Unit 3: Theoretical Approaches - Feminism

Theoretical Approaches

Critical Social Theory (Marxism, neo-Marxism, Hegemony Theory)

Feminism
Article on Patriarchy

Postmodernism.
Postcolonialism
Poststructuralism
Queer Theory.

Feminism began as an historical/political movement and although it still remains this for many women it has also become a whole critical approach used to look at art, literature, in fact all aspects of culture and life.

There have always been women who saw life and their role within it in a radically different way to the predominant ideas of the time. For example, Aphra Behn was a much more famous playwright than Shakespeare in the historical period within which they were both working. In 1720, Mary Wolstonecraft wrote her treatise “Vindication of the Rights of Women”. However, it was not until the 1930s with the Suffragette movement, that women began to work together for political change. This continued into the 1960s which is always credited as the chief period for the uprise of feminism, although as you can see from the examples, it all started a lot earlier than that!

However, as Communication Studies students, our main interest in feminism is in terms of how it is used as a critical approach to the analysis of culture. Feminism is involved with the study of representations, with the meanings in texts, with the nature of audience consumption and with social relations. It is connected to Marxism because it is concerned with the expression of power within gender and gender operates within popular culture. Feminists would be concerned with whether popular cultural texts replicate inequalities of power between men and women.

So when we look at the Internet we examine whether the relative anonymity it can provide is a liberating force for women or another way of exploiting them in the multitude of pornographic websites. How does the built environment reflect women and their lives? Is suburbia a reflection of the separation of home from work, women from the world o f work? Are skyscrapers a reflection of men’s egos?

For the formal examination, you will need to understand ‘the gendered character of language’ – in other words how language reflects the relationship between men and women. You will need to be able to discuss the nature of ‘gendered division of labour’ within organisations – in other words the idea that some jobs are women’s jobs such as secretaries, switch board operators, machinists etc and others are men’s jobs such as managers, drivers, foremen. Finally, you will be expected to understand and discuss the ‘gendered audience’ – the idea that men and women react differently to culture, mass media etc and are perceived differently as audience members by those who produce cultural messages such as building, music, and shopping experiences.

EXTENSION WORK

Read the article on the next page about patriarchy, which is the word for anything male dominated. Make some notes for later essay work. There is a further article on whether patriarchy is still a useful term on the Comms website.