Feminist Criticism
“ Feminist criticism examines the ways in which literature (or artifacts, cultural productions) reinforces or undermines the economic, political social and psychological oppression of women”.
What is feminism?
The term “Feminism” originates from the Latin word “Femina” meaning “woman”, thereby referring to the advocacy of women’s rights seeking to remove restrictions that discriminate against women. It essentially relates to the belief that women are equal power holders, and therefore it stands against any form of discrimination or subjugation that women face.
The construct of patriarchal society has deemed women as the inferior gender. In literature feminist theory searches for where the texts perpetuates the power-struggle of patriarchy’s sexists ideal: the belief that women are man’s “other” to which women have been defined by their inadequacy in comparison to men. Even more so feminist theory seeks to discover where the patriarchal ideology that women can only have two identities: Madonna (virgin) or whore is either reinforced or broken.
The 18th Century writings of Mary Wollstonecraft. In her A Vindication of the Rights of Women(1792), Wollstonecraft rejected the established view that women are naturally weaker or inferior to men.
The unequal nature of gender relations, she proposed, was because the lack of education kept the women in a secondary position. She further proposed that women must be treated as equals because they play a crucial role in society. Women themselves should strive to become ‘companions’ rather than mere wives to their husbands.
In the 20th century novelist Virginia Woolf provided the first critiques antly that we can recognize as marking feminism as we know it today. In works like A Room of One’s Own(1929) and Three Guineas(1938), Woolf explored gender relations. One of the first writers to develop a woman-centric notion of reading and education, she argued that the patriarchal education system and reading practices prevent women readers from reading as women. They are Constantly trained to read from the men’s point of view. Woolf also argued that authorship itself is gendered. The language available to the women is patriarchal.
Contemporary social views of gender owe much to critiques of patriarchy in the words of Simone de Beauvoir. De Beauvoir argued in her most famous work, The Second Sex that men are able to mystify women. This mystification and stereotyping is instrumental in creating patriarchy. She argued that women, in turn, accepted this stereotype, and were thus instruments of their own oppression. In fact, women are measured by the standard of men and found ‘inferior’. This is the process of othering where women will always be seen, not as independent or unique but as a flawed version of the male. Men and women are, therefore, constantly engaged in this subject- other relationships where the man is the subject and the woman the other.
Notable Theorist
Kate Millet
Kate Millet argued gender is socially constructed as it is performed, taught and reinforced into the concepts of masculinity and femininity.
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir argued men are considered essential subjects (independent selves with free will), while women are considered contingent beings (dependent beings controlled by circumstances).
Portrayal of Women in Media
Concept of Media:
Media is the buzzword of the era of globalization. In fact, the rapid expansion of the term and the concept of the present form of globalization has been made possible only through the information revolution throughout the world. It has been widely recognized that media can play a substantial role in promoting and disseminating
information and are key players in the social and economic development of women.
Therefore, media largely reflects the life styles, socialization patterns, participation levels, cultural boundaries, political maneuverings, religious manifestations,educational standards, social hierarchy, and of course, society images of any given society.As per the political scientist, James Rosenau definition, "Media is a label that is presently in vogue to account for peoples, activities, norms, ideas, goods, services, and currencies that are decreasingly confined to a particular geographic space and its local and established practices.” In fact media can play a significant role in either perpetuating or challenging social norms and behaviours that condone violence against women. New media can be a platform for the objectification of women and girls, from everyday hyper-sexualized, one-dimensional images of women and girls to overt violence.
women’s magazines have ten and one-half times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazines. Television and movies reinforce the importance of a thin body as a measure of a woman's worth. In recent reports over three-quarters of female characters in TV are underweight, and only one in twenty are above average in size. Overweight actresses tend to receive negative comments from male characters about their bodies. This indicates that exposure to images of thin, young, air-brushed female bodies can be linked to depression, loss of self-esteem and the development of unhealthy eating habits in women and girls. Twenty years ago the average.
The model weighed 8 percent less than the average woman, but today’s model's weight is 23 percent less than the average woman. The messages that the media sends to women about Thinness, dieting, and beauty tells “ordinary” women that they are always in need of adjustment, and that the female body is an object to be perfected. Emotional abuse is any behavior that is designed to control human beings through the use of fear, humiliation, intimidation, guilt, coercion, or manipulation. Emotional abuse is any.kind of abuse that is emotional rather than physical in nature. It can include verbal abuse, constant criticism, put-downs, and constant disapproval.
Women and Media:
Information revolution, in its truest technical terms in India, is the latest phenomenon. During the phases of economic liberalization in the last one and half decade, the overall scenario of the media in India has changed tremendously. The depiction of Women in Indian media, be it films, television serials, news, media, visual advertisement, or modernized traditional media is indeed an area of great concern for people having interest in social science research and studies.
