The Politician,The Wife,The Citizen,and her Newspaper

Recent dramatic rises in the number of women elected to British parliaments have renewed critical interest in the significance of gender, and ways of theorising and researching women's political representation. However, the central role played by the media in contemporary politics is often neglected in feminist political scholarship. At the same time, the spaces occupied by women in political news journalism and the body politic remain under-explored by media theorists. This article argues that if we are to fully understand the politics of representation and what fairer representation for women might mean, we need to address these neglected dimensions. To make the case, I present an analysis of press coverage of the 1997 British General Election campaign. This seeks to draw together conventionally disparate strands of feminist, political and media theorising in order to highlight the gendered politics of newspaper imag(in)ing, storytelling, and commentary. Improving women's presence in media(ted) political discourse, I conclude, might be one means of strengthening women's symbolic and substantive representation.     

Media and the Intersectional Other

This article presents the findings of an intersectional study on migrant women on German television. Besides content and textual analyses, we conducted focus groups with audiences and interviews with migrant media workers. As the representation of Others was explored through the nodes of production, consumption, and identity, a complicated intersectional practice emerged. We found the televised representations of migrant women to be dominated by (often veiled) women as signifiers of non-integration but also by instances when gendered ethnicity was used as a marketable attribute. The audiences and producers employed various distancing strategies: they criticized specific programs for blatant stereotyping as much as didactic counter-stereotyping while downplaying systemic shortfalls of the coverage. These distancing strategies were intensified by the acceptance of individualized ideologies of success and commodified logics of media production. Ultimately, class appeared as the central demarcating category. On German television a problematic class distinction was articulated through ethnic and gender difference. Female migrants were often “othered” as lower-class. This class discourse absolved middle-class viewers and media workers from engaging in the systemic struggles over female/migrant identities, thus undermining the potential for gender and migrant solidarity and for the dynamic creation of cultural citizenship as a mode of belonging.     

Walt Whitman,Our Great Gay Poet?

ABSTRACT

This article surveys the critical debates around Walt Whitman's “Calamus” cluster, arguing that a “queer” reading of Whitman—one that does not see him as, for example, a closeted homosexual who censored his work for fear of being “outed”—is both historically accurate and politically efficacious. While previous efforts to reclaim Whitman as “our great gay poet” are understandable—particularly given critical readings of Whitman that denied the homoeroticism of his poems—today, a reading of Whitman as homosexual threatens to simplify our understanding of the history of homosexuality and to blunt the power of Whitman's poetry to continue to “queer” normative understandings of sex and gender identity categories and their relationship to politics.     

Gender Monstrosity

Deadgirl (2008) is based around a group of male teens discovering and claiming ownership of a bound female zombie, using her as a sex slave. This narrative premise raises numerous tensions that are particularly amplified by using a zombie as the film's central victim. The Deadgirl is sexually passive yet monstrous, reifying the horrors associated with the female body in patriarchal discourses. She is objectified on the basis of her gender, and this has led many reviewers to dismiss the film as misogynistic torture porn. However, the conditions under which masculinity is formed here—where adolescent males become “men” by enacting sexual violence—are as problematic as the specter of the female zombie. Deadgirl is clearly horrific and provocative: in this article I seek to probe implications arising from the film's gender conflicts.     

Visibility patterns of gendered ageism in the media buzz: a study of the representation of gender and age over three decades

Abstract

The mainstream media provides a constant flow of visual images of men and women, whether it is via newscasts, billboards, magazines, or television. In media research, these different media types are usually investigated separately. The aim of this study is to analyse the accumulated gender representation of all images that we passively or actively take part in, here defined as “the media buzz.” To capture the representation of gender and age in the media buzz, this study focuses on images from one day in the most circulated media within Sweden: news, feature stories, fiction, and advertising. The empirical data is drawn from three different decades—1994, 2004, and 2014. Overall, the study indicates there to be a general male/female balance in terms of numbers. However, when turning older, both men and women become almost invisible, even though older men are more visible than older women. Older persons rarely reach the news and they are more likely to be found in advertising and feature material. The work presented here suggests that the structures of visibility and the clusters of gender-age representation in the media foster stereotyping. The media buzz not only contributes to ageism, but is also still distinctly gendered.     

