What are the two texts the article focuses on?
- Pan Am
- Beyonce - Why Don't You Love Me
- Pan Am - the stewardess on the magazine cover is a constructed version of femininity and is an image based on fantasy rather than reality. It is an image that would appear to males through the glossy representation of the female
- an air stewardess also gets weighed and measured and tries on girdles, therefore revealing quite a sexual image of the woman
- we see four women's legs walking in rhythm together, allowing the audience to gaze at the women's bodies - the use of slow motion also allows further visual pleasure - men turn to gaze at these women - reinforcing Mulvey's idea of the 'male gaze'
- Beyonce - 12 dress changes in the video, highly sexualised image, provocative
- mise-en-scene includes her parodying household chores whilst dressed in sexual outfits, welcoming the idea of the male gaze
- she rubs her chest and gazes into the camera seductively, welcoming the male gaze, however a post-feminist view on this is the fact that she is allowing the male gaze, therefore is empowered through this
Both texts suggest that we are in a time beyond feminism through the idea of empowerment of women now, however arguably they both reveal an objectified image of women. I think these videos imply sexism in a different form, surely if Beyonce, for example, is empowered by the male gaze then why would she feel the need to allow it. The issue here is that feminists believe that women are empowered by the power that they have, however this does not stop the male gaze perception of objectifying women and dehumanising them to the mere level of promiscuity and a sex object rather than an intellectual individual.
Choose three words/phrases from the glossary of the article and write their definitions on your blog.
Feminism – A movement aimed at defining, establishing, and defending women’s rights and equality to men
Post-feminism – An ideology in culture and society that society is somehow past needing feminism and that the attitudes and arguments of feminism are no longer needed
Third wave feminism – Was a movement that redefined and encouraged women to be dominant and sexually assertive.
No More Page 3
Research the No More Page 3 campaign. Who started it and why?
Lucy-Ann Holmes started the 'No More Page 3' campaign in August 2012; it reached 215,000 signatures by January 2015 - she is a feminist who did not want glamour models to pose for the newspaper.
What reasons did the campaign give for why Page 3 had to go?
Susan Boniface argues: it’s time to end the campaign to stop Page 3 – it’s as outdated, pointless and past-it as Page 3 itself. Those early Page 3 girls considered they were sexually empowered and celebrating the female form. The problem with the No More Page 3 campaign is it began at a point where society was evolving
Barbara Ellen argues: It’s bizarre to defend it on the basis that there are “worse things” – there’s no sliding scale for institutionalised sexism. Page 3 is the Old Order – reeking of male dominance, of women as sexualised and neutralised objects. The very passivity of Page 3 is offensive
The main campaign website has now been replaced by a site called Sexist News, designed to highlight sexism in the media. Give an example of a recent story the website has highlighted. Do you agree with the view of the website?
Post-feminism – An ideology in culture and society that society is somehow past needing feminism and that the attitudes and arguments of feminism are no longer needed
Third wave feminism – Was a movement that redefined and encouraged women to be dominant and sexually assertive.
No More Page 3
Research the No More Page 3 campaign. Who started it and why?
Lucy-Ann Holmes started the 'No More Page 3' campaign in August 2012; it reached 215,000 signatures by January 2015 - she is a feminist who did not want glamour models to pose for the newspaper.
What reasons did the campaign give for why Page 3 had to go?
- "Boobs are not news"
- People associated the models and Page 3's with rape culture
- Children shouldn't be able to view sexual content on newspaper front pages
- The Sun was sexualising images of women
- portrayed women as decorative sexual objects
- Page 3 is a symbol of a society unable to come to terms with its own sexism.
Susan Boniface argues: it’s time to end the campaign to stop Page 3 – it’s as outdated, pointless and past-it as Page 3 itself. Those early Page 3 girls considered they were sexually empowered and celebrating the female form. The problem with the No More Page 3 campaign is it began at a point where society was evolving
Barbara Ellen argues: It’s bizarre to defend it on the basis that there are “worse things” – there’s no sliding scale for institutionalised sexism. Page 3 is the Old Order – reeking of male dominance, of women as sexualised and neutralised objects. The very passivity of Page 3 is offensive
The main campaign website has now been replaced by a site called Sexist News, designed to highlight sexism in the media. Give an example of a recent story the website has highlighted. Do you agree with the view of the website?
Sexist News Headline-Woman Reveals Absolutely Fuck All
Headline-Sexy weather girl reveals ALL in skintight white trousers on live TV
Although I agree with the comments that the weather lady is clearly not revealing her whole body here but what I find most interesting about this article that was written is the fact that a woman actually wrote about the 'sexy weather girl' rather than a man. She describes her as a 'gorgeous TV presenter' and does not objectify her or slate her for her actions, instead covers a rather pointless news story. I think that feminist sites like Sexist News, take into consideration unimportant news stories; this story about an unknown weather lady is clearly unimportant and therefore should not even be regarded as news, therefore should not even conjure up any sort of debate.
How can the No More Page 3 campaign and Sexist News website be linked to the idea of post-feminism?
Post-feminism is the idea that society is past needing feminism and that the attitudes and arguments of feminism are no longer needed. This could be linked to the No More Page 3 campaign as it claims that we have now passed the time of using women as sexualised objectification for men
What are your OWN views on these campaigns? Do you agree with their aims? Is there still a need for these campaigns in the media?
What are your OWN views on these campaigns? Do you agree with their aims? Is there still a need for these campaigns in the media?
To some extent I do agree with these campaigns, I think that it is a positive thing to have a website devoted to sexism as it is an issue to this day. However, I do not think the need to slate newspapers or certain journalists for writing unimportant news stories is worthy of it's time. I simply believe that unimportant journalism is discredited as 'good news' from a number of people and especially those who believe that news is an important necessity. I think stories that objectify women explicitly should be covered rather than small ones as this is something that is seriously unimportant.
Finally, do you agree that we are in a post-feminist state or is there still a need for feminism?
Finally, do you agree that we are in a post-feminist state or is there still a need for feminism?
I do not think we are in a post-feminist state and I don't ever think we will be but in my own opinion I also do not think we need to exaggerate the need of feminism. I believe that men and women are equal and that is a given but I think that women are better at certain things than men are and therefore it does not make it fair to compare both genders and unify them as one. If you balance the two genders out, together they balance out to provide a stable harmony, therefore both men and women should both be treated equally in the workplace and in society but should also use their strengths to their advantages rather than putting them down as a negative thing.
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