Identities: Feminism and new/digital media

Emma Watson: HeForShe gender equality campaign

Emma Watson started the "HeForShe gender equality campaign" which was the first campaign of its kind at the UN to try and motivate as many men and boys as possible to be advocates for gender equality. She then outlines how no country in the world can yet say they have achieved gender equality. - "it is right that as a woman I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decision-making of my country. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights." It's a balanced debate as she then goes on to identify that men are being imprisoned by gender stereotypes - "Men don’t have the benefits of equality either - young men suffering from mental illness unable to ask for help for fear it would make them look less “macho”—in fact in the UK suicide is the biggest killer of men between 20-49 years of age; eclipsing road accidents, cancer and coronary heart disease." Overall, I think Emma Watson's campaign is valid as it looks at both sides and discusses the issues surrounding gender stereotypes, such as pressures from society to look a certain way.

Caroline Criado-Perez: female presence on banknotes

Caroline was the feminist campaigner who had won her battle with the Bank of England to reinstate a woman on the back of an English banknote. Caroline had campaigned since it was announced that social reformer Elizabeth Fry was to be wiped off the fiver and replaced with Winston Churchill, leaving an all-male, all-white lineup on our English banknotes. Criado-Perez had threaten to sue the bank under the 2010 Equality Act. The then Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, appeared to dismiss her request. Then, within a week of new boss Mark Carney taking up his post, she had been invited to the bank and asked if she would accept Jane Austen on the back of a tenner. Five days later, Criado-Perez was back on the news in a very different context. This time she was talking about the rape and death threats she had received on Twitter, following her victory. I believe that Caroline's campaign was successful as it meant that women have equality around economics and politics by remaining on the banknote. She states that 'Women have always been put in their place and kept there through the threat of sexual violence. What social media has done is enable people to behave in way they wouldn't face to face."

 Caitlin Moran: Twitter silence

 Caitlin Moran created a Twitter trend called #TwitterSilence, this Trend was towards women and for women who were not able to speak out. Twitter, however, had already announced it would be listening to the protests of the U.K. feminists, adding more staff to deal with abuse claims and rolling out its current "Report Abuse" button for iPhone to its Android and web platforms as well. 

 However, many people were allowing Twitter users to "Report Abuse" and would do anything but make it harder for feminists to make their voices heard. This campaign was not useful as women were not getting their opinions across by being silent.

Identities: Feminist theory

Feminist theory: key notes

Judith Butler: gender roles
Butler believes traditional feminists are wrong to divide society into ‘men’ and ‘women’ and says gender is not biologically fixed.
By dividing men and women, feminists accidently reinforced the idea of differences between the two genders
Butler believes gender roles are ‘a performance’ and that male and female behaviour is socially constructed rather than the result of biology.

Butler and the media
If gender is a ‘performance’ rather than biological, we then need to think about what is influencing that ‘performance’.
And that’s where the media comes in. How might the media influence our behaviour in terms of gender roles?

Angela McRobbie: empowering women
McRobbie is a British cultural theorist known for her work analysing magazines aimed at women and teenage girls in the 80s and 90s.
McRobbie highlights the empowering nature of magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour, taking a different perspective to traditional feminists.
This idea of ‘popular feminism’ fits into the idea of post-feminism and challenges the radical feminism of the 1970s.

1) How might this video contribute to Butler’s idea that gender roles are a ‘performance’?

The video contributes to Butler's idea roles that genders are a performance as at the beginning, Beyonce is seen fixing a car. This is a male based job and the fact that she is fixing it does suggest that genders are a performance.

2) Would McRobbie view Beyonce as an empowering role model for women?

No, McRobbie would not see this an an empowering role model for women. This is due to the fact that Beyonce is still portraying herself as a sex object that a respectful individual. She is seen wearing clothing of a housewife, however these have been altered to show her figure and body parts, showing that Beyonce is not an empowering role model. However, as she is seen fixing a car, we can imply that gender roles are not fixed; females and males can do the same jobs.

