MIGRAIN: Feminist theory (Media Catch-Up 22/01/18)
A current debate in feminism is whether we are in a post-feminist state: is feminism still needed?
It's important to have your own opinion on this debate and, crucially, be able to support it with reference to feminist theory and current examples.
Feminist theory: key notes
Judith Butler: gender roles
Butler believes traditional feminists are wrong to divide society into ‘men’ and ‘women’ and says gender is not biologically fixed.
By dividing men and women, feminists accidently reinforced the idea of differences between the two genders
Butler believes gender roles are ‘a performance’ and that male and female behaviour is socially constructed rather than the result of biology.
Butler and the media
If gender is a ‘performance’ rather than biological, we then need to think about what is influencing that ‘performance’.
And that’s where the media comes in. How might the media influence our behaviour in terms of gender roles?
Angela McRobbie: empowering women
McRobbie is a British cultural theorist known for her work analysing magazines aimed at women and teenage girls in the 80s and 90s.
McRobbie highlights the empowering nature of magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour, taking a different perspective to traditional feminists.
This idea of ‘popular feminism’ fits into the idea of post-feminism and challenges the radical feminism of the 1970s.
It's important to have your own opinion on this debate and, crucially, be able to support it with reference to feminist theory and current examples.
Feminist theory: key notes
Judith Butler: gender roles
Butler believes traditional feminists are wrong to divide society into ‘men’ and ‘women’ and says gender is not biologically fixed.
By dividing men and women, feminists accidently reinforced the idea of differences between the two genders
Butler believes gender roles are ‘a performance’ and that male and female behaviour is socially constructed rather than the result of biology.
Butler and the media
If gender is a ‘performance’ rather than biological, we then need to think about what is influencing that ‘performance’.
And that’s where the media comes in. How might the media influence our behaviour in terms of gender roles?
Angela McRobbie: empowering women
McRobbie is a British cultural theorist known for her work analysing magazines aimed at women and teenage girls in the 80s and 90s.
McRobbie highlights the empowering nature of magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour, taking a different perspective to traditional feminists.
This idea of ‘popular feminism’ fits into the idea of post-feminism and challenges the radical feminism of the 1970s.
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