“Nyota Uhura is Not a White Girl”

This essay examines the online debate surrounding representation of the Black/African character of Lt. Uhura in the 2009 prequel film, Star Trek. Some fans, particularly those viewing the film from a gender/race intersection, applauded her portrayal, while others, including many “slashers” who espouse a homoerotic reading of classic Trek from an ostensible gender/sexuality standpoint, disapproved—especially of Uhura's romantic storyline. Virtual observation and appraisal of these discourses demonstrate the adaptability of Patricia Hill Collins' intersectionality framework to studies of media reception, especially in terms of hegemonic and interpersonal domains of power and cultural studies notions of articulation. Accordingly, the investigation finds the first fan faction's rhetorical efforts more authentically and pro-actively oppositional.     

Medicalization and Teen Girls' Bodies in the Gardasil Cervical Cancer Vaccine Campaign

To explore the impacts of health advertising campaigns on media consumers' perceptions of their health and bodies, I applied the concept of medicalization to a current health media campaign about a cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil. Literature about medicalization, women's reception of body images, and girl-centered communication studies framed the study. Thirty-nine teens from various backgrounds, aged between fourteen and seventeen years old, were interviewed in six states. Individual and dyad interviews and focus groups helped obtain thick, rich details. A grounded theory approach allowed previously unexplored themes to emerge. Findings suggest that girls believe that media messages about their sexual health—such as the Gardasil TV commercial—instruct them as to health topics they should be concerned about, the social rules that girls should follow—particularly in how, when, and with whom they can discuss sexual health—and how the practice of sex intersects with morality in personal and peer identity formation. Among other implications, this study suggests how campaign designers can re-situate health communication with teen girls. The study also suggests the importance of seeing medicalization effects within an intersectional framework of race, class, and parenthood status.     

Are UNDP Indices Appropriate to Capture Gender Inequalities in Europe?

This study critically investigates the suitability of United Nations’ composite indices and other related measures—among which the Gender Inequality Index just released in 2010—to capture gender inequalities in the context of “highly developed” countries, focusing on the case of Europe. Our results indicate that many of the gender gaps in health and education variables have either vanished or even reversed, thus questioning their appropriateness to capture women’s disadvantage in Europe and inviting to construct region-specific measures. Alternatively, parliamentary representation and labor force participation are variables with large gender gaps that highlight important dimensions where women disadvantage prevails. Different cross-section and cross-time associations between economic growth and gender equality are generally not statistically significant—or at most weakly correlated—at European level. This is basically due to the fact that the gender gaps included in UNDP gender-related indices reached their normatively desirable values long ago, therefore leaving no room for further improvement.     

Olivia Pope: a black post-feminist subject? Analyzing Scandal’s intersecting post-feminist and colorblind discourses

Previous analyses of Scandal have focused on how colorblind discourse in the series influences the representation of lead character Olivia Pope’s Blackness. Less has been written about how dominant discourses of race and gender intersect in the series. Correspondingly, post-feminist scholarship has overwhelmingly concentrated on discourses of gender in depictions of white women. This article seeks to bridge the gaps between scholarship on representations of race and gender on television. Situating Scandal within the context of post-feminist and colorblind discourses of gender and race that have been prominent on mainstream television since the early 2000s, this article takes an intersectional approach to interrogate how Olivia Pope, a Black woman, is incorporated into post-feminist discourse. Rhetorical analyses of episodes of Scandal’s seasons 1 through 5 uncover how colorblind and post-feminist discourses provide at their junction a restricted space for a Black post-feminist subject. Olivia Pope’s post-feminist characterization comes at the expense of obfuscating how her Blackness affects her identity as a woman, and effectively “posts” her Black womanhood. The visibility of the Black post-feminist subject in colorblind post-feminism is thus paradoxically contingent on the concurrent invisibility of Black women’s experiences and Black feminist concerns.     