Portrayal of women in Soaps:
The term "soap opera" was coined by the American press in the 1930s to denote the extraordinarily popular genre of serialized domestic radio dramas, which, by 1940, represented some 90% of all commercially sponsored daytime broadcast hours. The "soap" in soap opera alluded to their sponsorship by manufacturers of household cleaning products; while "opera" suggested an ironic incongruity between the domestic narrative concerns of the daytime serial and the most elevated of dramatic forms. The defining quality of the soap opera form is its seriality (Pingree and Cantor,1983). Examples of the open soap include (The Guiding Light, etc.), the wave of primetime U.S. soaps in the 1980s (Dallas, Dynasty, Falcon Crest), such British serials as Coronation Street, EastEnders, and Brookside), most Australian serials (Neighbors, Home and Away, A Country Practice), and Indian soaps such as BalikaVadhu, Uttaran Pavitra Rishta enjoy immense popularity.
The closed soap opera is more common in Latin America, where it dominates primetime programming from Mexico to Chile. In India, Geet, Dil Mil Gaye fall in this category. These "telenovelas" are broadcast nightly and may stretch over three or four years and hundreds of episodes. They are, however, designed eventually to end, and it is the anticipation of closure in both the design and reception of the closed soap opera that makes it fundamentally different from the open form. The term itself signals an aesthetic and cultural incongruity: the events of everyday life elevated to the subject matter of an operatic form.
Deriving from Simone de Beauvoir‟s perception of woman as the "Other‟ to man, sexuality and woman-ness has always been identified as a binary opposition that registers difference between groups of people; differences which are socio-culturally manipulated and transmitted in ways which cause one group to dominate the other (Beauvoir , 2009). This sexuality and woman-ness of these women (or women in general ) has always been fitted within male-constructed stereotypes that through their projections and appropriations has successfully kept the "second sex‟ as the domesticated subaltern. It is interesting to note how popular TV serials uphold and propagate these very notions that unfortunately clog the path of further emancipation and socio-cultural up-liftment. With the nation claiming to join footsteps in the march to globalization and modernization where the state legislatures and judicial systems attempt to emancipate the marginalized women in our society, it does seem a little bizarre to see contemporary TV serials and soaps projecting women more as models of expensive costume-jewelry or "zardosi"sarees.
Moreover, the stereotypes used -that of a wronged wife, a domineering mother -in- law, bitter relationships between sisters - in - law ,though bear resemblance with a certain reality of society fails to do justice with the changing and shifting patterns of identity within the household. They fail to circumscribe all the career options that are now being taken up by Indian women, new modes of lifestyle being adopted and remain entrenched in certain deep-rooted notions that are hard to be erased away .
Portrayal of women in Advertisements:
In recent years, Indian advertising has witnessed a significant transformation in the manner in which women are portrayed. The way women are depicted in advertising changes with time, reflecting the transformation taking place in society. Advertising is one of the major media that affects our daily life consciously unconsciously and is responsible for playing a significant role in shaping society from a much broader perspective.
Women today are no longer consolidated behind kitchen walls. Their aspiration for coming out of the door also taught society to think differently. Marketers wisely utilized this transformation process to launch their product and advertisement strategically.Das (2000) examined the portrayal of women and men in Indian magazine ads from a wide range of magazines in 1987, 1990, and 1994. Results indicated that although the gender portrayals in Indian magazine ads have changed over the period, they are still portrayed in stereotypical ways. Vela et al., (2007) examined male and female stereotypes in Spanish magazine advertising during the last three decades of the twentieth century. The results found that male and female portrayals have undergone significant changes in the last 30 years though gender stereotypes persist. Results also indicated that low and decreasing levels of sexism in Spanish magazines.
Dwivedyet al., (2009) examined the role portrayals of men and women appeared in India’s most popular men’s, women’s and general interest magazines during.Ads were content analyzed to identify the role portrayal patterns of male and female across magazine types. It was revealed that male and females are portrayed in traditional roles. Men’s magazines depict men and women in very traditional roles while women’s and general interest magazines depict women in more modern roles.
Portrayal of women in media is to reinforce rather than reduce prejudices and stereotypes. None of these women were self defining, powerful characters who decided for themselves and chose for themselves. They were always deciding and choosing and doing as per the norms and values of family, culture and society. In this sense, a hero who smoked and went to a cabaret dance was still a pure man, but a heroine who by choice dressed in a sexually attractive fashion (wore revealing attire), or a vamp to whom the hero goes to satisfy his desires were all not as he point of this analysis is not to argue that women should not be objectified or that it is immoral for women in films to expose their bodies.
These are personal choices made by actresses and directors However, the way this exposure and exhibition of sexuality is portrayed on screen has an undercurrent, which carries messages to the audience, reinforcing further, the pre-existing stereotypes in society, adding strength to the vicious cycle do films lead to socio-cultural stereotypes or do these stereotypes find their way into films.
Work Cited
Desai, N, & Krishnaraj, M, Women and society in India, New Delhi, Ajanta Prakashan. 1990 Desai and Patel, Indian women: change and challenge in the International decade, 1975-1985, Bombay, Popular prakashan. 1990
Jha, R. Women in Print media: Initiating new perspectives, New Delhi, Northern book center. 1992
KevalJ.kumar, Mass Communication in Media, Jaico, Bombay, 1998.
Pandey,M. The subject is women, New Delhi: Sanchar Publishing House.
Words:-1,900
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