Wednesday

Girl power - From burning bras to High Street honeys, how times change

Is this empowering?
Page Three girl strips for a photo shoot

Sarah Montague, Today presenter
Once women burned their bras, today they send photos of their breasts to lad mags and call it liberating. Is this really a new form of feminism or just the old objectification, asks Sarah Montague, of BBC Radio 4's Today.

Twenty years ago when I was in my teens, Page Three girls seemed old fashioned. Surely it was just a matter of time before they disappeared altogether.

Not only has Page Three survived, it has been joined by almost every other page of a newspaper, including the front.

Jordan, aka Katie Price
Katie Price - aka Jordan - uses her body as a business asset
These days I find myself in petrol station queues trying to explain to my five-year-old daughter why these women haven't got any clothes on. I don't know what message she takes from it. Perhaps she'll think the only exploitation going on is of men's sexual responses.

After all, women like glamour model Jordan have made a fortune from this sort of stuff. She's become a role model for thousands of young women who no longer see the sex industry as a last refuge if they're desperate but as something to aspire to. And it doesn't seem to be just down to the money it can pay.

A few months ago, a woman from Nuts TV told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the reason thousands of young women chose to upload pictures of their breasts for free so that men could rate them on the Nuts website was because it was "empowering" to do so.

It reflects a change in society over the past ten years. I wouldn't blame the Spice Girls. I'm sure they just successfully tapped into something that was already there.

As a result of the success of feminism, women can now do exactly as men do. Not only are they doing the same jobs, they're drinking the same amount of alcohol and even treating sex in the same way. But 40 years after the Equal Pay Act, a female director in retail or business earns about £57,000 while a man in the same job earns £70,000, according to the Institute of Directors.

Spice Girls in concert
Preaching "girl power" to the converted
Ten years of girl power has coincided with the rise in what the journalist Ariel Levy has called "raunch culture" - a phrase describing how the sex industry has now become mainstream.

Perhaps no surprise that young women look at the images around them and conclude that, to be successful, they have to be sexy. They also often say that if they feel sexy, they feel confident.

The evidence is everywhere. At a competition for page three girls in Portsmouth, one entrant (wearing little more than a g-string) says we're "doing it for ourselves". She calls it a "confidence boost for us girls".

"If we get the cheers, we like ourselves even more," she says.

And that word "confidence" crops up again with young women in professional jobs I spoke to in west London. "If you're wearing smart and sort of sexy clothes, you feel more confident and empowered," says one.

Sauce for the goose...

But what is our image-obsessed society doing to teenagers? Girls struggling with their self-image are more prone to eating disorders and self-harming.

Every 10 or 15 years feminism needs to mutate and change and I think that's what groups like the Spice Girls did
Author Katherine Townsend
And the boys? If the whole point of feminism is that you can wear what you like and people won't judge you, then someone needs to tell at least one bunch of teenagers in east London, who appear to assume women want to be treated as sex objects.

"The first thing that comes to mind is she's a 'ho'," one says. "The first thing, with girls like that, I see them as like easy targets - you can get their numbers, do whatever."

That doesn't matter if that is what the woman wants, but what if it's not? More women now report that they've been raped than ever before and convictions have not kept pace.

The first Reclaim the Night march was 30 years ago when organisers said there was a one in three chance of a conviction for rape. Now it's one in 20 and that's why marches have started again.

"I was raped by my best friend. I know for a fact if I had said to any other of my male friends that that happened, they would have said, 'well you must have been asking for it in some way' and that's really scary," says one victim.

Reinvention

But for Katherine Townsend, columnist and author of Sleeping Around, the rebranding of women's liberation was inevitable.

Protests by the women's suffrage movement
Back when empowerment meant the right to vote
"Every 10 or 15 years feminism needs to mutate and change and I think that's what groups like the Spice Girls did. It repackaged it in a very attractive way to young girls, but I don't think they can claim to speak for everyone."

And she believes it can be empowering to be considered sexy. "I'm not saying all women should go out and sleep around. For me it was a journey."

But Natasha Walter, author of New Feminism, says that while she felt "optimistic about where women were going" during the Spice Girls' era 10 years ago, she is now concerned about how feminism is being defined.

"I think obviously it can be empowering and liberating to throw off the shackles of modesty and go out there and be sexy.

"But I think we have to remember what empowerment and liberation meant - what is it in its wider sense? Let's not settle for the narrower sense."

Saturday

Summary of Mulvey

Mulvey argued that in the classical Hollywood narrative the spectator is constructed as male. Over the history of history of Hollywood films the hero/central character have been predominantly male and female characters have sufficed as characters just to be looked at or be saved. Mulvey argued that this representation of men and women is the result of complex (male) fears revolving around castration anxiety (which as Freud stated is unconscious). The result of castration anxiety means that men are unable to feel sexually aroused by a woman without the processes of fetishization or objectification. Narcissism allows the male spectator to identify with the male character on stage who represents the ideal. The 'male gaze' theory is a coherent explanation for the dominating subordinate female roles in films, yet attitudes to women have changed and although film has not been so quick to reflect these films such as Alien and Tomb Raider have.


