SYSTEMIC SOCIETAL SEXISM
MISOGYNY derives from psychoanalysis and essentially means a fear and hatred of women, or put simply: SEXISM, a mechanism used by males as a way of exerting power and control in society, otherwise known as THE PATRIARCHY
According to Michelene Wandor, ‘sexism was coined by analogy with the term racism in the American civil rights movement in the early 1960s. Defined simply, sexism refers to the systematic ways in which men and women are brought up to view each other antagonistically, on the assumption that the male is always superior to the female‘
JACQUES LACAN
- Feminist = a political position
- Female = a matter of biology
- Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristics
INSTITUTIONAL SEXISM
INDIVIDUAL SEXISM
LAURA MULVEY
“In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed and their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact” – Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975)
Laura Mulvey’s thesis was the role of the male gaze, a theoretical approach that suggests the role of ‘woman as image, man as bearer of the look,’ in contemporary visual media. Mulvey draws on the work of Jacques Lacan (‘this mirror moment‘), highlighting the parallel between the ‘mirror stage’ of child development and the mirroring process that occurs between audience and screen – ‘a complex process of likeness and difference‘. She also, discusses the position of the audience, categorising them as spectators who project their ‘repressed desire onto the performer‘.
RAUNCH CULTURE
According to Barker and Jane (2016), third wave feminism, which is regarded as having begun in the mid-90’s is the ‘rebellion of younger women against what was perceived as the prescriptive, pushy and ‘sex negative’ approach of older feminists.’ (344) and put forward the following recognisable characteristics:
- An emphasis on the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion
- Individual and do-it-yourself (DIY) tactics
- Fluid and multiple subject positions and identities
- Cyberactivism
- The reappropriation of derogatory terms such as ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ for liberatory purposes
- Sex positivity
PLURALISM/INTERSECTIONALITY – MULTIPLE DISCRIMINATION
INTERSECTIONALITY
This developed from Queer Theory. In the UK the pioneering academic presence in queer studies was the Centre for Sexual Dissidence in the English department at Sussex University, founded by Alan Sinfield and Johnathon Dollimore in 1990 (Barry: 141).
Individual Agency = You can be whoever you want, you are able to perform whatever you want, whenever you want.