Feminism

I’d hate to try and define Feminism in a few words- but here are some definitions from some Feminist Web sites - the full texts are available on- line.

The book 'An introduction to theories of popular culture' by Dominic Strinati has a useful chapter.

For web research try the recommended sites - or use 'www.google.com' to find your own (Google is the best Search Engine for finding educational sites)

• The following definitions are from AmazonCastle.com
  
  Feminism
  
  Feminism is theory that men and women should be equal politically, economically and socially.
  
  This is the core of all feminism theories. Sometimes this definition is also referred to as "core feminism" or "core feminist theory." Notice that this theory does not subscribe to differences between men and women or similarities between men and women, nor does it refer to excluding men or only furthering women's causes. Most other branches of feminism do.
  
  Depending on why you believe in feminism and what your ideas are to make feminism a reality is what branches you off to be defined in the types of feminism defined below.
  
  Amazon Feminism
  
  Amazon feminism is dedicated to the image of the female hero in Greek mythology and in fact, as it is expressed in art and literature, in the physiques and feats of female athletes, and in sexual values and practices.
  
  Amazon feminism focuses on physical equality and is opposed to gender role stereotypes and discrimination against women based on assumptions that women are supposed to be, look or behave as if they are passive, weak and physically helpless. Amazon feminism rejects the idea that certain characteristics or interests are inherently masculine (or feminine), and upholds and explores a vision of heroic womanhood.
  
  An Amazon feminist, for example, would argue that some people are not cut out physically to be a fire fighter, serve in combat in the armed forces or work in construction. Whereas some people are physically capable of doing such jobs. No mention of gender need be made, as the jobs should be open to all people regardless of gender. Those men and women who are physically capable and want to, should pursue such jobs. Amazon feminists tend to view that indeed, all women are as physically capable as all men.
  
  Cultural Feminism
  
  The theory that there are fundamental personality differences between men and women, and that women's differences are special and should be celebrated. This theory of feminism supports the notion that there are biological differences between men and women, for example, "women are kinder and more gentle then men", leading to the mentality that if women ruled the world there would be no wars. Cultural feminism is the theory that wants to overcome sexism by celebrating women's special qualities, women's ways, and women's experiences, often believing that the "woman's way" is the better way.
  
  Ecofeminism
  
  Ecofeminism is a theory that rests on the basic principal that patriarchal philosophies are harmful to women, children, and other living things. Parallels are often drawn between society's treatment of the environment, animals, or resources and its treatment of women. In resisting patriarchial culture, eco-feminists believe they are also resisting plundering and destroying the Earth. They feel that the patriarchial philosophy emphasizes the need to dominate and control unruly females and the unruly wilderness (nature and the earth).
  
  Ecofeminism states the patriarchial society is relatively new, something developed over the last 5,000 years or so and that the matriarchal society was the first society. In this matriarchal society, women were the center of society and people worshipped Goddesses. This is known as the Feminist Eden, the time in history where women were the center of society.
  
  Individualist, or Libertarian Feminism
  
  Individualist feminism is based upon individualist or libertarian (minimum government or anarchocapitalist) philosophies. The primary focus is individual autonomy, rights, liberty, independence and diversity.
  
  Material Feminism
  
  A movement in the late 19th century to liberate women by improving their material condition. This movement revolved around taking the "burden" off women in regards to housework, cooking, and other traditionally female domestic jobs. The Grand Domestic Revolution by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a reference.
  
  Moderate Feminism
  
  This branch of feminism tends to be populated mostly by younger women or women who have not directly experienced discrimination. They tend to question the need for further effort, and do not think that radical feminism is any longer viable and in fact rather embarrassing (it's thought that this is the group most likely to espouse feminist ideas and thoughts while denying being "feminist").
  
  Pop-Feminism
  
  Pop-feminism is often mistaken by people to be feminism in general... the negative stereotypical man hating ideology. There is no proof that such feminists exist, I have yet to meet a feminist who hates men and indeed, many men are feminists. But, if such a category of feminists exist, they should be referred to as 'pop-feminists.' This would be the type of feminism that degrades men in all manners and glorifies women.
  
  Radical Feminism
  
  Radical feminism is the breeding ground for many of the ideas arising from feminism. Radical feminism was the cutting edge of feminist theory from approximately 1967-1975. It is no longer as universally accepted as it was then and no longer serves to solely define the term, "feminism."
  
  This group views the oppression of women as the most fundamental form of oppression, one that cuts across boundaries of race, culture, and economic class. This is a movement intent on social change, change of rather revolutionary proportions, in fact.
  
  Radical feminism questions why women must adopt certain roles based on their biology, just as it questions why men adopt certain other roles based on theirs. Radical feminism attempts to draw lines between biologically-determined behaviour and culturally-determined behaviour in order to free both men and women as much as possible from their previous narrow gender roles.
  
  Separatists
  
  Separatists are often wrongly depicted as lesbians. These are the feminists who advocate separation from men; sometimes total, sometimes partial. Women who organize women-only events are often unfairly dubbed separatist.
  
