Feminism: Traditional Gender Ideologies

What are gender ideologies?

What is PATRIARCHY?

The result of patriarchy is that traditionally male qualities and attributes

are generally seen as superior to traditionally female qualities and
attributes.
The CEOs and heads of most big businesses are male, including those in
the media. They naturally (unconsciously?) promote their own qualities as
superior through the ideological makeup of the texts they produce.
It is because men traditionally held power that masculinity became the
dominant gender in society

How do action films link to patriarchal ideas about gender? [Hint:

what typical roles are assigned to men and women?]

What effect does watching such films have on male and female viewers?

Patriarchy often assigned women certain roles, commonly relayed via the
media as stereotypes. What are two of the most common stereotypes
used?

How might these stereotypes suit patriarchal ideology?

Laura Mulvey, objectification and the male gaze.

Mulvey is a key theorist describing how women are represented in visual
media. When we have worked through the slides, write a summary of the
key points here in your own words:

Look at the images on the next pages and annotate to explore:

1) How is the gaze of the audience gendered?
2) How is the audience positioned in relation to the female figure in
the image?
3) What representation of the women in the images is present?

Now consider these newer texts, highlighting the same issues:

Why, according to Mulvey, do female viewers take on the male gaze?

What does this quotation suggest about why whose gaze is dominant
matters?

Make some separate notes on the various clips we will be looking at to

analyse the traditional gender ideologies at work.

Abjection: The Feminine Other

Abjection is another way in which women have been shown under
patriarchy.
What does the term abjection mean?

What does Julia Kristeva say about how films tend to construct aspects of
femininity that are different to masculine identity?

This is often how women are depicted in horror films what phrase does
Babara Creed use to describe this representation?
Note some examples of abjection:

The Final Girl

Carol Clover identified The Final Girl phenomenon in slasher horror
films.
A group of girls are picked off one by one but one survives
What features is typical of The Final Girl character?

How might this be seen as a patriarchal representation of a woman?

Key Points So Far

Femininity and masculinity are socially constructed identities

Patriarchal femininity and masculinity are created to favour men and

keep men dominant this was possible because men held power in
society and were able to enforce their views and normalise them via
agents of socialisation

Homework:
Read through slides 59 93 and make notes on:
First, Second and Third Wave Feminism
Different Type of Feminism
Post-feminism