Gender, Philosophy and Popular Culture

Gender, Philosophy and Popular Culture

Module outline/learning contract

Deadlines

Today’s topics

◦ Introduction to gender theories (Goffman, Butler and essentialist versus non-essentialist ideas)

How we consume popular culture

◦ Encoding/decoding and criticisms

◦ Gendered media and subject positions

Feminist Philosophy

Grades/referencing - How to get an A grade

Why the workshops

1Gender Philosophy & Popular Culture

Popular Culture

Popular culture and the media linked

How gender is produced, represented and

consumed in popular culture

◦ Including the media

Philosophical reasons for why certain

ideologies dominate

◦ How we respond to gendered representations in

media/popular culture


Gender, social construction and performance

Socially constructed categories of masculine and feminine

Simone de Beauvoir (1949)

Gender as something we ‘do’

Plato – rational, courageous and appetitive

3

Gender as a social

construction

Essentialist nature of gender

One becomes a man

or woman

One is born a

man or woman

Gender Philosophy & Popular Culture

Understanding Gender identity

4

Non

Essentialist,

Fluid gender

Identities

Essentialist

Fixed Gender

Identity

Where are

you?

Gender Philosophy & Popular Culture

Goffman: Performance

Goffman (1959): masculinity and

femininity are gender roles which we

perform

We act through gender displays

Perform our gender

But we don’t freely choose – social

structures may lead us to conform


Butler: Performativity

Gender is the outcome of performativity

Scripts of masculinity and femininity which we continually re-enact

Popular culture/media teach us how to do masculinity and femininity e.g. how toys are marketed

The act of consuming or being a fan is performative


Criticisms

◦ assumes one preferred meaning

◦ does not allow for the diverse media institutions

Sub categories

◦ E.g. celebratory, compliant, hostile, apologetic, deferential, defensive, vulnerable, analytical, ironic etc.

American Idol and Encoding/decoding


http://youtu.be/tqg6tVWEbkY

The consumer

Theories assume a consumer

◦ Individual who reads/views/listens to a media text in an active way

Casual readers who browse?

Other activities at the same time

Collective consumption

◦ Gender has been found to be important in this

◦ Social relations e.g. seeing a film which friends choose


Gendered Media

Issues/topics as women’s or men’s

interests

◦ Codes and conventions understood in

particular genres

Pressure to invest in traditional

masculinity and femininity

Modleski (1982) and ideal mother

Power involved in these positions


Why Philosophy and Gender

Cartesian approach – reason enables us to

gain knowledge

Dualism

Feminists reject these Cartesian assumptions

Knowledge is socially situated

The body =irrelevant to philosophy

Senses mislead us

Feminist philosophy = embodiment is relevant

Caring connection with others

Gender Philosophy & Popular Culture 10

Care Ethics

Traditional philosophy = gender is irrelevant

for knowledge

Men are rational, women are emotional

Reinforces gender binaries

Kuhn (1962), Foucault – Knowledge reflects

the interests of its knowers

Is reason itself gendered

What standpoint are you writing from?


Why the Workshops

When you do something practical it moves into your longer term memory.

you challenge your (and my) own assumptions. This did happen last year!

Skills: Being out of our comfort zone and writing/reflecting on this afterwards (useful for interviews)

Theory needs to be balanced with these real life situations –

Challenging everyday assumptions in a real setting.

It stimulates deeper learning


How to do well in assignments

See pages 10-11 of your module outline

Argument

◦ Analysing arguments; coming to your own

conclusion

Research

◦ Important to cite references

◦ Need to show understanding of texts

◦ Comment on quotes

◦ See the Harvard referencing examples


How to do well in assignments

Writing

◦ Expressing ideas clearly in a coherent and fluent manner

◦ More mistakes start to lose you marks

◦ Grammar, punctuation, spelling, expression, tenses etc.

Comprehension

◦ Understanding the task and writing responses

◦ Best ones are creative and sophisticated in their approach


How we mark

◦ What does your grade mean

◦ External examiners


A+, A, A- = 1st

B+, B, B- = 2:1

C_, C, C- = 2: 2

D+, D, D- = 3rd

Summary

Gender, philosophy and popular culture

Social construction versus essentialism

Pressures to conform

◦ Whether ideologies/discourses in popular culture

◦ Social structures

Goffman/Butler in relation to performance/performativity and gender

How we read/consume these messages

Why the workshops

Referencing/Grades


References Barker, C. (2008) Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, London,

Sage.

Hall, S. (1997) Representation. Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices.London, Sage. (There is now an updated version but not yet in the library)

Milestone, K. & Meyer, A. (2012) Gender and Popular Culture. Cambridge, Polity. (not in library but a journal article by these authors is available )

Modleski, T. (2008) Loving with a Vengeance: Mass-Produced, Oxon, Routledge (Ebook)

Storey, J. (2009) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. An Introduction. Harlow, Pearson Longman (Ebook)

Tapfumaneyi, K.D.K & Rupande, G. (2013) The portrayal of gender relations in the media: Towards a gender sensitive media. International Journal of Advanced Research. Vol. 1(5), pp.571-578.


Documents

Gender, Philosophy and Popular Culture