Further feminist Video games

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

Feminism has been identified as a movement in which women strive to gain equality with men, economically, socially and politically speaking. Patriarchy has been defined as male dominated society.

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

She published this book because she noticed that there was a lack of diversity in the feminist movement, meaning that she wanted to give a perspective of a black women on feminism. Hooks liked to challenge feminists to consider genders relation to sex, race, class and intersectionality.

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

 Bell Hooks focused a lot on the oppression of lower class women who were not white as she felt they need a voice. hooks argues that feminism’s goal to make all women equal to men is flawed; not all men are equal to men as a result of oppression, sexuality, ethnicity

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

Intersectionality is a word which is used to describe when social identities overlap as well as related systems of oppression, domination and discrimination. bell hooks argues that experiences of class, gender, sexuality etc cannot be completely understood if the influences of racialisation are not considered. hooks argues that understanding intersectionality is vital to gaining political and social equality and improving our democratic system.

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

Her work puts her as a key figure in third wave feminism. Van Zoonen concludes that there is a strong relationship between gender (stereotypes, pornography and ideology) and communication, but it is also the mass media that leads to much of the observable gender identity structures in advertising, 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?

This means that gender is not a thing people are born with but instead society has constructed it/build it and made it seem like a norm.

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

Many feminists believe that women's lifestyle magazines seem to portray women as extremely delicate and in my opinion I slightly agree to a certain extent that sometimes females are shown as sensitive and very feminine.

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

•Whether the institution is commercial or public

•The platform upon which they operate (print versus digital media)

•Genre (drama versus news)

•Target audiences

•The place the media text holds within the audiences’ daily lives

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

Stuart Hall’s negotiated readings, arguing that the negotiated readings and subsequent focus on the way meanings are encoded and decoded “implies acknowledgement of gender construction as a social process in which women and men actively engage.”

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?

David Hesmondhalgh says that cultural industries are all run by one set of values and norms.

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?

Women in general and especially those in minority groups need to gain equality and rights before they try to gain power. They both have the belief that both men and women must be on the same team and work together on earning the respect both genders deserve.