1 – 6
A = 1
B = 3
C = 5
All posts by Daniel Mendonca
Filters
DAVID HESMONDHALGH
David Hesmondalgh wrote a book called “The culture industries”
His work is about tracing the relationship between media work, workers, and the industry.
“VH:[00:17:10] I think a lot sadly does come down to luck and who you know. “
“MM: [00:34:02] So how do you see that? Looking back do you think that was, do you think basically you were lucky? The right person, in the right place, at the right time?
JL: [00:34:12] Yeah. “
Many younger people believe that the creative industry is a lot different to how it really is
“LH [00:20:14] the minute that I went in I realized not everybody who works in creativity is a fun person. There are a lot more boring than you’d expect them to be. They’re not as fun.“
They are drawn to the ideas of fame and wealth and that it will be easy and fun, putting them in a vulnerable position when they realise that this is not the case and the industry requires you to get very lucky
David Hesmondhalgh says that media is a risky business
The 3 main sections of the culture industry
PRODUCTION : This involves the production of the media such as the movie director or the song writer.
DISTRIBUTION : This includes companies or people who promote and advertise the product.
CONSUMPTION : This includes the shareholders, people or businesses that are involved with the product through the distribution. This includes workers such as cinema ticket people or the listeners of the music.
Strategies that minimise this risk mentioned by David: Concept 1: maximising profits and minimising risks
- Horizontal integration: This acquires the media companies involved to minimise risk by achieving scale based cost savings whilst also trying and allowing the product to maximise profits by positioning brands to not compete against each other
- Vertical integration: This acquires production, distribution and marketing specialist subsidiaries, media can control all aspects of their supply chain
- When considering horizontal integration, this idea is that there is one large business that integrates it’s business by focusing on one section of the film industry and the culture industry. Such as a business based around production, the main business is called the parent business.
- Vertical integration is when the main large parent company owns multiple companies across different stages of the film industry.
Repetitive strategies
- Following the same genres that are proven to generate the most profit to minimise risk
- Using the same star actors
- Leaving shows on cliff hangers to make sure they are interested in the next season or movie
- Or making more products out of one, such as song then selling concert tickets and merchandise
bombshell
Having had enough of her boss’s sexual harassments, Gretchen Carlson files a lawsuit against Fox News founder Roger Ailes. Her bravery triggers a domino effect, culminating into a liberation movement.
LINKING WITH PREVIOUS THEORIES:
You can understand misogyny (the poor representation of women in the media) in the same way you can understand racism, homophobia, ultra-nationalism and other forms of casual stereotyping, bias and prejudice, that is, through TEXTUAL ANALYSIS and the notion of REPRESENTATION.
As such, this film provides a narrative of INSTITUTIONAL SEXISM, in the same way that we could look at other stories that are concerned with other institutional prejudices – racism, homophobia, Islamaphobia etc. In other words, this film presents a version of the story of INSTITUTIONAL SEXISM and MISOGYNY. It suggests a link between the presentation / representation of the female form and the ideas of a ruling patriarchy (Fox News, specifically Roger Ailes) and perhaps explains why we are presented with the stories we are presented with and how those stories are presented to us.
Institutional Analysis:
A key area of media studies is to look at the role of companies, organisations, businesses, institutions. This takes the form of critical analysis. In other words, it is not looking at from a Business studies perspective – organisation, profit, structure – but rather from a sociological perspective – issues of ownership, power, control, behaviour management. I have made a post on my own blog which you can find here, but central to this kind of approach is Althusser’s notion of ISA’s (Ideological State Apparatus), which is often traced in media production by the way in which media texts INTERPELLATE (hail, call, construct, build, maintain) an ideological identity.
csp 3&4 essay
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 gender is represented in both the Score and Maybelline advertising campaigns?
This essay will be a discussion and evaluation of theorists and their supporting ideas about gender. How they are relevant to current modern issues and advertising. Then contrasting them to older views about representation of gender in advertising and history.
Judith Butler mentions and holds an unequivocal view of how gender should be represented in modern society. She believes that gender is fluid, changeable and plural. This means and has created an ideology that gender is a matter of choice and representation learnt and chosen through a repeated amount of actions. Actions that can be changed and done differently whenever a person feels as though they feel different one day or one hour compared to the other, gender is actively changeable. To put it simply, someone may feel as though they want to be a male one day; this would mean repeating a masculine regarded repetition of performance and actions; then feel as though they want to be a female the next. Gender isn’t a physical thing, she says that nothing can decide what gender you are, you decide who you want to be and this quote “Biological anatomies do not determine our gender” reinforces this view. This basic idea supports her views that gender can not be assigned at birth, that what anatomy a person is born with has nothing to do with their gender. Gender is how a person feels like, it’s a mental attitude that is always changing and ‘fluid’.
Further to this point, her ideas support views that no matter the way you act you cannot be regarded a certain gender over the other. “Male and female identities are not naturally configured”. We can act in a more feminine or masculine way but specific gestures or speech and acts don’t determine if we are a man or woman. She is trying to break out of typical gender stereotyping where specific acts decide who we are. Such as a sport like football being considered a male sport to play or makeup being regarded as a female thing to use, she tries to break out of this idea and allow anyone to do anything they like to live and embrace their identity. This is contrasting to some of the ideas presented by Laura Mulvey which seem to suggest that gender is fixed – male or female. That gender is controlled and exerted by powerful influencers, institutions and certain individuals. This is an opposite idea to Butler that suggests that we have multiple identities that are performed to different people, in different social settings, under different social conditions.
When applying this to both close study products we can see a vast difference to both advertising techniques and how gender is represented. Looking at Maybelline, made in the 30th may 2017, we can see a modern advertisement where the main signifier and actor used is a man. This is significant as it supports the hypothesis of Judith Butler that make up isn’t and shouldn’t be regarded as a product for women, and using it doesn’t apply you to certain groups or associations. The use of a male star in the advert is a progressive field in the beauty area of advertising. The ad is trying to adhere to all gender, sexuality, race and social class. This can be seen as a strong social statement, but also as a clever marketing strategy to appeal to everyone, to obviously gain the biggest profit and return. But as in consequence it still positively applies to Judith Butlers theory and can be seen as a prosperity in the advancement and deeper understanding of gender and more profoundly, race. When applying ideas of feminism to race, we can see that in the attempt to understand to be oppressed as ‘a woman’, some feminist scholars sought to isolate gender oppression from other forms of oppression’. Therefore, there was a focus on oppression of women who were white and middle aged, if not, there would be a lack of any focus at all. This being a notion provided by theorists ‘Sigle-Rushton’ and ‘Lindström’ in 2013. Similarly, in recent times, the third wave of feminism has a focus on challenging and re-contextualising some of the definitions of femininity that grew out of that earlier period. The third-wave sees women’s lives as intersectional, demonstrating a pluralism towards race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender and nationality when discussing feminism. This began in the early 1990s, led by Naomi Wolf. Furthermore, we can also apply this to the second part of ‘that boss life’ Maybelline advert where they also include 2 new characters, one being a white, presumed straight female and the other being an Asian woman with a typical hairstyle, used to clearly direct the ad and create a conclusion that the product is for everyone of every gender, race and sexuality. The posture in the original ad and also in the second, shows a transformation from the regular casual clothing and confidence, to a more prestigious outfit — after use of their product, it creates a constructed reality where they are now more glamorous and more confident, a total transformation, no matter what gender or race you are, you can be who ever you want and you deserve to be confident in your individuality.
The modernisation of these recent advertisements is affecting and changing new generations of children and their perception of gender. David Guantlet said “We are transitioning from a society in which our identities were constructed via rigid traditions to a distinctly different phase that he calls ‘late modernity”, this idea is showing that our ideologies based from our cultures and traditions are slowly becoming less important and less involved with who we are in modern times, we are now moving away from characterization and organization of individuals into certain groups, it is now up to every individual to decide their identity and how they wish to represented.
On the other hand, we have the score advertisement, this ad was made in 1967 and shows a massive differentiation from modern views and ads. Score, the printed advert, shows a completely different view to gender representation. It shows men and women as separate identities, an identity where woman are shown to be socially beneath men in the hierarchy. Woman are used as a tool in advertising to market a health and beauty product to men. It shoes women holding a man above them, clean shaven, portraying the use of their product. To put it simply, this is a clear opposite view of gender representation, a view where men are viewed as the more powerful and stronger gender and women are beneath them both metaphorically, socially and literally in this ad. As Judith Butler makes clear, “Myths reinforce male power as the norm because males are the more naturally dominant gender”, we can apply this to the score advert dexterously. It shows that a male dominant society is factual and proven in previous times. Upon deeper analysis, we can also assign this to Anita Sarkeesian ideas of the ‘damsel in distress’, although these ideas are applied to modern video games we can also see it in the score advert as we can see the woman beneath the man with some of them holding their hand above their heads, looking as though they are seeking refuge and to be protected by the strong able man. These times held strong stereotypes where woman were not as strong as men, gender was represented in a much simpler and narrow minded way and links to ideas of Laura Mulvey which says that gender is fixed and immovable, you are either male or female. Moreover, this advert follows a clear presentation that certain products are exclusively targeted for certain gender, the score ad is shown to be just for men, using woman to adhere to the male gaze and voyeuristic ideas produced by John Peter Berger.
