Gender
Book address explosion in girls literature in the 90s
Is a site for identity construction
Girls did not identify with the female protagonist
Focused on differences, or where they would oppose a particular identity
Similar to Staceys theory on Fascination of women
ACTIVE identification
Contrast: Mulvey male gaze (3) avoiding identification with the female
protagonist; Doane female spectatorship (3); they do identify with the female
but in passive ways
Readers identify with the fantasy
Too realistic would make us over identify with the protagonist
Active identify construction
Beyond the romance; suspense, action, quest, gothic
Bear Masculinity
Bear culture was born of resistance
Started off with men putting a small teddy bear in their pocket way to
refute the colored handkerchiefs originally used
Used by gay leatherman to signal their interest in one specific sexual
activity
The teddy bear was to emphasize their interest in cuddling
With reference to examples from the first, second and third waves of
feminism, how has self-publication remained important to womens and
feminist cultures? (See lecture on Mommyblogs.)
has that social capital
Good mother devotes large amount of time to her children
Symbolic woman: ideal woman, perfect mother, nurturing, beautiful
Absent mother: she is absent from the narrative, marginalized, shes the
flipside to the ideal mother; cannot have a good narrative about the mother in
patriarchal society, too real and threatening Mommyblogs are a great
response to this
Mommyblogs show real issues that women face; subjective, not always
perfect, real
Slowly ends up being capitalized, and the good mothers white, get
more ads and $$ and publicity
Patriarchy still can be seen
What kinds of pop culture are consumed by the characters in Blue and
how do they make use of this consumption in constructing identities for
themselves?
Consumption
From Marxist Feminism to Theories of Resistance
Marxist Backgrounds
Capitalism produces surplus value from working class labour to be exploited
by owners
Fordism in particular at the mid-twentieth century represented the
rationalization of industry that extended into domestic spaces, emphasizing
efficiency and time-management
Creation of tined soup to free women up to be able to cook and take care
of the home
Production is understood in Marxist thought as an active, rational, masculine
site of social identity
Where you create the male identity
Consumption is understood in Marxist thought as the passive, irrational, and
feminine adoption of meanings prescribed through the production process
Shopping is girly
Second Wave Approaches:
Marxist Feminism
womens work is never done classic slogan of the second wave
Resistance:
carnivalesque inversion of economic subjugation
Third Wave Approach:
Beyond Resistance
Joanne Hollows, Feminism, Femininity and Popular Culture (2000)
Popular culture as a site of struggle and identity construction includes
consumption of products and media
Feminist theorists recast consumption as active, labour-intensive and
requiring experience and specialized knowledge
As consumption becomes the site of feminine power in the third wave, it
is colonized by the metro-sexual/white, middle-class male hero
Cultural jam
Draw attention to problems
Write for adult audience as mockery of the story
Make it look ridiculous, not feminist commentary
No description of the problem
o Insert text, use narrator, speech bubbles
pedig
Indicate how to read the book
Ask questions
The construction of Masculinities
Identify politics for guys
Hegemonic Masculinity
Characteristics:
Chivalrous; protective of women
Not the same as manners
Depends on men being in a position of power
Needs to have the means and power to protect them/pay for
dinner
Rational
Competitive
Sports, corporate realm
Successful economically
Most pressure on men, bread winner, pressure to succeed
Sexually skilled, knowledgeable and experienced
Must be skilled at sex, masculine men, if you were a real man
Irresponsible; having no real life consequences aside from violence from
other males
Rules dont usually extend to men, consequence is violence from
other males
Examples:
AXE ads
Emo Gender
Emo boys are cool, i personally am one :) i DO have long black hair dat i swoosh
across my face and i do wear tight jeans and band t shirts but i am definitly NOT
a faggot anyone hu thinks otherwise (usually other guys) is clearly wrong :) me