  The core idea is that "separating" (by various means) from men enables women to see themselves in a different context. Many feminists, whether or not separatist, think this is a necessary "first step", by which they mean a temporary separation for personal growth, not a permanent one.
  
  It is equally inaccurate to consider all lesbians as separatist. While it is true that they do not interact with men for sexual fulfilment, it is not true that they therefore automatically shun all interaction with men.
  
  
  
  
  Here is an example of ‘applied feminism’ The writer examines Advertising from a Feminist perspective, using some important key concepts such as ‘Patriarchy’ and ‘Spectatorship’ (The section which analyses Adverts is not included- go to her full text for this)
  
  
  
  The Representation of Women in Society
  
  Author: Bronwyn Allan-Reynolds
  Date : 1997
  Place: Durban, South Africa
  Published: No
  Source: http://www.und.ac.za/und/ccms/afriprog/womenin.htm
  Copyright: Bronwyn Allan-Reynolds and Centre for Cultural and Media Studies, Durban, South Africa
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  
  
  Contents
  
  * A critical overview of the representations of women in advertising.
  * Historical ways of seeing - spectatorship
  * Freudian psychoanalysis
  * Laura Mulvey - "Visual pleasure and narrative cinema".
  * Patriarchy
  * Stereotypes
  
  
   A critical overview of the representations of women in advertising.
  
  Women's sexuality is exploited to a far greater extent than men's in our culture. As noted by Judith Laws and Pepper Schwartz (1977) : "Those parts of the body which are sexualized in our culture - legs, face, breasts, and to a lesser extent buttocks - are subjected to special routines of display and enhancement" (c.f. in Lott, 1987:117). Women's bodies are used to attract the attention of men and to sell products. It can be argued that men respond more readily to sexual imagery than women, born out by the well-known "Kinsey Report on the sexuality of women (Kinsey, Pomeroy et al ) suggested that women are less apt than men to be sexually stimulated by visual. cues" (Lott, 1997:104). This visual stimulation provided by the female body is then exploited by advertisers in order to sell products.
  
  Print advertising in the 1990s reveals the continuing containment, sexualization and objectification of the female body. The three selected advertisements show the female form being offered to the reader purely as spectacle, an object of sight and a visual commodity to be consumed. We have become so accustomed to this type of representation in the media, particularly advertising that it has almost become 'naturalized' and 'normalized'. The objectification of women's sexuality has been economically profitable to advertisers nevertheless, its major purpose is to uphold the most fundamental division in society - that based on sex. "A critical perspective will demonstrate not only that women in the media are inferior to men, but also the limited and demeaning images of women are structurally related to the functioning of capitalism (Janus c.f in Baehr & Gray 1996:9).
  
  Sexuality is often exaggerated and sexual symbolism exploited. Women become the imagined 'fetishes' of men - passive, narcissistic and exhibitionist, inviting 'male voyeurism'. As John Berger has argued in relation to the portrayal of women - "men and women appear. Men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at" (c.f in Dyer, 1982:92).
  
   
  
  Historical ways of seeing - spectatorship.
  
  "Art historians ... stress the collective baggage that our culture invites us to carry with us. This rich inheritance, once tucked away in art galleries ... now extends its influence into contemporary advertising" (MacDonald 1995:30,31). Since the 1970s, a significant body of work has reviewed women's representation in society. Art history highlights visual constructions of women that predate the mass media, including advertising. John Berger's 'Ways of seeing' (1972) pioneered this theory:
  
  
  
  Exploring continuities in the visual representation of women from fifteenth-century oil painting through to 1970s advertising and Berger argues that women are trained by the traditions of their visual representation in western culture to look at themselves from a masculine perspective... Western art, he claims, poses women, nude or partially clothed, for the benefit of a masculine spectator (MacDonald 1995:3 1).
  
  
  
  In all three selected advertisements, the reader is restricted to viewing the female body from the male point of view. They have been designed for male pleasure. The female images indicate the ways in which the masculine 'gaze' controls the production and the viewing, sets up the spectator's looking position, and coincides with the look of the camera. This essay is concerned with representations of women in advertising. in order to understand this more clearly, it is necessary to include Sigmund Freud and Laura Mulvey's psychoanalytic accounts in the analysis of women in contemporary society.
  
   
  
  Freudian psychoanalysis
  
  The way in which advertising projects images of females, constructs female experiences, and perpetuates subjectivities for women can be understood by investigating ideological forms and forces through which masculinity and femininity are constructed. Psychoanalysis is the name given by Freud, in 1896, to a scientific theory of the human mind and personality, and is a therapeutic method of investigating unconscious mental processes.
  
  Freud claimed that infants are initially bisexual beings in that all new-born children have the same drives and aims. They are subsequently organized into masculine and feminine dispositions as a result of the constraints of society, most importantly those of reproduction. For Freud, the human personality is the product of the relationship between inner biologically determined drives and urges, and the external constraints of the physical world and society, which in effect is a repression of desires (Strachey, 1973:155). As small children, both sexes have activities broadly organized into oral, anal and phallic phases, and sexuality at this stage is predominantly active. It is only through the intervention of cultural complexes that both boy and girl undergo changes in the aims and activities associated with this phallic phase. Freud suggests that through the intervention of the Oedipus and castration complex, the boy and girl child are forced into predominantly masculine and feminine dispositions. Thus, the mechanism by which the male individual is socialized, is the Oedipus complex. This is based on the Greek myth of a son's act of patricide and his incestuous relationship with his mother.
  
