'Female students, too, often find it easier to say what is wrong with women's magazines than to explain why they enjoy buying and reading them.' (Mcdonald, 2003; p11)
Second, we need to recognize the part we all play in keeping mythologies and ideologies alive. This gets obliterated in conspiracy theory accounts that see the media as bastions of male privilege, spurred on by the mission of keeping feminism at bay. This tendency dominates in some recent American writing, such as Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth (1991) and Susan Faludi's Backlash (1992). Although producers indisputably have primary power in deciding what images we see, and (equally significant) what images we do not see, arguments that cast us (or, more usually, some other lesser category of viewer or reader) as passive dupes in the process have been rightly been increasingly challenged. At the same time, John Fiske's (1989) utopian vision of a democracy of active readers and viewers is equally unconvincing. In relation to myths of femininity, in particular, with their long cultural history, traditions of seeing and responding cannot be so magically overturned. (Mcdonald, 2003; p12)
'Mainstream sociology, tackling the issue of gender, focuses on the unequal position of men and women within the social structure. Key areas investigated include the family, work and pay, and sexuality. The devaluation of women's role, whether as mothers, wives, or workers has been a central concern. For the sociologist, femininity is acquired and reproduced through socialisation and the development of self concept. Real life role models, the exposure in childhood to forms of activity and play that naturalise gender divisions, and the influence of the media and other cultural forms, encourage men and women in adult life both to adopt behaviour that reinforces gender specific roles, and to internalise the appropriateness of this as part of their own sense of identity.' (Mcdonald, 2003; p13)
For the sociologist investigating gender, the media play an important part in setting stereotypes and promoting a limited number of role models....sociologists concentrate on adult influences. (Mcdonald, 2003; p13)
The concept of the stereotype is used to criticise the reduction of the three dimensional quality of the real to as one dimensional and distorted form. Particularly when the group being stereotyped is already in a disadvantaged position, the stereotype intensifies the offence. From bra burning feminists to house proud housewives, from sex crazed seductresses to neurotic career women, the media regularly serve a menu of female stereotypes that stimulates misogynistic taste buds.
Yet, as Tessa Perkins pointed out (1979) stereotypes survive by undergoing change, and by convincing us that they are not entirely false, but contain a 'kernel of truth'. LIke ideology, the stereotype works by being plausible, and by masking its own value system. Those who criticise the limitations of the stereotype often also demand a wider range of positive role models, especially for groups that are denigrated or marginalised. The relative lack, for example, of professional women in soap operas, or of fat, disabled or Asian women in women's magazines, attracts frequent censure.
There are, however, a number of problems in relying on stereotypes as a critical tool. First, this approach suggests that the ideal would be for the media to re-present reality as truthfully and accurately as possible...whose version of reality is to be given priority, and what happens in those instances, such as advertising or film, where the producers' stated intention is not represent reality but to conjure up an appealing fantasy world? Hunting stereotypes can be an entertaining but ultimately unrewarding pastime. It can also be dangerous, if we fail to take account of the play on stereotypes that is increasingly common in the media. (Mcdonald, 2003; p14)
This distinction in terms of narrative role has more impact on our responses than our understanding of the character's social role. Listing the media stage entrances of, for example, the 1980's stereotype of the 'superwoman', effortlessly combining career, children, sexual pleasure and leisure pursuits, tells us nothing about how we are invited to respond to her.' (Mcdonald, 2003; p14)
Tracing dominant stereotypes historically is more helpful in revealing changing ideologies. Why the 'vamp' should have been popular in the early decades of the century, the 'dumb blond' in the middle, and the 'superwoman' in the last quarter, are issues worth exploring in the quest to understand how myths of femininity have changed. Equally revealing is the continuing imbalance in both the extent and quality of male and female stereotyping in media constructions. Stereotypes of men (e.g 'macho man') may elicit negative emotions but they do little to dent male authority. (Mcdonald, 2003; p14)
Psychological approaches agree that the acquisition of gender identity is a developmental process that is virtually complete by the time we reach adulthood. As a result, psychological research into the media has concentrated on the impact of media representations on children and young people. Where the sociologist is interested in the relationship between representation and reality, the psychologist is particularly concerned with psychological effect. (Mcdonald, 2003; p16)
The first, which is often referred to as 'biological determinism', argues that femininity and masculinity follow inevitably from our physical differences as males and females. Biological factors act as programmes which circumscribe our ability to move outside a pre-set range of behaviour and attributes. The second, known as social learning theory, claims that we acquire the relevant masculine or feminine skills by imitating others, and adapting our own maintains that masculinity and femininity develop through a process of interaction between our experience of the world and our emerging, but pre-structured, capacity for conceptual thinking. (Mcdonald, 2003; p16)
Biological determinists' view of sexual difference has been labelled 'essentialist'. Essentialism is a philosophical position that believes in intrinsic, material differences between entities. It makes sense on the physical sciences, where elements can be distinguished clearly from each other, but applied to humans its suggestion that innate qualities have a more determining influence than social or cultural factors sparks repeated controversy. (Mcdonald, 2003; p16)
The biological determinist argues that the imprints of masculinity and femininity are contained within genes and hormones. Male aggression and female nurturing capacity are seen as innate tendencies, although most biological determinists (e.g Maccoby and Jacklin, 1974) do accept that biological predisposition may be affected to varying degrees by social factors.
Many feminists psychologists (e.g Rohrbaugh, 1981; Lott, 1990) reject the prescriptiveness of biological determinism and argue that it has been used, despite its scientific credentials, in a value-loaded way to excuse antiscoial male behaviour and devalue women's capacities (as when rapists are seen as 'naturally' requiring sexual release, or women are thought to have 'natural' manual dexterity that makes them good at sewing but not as surgery). (Mcdonald, 2003; p17)
Lynda Birke (1986) takes a different stance. While distancing herself from biological determinsm, she views a wholesale feminist antagonism to biological accounts to biological accounts of gender development are misguided. (Mcdonald, 2003; p17)
More conventionally, both cognitive-developmental and social learning theories concentrate on childhood and adolescence as the periods responsible for forming our adult sense of masculinity and femininity. (Mcdonald, 2003; p17)
For the social learning theorist, femininity and masculinity are first recognised, and then imitated in the child's own behaviour. Factors such as schooling, play, family life, and the media are seen as significant influences. Where the theory is weak is in explaining why the child should be motivated to imitate some forms of behaviour and attitude rather than others. (Mcdonald, 2003; p17)
Text about Laura Mulvey (too much to quote all at once).
Mcdonald, M., 2003. Representing Women: Myths of Femininity in the Popular Media. 2nd ed????. London: Hodder Arnold
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