Dr. Sara DiazWGST 202: Gender, Difference, and PowerGonzaga University

Damaging Representations

What is Culture?

• “culture includes the organization of production, the structure of the family, the structure of institutions which express or govern social relationships, the characteristic forms through which members of the society communicate” (Raymond Williams)

• “culture is simply the ensemble of stories we tell ourselves about ourselves” (Clifford Geertz)

• “culture is the learned behavior of a society or a subgroup” (Margaret Mead)

Popular Culture

• Music• TV, Film• Books, comics• Material Culture• Toys• Fashion• Technology

• NEWS, magazines• Advertising

Popular Culture and Difference

• Pop Culture teaches us about• Gender roles/norms• People who are different from us• Race• Religion• Class• Sexuality• Nation• Ability• Politics

Hegemony, hegemonic

• Pop culture produces hegemonic ideology:

• Hegemony is: … [An] attempt to persuade the

populace that the hierarchical social and economic system is fixed and “natural” and therefore unchangeable. (D & H 627)

Objectification

• To represent as a object by dehumanizing someone/reducing them to inanimate, passive “parts.”• Sexual objectification – when

objectification emphasizes sexual utility by focusing on sexualized body parts.

Object vs Subject• Object• Passive• Inanimate• Observed/Viewed

• Subject• Active• Sentient/Sapient• Observer/Viewer

• “Subjectivity” – Self-ness

• Note the way hegemonic gender norms map onto object and subject!

Response QuestionResponse Question

• How are damaging representations of women shaped by other socially defined categories such as race, class, and sexuality?

Media Consolidation

How Does Advertising Work?

• Exploit Insecurities• Gender, race, CLASS

• Sell you a solution• Beauty Products• Diet Products• Beer• Cars• Clothes• Houses/Decor

Media Effects

• Damaging Effects• Is emotionally destructive: brutalizing in its

emphasis on violence and sex• Is intellectually destructive: offers escapist

content which inhibits people’s ability to cope with reality• Is culturally destructive: impairs people’s

ability to fully/freely participate in cultural production

• Void of deep realities (sex, death, failure, tragedy)

Post 9/11 Media Effects

• How have Muslims been represented in media?

• How have these representations been damaging to the Muslim American community?

Media Effects

• Positive Effects• Is emotionally supportive: can eradicate a

sense of isolation• Is intellectually supportive: offers educational

content which enhances people’s ability to contextualize their lives and the world us.• Is culturally restorative: allows for a diversity

of expressions and encourages participate in cultural production

• Grounded in deep realities

Media Feminism Test

• Does this text reinforce people’s subjectivity as complex active, feeling, and knowing beings? Which people?• Does the text invite me into a person or group’s

experience? Which people?

• Or does this text objectify people by reducing them to tropes? • Relegating them to the status of inactive,

unknowing/feeling objects with no intrinsic value of their own? • Which people?