3) What are your OWN views on this debate – does Beyonce empower women or reinforce the traditional ‘male gaze’ (Mulvey)?

In my opinion, I think that Beyonce reinforces the traditional 'male gaze'. This is due to the fact that she is wearing a tight, figure-hugging, 'sexy' outfit, which males gaze upon and stare at her body. Its telling the audience, that its right for women to have these roles in society and to show off her feminine features, which in my opinion she shouldn't be doing so.

Identities and the Media: Feminism

1) Read Playing With The Past: Post-feminism and the Media (MM40, page 64 - our Media Magazine archive is here).

2) What are the two texts the article focuses on?

HBO’s Pan Am and Beyoncé’s music video for ‘Why Don’t You Love Me’,

3) What examples are provided from the two texts of the 'male gaze' (Mulvey)?

Her star construction perfectly encapsulates the contradictions of post-feminist culture, simultaneously declaring herself as an independent woman, whilst objectifying herself for the camera and the ‘male gaze’'. 1950s, with over twelve costume changes, all exaggerated versions of the Fifties looks presenting a playful, nostalgic version of the time, and highlighting the performative nature of femininity. The dress codes are highly sexualised; the costumes include tight high-waisted knickers, a vintage style bra, Fifties pedal pushers with cats-eye-shaped glasses, suspenders and stockings which all allow the audiences to not only appreciate Beyoncé’s ‘credentials’ but also the vintage fashion on offer. performance. Throughout the video she plays at being a ‘housewife’, humorously burning dinner, parodying mopping floors and dusting, all the while playfully gazing at the camera providing the audience with knowing winks in her ‘sexy outfits’. This self-conscious address allows Beyoncé to be objectified, welcoming the male gaze but simultaneously also avoiding feminist criticism through this use of parody and humour. The video confirms conventional gender roles, firstly through the lyrics and the song’s constant rhetorical questioning.

4) Do texts such as these show there is no longer a need for feminism or are they simply sexism in a different form? 

In my opinion, i think that there is still a need for feminism. This is due to the fact that Beyonce is still portraying herself as a sex object for males to gaze upon her 'sexy' body.

5) Choose three words/phrases from the glossary of the article and write their definitions on your blog.

Feminism – A movement aimed at defining,establishing, and defending women’s rights and equality to men. 

Post-feminism – An ideology in culture and society that society is somehow past needing feminism and that the attitudes and arguments of feminism are no longer needed. 

Third wave feminism – Was a movement that redefined and encouraged women to be dominant and sexually assertive.

No More Page 3

1) Research the No More Page 3 campaign. Who started it and why?

No More Page 3 was a campaign to stop The Sun from including pictures of topless glamour models on its Page 3; it ended when the topless feature was discontinued.The campaign was started by Lucy-Anne Holmes in August 2012; it reached 215,000 signatures by January 2015.

2) What are the six reasons the campaign gives for why Page 3 has to go?

Avoid children being exposed to sexual content on newspaper front pages.

If as a child you grew up with certain body issues, then I can see how Page Three could affect you.

3) Read this debate in the Guardian regarding whether the campaign should be dropped. What are Barbara Ellen and Susan Boniface's contrasting opinions in the debate?

Susie Boniface:

the campaign to stop Page 3 – it’s as outdated, pointless and past-it

Page 3 girls considered they were sexually empowered and celebrating the female form. 

there a lot of other far more serious, demeaning or damaging things in the world that women don’t consent to we could be campaigning about instead?

Barbara Ellen

if Page 3 was dreary, dated, and offensive before, now it sits like a pathetic leering bare-breasted woolly mammoth amid modern enlightened sensibilities.

The very passivity of Page 3 is offensive

it does not matter that, compared to other pornography, the photos are “tame” or “lame” – women’s bodies are neither lame nor tame. 

4) How can the No More Page 3 campaign be linked to the idea of post-feminism?

The No More Page 3 campaign can be linked to the idea of post-feminism as many people, especially women,  were against ridding the revealing page. Those women believed that the topless women are doing it out of their own will and that it is their choice to make. By taking away page3, many models will maybe be stripped of an empowering factor of their lives. People have also argued that women are no longer objectified and oversexualised by men, meaning that by taking away pg 3, it is only a pointless pursuit.

5) What are your OWN views on the No More Page 3 campaign. Do you agree with the campaign's aims? Should the campaign continue?

In my opinion, I believe that the No More Page 3 campaign should have stopped and the page should not have been abolished. It is the female models who make their own decision whether they are going to model nude and it is not something that they are forced into. Furthermore, if campaigners believe that the page is manipulating young children's mind to believe that modelling while naked is women's purpose, I think that this concept is too abstract and unrealistic as schools teach children about equality.

6) Do you agree that we are in a post-feminist state or is there still a need for feminism?

To a certain extent, I do agree that we are in a post feminist state as women have a drastically different amount of power in society compared to what they once had several years ago. Also, women sometimes feel that despite being portrayed in a sexualised way, this is a form of empowerment as men are somewhat completely entranced by women. In terms of careers in the upper class and elite society, I think there needs to be more feminist concepts invoked into the men with power as it is clearly evident that women are made to be inferior in this aspect of society.

Post-colonialism: Edward Said blog task

Alvarado(1987)

• Exotic 
• Dangerous
• Humorous
• Pitied 

Frantz Fanon: “Putting on the white mask”

Primitivize - The 'exotic & virile' tribal warriors or 'bare-breasted maidens' with a 'natural sense of rhythm‘. Sporting prowess.

Decivilize - The 'Gangsta', 'Pimp' etc.

Essentialize - Undifferentiated mass-'they all look the same to me'

Destiny Ekaragha
Destiny Ekaragha spoke brilliantly at the Media Magazine conference about being a young black filmmaker in London. She showed clips from two of her films - the short Tight Jeans and the feature length Gone Too Far!

Infantilize - such as the 'cute' children of the Charity Poster or the 'simple-minded‘ 'Step ‘n’ fetch it‘ lazy comedian.

Read the excellent article exploring the different representations of black people in British film and TV from Media Magazine 42 (MM42 from our Media Magazine archive - page 51)

List FIVE films, FIVE TV programmes and FIVE online-only productions that are discussed in the article.

• Ill Manors
• Top Boy
• 55 Degrees North
• Line of Duty
• Meet the Adebanjos
• All About the McKenzies
• Adulthood
• Kidulthood
• Brothers With No Game
• The Ryan Sisters
• Attack the Block
• Shank
• Dr Who
• Luther
• Venus vs Mars

Watch Destiny Ekaragha's clips above (more of her work is available on her website, including the short film The Park). To what extent can we apply Alvarado's and Fanon's theories to these films? Do they reinforce or subvert typical black stereotypes in British film and TV? Refer to specific scenes and events in the clips in answering this question and aim for at least 350 words.

Alvarado

Pity - A foreign family owning a small house in a suburban area, coming from a Nigerian background to increase their quality of life. 

Humorous - The brother is comedic due to the changes in lifestyle to that of people who have lived in the London suburbs their entire life. Clothing is also very humorous due to it being out of the norm. Even the protagonist who seems to be born and bred here, is portrayed as humourous at times, e.g walking into the pole and not being able to talk to girls. 

Exotic- The mothers traditional clothes are especially very different from 'normal' clothes that everyone is wearing due to the bright colours and detailed patterns that represent her culture. Also, the accents of the newcomer and the mother reinforce the difference and identity. 

Dangerous - Thugs shown through the 'boyfriend' of one of the girls. Usually a black man wearing the normal 'thug' clothing: hoodie or cap. 

Fanon

Primitive - The brother displays natural rhythm through the on the spot song about Nigerians in the chicken shop. The protagonist also has a similar trait as he is dancing in his room.