and my friends are all emo and i dont think any of us cut our wrists but i do write
poetry wen i feel down and i often get called "sweet" and "nice" and i tend to
look at relationships more for love dan just sex like a lot of uther guys do :)
Metrosexual
A heterosexual, single male, with concerns for his appearance, and a lifestyle or
attributes stereotypically associated with gay men
Metrosexual men had to reclaim their masculinity that theyre different
than gay men
Associated with male version of female narcissism; known as the mirror men
concerned with image
Looks better than the male
Consumes and shops better than the women
Considered evidence of the deconstruction of masculine norms due to the
mainstreaming of gay culture and lifestyle through
same-sex marriage legislation (Canada; 2006)
media (Queer Eye for the Straight Guy; 2003-2007)
A shopper associated with the feminine pleasures and choices of consumerism
and identity construction
A guy putting himself together
Takes ground away to be able to reinforce heterosexual white sexuality
Metrosexual in pop culture
Examples:
Ryan Seacrest
David Beckham
Ubersexual:
created by marketers to counter the ambiguous gender and sexual
orientation of the metrosexual
very built physic
emphasis on male potency
if males want to fit in then they have to take Viagra
Bear Masculinity
Rooted in gay culture:
Mid-1980s
Began in leather clubs
Pocketing teddy bears in place of coloured handkerchiefs to indicate
sexual preferences
Symbol of snuggling and intimacy
Bears:
Facial/body hair
Mature, larger bodies
Didnt need to be masculine 6 packs
Masculine aesthetic
Not faeries or leathermen
Bear Culture
Little racial distinction
Favours white body aesthetic
Panda: Asian bear
Age
Cub: younger, passive bear partner
Polar bear: aging, greying bear
Gender
Ursula: Lesbian bear
Increasing inclusion of transgender bears
Bears in pop culture
Magazines:
Bear Magazine:
1987-2008
Comedy:
Bear with Me:
Online comic strip
Movies:
Bear City and Bear City 2: The Proposal
Peter Hennen
Bear Bodies, Bear Masculinity: Recuperation, Resistance or Retreat (2005)
Bear represents body as cultural text
Bro Culture
15-24 males from mid-1980s
Frat boy aesthetic:
Pop-collared polos, caps, Birkenstocks
The Bro Code:
Disciplining by other males into hegemonic masculinity
Rape and sandwich jokes; jackass humour
Beer and sports markets
Movies:
The Hangover
Telephone ordering:
Telephoning in your order in advance
Counter display and coin box:
deposit 60 cents for a box of 12; products wrapped in plain white paper
and tied with a blue ribbon
Silent purchase coupons:
Coupons that could be cut out of advertisements to request a box of
napkins from the clerk without having to speak out loud
Ws203Exam:
50 MC
Blue:
119-120
Blue period where the characters are transitioning
o What matters to them where they can offer something authentic
o Transition from university to work
o Mild depression as everything is chaotic
o Still sees it as productive
Tries to be hopeful
Angela McRobbie
The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change (2009)
new form of sexual contract:
Sexual contract under patriarchy: second-wave theories of womens political,
social and economic subordination
Used to sell sexualized image for babies
Now use sexualized image to get equal pay and to be hired
faux-feminism: words like empowerment and choice are used particularly
by the media and popular culture to sell a false brand of feminism that ensures
that feminism will never re-surface
we wont have a sense of girl power feminism
Womens subordination and experience of inequality, though changed, remains
unequivocal and substantial
Looks like its changed
Very serious
The Berenstein Bears and the Bully
Who has power on each page, who doesnt get to tell the story, what rolls are not
reflected
Not about equality, only a code and structure of manliness
Names reinforce the roles of who is doing what, but then in the bathroom he is
not chivalrous (doesnt give her credit)
Violent masculinity is the only thing that scars us
Were no consequences for not remembering his manners
this is a book that is about cubs manners, but its really about boys showing
chivlery and girls manners. Boys dont have consequences
Chris Rojek- celebrities private lives are part of the insistent cultural data that we
use to comprehend outselves and to navigate through the crashing waves of the
cultural sphere
Chapter 6: