[4.1] Critical Approaches to Response to a Media Text

[4.2] Applying critical perspectives to an ad

[4.3] Rhetorical/Audience Analysis

[4.4] Semiotic/Narrative Analysis

[4.5] Poststructuralist Analysis: Interrogating Language Categories

[4.6] Critical Discourse Analysis

[4.7] Psychoanalytic Theories

[4.8] Feminist Criticism

[4.9] Postmodern Theory

[4.10] Postcolonial Theory

[4.11] Final Task

[4.12] References

Powerpoints

[4.8.1, 4.8.2] Jean Kilbourne, (1999) in her Killing Us Softly series, and in Slim Hopes, demonstrates how advertising creates gender images that sexualize adolescent females and define norms for body weight associated with the beauty industry.

[4.8.3] In his documentary, Dreamworlds II, Sut Jhally demonstrates how MTV music videos portray women as sex objects within the context of an adolescent male fantasy world.

[4.8.4] Judith Butler’s theories on gender

[4.8.5] Chapter on Judith Butler’s theories

[4.8.6] Mary Klages: summary of Gender Trouble

[4.8.7] In a student essay, Sally Young, describes Butler’s position on performance applied to popular culture.

[4.8.8] Lucy Brown in an essay, “Are magazines for young men likely to reinforce stereotypical, ‘macho’ and sexist attitudes in their readers?” argues that in the current culture, that challenges facing masculinity leads to backlash adoption of traditional masculine roles in ways that exclude the emotional “soft” side of males.

[4.8.9, 4.8.10] In an excerpt from a book by David Gauntlett Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction, New York, Blackwell Press, interviews Kirsten Pullen about the role of magazines in constructing gender.

More attention has also been given to analysis of how masculinity is constructed in media texts, particularly in terms of male power/control and in terms of portrayals of violence in computer games and films:

[4.8.11] Tough Guise
[4.8.12] Game Over
[4.8.13] Wrestling With Manhood

[4.8.14] University of Iowa Communications Department site [lots of links on gender and the media]

[4.8.15] Discussions of theories of gender and sexuality by Dino Felluga

[4.8.16] An excellent set of essays on role models in popular culture, with a particular focus on magazines, related to gender

[4.8.17] A discussion of masculinity and academic discourses

Further applications of gender theory to media:

[4.8.18] Gender Issues in Film
[4.8.19] Women in Cinema: A Reference Guide
[4.8.20] Women and Society: Filmography of women in film
[4.8.21] Reel Women Foundation
[4.8.22] Maria Pearse, Women in Film
[4.8.23] Girls, Women + Media Project
[4.8.24] About-Face: critiques of media gender stereotypes [4.8.25] International Women's Media Foundation
[4.8.26] No Place for a Woman: The Family in Film Noir

[4.8.27] Hundreds of sites related to feminism

[4.8.28] For the application of feminist criticism to television, go to:
Feminist Criticism and Television

[4.8.29] Films/videos on women, gender, and feminism

For abstracts on books about feminist criticism, see:

[4.8.30] Gender and culture
[4.8.31] Queer theory book

[4.8.32] Images of females in beer commercials

[4.8.38] Webquest: study of the television program, Hail to the Chief

For further reading on femenist criticism:

Bornstein, K. (1998), My Gender Workbook. New York: Routledge.

Bristow, J. (1997), Sexuality. New York: Routledge.

Brooks, A. (1997). Postfeminisms: Feminism, cultural theory and cultural forms. New York: Routledge.

Brunsdon, C., D’Acci, J., & Spigel, L. (Eds.). (1997). Feminist television criticism: A reader. New York: Oxford University Press.

Carson, D., Dittmar, L., & Welsch, J. (Eds.). (1995). Multiple voices in feminist film criticism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Clare, A. (2001). On men: Masculinity in crisis. London: Arrow.

Eagleton, M. (1996), Working with Feminist Criticism. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Foucault, M. (1976). The history of sexuality Volume One: The will to knowledge. New York: Penguin.

Foucault, M. (1984). The Foucault Reader (Ed.), P. Rabinow. New York: Penguin.

Halperin, D. (1995), Saint Foucault: Towards a gay hagiography. New York: Oxford University Press.

Harding, J. (1998). Sex acts: Practices of femininity and masculinity. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Hermes, J. (1995), Reading women's magazines. Cambridge, England: Polity Press.

hooks, b. (2000). Feminist theory: From margin to center - Second Edition. London: Pluto Press.

Humm, M. (1997). Feminism and film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Jackson, P., Stevenson, N. & Brooks, K. (2001), Making sense of men's magazines. Cambridge, England: Polity Press.

Joyrich, L. (1996). Re-viewing reception: Television, gender, and postmodern culture. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Kaplan, E. A. (1997). Looking for the other: Feminism, film, and the imperial gaze. New York: Routledge.

Kaplan, E. A. (Ed.). (2000). Feminism and film. New York: Oxford University Press.

Kuhn, A. (1994). Women’s pictures: Feminism and cinema. London: Verso.

McRobbie, A. (1999), In the culture society: Art, fashion and popular music. New York: Routledge.

Nixon, S. (1996), Hard looks: Masculinities, spectatorship and contemporary consumption. London: UCL.

Ruby, R. (1998). Chick flicks: Theories and memories of the feminist film movement. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.

Schwichtenberg, C. (Ed.). (1993), The Madonna connection: Representational politics, subcultural identities, and cultural theory. Boulder, CO: Westview Press,

Smelik, A. (2003). And the mirror cracked: Feminist cinema and film theory. New York: Palgrave.

Thornham, S. (1997). Passionate detachments: An introduction to feminist film theory. London: Arnold.

Thornham, S. (Ed.). (1999). Feminist film theory: A reader. New York: New York University Press.

Whatling, C. (1997), Screen dreams: Fantasising lesbians in film. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press.

Whiteley, S. (2000), Women and popular music: Sexuality, identity and subjectivity. New York: Routledge.