Essays

In the past thirty years since Friedan's book, feminists have learned much about the pervasiveness or sexist patterns, the difficulty of changing these patterns, and the media's role in the establishment, continuity, and breaking of these patterns. Although most feminist writers began their work by acknowledging issues of women's differences such as race and class, the vast majority of books and articles, according to Valdiva, focus primarily on the white, middle-class, heterosexual. Western woman. Some feminist writers believe it is this absence of multicultural issues, particularly concerning women and the media, that divides women instead of uniting' them. The following will discuss some popular feminist perspectives in relation to women and the media and introduce a more recent one, that being, the multicultural feminist approach.

Of particular concern to many feminists is how the media has contributed to the cultural conversation about feminism at different historical moments over the past twenty-five years, Theory, particularly feminist and genre theory, is vital to explaining the rhetoric of media production. Feminist theorists such as Dow, have attempted to explicate the strategies use by those rhetors to communicate feminist ideology in ways that would attract women to their efforts and would persuade the larger public of the legitimacy of their claims. Feminist from varied philosophical and theoretical positions approached their analyses of women's problems and solutions with the media sharing at least two goals. Firstly, they tried to explain whether and how the media tried to perpetuate women's secondary status in societies, the second was to explore how the media might be used as a vehicle to advance their ideas, status, and political power. Tuchman et all’s studies revealed many ways in which women were misrepresented (symbolic annihilation) in the media in the late 1970s however they did not provide many tools with        which feminists were able to develop actual theories. Within the following decade, several approaches began to emerge such as liberal feminism, radical feminism and socialist feminism.

To begin with, liberal feminism is essentially a reformist approach, which tends to see more equal gender relations being brought about by equal opportunities policies and affirmative action programmes. It does not appear to question the power dimensions in society that maintain male superiority of status and female inferiority. Instead it concentrates on sex role stereotypes, prescriptions of sex-appropriate behaviour, appearance, interests, skills and self-perceptions. This perspective maintains that over time the media will 'catch up' with actual social positions and they will present a more accurate view.

According to Projansky, this has already occurred. She makes comparisons between perceptions of women and the media at the start «t the 20"' century and that of today. For example, a popular fictional female character a I the turn of the century was the 'vamp' who apprised to represent 'danger, sexuality and llu' possibility of independence'. Towards the end of the century, movies such as Thelma and Louise showed women acting 'independently, doing things they were not supposed to do, and celebrating women's bonding? Van Zoonan calls these latter women, 'superwomen', and makes mention of the many ways in which 'glossy magazines' for example, have introduced the superwoman who adeptly juggles her family and her successful work life.

On the other hand, studies conducted by Jones and Jones revealed that women's lives were only partially reflected and it-presented by the media. More often than not, of that winch is published is distorted and misleading. For example. Coward points out, images and articles in popular magazines such as Better Homes and Garden relate to home-improvements. They have a definite style of writing of which any idea of domestic labour is repressed. Labour is there but it is the labour of decorating, designing and painting which leads to the ‘house Ending up in the perfect state'. Turner suggests that this misrepresentation of the 'real home environment' not only represses women's labour but women are made to believe that they are, for the most part, responsible for domestic life. Any deviation from tills 'norm' connotes 'inadequacy’.

Radical feminists, similar to that above, focus on how women are misrepresented in the media however they investigate the effects of patriarchy on women that is the system whereby all men directly or indirectly dominate and oppress all women. They are particularly concerned about the media's role in the construction of consciousness and gender identities instead of specific stereotypes. The analysis of male dominance in the media and other social institutions identified the need for women to separate themselves from male- controlled systems and create their own organizations and structures.

For example, Cartmell et al suggest that films such as "Thelma and Louise' and 'Steel Magnolias' are an indication of how strong 'sisterhood' has become. They believe that the sharing of female experience and the promise of 'sisterly solidarity' has given women the 'power by numbers' to infiltrate and influence media content. Monaco on the other hand, believes these movies whilst portraying women with common aims, are perhaps 'just as insidious as the Brotherhood' while being out of fashion because of their associations with the 'left' rather than the 'right'/ especially in their attack on an exclusion from patriarchal structures. With 'Thelma and Louise for example, Monaco suggests a hostility to women in that the only form of self-determination it proposes is suicidal. The "Colour Purple' is another example whereby a matriarchal community rules and the former patriarch are only allowed to exist on the outer.

Socialist feminism, unlike the previous approaches, does not concentrate exclusively upon gender, but incorporates analyses of social class, ethnicity, sexual preference, age and disability into the discourse. This theory appears embedded in socioeconomic conditions to which the above and other factors take second place. The media are perceived as ideological apparatuses that represent the essential rightness of capitalism as a social system and socialist feminists concentrate on the ways in which gender is constructed through language and imagery that is sociology. It is based within a Marxist framework of reference, namely Grasse’s theory of hegemony or otherwise known as 'the manipulative model'.

For example, news might serve as the means by which a dominant class, such as white male elites, could condition a population of subordinate classes (women, minorities) to adopt prevailing values and behaviours, thereby perpetuating an inherently unequal system of power. Rakow supports this claim by suggesting that the 'news is essentially a masculine narrative in which women function not as speaking subjects but as signs. Moritz says that 'news media practices continue to be deeply implicated in the perpetuation as a sexist, heterosexual, homophobic, and class-driven culture that privileges elite, white, conservative, male voices.