Decivilise - All the youths are represented to be gangsters or chavs through clothing and the violence that the boys show whilst playing football.

Essentialize - The girls assumed that the brother was not speaking english due to his accent, following the assumption that the brother is a foreigner who cant speak other languages.

Infantilise - There are no serious issues explored in the movie, perhaps due to the genre being a comedy.

3) Finally, choose THREE clips for EACH of the theorists and explain how you could apply that theory to the clip

Fanon - "Putting on a white mask", Decivilise, Essentialise (they all look the same)

Luther, 2015 - The protagonist embodies stereotypical white male characteristics and rejects the dominant ideologies associated with his social group, such as being tribal (in terms of his more middle class accent that is presented through the dialogue). In particular, his attire is formal and he is portrayed as a leading figure who is in charge of other white characters. 

Adulthood, 2008 - The behaviour illustrated through the black characters reflects decivilised and criminal acts that are reinforce Fanon's theory. For instance, through the medium long shots capturing the protagonist wearing a hoodie and grabbing a bat to attack another character. Also, in terms of 'essentialise', the high angle long shot capturing the black youth at a "rave", reflects Fanon's idea that they all "look the same".

'I am what I am' Reebok Advertisement - The advertisement capturing black rapper 50 cent reinforces ideologies in regards to the decivilised and 'criminal' aspects of Fanon's theory through the background on the right mirroring imagery associated with prisons (e.g. the finger prints). 

Alvarado - "Dangerous, Pity, Humorous and Exotic"

Cool Runnings, 1993 - The trailer captures the non-diagetic narration of a white male, outlining the comical narrative of Jamacian's entering a sport "they know nothing about", parallel to the imagery of medium long shots of the black characters falling over and being made a mockery of. This relates to Alvarado's theory of 'Humorous' and 'Exotic', through the strong native accents that the black characters have, alongside the different things that they say. 

Gone Too Far!, 2014 - The trailer presents the strong accents that the African mother and brother have, through the diagetic dialogue. In addition to this, the medium close up of the mothers sandels and costume reflect her native and 'exotic' origin. 

South Africa, 2013- Starting from 3:00 minutes, the white males are presented as superior to the weak and lower class black children, who joyfully reach up to high five the white males, illustrated in the hand held medium long shot. This relates to Alvarado's theory of 'pity' through the unfortunate objectification placed upon the black children. 

Said - "Them and Us", "East and West"

Bend it Like Beckham, 2002- The narrative shows the strong ideologies associated in Asian culture and presents their domain stereotypes, such as women cooking and serving for men. This contrapuntal to the more liberal attitudes that the white characters have, displaying, in terms of Said, "them and us". 

East is East, 1999- Despite the male and female parents being binary opposite in terms of white and Asian, and their overall nuclear family being more liberal. There still remains a "them and us" illustration in regards to the vertically extended family types who enter the story. 

Eastenders - The Asian family the "Masoods", captured a strong sense of "them and us", when entering the 'square', as they were the only Asians presented. Their family not only portrayed dominant ideologies that Asian's have and their attitudes, but also in terms of costume, visually differed to the rest. 

January assessment learner response

1) Type up your feedback in full (you do not need to write mark/grade if you do not wish to).

WWW: Good attempt to cover Marxism and Pluralism

EBI: Cover institutions - Murdock/News Corp, Pareto's law..

2) Read through the mark scheme. Of the six different statements, write which you think is currently your strongest and which is weakest. Explain WHY and, for the weakest, what you are going to do to improve in that area.

Strongest: I have a clear focus on the question and a well structured and clearly expressed essay. I also have a proficient understanding of new and digital media.   

Weakest: However, i need to show very good critical autonomy and need to mention wider contexts such as feminism.

3) Read through the exemplar A grade essay. What does this essay offer that yours does not? Identify THREE things you can take from this essay to improve your own responses in future.

