Videogames: Further feminist theory

Videogames: Further feminist theory

As part of our study of women in videogames, we need to develop our understanding of feminist theory.

We have looked at a range of feminist ideas earlier in the course including Laura Mulvey, Judith Butler, Angela McRobbie, the concept of post-feminism and more. We now need to explore this further by bringing in the work of bell hooks and Liesbet van Zoonen.

Notes from the lesson

Watch this short extract from Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox interviewing bell hooks at The New School in New York:



bell hooks is a highly influential radical black feminist.

She sees feminism as a struggle to end patriarchal oppression - it should be a serious political commitment rather than a fashionable lifestyle choice. “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression”

bell hooks also points to the importance of race and class when studying oppression.

Intersectionality

Intersectionality is defined as the common point of two forms of oppression and how they work against a particular group of people. For example, black feminism addresses both gender and race discrimination.

bell hooks suggests that race is so significant that the experiences of gender, class or sexuality-based discrimination cannot be fully understood without also considering race.

This is important when analysing power in society. For example, men generally have more power then women – but white, middle class western women generally have much more power than women from BAME backgrounds.

Liesbet van Zoonen

Liesbet van Zoonen is an influential feminist academic and linked gender roles and the media explicitly in her 1994 book Feminist Media Studies. Some of her key ideas:

• Gender is constructed through media language
• These constructions reflect cultural and historical contexts
• The objectification of the female body is a key construct of western culture (building on Mulvey – male gaze)
• If women have to be like men to be treated equally, then equality itself is repressive

Further feminist theory: blog tasks

Use our Media Factsheet archive on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) to find Media Factsheet #169 Further Feminist Theory. Save it to USB or email it to yourself so you have access to the reading for homework. Read the whole of Factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) What definitions are offered by the factsheet for ‘feminism ‘and ‘patriarchy’?

Feminism a development which focuses on balance for ladies. Male controlled society male predominance in the public eye 

2) Why did bell hooks publish her 1984 book ‘Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center’?

distributed her 1984 book on account of the absence of assorted variety inside the women's activist development. 

3) What aspects of feminism and oppression are the focus for a lot of bell hooks’s work?

recommending that women's activists should concentrate on perspectives, for example, sex, race, class and intersectionality. 

4) What is intersectionality and what does hooks argue regarding this?

Intersectionality-the idea that at least two types of mistreatment can frequently cooperate against a specific gathering of individuals. She contends that the comprehension of intersectionality is key in the movement of accomplishing political and social balance. 

5) What did Liesbet van Zoonen conclude regarding the relationship between gender roles and the mass media?

there is a solid connection between sexual orientation (generalizations, sex entertainment and belief system) and correspondence, however the broad communications is progressively recognizable sex personality structures in promoting, film and TV. 

6) Liesbet van Zoonen sees gender as socially constructed. What does this mean and which other media theorist we have studied does this link to?

Van Zoonen talks about that sexual orientation isn't organically fixed This identifies with Butler's hypothesis that 'sex is a presentation' 

7) How do feminists view women’s lifestyle magazines in different ways? Which view do you agree with?

A few women's activists feels that magazines are politically off-base since they advance pictures and urge ladies to be 'immaculate mothers,loves,homemakers'. anyway some advance ladies in a progressively liberal manner and advance them as incredible and astute. 

8) In looking at the history of the colours pink and blue, van Zoonen suggests ideas gender ideas can evolve over time. Which other media theorist we have studied argues this and do you agree that gender roles are in a process of constant change? Can you suggest examples to support your view?

The relationship of pink with gentility and blue with manliness was made in nineteenth century France. In the eighteenth century be that as it may, a pink silk suit was viewed as proper clothing for a man of his word. 

9) What are the five aspects van Zoonen suggests are significant in determining the influence of the media?

Whether the foundation is business or open 

The stage whereupon they work (print versus advanced media) 

Genre (dramatization versus news) 

Target crowds 

The spot the media content holds inside the crowds' day by day lives 

10) What other media theorist can be linked to van Zoonen’s readings of the media?

Stuart Hall can likewise be connected to Van Zoonen's readings of ' Reception hypothesis' 

11) Van Zoonen discusses ‘transmission models of communication’. She suggests women are oppressed by the dominant culture and therefore take in representations that do not reflect their view of the world. What other theory and idea (that we have studied recently) can this be linked to?

Lobby contends that crowds react to writings is affected by their own perspectives and their own ' applied maps'. 

12) Finally, van Zoonen has built on the work of bell hooks by exploring power and feminism. She suggests that power is not a binary male/female issue but reflects the “multiplicity of relations of subordination”. How does this link to bell hooks views on feminism and intersectionality?

This connections since it recognizes that there isn't just one sort of abuse that influences crowds and individuals in the public eye.