Sasha Nathan, Gender, Sexuality and Media Module

Although feminism is a concept that has been around since the 17th century and was concerned with basic equality issues such as voting, economic and legal rights for women it has now expanded into a movement which encompasses all forms of activism concerning women and equality. Many have dubbed 2018 as ‘The Year of Feminism’. However with increased media coverage surrounding feminism, are we now loosing what it means to actually be a feminist?  It can be argued that increased awareness within popular culture of such important causes such as wage equality can only be a positive; ‘In the last half century, the movement for gender equality has faced setbacks in accomplishing its ultimate goal’ (Callahan, 2018). By mainstreaming the topic it should mean that the conversation is happening and as such change will happen, however the word 'feminism' is rarely associated with the causes that it represents, within the media. 'In the articles she studied, discussions of feminism...

From looking at a variety of media it is clear to see that they try to pigeon-hole women to specific career fields and this can have a detrimental effect upon those women and young girls who are consuming the media; ‘negative portrayals of professional women can weaken women’s career aspirations’ (Ezzedeen, 2015).  When looking at the roles of gender within the media, and more specifically films, the first one that came to my mind was the  Legally Blonde franchise. The basic plot of the first movie is about Elle Woods, a stereotypical blonde, materialistic, sorority girl majoring in Fashion Merchandising, she is the object of what Lauar Mulvey (2004) would classify as the ‘male gaze’.  After her boyfriend, Warner breaks up with her to find someone more “serious”, Elle decides to show Warner that she can be serious by getting into Harvard Law School and surprising him there. Upon arrival she sees that he has already moved on with another girl and so the rest of the fi...

This week’s workshops on the LGBT movement in China gave me a real insight into the struggles that the LGBT community there faces, something that I hadn’t thought about much before. Although many topics surrounding the challenges, of being queer within the Chinese community, were broached I was most intrigued by the cultural implications that being queer within China has on the family members. Many don't ‘understand’ what it is to be LGBT and think of it more as a life choice rather than something that they cannot control; ‘this decentred identity is also often interpreted as a desire to abandon authentic & traditions for the lure of capitalism or modernity’ (Ho, 2010) . So what does it mean to be a part of the community in China? This was briefly touched upon in the panel session whereby I discovered that many of the LGBT community are forced into straight marriages in order to escape any ‘shame’ that comes not only with being queer but also through being unwed in general; ‘s...