• Pareto's law
• Allen De Botton - ' conform, accommodate and react'
• Internet revolution
• Internet is empowering audience by giving accessibility to wide variety of alternative values which differ from the dominant ideologies
• "the world is changing and newspapers need to adapt"- Rupert Murdoch 
• Sun's readership figures going down
• UGC unmediated content
• More detail on the arab spring- is on your blog
• Rebekkah Brookes- News of the world scandal
• Keen- a million monkeys typing nonsense

4) Write ONE new paragraph for your January assessment essay. Ideally, this should be a section you did not cover in your original essay. This paragraph needs to be comprehensive and meet the criteria for Level 4 of the mark scheme.

Although the internet has provided basis for a mass of information to be distributed globally, it is also possible for misinformation to occur. This could be done by both professional journalists and amateur bloggers. For example the IBTtimes published a story which stated the Iranian minister for ICT, had announced plans to remove public internet access in Iran and replace it with a state controlled national portal. This information was incorrect and was later removed which proves that even professionals can make mistakes on the internet, making it harder to know who to trust. Wikipedia is likely to be the most unreliable source as it is edited by ordinary people who do not usually know the facts behind a story making it a hard source to trust; despite this people still rely on it as a major source of information.

2 new articles

#37 Sun website traffic falls by more than 5% despite axing of paywall


http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jan/21/sun-website-traffic-paywall-december

The Sun saw a more than 5% fall in its audience in December, despite dropping its paywall fully for the first time on 30 November.A spokesperson attributed the decline to “certain apps being turned off to unify the Sun online presence and the expected seasonal lull in Dream Team”. Much of the site’s content was also already free before the paywall was officially dropped, as the site began relaxing its approach to charging for online content last summer.However, the Sun outperformed the rest of the UK’s national newspapers, which saw bigger falls during the month, according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Their Christmas traffic declines followed gains made in November, which were partly driven by public interest in stories such as the Paris attacks.theguardian.com fell from an average of more than 9 million daily unique browsers in November to just under 8 million, a drop of 15%, while the Telegraph slid to 4.1 million after losing almost 1 million unique browsers, equivalent to almost 20% of its audience.All the other national newspapers saw double-digit declines, except Mail Online, which lost just under 10% of its audience to drop back to just over 13 million unique browsers, and dailystar.co.uk, which lost 8.8% of its unique browsers to come in at just under 600,000 a day.

2 articles

#35 Sydney man accused of making rape threats on Facebook pleads not guilty

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/jan/12/sydney-man-accused-of-making-threats-on-facebook-pleads-not-guilty

'Zane Alchin is alleged to have committed the offence after one of his friends shared a screenshot of a woman’s Tinder profile on his Facebook page'

A Sydney man who allegedly made explicit rape threats on Facebook has pleaded not guilty to using a carriage service to menace.Zane Alchin, 25, of Caringbah was charged in late October for allegedly threatening rape in comments posted to Facebook in August.The offence of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence covers harassment carried out online or over the phone, and carries a maximum jail sentence of three years. Alchin allegedly committed the offence after one of his friends shared a screenshot of a woman’s Tinder profile to his Facebook page with a derogatory caption, sparking a heated argument between the two individuals’ friend groups.The posts allegedly made by Alchin include “You’ll be eating my cock till you puke” and “I’d rape you if you were better looking”.

#36 The social housing tenants taking to Twitter to influence policy

http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2016/jan/11/social-housing-tenants-policy-activism-twitter

Communication is key to any good relationship, even that of landlord and tenant. For many councils and housing associations, working closely with residents is integral to the way they work; it helps them save money and improve services. Andy Orrey, chief executive of Ongo Homes, says it helps him ensure that his organisation provides the right services, in the right places, to the right people. But what opportunity for influence is there for tenants who are not part of a traditional involvement structure, or do not want to be? Or whose landlords are not committed to involving their tenants? In the past it might have been a case of writing an angry letter to the local paper or simply bad-mouthing the council or housing association The rise of social media, and in particular the way the housing sector has embraced Twitter, may have changed all that.