Identities in Media Reflection
Hannah Laurie
Northern Arizona University
Identities in Media Reflection
Over the course of this semester my knowledge on topics like media, race, gender, class and sexuality have evolved. I grew up very conservatively and religious, just coming to college has broaden my views on the world, but this class specifically has given me knowledge on these topics to make my own informed decisions on who I want to be in this world and will affect the impact I have on it. Some of the topics that stood out to me the most were the construct and representation of femininity, masculinity and the hegemony found in media. Ever since the late 1800’s there has been an evident power struggle between men and women, in which media has played a dangerous role. Media is strategically designed to make people feel anxious and insecure, when this is achieved it becomes hugely profitable for the media companies.
The most apparent flaw in today’s media, is our misrepresentation of women. Women in media have merely become highly sexualized objects only for the male gaze (Mulvey, 1975). Not only does this become dangerous for women when they are seen as object, girls learn to see themselves as objects which I believe can be even more detrimental to our society. Most mainstream movies revolve around men, and even within the sub drama of chick flicks where a woman is the protagonist; if you look closer the plot still revolves around a man. This was so eye-opening to me because when young girls see media where other women’s sole purpose in life is to find a man or please a man, it can have a negative effect how how that girl sees herself. In contrary to the female character whose life revolves around heterosexual love and a family, we see the bitchy boss. This character is usually a woman who sacrificed having a family or finding love to get to the level of success she’s reached. She’s usually hated and portrayed as lonely and unhappy, then swoops in a male subordinate whose purpose is to knock the female boss down a couple pegs to show her having a man is so much better than being a powerful woman, and when he does they live happily ever after. Rarely do we see more dynamic female characters in media than these I just described. The social construct of femininity in our media was so intriguing to me because as a culture women are brought up to be fundamentally insecure, we see in media that we either allow ourselves to become objects, or we fight that notion and become the bitch.
Media advertising companies prey on the insecurities men and women face by selling products sexualized by female models as objects and backdrops to products. Depending on if the advertisement is meant or a man or woman it’ll subtly convey that you’ll be happier and prettier or more dominant or powerful if you purchase these things. These media companies are creating a revenue on women's pursuit of the unobtainable perfect body that they essentially created. And preying on men’s masculinity insecurities because media defines what it means to be a man.
What it means to be a man has evolved over time. What came as a shock to me, and probably to most people is that the media has almost complete reign over the definition of masculinity, molded to fulfil broken egos or used even as a political message to other countries about american men. In the 1970s, the masculinity standard was portrayed as the “everyman” in media, an ordinary man thrown into extreme circumstances, making this persona very relatable and realistic to most viewers. This definition of Hollywood’s masculinity evolved in the late 1980-1990s after our failed involvement in the Vietnam war. The man media portrayed on screens was ripped, extremely violent, and took pride in destroying his enemies (Hansen-Miller, pg.34), thus a hypermasculinity in media was born. Since then the hyper-masculine male has been used all over media, in the music we listen to, the shows we watch, the commercials we see, consumerism products, they’re everywhere. We’re socializing boys to believe that being a man means being powerful and in control. However, in order to sustain that power, women cannot obtain power and must be objectified thus continuing the vicious cycle of Hegemony.
“Hegemony is the power or dominance that one social group holds over others”(Lull, 1995). This was definitely the hardest concept in this class for me to understand, and honestly I may not fully understand it yet, but in the context of gender roles, hegemony makes everything clearer. Hegemonic femininity consists of the characteristics defined as womanly that establish and legitimate a hierarchical and complementary relationship to hegemonic masculinity and that, by doing so, guarantee the dominant position of men and the subordination of women. Hegemonic masculinity is defined as a practice that legitimizes men's dominant position in society and justifies the subordination of women, and other marginalized ways of being a man.
Notes on Hegemony:
“But hegemony is more than social power itself, it is a method for gaining and maintaining power.”
“British social theorist Philip Elliott suggested similarly that the most potent effect of mass media is how they subtly influence their audiences to perceive social roles and routine personal activities. ”
“ Because information and entertainment technology is so thoroughly integrated into the everyday realities of modern societies, mass media’s social influence is not always recognized, discussed, or criticized, particularly in societies where the overall standard of living is relatively high. Hegemony, therefore, can easily go undetected (Bausinger, 1984).”
“Hegemony implies a willing agreement by people to be governed by principles, rules, and laws they believe operate in their best interests, even though in actual practice they may not. ”
“Hall suggests that “it is crucial to the concept that hegemony is not a ‘given’ and permanent state of affairs, but it has to be actively won and secured; it can also be lost” (1977: 333)”
“Ideological work is the winning and securing of hegemony over time.”
I would argue that a majority of our population is somewhat aware of hegemonic masculinity and hegemonic femininity, but not a lot of people know how to properly articulate it. Thus it is very difficult to fight against something you do not fully understand.
“Turning a human being into a thing is almost always the first step in justifying violence against that person.”
Resources
Newsom, J. (Producer), Newsom, J. (Director). (2011). Miss Representation [Motion Picture]. United States:Girls' Club Entertainment
“Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Screen, 16(3), 6–18.”
Excerpt From: Unknown. “Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Critical Reader.” iBooks.
Hansen
Hansen-Miller, D. (n.d.). Iconic masculinities, popular cinema and globalization. In Media Development (pp. 33-38).
“Bausinger, H. (1984). Media, technology, and everyday life. Media, Culture & Society, 6, 340–52.”
Lull, J. (2015). Hegemony. In Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Critical Reader. (4th ed., pp. 33-36). SAGE Publications, Inc.
“Gender, Race, and Class in Media : A Critical Reader / editors, Gail Dines, Wheelock College, Jean M. Humez, University of Massachusetts, Boston. — Fourth Edition.