According to Kray, media personnel may appoint as newsmakers and/or salespersons, individuals they feel to be representative of marginal groups however most are males while females of any type are 'symbolically annihilated'. Producers and owners (powerful elite) believe this representation, although minimal, will clear them of any discrimination and place them in a favourable position with their public. Some women such as Oprah Winfrey and Roseanne Barr have successfully infiltrated mainstream media structures however women tend to remain largely absent.

Although the above perspectives may provide relevant arguments concerning the relationship between women and the media, research tends to show that women are still largely oppressed. Dominick and Rauch undertook the earliest systemaly study of gender stereotyping on American television in 1972. They found that seven-five percent of advertisements used women for kitchen and bathroom products, over fifty-six percent of women were portrayed as housewives while men were portrayed in authoritative roles and eighty-seven percent of voice-overs used a male voice. Cumber-batch's studies showed that men still outnumbered women on screen by the ratio of nearly 2:1 and over eighty- nine percent of voice-overs were male.

Women were still portrayed far more commonly in decorative roles than men were and far more as attractive and slim. In other words, it appears that women remain in what is essentially a man's world and as Dow points out, 'in the '1990s patriarchy is still alive and well while women's attempts at self-definition and self-determination continues to be marginalized and silenced. Popular culture and media play key roles in that process'.

Valdiva believes, 'the reasons why feminism has been broadly misunderstood and changes have 'not been successful' is that of women's differences not being acknowledged within the media or fully explored within past feminist theories'. Instead the media and most feminist theories have concentrated on women as stereotypically white middle-class, heterosexual and existing within Western cultural beliefs and values. Women have been discussed and treated collectively, as though they possess the same cultural identities and desires.

She, along with other feminist writers such as Guzman believe that a perspective in which women of colour, sexual preference, ethnic background, religious beliefs, economic position and geography are inclusive would provide a greater force in combating the oppression of nil women. Spaceman suggests that these interrelationships between race, gender, class, age, sexuality and disability amongst women cannot be ignored because 'a woman's race and class, for example, will influence her 'place along with her gender". 'It is only by understanding the contradictions inherent in women's location within various structures that effective political action and challenges can be devised' (Mohanty, 1991: 66).

Although in its infancy, Rowe and Schelling liken this perspective to a 'map' in which the 'terrain has still to be made visible'. This involves targeting traditional frameworks within the media that construct themselves around what Valdiva refers to as 'binary oppositions' (black/white, female/male, rich/poor, public/private). To illustrate the differences, many of these theorists have paid particular attention to films. For example, traditional binary divisions such as black and white neglects all those who fall between or beyond these two variables, for example, Latinas or Asians (White Men Can't Jump). Male and female divisions assume all women are heterosexual while lesbians and patriarchal issues tend to be excluded (The Colour Purple). The public versus private approach often neglects to confront issues such as rape and domestic violence (What's Love Got to Do with It). The binary division between the rich and poor is often portrayed with women of upper-class status being beautiful and successful and those of a lower-class status filling the roles of struggling women.

Diversification of these binary divisions becomes problematic when considering issues of basic access. What this means is, few 'men' as Valdiva says, have tried to expand the stereotypes and limitations of gender portrayals within mainstream representation. She refers to Steven Spielberg who has done the topic of African American women (The Colour Purple) and the holocaust. She suggests that it would be 'unrealistic to expect that Spielberg would do a movie about lesbian Latinas or working class Asian Americans. Clearly one of the goals of feminist multiculturalism would be to get to the point where media producers, not only men, possess sensitivity to issues of diversity and recognition of one's personal identity within media production.

Issues of personal 'identity' revolve around the assumption that everyone has multicultural identities however some are marked 'different' while others are 'normal'. While identity is not something that one entirely chooses, liberal notions of self-determination suggest it might be a matter of choice. Other theorists argue how identities are for most, fixed, and some women's identities put them closer to dominant culture than others thereby influencing the level of oppression experienced by them and the numbers of opportunities available to them. In Western cultures for example, the white, middle-class, heterosexual woman might feel oppressed only by gender whereas a poor. Third World lesbian woman of colour could experience oppression from a number of fronts. The former is more likely to have a greater choice of careers for example, of which the latter would not. This may be evident when reviewing the numbers of white female news readers compared with those of colour. In other words, the closer these components of identity situate women to' the mainstream, the closer to power they become.

Whatever the perspective, either in support of or not that an oppressive relationship between women’ and the media exists, analysis of media types in the past five to ten years appears to show that women remain largely oppressed objects rather than equal subjects. Longer standing perspectives such as liberal feminism, radical feminism and socialist feminism tend to construct their theories within traditional binary divisions such as black and white, male and female and so on. Newer perspectives such as the multicultural feminist approach deals with the effects of these binary divisions on women, confronts issues of personal identity and discusses how the media possess the ability to destroy multicultural identities of women and men. Bearing this in mind, personal identity being that which enables each to be an individual in their own right and one of which they should be proud, the media should consider these issues as a matter of respect and morality. Perhaps in the future, continued persistence from approaches such as the multicultural feminist perspective may result in improved recognition and acceptance of not only women of difference but of all people.