Science,Modernity, and the Making of China's One‐Child Policy

China's one‐child‐per‐couple policy represents an extraordinary attempt to engineer national wealth, power, and global standing by drastically braking population growth. Despite the policy's external notoriety and internal might, its origins remain obscure. In the absence of scholarly research on this question, public discourse in the United States has been shaped by media representations portraying the policy as the product of a repressive communist regime. This article shows that the core ideas underlying the one‐child policy came instead from Western science, in particular from the Club of Rome's world‐in‐crisis work of the early 1970s. Drawing on research in science studies, the article analyzes the two notions lying at the policy's core—that China faced a virtual “population crisis” and that the one‐child policy was “the only solution” to it—as human constructs forged by specific groups of scientists working in particular, highly consequential contexts. It documents how the fundamentally political process of constituting population as an object of science and governance was then depoliticized by scientizing rhetorics that presented China's population crisis and its only solution as numerically describable, objective facts. By probing the human and historical character of population research, this article underscores the complexity of demographic knowledge‐making and the power of scientific practices in helping constitute demographic reality itself.     

Patriarchy,Power, and Female Masculinity

ABSTRACT

This article examines the place of “butch” within the women's movement. The political potentials of butch in both her refusal of patriarchal constructs of femininity and her transmutation of masculinity will be explored. It will be argued that the butch lesbian threatens male power by severing the naturalized connection between masculinity and male bodies, by causing masculinity to appear “queer,” and by usurping men's roles. However, for “butch” to truly have feminist potential, it also needs to be accompanied by a feminist awareness and a rejection of aspects of masculinity that are oppressive to women. Hence, “butch feminist” need not be an oxymoron, but a strategy for challenging male domination and power.     

“It Has No Color,It Has No Gender,It’s Gender Bending”: Gender and Sexuality Fluidity and Subversiveness in Drag Performance

ABSTRACT

Gender identity is a key question for drag performers. Previous research has shown a lack of consensus about the subversiveness and gender fluidity of drag performers. This article examines the question: How does the relationship between performers and their audience affect the subversive nature and gender representation of drag performers in this study? Furthermore, is this relationship complicated by sexuality? This study uses ethnographic and interview methods, examining experiences of 10 drag performers. Findings indicate mutuality in the relationship between performers and audience. The recursiveness of this relationship provides a constant feedback to the performers in their effort to displace the audience’s previously held notions. The performers have fluid understandings of gender and sexuality, often presenting multiple genders in and out of drag. Interactions between performers and their audience indicate their belief in gender fluidity; moreover, the drag performers themselves desire to be subversive and gender and sexually fluid.     

Covering Clinton (2010–2015): meaning-making strategies in US magazine covers

With a trailblazing political career, Hillary Clinton has been the focus of media attention for decades. This study examines 21 US magazine covers of the former First Lady and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate from 2010 through 2015—prior to her official bid for presidency—to investigate what these depictions of Clinton say about her and the relationship between gender, power, and politics. Based on a visual discourse analysis, we found that Clinton is presented as power-hungry, emasculating, and a surreptitious politician, with these magazine covers both overtly and subtly warning citizens about her authenticity and ambition. Such coverage reinforces misogynistic representations that disadvantage female politicians.     

Performing Gender on YouTube

The contemporary online environment is often touted as a democratic space, open to perspectives that might regularly be excluded from professionally-controlled media platforms. However, females are underrepresented on YouTube, a popular video-sharing internet social media platform. This underrepresentation of women suggests that gender matters on YouTube. In order to contribute to research on gender dynamics on YouTube, this study focuses on the most-subscribed female YouTuber, Jenna Mourey. The first part investigates the degree to which Mourey's YouTube reception could be understood as misogynistic and hostile. To this end, comments on Mourey's top-ten videos were compared to viewer comments on the top-ten videos of a male counterpart: Ryan Higa. The second part of the study focuses on the content and style of Mourey's video oeuvre in order to contribute to research on YouTubers who successfully negotiate a hostile environment. Mourey's tendency to perform gender extremes—both masculine and feminine roles—is an ongoing feature of her videos, allowing her to simultaneously critique and benefit from traditional gender roles. This two-part study of gender on YouTube thus both supports research describing harsh responses to women on video-sharing sites and offers one YouTube performer's strategy for achieving success in this environment.     

