Throughout the course we have seen the
ways in which media can enhance or hinder the strides of feminism and gender
equality within our society. Media is a powerful source as an influencer of
public opinion and mass consumption of products as well as ideas. Women’s
suffrage, or first wave feminism, doesn’t receive almost any censure from our
society, from women and our male counterparts. However, there seems to be a lot
of critique and hatred for contemporary feminists. What has changed? Why do our
historical figures receive praise and adulation, whilst their modern
counterparts who stand for the same values and goals are met with anger and
disdain?
In my project I’d like to explore this
issue as it is one that provokes much anxiety and worry in me, as I seek to
understand what drives this disparity in public opinion. Specifically, I’d like
to focus on how the media in pop culture, political and news broadcasts present
feminists and our ideas and how or if they differ from the real goals and
intentions of feminism. Examining the media which our society is exposed to is
one of the key aspects in understanding how public opinion is shaped about
certain groups and movements as well as how these groups’ ideas are spun and
presented to the public.
I hope to present my project in a
multi-media slideshow, where different media sources can be presented – ranging
from print, video to radio. I will look at large broadcast media outlets such
as FOX, CNN and MSNBC, as well as independent media outlets such as YouTube
vloggers. I have yet to decide which print and radio outlets I would like to
focus on, but I will attempt to provide both left and right wing sources
uniformly to be able to analyze closely the discrepancies between them.
Finally, to truly define the goals and intentions of contemporary feminism, I
will use writings of renowned feminists, such as Bell Hooks and Audre Lorde.
I love this, I was going to write how media plays a part in Sex Trafficking. This is great, here is a link to I believe another blogger wrote about media and feminism. http://bcrw.barnard.edu/blog/dont-blame-the-media-become-the-media-feminist-remix-as-utopian-practice/
ReplyDeleteWhen words are thrown around carelessly, I believe that the meaning becomes distorted; feminism has, without a doubt, become a word that has altered drastically.
ReplyDeleteAs I read your proposal, a class discussion came into my mind. In Barbara Koppel's "Harlan County, USA," Koppel documents the lives of miners through their housewives. Although it is not the main objective of the documentary, I found one fascinating point that is open to interpretation. Rather than fighting for working opportunities, the women pushed for better working conditions for the men.
From the documentary, I feel that certain ideologies and images perpetuate and develop unintended meanings of feminism. Although the documentary is fairly long, you can definitely find papers discussing the documentary. It may give you some great ideas.
Good luck! ;>
I think this is a great idea. Feminism is one of the most misunderstood concepts out there. It is so important to work on what feminism really means as a society. I love the idea of looking at high school textbooks because I think that the things we learn growing up influence our perspective on certain issues. So many people have different definitions of the word feminism, some positive and unfortunately some negative. I look forward to seeing you work through this in your project. Here is the link to a video I saw recently of Sophia Bush describing feminism in a simple way: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sophia-bush-feminism_us_56e190f9e4b065e2e3d4eddb
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