Further Feminist Theory

1) What definitions are offered by the factsheet for ‘feminism ‘and ‘patriarchy’?

.  Feminism is a movement which aims for equality for women – to be

treated as equal to men socially, economically, and politically.

. Patriarchy is male dominance in society.

2) Why did bell hooks publish her 1984 book ‘Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center’?

She published it because she had identified a lack of diversity within the feminist movement,

and argued that these diverse voices had been marginalised, being

put outside the main body of feminism.

3) What aspects of feminism and oppression are the focus for a lot of bell hooks’s work?

Hooks used her work to offer a more inclusive feminists theory that advocated for women within a sisterhood to acknowledging and accepting their differences.

4) What is intersectionality and what does hooks argue regarding this?

Intersectionality is intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination or

discrimination. Its meaning is that multiple identities intersect to create a whole that is different from separate component identities. These individual identities can include gender, race, social class, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, age, mental disability, physical disability, mental illness, physical illness.

5) What did Liesbet van Zoonen conclude regarding the relationship between gender roles and the mass media?

There is a strong relationship between gender and communication, but it is also the mass media that leads to much of the observable gender identity structures in advertising, film and TV.

6) Liesbet van Zoonen sees gender as socially constructed. What does this mean and which other media theorist we have studied does this link to?

Socially constructed means an idea that has been created and accepted by society.

7) How do feminists view women’s lifestyle magazines in different ways?

Van Zoonen argues that women’s magazines mediate images that tell women “how to be a perfect mother, lover, wife, homemaker, glamorous accessory, secretary – whatever suits the needs of the system”. Feminists of the 1970s saw the ‘media-created woman’ – the wife, mother, housekeeper, sex object – as a person only trying to be beautiful for men. 

8) Which other media theorist we have studied argues this and do you agree that gender roles are in a process of constant change?

Van Zoonen’s critique is similar to Butler’s.

9) What are the five aspects van Zoonen suggests are significant in determining the influence of the media?

. Whether the institution is commercial or public

. The platform upon which they operate (print versus digital media)

. Genre (drama versus news)

. Target audiences

. The place the media text holds within the audiences’ daily lives

10) What other media theorist can be linked to van Zoonen’s readings of the media?

Van Zoonen builds on Stuart Hall’s negotiated readings, arguing that the negotiated readings and subsequent focus on the way meanings are encoded and decoded.

11) Van Zoonen discusses ‘transmission models of communication’. She suggests women are oppressed by the dominant culture and therefore take in representations that do not reflect their view of the world. What other theory and idea can this be linked to?

This could be linked to the idea of "double consciousness" by Gilroy.

12) Finally, van Zoonen has built on the work of bell hooks by exploring power and feminism. She suggests that power is not a binary male/female issue but reflects the “multiplicity of relations of subordination”. How does this link to bell hooks views on feminism and intersectionality?