Judith Butler describes gender as “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts”. In other words it is something learnt through repeated performance.

How useful is this idea in understanding how gender is represented? Compare and contrast your idea in terms of both print media and music videos

Rafer in detail to you chosen music video Style models, Men’s health and Oh..

Judith Butler is an American philosopher, and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminist, queer, and literary theory. Butler questions and explores ideas of how gender is socially constructed and states that through the media and repeated traditions and actions society has created its own rules of right and wrong or stereotypes for each gender. And from the repetition of the actions it becomes the “normal”, for example the stereotyping and or social norm, of boys liking the colour blue, and girls liking the colour pink. By looking at her work we can use theorist like; Jacques Lacan, Mulvey, Althusser, and Noam Chomsky, to further explain her points. As it is clear to see she was influenced by, Lacan’s mirror theory, and Chomsky’s theory on manufacturing consent, Mulvey Male gaze, and Althusser ISA, interpellation. We can use their theories to further link our case studies of men’s health and Oh along with our three style model music videos.

Starting with one of the style models “Little Uneasy” by Fazer daze. The music video starts with an open road and then slowly pans backwards, to see a girl skating. She’s wearing shorts, a plaid shirt over an orange t-shirt, with a pair of converses. She’s skating on a longboard, and just from these first few shots we can gather that she is the protagonist, and that the people who made the music video, have a more radical view on stereotypical girl protagonists. Just by her wearing more comfortable clothes, or what could be seen as more boyish clothing. We can see that the music video is going against Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze. And is using its resources to have an empowering women for their main character, to show diversity from the typical “pretty” girl lead, by her not wearing a skirt or provocative clothing which would support the male gaze theory, and can be seen in a lot of pop music videos.

Throughout the rest of the music video the girl skates along the road until the end where it pans out above her and the road, to get a wide shot view of where she was skating. commenting on here clothing again we can see that the way she’s represented can involve Lacan’s mirror theory, as from the more radical choice of clothing can give the audience a deeper connection to the protagonist and make them feel represented in the media in a positive lighting for how they choose to dress, and can give them a sense of identity and representation to feel more include in society.

Following Lacan’s theory we can see the negative connections when we relate it to “Men’s health” and their 2017 edition for the months of January and February. As in this chosen magazine the representation is more stereotypical, of how men “should” look. and with this, as Lacan describes it: “give a loss of identity to an individual”. From the way men are represented to be muscular, when realistically it can be quite unattainable for the average man to get to that level of fitness. And more often than not photos for magazines are altered to what we all see as better or more acceptable by society’s standards. so i would classify that as negative representation, as it isn’t representing the average man in a positive lighting but highlighting the one percent of men who are more muscular. So creating more of a loss of identity, for the majority of the audience. With an unattainable goal of how they should look instead of positive representation, showing what most men actually look like.

This also ties in with Noam Chomsky’s work, of manufacturing consent as from the mass evidence, of men’s magazines showing strong men on their covers. It can manipulate the audience to change their thinking, about how they “should” look, and what they “should” expect men to look like. Overall, it became the stereotype for men. Another point is Louis Althusser theory of the Ideological State Apparatus. The media is the apparatus transferring their dominant ideology and forming our ideologies in the process. Furthermore, how they use the colour for the background of their front cover is an indicator of a subliminal message for their target audience. Using the colour blue as the background shows one of their connections for the target audience which is men. Which again can also be seen as something that was a factor of manufactured consent, over the decades. That became the dominant ideology that men associate with the colour blue more than other colours, because of the media. This also further proves Judith Butler’s quote on gender being constructed by repeated action, from the points that I have made with “Men’s health” magazine.

Moving on to the other style model, I’m examining “ego” by Scruffpuppie. This music video is definitely on the more radical side of ideology just from the singer’s look. It opens with the protagonist leaning out a car window with the title of the song appearing. Just from this first scene we can see that he doesn’t dress like the typical dominant ideology of what a man should dress like. The first main point that suggests a radical look on gender, is that he has bright, long pink hair. This goes against my point of boys associating with the colour blue rather than other colours like pink, which is considered a softer, and more dainty colour in comparison which subconsciously was seen as a sign of weakness, liking the colour pink as it was a sign of girliness and a lack of toughness that men that was typically asked from men. In correlation of Butler’s statement this challenges it as it is the opposite of gender normality’s and stereotypes that the media constantly represented. It’s a more radical view that goes against the repetition and it’s a showing of diversity and thinking differently on how gender can be represented.  

This sort of diversity in representation fits more with the profile of our other case study “Oh”. Oh is an independent media company owned by “Iceberg Press” it is a lifestyle and environmental movement magazine. This magazine has more radical views on the dominant ideologies of gender from the lack of men on their covers to show that women can stand strong without them and can lead. Not only do they show women on their covers they go against Mulvey’s theory on the male gaze, and represents all types of women. A clear example of this would be in their spring addition of 2019 the women on the front cover wasn’t the conventional type of pretty. With one of her key features being her eyebrows. Which in typical media products are shown as small and neat. Oh’s front cover model has bushy eyebrows which shows a radical view on female beauty. This can also tie in with Lacan’s mirror theory in a positive way by giving more women representation so they can feel valid in their looks and identity

In conclusion I think Judith Butler’s statement of gender being learnt by repetition is a true claim in parts of the media. I think her statement was commenting on the negative sides of tradition, conforming people’s identity. But with new media products, and generations we are slowly showing more positive acts of representation, by filtering these more radical views, and representation of diversity throughout the media, to become the dominant ideology.