  Freud considers the Oedipus myth as symbolic of the male child's desire to sexually possess his mother and kill his father, and which every male child entering social relationships must overcome (Strachey, 1973:158). The male child sees the father as a rival for the mother's affection, so the father poses a threat. Also, the male child has a fear of castration, represented by his 'penisless' mother. Hence, he detaches himself from his mother and identifies with his father, and takes on the position of a gendered subject in society (Strachey, 1973:158). It is at this point according to Freud, that males assume a superiority over females. The threat of castration entails merely the postponement of his early incestuous desires. He cannot sexually possess his mother, but he will be able to have other women.
  
  However, Freud saw the development of the female as being a very different process:
  
  
  
  The female child, he contended, recognizes herself as anatomically 'inferior' and comes to despise herself and all those like her (penisless), most especially her mother, who now becomes identified as a rival for her father's affection ... the female may gain self-esteem. only through a form of narcissistic vanity (Pribram, 1998:113).
  
  
  
   
  
  Laura Mulvey - "Visual pleasure and narrative cinema".
  
  At this point it is necessary to explore Laura Mulvey's views from her seminal article entitled "Visual pleasure and narrative cinema" (1973). Her theories are a feminist appropriation of Freudian psychoanalysis. She believes that in all forms of contemporary media, including advertising, the sexes are divided into the active male and the passive female. Mulvey explains that man is the bearer of the gaze, he is responsible for the "determining male gaze". Women, in contrast, "holds the look" (Penley, 1998:62). Mulvey continues:
  
  
  
  Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the story, and as erotic object for the spectator ... the woman as object ... She is isolated, glamorous, on display sexualized (Penley, 1988:62-64).
  
  
  
  The women in the three advertisements are displayed as sexual objects. Their appearance is coded for strong visual and erotic impact. They are exhibited and "can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness ... they play to and signify male desire" (Mulvey c.f. in Erens, 1990:33). So, in all the advertisements, it can be seen how male readers will view the females depicted as objects, they "hold the look" and are the prizes to be won if the product is purchased. This comfortably leads us into the next salient viewpoint that Laura Mulvey puts forward. She insists that women, due to their lack of a penis, represent man's fear of castration. There are two ways that men deal with this castration anxiety: the first avenue Mulvey calls "fetishistic scopophilia" (Mulvey, 1990:35). Here, males overvalue the physical beauty of the woman, and turn her into an object that is satisfying and pleasurable to look at. The second avenue, Mulvey refers to as "voyeurism" (Mulvey, 1990:35). This has associations with sadism in that males see females as deserving punishment when they are bad and reward when they are good. These avenues are unconsciously used by males to deal with their castration anxiety and to control and dominate females.
  
  It might be asked whether psychoanalysis is just another account which proclaim men innocent. On the contrary, psychoanalysis is a way of understanding the construction of the male and female individual which cannot be ignored. Far from absolving men, it points to ways of understanding masculine sexuality. It may also be seen, not as means of fully explaining or understanding woman's social status, but as another factor contributing to this status.
  
   
  
  Patriarchy
  
  The concept of patriarchy is an important one to include on this essay. Patriarchy "refers literally to rule by fathers or male heads of household, but has increasingly been used more loosely to refer to rule by men in general" (MacDonald, 1995:22). To describe the concept in more detail, it refers to a particular form of household organization in which "the father dominated other members of an extended kinship network and controlled the economic production of the household" (Barrett, 1980:10). Its resonance for feminism is that patriarchy is seen as a over-arching category of male dominance. A patriarchal society is one in which it is men who have power and control. Women are generally disadvantaged, exploited and have a lower status.
  
   
  
  

Stereo types

Stereotyping is:



A quick and easy way of labelling or categorising the world around us and making it understandable. Stereotypes are learned but are by no mum fixed, yet are often resistant to change. They tend to restrict our understanding of the world and perpetuate beliefs that are often untrue or narrow ... Stereotyping is not always negative, but tends to be very much concerned with preserving and perpetuating power relations in society. It is in the interests of those in power to continue to stereotype those with lower status in a negative light thus preserving the status quo. (Nelmes, 1996:227).



An analysis of advertising would suggest that gender is generally portrayed according to traditional cultural stereotypes : women are shown as feminine and attractive, as 'sex objects', or as housewives, mothers and homemakers; and men normally in situations of authority and dominance over women. The media, particularly advertising plays an important part in setting stereotypes and promoting a limited number of female role models. "The media regularly serve a menu of female stereotypes that stimulates misogynistic taste buds" (MacDonald, 1995:13). The incidence of representations of women as sex objects (as seen in all three advertisements), suggets that the media is implicated as one of the institutions that encourage people to adopt behaviour that reinforces gender-specific roles.