In conclusion, I believe that in both aspects of close study products, Maybelline has had a more detached representation than common portrayals and ideologies of modern gender attitudes, as followed by ideas of Judith Butler, whereas, Score has a more archetypal show of customary and traditional views on how gender and authority is represented, as well as their displays of thoughts of individuality during the ads time period.
feminist critical thinking
- Feminist = a political position
- Female = a matter of biology
- Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristics
First wave of Feminism
In the past men were regarded greater at creating literally pieces and writings then woman were. Virginia Woolf stating that simply if women were not stereotyped and given equal opportunities to men originally, then more literacy pieces would have been made. These opportunities being not regarded as worse or beneath men and given the correct education and same rights as men.
Mary Wollstonecraft: was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights. She was one of the first advocate for woman’s rights and created a piece in 1792 named “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects” which is about as the name states, a moral and vindication of women’s rights.
Second wave of Feminism
‘the feminist literary criticism of today is the product of the women’s movement of the 1960’s’(Barry 2017:123)
- Feminist critical thought became much more prominent and pronounced during the counter cultural movements of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
- The Obscene Publications Act (1959) – which led to the Chatterly trial.
- A feminist group during this wave was the suffragettes who argued for voting rights for women.
- In 1913 a woman under the name Emily Wilding Davison took it upon herself to break into the track of a horse race and being trampled/hit by King George V’s horse “Anmer” to make a point and publicise the suffragettes movement. This was a show of how far these women were willing to go for their movement.
Third wave of Feminism
The Third Wave of feminism was greatly focused on reproductive rights for women.
Third-wave feminism began in the early 1990s, led by Naomi Wolf. Challenging and re-contextualising some of the definitions of femininity that grew out of that earlier period. The third-wave sees women’s lives as intersectional, demonstrating a pluralism towards race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender and nationality when discussing feminism.
Born in the 1960s and 1970s as members of Generation X and grounded in the civil-rights advances of the second wave, third-wave feminists embraced individualism in women and diversity and sought to redefine what it meant to be a feminist.
The third wave is traced to the emergence of the riot grrrl feminist punk subculture in Olympia, Washington, in the early 1990s
According to Barker and Jane (2016) 3rd wave has 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
‘a product of the unresolved feminist sex wars – the conflict between the women’s movement and the sexual revolution‘ .Ariel Levy (2006:74)
An idea of 3rd wave in modern times is the body positivity and sex positivity in feminism, women want to be able to show off their bodies without it having to be a big deal. This is reinforced by things like the ‘Free the Nipple’ campaign.
revision notes– GAUNTLET & BUTLER
Judith Butler quotes:
“Biological anatomies do not determine our gender” – This is a basic idea that although someone can be born with male or female anatomy, it doesn’t determine what gender that person feels like, a mental thing.
“Male and female identities are not naturally configured” – It does not matter in which way you act, your identity is not pre-determined.
“Gender is not solely determined by primary experiences during childhood” – Just because you acted a certain way during childhood, as you mature your identity can change, you sexual orientation can change.
“Micro performances that continuously signal our identity to ourselves and to others” – The way we act, whatever choice we make or the way we decide to portray ourselves, in small ways, is a form of out identity being shown.
“Myths reinforce male power as the norm because males are the more naturally dominant gender” – Shows that a male dominant society is factual and proven.
David Gauntlet quotes:
“Tradition dominates the notion of who we are and is heavily determined by long standing social forces” – Commonplace traditions and ideas that are instilled in out cultures heavily determines who we are when we grow up, including out gender identity.
“We are transitioning from a society in which our identities were constructed via rigid traditions to a distinctly different phase that he calls ‘late modernity” – Our ideologies based from our cultures and traditions are slowly becoming less important and less involved with who we are in modern times.
“Marketing and advertising agencies construct multiple possibilities of who we might be through products branding” – Modern and post advertising manipulate and change how we view the world and certain topics and creates possibilities of who we might become when we mature.
“Social roles of gender in a traditionally ordered society” – Society orders and puts either gender in certain gender roles.
“Transformations offered suggest that our identities are not fixed” – In games, you begin as the weakest version of themselves and as you progress you gain happiness, this gives motivation to find and change who we are
essay preperation
Judith Butler – Gender performance
Judith Butler suggests that gender is fluid, changeable, plural. She believes that the way people are represented are not strictly based off of our assigned gender at birth. She states that the way we act and the choices we make don’t specifically decide if we are female or male, we can act in a more feminine or masculine way but specific gestures or speech and acts don’t determine if we are a man or woman. She is trying to break out of typical gender stereotyping where specific acts decide who we are. Such as a sport like football being considered a male sport to play or makeup being regarded as a female thing to use, she tries to break out of this idea and allow anyone to do anything they like to live and embrace their identity.
