Thinking about representations What comes first…. the media representation or the audience’s dreams and desires

“Representations enter our collective social understandings, constituting our sense of ourselves, the positions we take up in the world, and the possibilities we see for action in it.” Lisa Tickner From: “Sexuality and/in Representation,” in Difference: On Representation and Sexuality, ed. Max Almy et al., (New York: The New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1984),19.:

KEY POINT - Almy et al. (1984) argue that media representations of gender are important because they enter the collective social conscience and reinforce culturally dominant (hegemonic) ideas about gender which represent males as dominant and females as subordinate. Sociologists argue that media representations not only stereotype masculinity and femininity into fairly limited forms of behaviour, but also provide gender role models that males and females are encouraged to aspire to.

However Sociologists have noted the increasing number of positive female roles emerging, especially in television drama and films. It is argued that these reflect the social and cultural changes that females have experienced in the last 25 years, especially the feminisation of the economy, which has meant that women are now more likely to have aspirational attitudes, a positive attitude towards education, careers and an independent income. Westwood claims that we are now seeing more transgressive (i.e. going beyond gendered expectations) female roles on British television as a result.

Gill (2008) argues that the depiction of women in advertising has changed from women as passive objects of the male gaze, to active, independent and sexually powerful agents. Gauntlett (2008) argues that magazines aimed at young women emphasise that women must do their own thing and be themselves, whilst female pop stars, like Lady Gaga, sing about financial and emotional independence. This set of media messages from a range of sources suggest that women can be tough and independent whilst being ‘sexy’. social-class-ethnicity-gender-sexuality-and-disability social-class-ethnicity-gender-sexuality-and-disability