Unfolding female quiet in wargames: gender bias in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain from representation to gameplay

This article investigates the cultural mediatization of the relationship between gender and war by looking at the representation and agency of female presence in one of the most popular sagas in video games: Metal Gear Solid. We have specifically focused on the last chapter of the series, Metal Gear Solid V (MGS5) by putting under scrutiny the character of Quiet. The analysis draws upon the rich theoretical corpus of feminist film studies, with reference to two main concepts: the “visual pleasure” by Laura Mulvey and the “female voice” by Kaja Silverman. These analytic tools are employed in order to scrutinize both the visual representation and the design of the game. We argue that MGS5 is a relevant instance of a large part of gaming production that develops a war imagery characterized by (a) the exploitation of women and (b) an employment of female body as a tool to fulfill the visual pleasure of the male gaze. The figure of Quiet, with the oversexualization of her body and the deprivation of her voice, is particularly telling in this respect. Our analysis aims to identify effective solutions in order to think about more inclusive digital games able to address conflictual issues without surrendering to sexism.     

Shaping LGBTQ Identities: Western Media Representations and LGBTQ People’s Perceptions in Rural Spain

A growing academic discussion has focused on how, in a globalized world, LGBTQ identities are shaped and influenced by different and international actors, such as the media. This article analyzes how LGBTQ people from a rural region of a Western country—Spain—feel toward their representations on TV series from English-speaking countries. Employing a qualitative approach, this research aims to depict whether the academic conceptualizations to analyze these identity conformation processes are accurate. In addition, it explores how dominating media representations are being adapted in a region that, although within the West, can serve a context of a very different nature. The results found that a major rejection of the TV series representations among participants can suggest both an inaccuracy of the conceptualizations used by some scholars to understand LGBTQ flows and a problematic LGBTQ representation in media products that goes beyond regions and spaces.     

Staging Gender and Sexuality in Experimental TV Entertainment

ABSTRACT

Via examples from recent Norwegian experimental TV shows, this article explores the function of “eye-catchers,” parodic (hetero)sexualization, female masquerade and neo-masculinization as strategies for “repetitions with a difference” of traditional styles and motifs by female show hosts, as well as the queer gendering and sexualization of men and masculinities by their male counterparts. Both formats represent innovative renegotiations of gender and sexuality that illustrate the relationship between post-modernism and queer aesthetics.     

Riot Grrrls,Bitchsm, and pussy power: interview with Reyhan Şahin/Lady Bitch Ray

Abstract

Dr phil. Reyhan ?ahin—also known as Lady Bitch Ray—earned her M.A. in Linguistics, German Literature, and Education in 2004 and her doctorate in Linguistics in 2012 at the University of Bremen. Her alter ego, Lady Bitch Ray is a rapper, performer, fashion designer, and author. The following interview introduces ?ahin’s work as a performer and as an academic and sheds light on the negotiation of feminist politics in a neoliberal context as well as how the complex politics of difference play out in contemporary, digital feminisms in the German-speaking context. By speaking in two voices, the academic and the performer/artist, the interview emphasizes the playful possibilities of the urgently political.     

Supporting women to achieve breastfeeding to six months postpartum – The theoretical foundations of a successful program

BackgroundAlthough the benefits of breastfeeding to six months are well-established, only about half of Australian women succeed. The factors associated with successful breastfeeding are rarely translated into effective interventions. A new educational and support program, called the Milky Way program has been demonstrated to be effective in supporting women to achieve prolonged breastfeeding. In the Milky Way program, breastfeeding is considered an embodied performance which requires an engaged combination of body, mind and spirit. This paper aims to explain how the two theories that informed the program were used to better enable women's long term breastfeeding success.MethodThe theory of self-efficacy is first described as a way to develop women's cognitive processes to organise and execute the course of actions to breastfeed for a longer period of time. Birth territory theory is then presented. This theory discusses women as embodied selves; an essential concept for breastfeeding success. Birth territory theory also describes the effects of the holistic environment on the woman and explores the effects of power that is used in the environment. This power can be used integratively to strengthen the woman's breastfeeding confidence and success or, disintergratively which reduces her confidence and undermines her success.ConclusionStrategies based on self-efficacy theory are helpful, but are not sufficient to promote breastfeeding to six months. Health educators also need to foster the woman's connection to, and trust in, her body and her baby's body to breastfeed spontaneously. Being aware of environmental impacts on how the woman and baby breastfeed; and using one's own power integratively is crucial to women being able to achieve prolonged breastfeeding.