Formation and Van Zoonen’s Feminist Theory By Lewis and Mark

What Is Van Zoonen’s Feminist Theory? -The idea that gender is constructed through discourse, and that its meaning varies according to cultural and historical context. -The idea that the display of women’s bodies as objects to be looked at is a core element of western patriarchal culture. -The idea that in mainstream culture the visual and narrative codes that are used to construct the male body as spectacle differ from those used to objectify the female body.

The objectification of woman is displayed throughout through the costuming, actor performance and dance routines which contain moves which could be considered sexually orientated such as the woman thrusting their rumps. The costuming within some of the shots (revealing red bodysuit). Also, Queen B can be seen opening her legs within one of the ante- bellum clothing scenes which is of course holds sexual connotation and is suggestive. Directly linking to the way in which women's bodies are presented as objects within western patriarchal culture

I feel as though this video does conform to the element of the theory that states that the way in which men’s and women's bodies are constructed as a spectacle through visual and narrative codes differs in mainstream western culture. There is evidence for this in the screenshots shown as the women are overly sexualised and there is rarely a shot including a woman that doesn’t carry some sort of sexual undertone. Whereas the men aren’t sexualised at all and are portrayed to seem ‘cool’. As seen in the basketball shot.

The idea that gender is constructed through discourse, and that cultural and historical context determines its meaning is challenged in many instances. One way is how Beyonce is displayed as the powerful figure throughout, even when wearing ante-bellum costuming and creating connotation of past times where slavery was apparent. This idea of a black woman being dominant is extremely challenging to the truth of those times. Her power is displayed through many low angle shots, like the ones here. Another instance would be seeing the Police force, which is entirely made up of grown white men being disarmed of their power as they surrender to a young black boy dancing.