This is contrasting to some of the ideas presented by Laura Mulvey which seem to suggest that gender is fixed – male/female.
Maybelline advert
The dominant signifiers of a recent advertisement campaign had stirred up a conversation, the recent ad titled “boss it up” features 2 people, one male and one female. This is significant because it is advertising eye liner, both the male and female are wearing this product. This is a radical approach to marketing and Maybelline now know that the focus on make up shouldn’t just be on females. You could see this as a genuine radicalism to fight against gender stereotypes, but more likely it is a realisation that there is a new market for men in the beauty makeup market. This follows ideas of Judith Butler that makeup shouldn’t be represented as a female only thing to use and we are now seeing a larger influx of influencers and people using makeup to portray their identities. Makeup is now considered a neutral choice. The ad also features a black female which is used to oppose normalities or straight white females being the main choice of models for these adverts. An example is Johnny Depp, a straight man who wears eyeliner, there should be no constructed reality idea on clothes, cosmetic products and peoples actions.
Score advert
Score, the printed advert, shows a completely different view to gender representation. It shows men and women as separate identities, an identity where woman are shown to be socially beneath men in the hierarchy. Woman are used as a tool in advertising to market a health and beauty product to men. It shoes women holding a man above them, clean shaven, portraying the use of their product. To put it simply, this is a clear opposite view of gender representation, a view where men are viewed as the more powerful and stronger gender and women are beneath them both metaphorically/ socially and literally in this ad.
Leveson 10 years on
- The Leveson Study was a study based on media outlets paying off the government to hack the general public’s devices to gain information and create stories for profit, as well as blackmailing celebrities with this info.
- One of the main story’s that came from this study is the involvement of the media with the murder of Milly Dowler. She was a young teenager who had been murdered and her body was supposedly never found. The media used her death and info surrounding the murder to create many stories and generate many sales, a method on which they achieved this was with the polices consent, they hacked into the victims phone and began texting and communicating with the victims parents to make them believe she was still alive, to then create more stories on her for as long as possible without any knowledge of the family and the public.
- The Levenson study was created to reveal the disingenuous and corrupt world of media, to stop all the manipulation on info and of the public and to finally put an end to it. This was 10 years ago and the world has hardly changed.
David gauntlett
Fluidity of identity– Gauntlet states how someone’s identity can change because of how men and woman are being represented differently in media. He now says we have a “greater diversity of identities”. Fluidity of identity means that a persons identity is always changing and they’re personality traits differ vastly.
Constructed identity– This is when people build up their identity and it slightly changes, depending on their peers/audiences. Now people can decide and create different genders and ideas and make it an identity, this generation allows for almost every idea and feeling to be dawned as a new identity. Different forms of media and influencers help us construct this reality.
Negotiated identity– A negotiated identity is a balance between our own ideologies and desires, as well as meeting the expectations of others and their ideas.
Collective identity– Means that we refer to our sense of belonging to group, weather that be out of a shared interest/experience or even something in common. Our desire to engage with others and “fit in”. These groups could be social, religious, occupational or gendered.
judith butler – gender theory
- Gender and identity is represented in many ways, many ways in which are communicated by us subconsciously constantly. Depending on your gender and how you wish to be represented, we do specific actions physically, verbally and non-verbally to communicate our gender and identity automatically.
- For example, as a male you could represent your gender by dressing in a more masculine way, having facial hair or even by the way you smell.
- By doing these different actions, society puts you into these constructed identity groups.
- Judith counter-types these ideas that of gender representation. She doesn’t believe that certain actions should factor into how your gender is represented, such as why is body building regarded as a male thing to do? She thinks that these stereotypes and identifications are not fixed or definite states.
Harry Styles brand article
- This brand is trying to break out of gender boundaries and groups by including typically more feminine products to be targeted and sold to men and all genders ad identities. Against repetition of gender performance.
- The mission statement for his brand is: “bring joyful experiences and products that excite the senses and blur the boundaries”.
- He states how this brand is more than a celebrity endorsement, this can be considered disingenuous and follows 2-step flow ideas.
“Styles announced that he hoped to “dispel the myth of a binary existence”
“Undoubtedly, there is serious value in beauty now. In July, the global beauty industry was valued at $511bn”
“Styles’s first business venture includes a range of nail polishes, an illuminating primer serum, and a dual-purpose eye and lip oil.”