How Mulvey's theory links to my study:

-Narcissism : Male spectator receives narcissistic pleasure through identifying with the 'ideal' physical appeal of character Troy.
-Spectator: 'HSM' questions the validity of the dominant 'male spectator' position outlined by Mulvey. Although the film is not explicitly sexual the female spectators and male spectators alike are encouraged to see the opposite sex as an object of desire.
-Roles: More of an equal role between the male and female characters *not patriarchal*
Although, in 'Grease' there is a slightly larger emphasis on the spectator being male

Tuesday

Exercise 12.1 Beowulf:

Beowulf:

The film is a prime example of how men are addressed as the spectator in film.

The main character ‘Beowulf’ is male and drives the whole narrative. However, the physical form of Beowulf questions the validity of Mulvey’s outline of the male spectator as he is also objectified in the film. In many scenes he is presented as bare chested showing a toned chest and is even shown naked in one scene making him susceptible to the female gaze. In this way, female characters can be argued to identify with the male character by admiring his physical form.

The film is also follows stereotypical conventions through the subordinate portrayal of women. The narrative revolves largely around a macho hero saving a damsel (Propp) which again shows females as subservient to men.

However, it can be argued that the film attempts to challenge this representation through the devil character played by Angelina Jolie who sexually entices and traps Beowulf putting her in a more dominant position. Although, the effectiveness of this can be seen to be counteracted as the character is a devil suggesting that women on their own are not capable of such a thing and as a result need to be dehumanised. Additionally, the way in which the character achieves power over the male character is through demeaning her self by allowing her body to fall trap to the male gaze hence ultimately addressing the spectator as male.

There are clear examples of the rigid and stereotypical conventions of women in the film as conforming to the Madonna or whore. The princess is presented as pure, sensitive and truthful (fitting the description of the Madonna role). In contrast, Beowulf has a mistress (fitting the mold of the ‘whore’). A further more explicit example of the ‘whore’ is presented through a civilian character who is subjected to the male gaze as she makes noises connoting sexual pleasure and desire when cleaning a table with a large proportion of her breasts showing as she tries to entice another male character. In this way, the woman is presented as subordinate to the male as she seems desperate (not in control) and sexually aroused hence putting the man in the position of the spectator.

Saturday

5 Adverts .....

1) Chanel Rouge Allure perfume advert.



Phallic symbols: The lipstick is a phallic symbol (form) , emphasized further through the way it ejects up and down.
Theorists:
Laura Mulvey: female is naked, whilst the man is fully dressed, so she is subject to the male gaze. Lots of panning shots of her body.
Anthony Cortese female is presented as the 'perfect provocateur' "good looks, sexual seductiveness, and perfections" "long legged"
extra:
Man is fully dressed - in control
Pouting lips - seductive.

2) Paris Hilton ad..



Phallic symbols: The bottle that she pours over her self is a phallic symbol..
bubble bath around her..

Theorists:
Laura Mulvey: female is naked, whilst the man is fully dressed, so she is subject to the male gaze. Lots of panning shots of her body.
Anthony Cortese female is presented as the 'perfect provocateur'

3) Christina A. perfume ad..


Phallic symbols: Perfume bottle
Theorists:

Anthony Cortese female is presented as the 'perfect provocateur'

4) Vintage 70's Commercial--Folger's/Mrs. Olsen

Theorists:
Gunter: men more likely to provide voice over
Scheibe: women more concerned with cleanliness family and pleasing others


5)
Vintage 70's Commercial--Wisk Detergent

Theorists:
Gunter: men more likely to provide voice over

Scheibe: women more concerned with cleanliness family and pleasing others

The rise of the female chauvinist pig



Found an article that links to the representation of women...

Are young women being conned into believing that sexualised behaviour is liberating? ... or are girls in reality being exploited by male chauvinists?

interesting debate..


You can quote
Ariel Levy and her book 'Female Chauvinist Pigs' in the exam


The rise of the female chauvinist pig
pole dancer in club
Feminist or foolhardy? We asked what you think
Are young women being conned into believing that sexualised behaviour is liberating?

That's the thesis behind a new book, called Female Chauvinist Pigs.

It argues that the trend among many young women for wearing sexy clothes, going to strip clubs or even taking up pole dancing is actually part of a gigantic con.

In reality, girls are being exploited by male chauvinists, according to the author Ariel Levy.

This morning on Breakfast:

  • We debated the rise of raunch culture, with the Ariel Levy and Sam Roddick, who runs a firm which specialises in sexy underwear and accessories.

    Sam Roddick and Ariel Levy
    Watch our studio debate again

    Forty years ago, being a "liberated" woman meant burning your bra; 30 years ago, it meant campaigning against Page Three girls.

    Today, liberation is as likely to involve acquiring your own breast implants before heading for work as a "glamour" model.

    What you told Breakfast
    I really don't think it's anyone's business as to what women do and why they do it. I do pole dancing and I'm not being conned. I'm more confident with myself and my body and I've toned up quite considerably.
    Melissa, Barnehurst

    Shops have discovered that stationery with the Playboy bunny logo sells well to teenagers, even though they may never have heard of Hugh Heffner.

    So, is it time for women to realise that the joke's on them? Are they doing the work of male chauvinist pigs for them?

    We asked what you think



  • EXCUSE THE LAMENESS... IM NOT V.GOOD AT THIS