Blog Post #6 — Module 2

1. Define and differentiate the following types of media analysis discussed in class:

• Textual analysis: analysis focusing on the text, such as sexist wording.
• Content analysis: analysis focusing on all types of media content.
• Discourse analysis: analysis focusing on the underlying hidden meaning.

2. Define and explain the difference between sexist language and sexist discourse, provide one example of each:

• Sexist language: using masculine terms to refer to both females and males, ignoring women, and generically to refer to human beings in general (ex. he/she, mankind, policeman…)
• Sexist discourse: using phrases or words to discriminate against a group of people based on their gender (ex. Men do not have long hair.)

3. We have studied different examples of media discourse. Define each of these and provide an example of any one of the following discourses as discussed in the readings.

• Second wave/imperialist feminism: Started in the 1960s and lasted two decades. It aimed to establish more equality between men and women by gaining more than enfranchisement.
• Aesthetic conformity: Conformity is the process that people are feeling pressure real or imaginary from the group, and thus, will change their behavior and will try for more social influence and obtain more admired and confirmed by the others. So as more women obtain surgically created beautiful faces and bodies the naturally given will be labelled the “technologically primitive” while the “ordinary” will be perceived and evaluated as the “ugly”.
• Hymen-centric virginity: the belief of a woman being a virgin based on whether her hymen is kept intact or not.
• Self-Orientalization: Described the interaction between RNC as an Arabic Facebook campaign and the global media coverage of Syrian refugee women’s issues.
• Patriarchal: the act of men being more superior than women in their community in which men hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, and social privilege.
• Racial Orientalist: cultural framework in which racism is practiced against eastern/Asian people in the western societies.
• Ideal body or ideal beauty: the definition of perfectionism — thin figure, blond hair, blue eyes etc.
• Commodity feminism: refers to the way feminist ideas and icons are appropriated for commercial purposes, emptied of their political significance and offered back to the public in a commodified form — usually in advertising.

4. What is “symbolic annihilation”?

The absence of representation, or underrepresentation, of some group of people in the media (based on their race, sex, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, etc.), as a means of maintaining social inequality. This term is usually applied to describe the ways in which the media promotes stereotypes and denies specific identities.

5. What are sexualization and objectification, why are practices in the media harmful?

• Sexualization: portraying females as sexual for male’s fulfillment and satisfaction.
• Objectification: portraying females as objects rather than human beings and assigning certain jobs/attributes to them.

6. Define gender stereotypes, tropes/metaphors, and media frames, and explain the difference?

• Stereotype: an over-generalized conception of a category of people based on discriminatory assumptions.
• Trope/Metaphor: a convention in a particular medium
• Frames: using a specific incident or story to encourage a certain perspective through the media regardless of its credibility

7. Define the male gaze and give an example of how this is represented in visual media?

Depicting women in the media from a masculine perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer, such as focusing on a woman’s body to draw men’s attention.

8. How is ideal femininity/masculinity constructed in the media?

Feminism has long been portrayed in a negative light. Femininity is showed through a house-wife mom perspective, that looks after kids and does the typical house work, whereas masculinity is portrayed through being rich, strong, powerful, and successful.

9. What are regimes of beauty or cosmetic surgery and how are these reinforced by the media for men and women?

Cosmetic surgeries are viewed as something extremely casual, accessible and safe in the media (trying to make it the new “norm”) and are further promoted by portraying the women who admit to having undergone cosmetic surgery as brave, independent and fearless.

10 . How does patriarchy influence media discourses that assume social control over bodies and sexualities?

Women are portrayed in stereotypical ways that reflect and sustain socially endorsed views of gender. Either portraying females as-stay at-home-wife or showcasing females as sexual objects. Patriarchy also promotes the concept of heteronormativity and condemns homosexuality.