GEN&WS 418: Gender, Sexuality and the Media (Spring 2022) : Books

Print media

Liberation in Print: feminist periodicals and social movement identity by Agatha Beins This is the first analysis of periodicals' key role in U.S. feminism's formation as a collective identity and set of political practices in the 1970s. Between 1968 and 1973, more than five hundred different feminist newsletters and newspapers were published in the United States. Agatha Beins shows that the repetition of certain ideas in these periodicals--ideas about gender, race, solidarity, and politics--solidified their centrality to feminism. Beins focuses on five periodicals of that era, comprising almost three hundred different issues: Distaff (New Orleans, Louisiana); Valley Women's Center Newsletter (Northampton, Massachusetts); Female Liberation Newsletter (Cambridge, Massachusetts); Ain't I a Woman? (Iowa City, Iowa); and L.A. Women's Liberation Newsletter, later published as Sister (Los Angeles, California). Together they represent a wide geographic range, including some understudied sites of feminism. Beins examines the discourse of sisterhood, images of women of color, feminist publishing practices, and the production of feminist spaces to demonstrate how repetition shaped dominant themes of feminism's collective identity. Beins also illustrates how local context affected the manifestation of ideas or political values, revealing the complexity and diversity within feminism. With much to say about the study of social movements in general, Liberation in Print shows feminism to be a dynamic and constantly emerging identity that has grown, in part, out of a tension between ideological coherence and diversity. Beins's investigation of repetition offers an innovative approach to analyzing collective identity formation, and her book points to the significance of print culture in activist organizing.
ISBN: 9780820349534
Publication Date: 2017-05-30

Women in film and TV

Stealing the show : how women are revolutionizing television by Joy Press From a leading cultural journalist, a definitive look at the rise of the female showrunner--and a new golden era of television. Female writers, directors, and producers have radically transformed the television industry in recent years. Shonda Rhimes, Lena Dunham, Tina Fey, Amy Schumer, Mindy Kaling: These extraordinary women have shaken up the entertainment landscape, making it look like an equal opportunity dream factory. But things weren't always this rosy. It took decades of determination in the face of preconceived ideas and outright prejudice to reach this new era. In this endlessly informative and wildly entertaining book, veteran journalist Joy Press tells the story of the maverick women who broke through the barricades, starting with Roseanne Barr (Roseanne) and Diane English (Murphy Brown), whose iconic shows redefined America's idea of "family values" and incited controversy that reached as far as the White House. Barr and English inspired the next generation of female TV writers and producers to carve out the creative space and executive power needed to present radically new representations of women on the small screen. Showrunners like Amy Sherman Palladino (Gilmore Girls), Jenji Kohan (Weeds, Orange Is the New Black), and Jill Soloway (Transparent) created characters and storylines that changed how women are seen and how they see themselves, in the process transforming the culture. Stealing the Show is the perfect companion to such bestsellers as Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Tina Fey's Bossypants, and Shonda Rhimes' Year of Yes¸ not to mention Sheila Weller's Girls Like Us and Rebecca Traister's All the Single Ladies. Drawing on deep research and interviews with the key players, this is the exhilarating behind-the-scenes story of a truly groundbreaking revolution in television.
ISBN: 9781501137716
Publication Date: 2018-02-27
Women, Film, and Law by Suzanne Bouclin Entertainment and profit constitute the driving forces behind most popular representations of incarcerated women. Some cinematic representations, however, and the women-in-prison genre especially, can generate complex legal meanings and leave viewers feeling unsettled about women's incarceration. Focusing on five exemplary films and one television series, from 1933 to the present, Women, Film, and Law asks how fictional representations explore, shape, and refine beliefs about women's incarceration. Suzanne Bouclin convincingly argues that popular depictions of women's prisons can illuminate multiple forms of marginalization and oppression experienced by women in conflict with the law.
ISBN: 9780774865876
Publication Date: 2021-11-15

Racial representation

The Evolution of Black Women in Television: mammies, matriarchs and mistresses by Imani M. Cheers This book seeks to interrogate the representation of Black women in television. Cheers explores how the increase of Black women in media ownership and creative executive roles (producers, showrunners, directors and writers) in the last 30 years affected the fundamental cultural shift in Black women's representation on television, which in turn parallels the political, social, economic and cultural advancements of Black women in America from 1950 to 2016. She also examines Black women as a diverse television audience, discussing how they interact and respond to the constantly evolving television representation of their image and likeness, looking specifically at how social media is used as a tool of audience engagement.
ISBN: 9781138201644
Publication Date: 2017-07-20

Global

Media, Indigeneity and Nation in South Asia by Markus Schleiter (Editor); Erik de Maaker (Editor) How do videos, movies and documentaries dedicated to indigenous communities transform the media landscape of South Asia? Based on extensive original research, this book examines how in South Asia popular music videos, activist political clips, movies and documentaries about, by and for indigenous communities take on radically new significances. Media, Indigeneity and Nation in South Asia shows how in the portrayal of indigenous groups by both 'insiders' and 'outsiders' imaginations of indigeneity and nation become increasingly interlinked. Indigenous groups, typically marginal to the nation, are at the same time part of mainstream polities and cultures. Drawing on perspectives from media studies and visual anthropology, this book compares and contrasts the situation in South Asia with indigeneity globally.
ISBN: 9780429755620
Publication Date: 2019-07-30
Bollywood's New Woman: liberalization, liberation and contested bodies by Megha Anwer (Editor); Anupama Arora (Editor) Bollywood's New Woman examines Bollywood's construction and presentation of the Indian Woman since the 1990s. The groundbreaking collection illuminates the contexts and contours of this contemporary figure that has been identified in sociological and historical discourses as the "New Woman." On the one hand, this figure is a variant of the fin de siècle phenomenon of the "New Woman" in the United Kingdom and the United States. In the Indian context, the New Woman is a distinct articulation resulting from the nation's tryst with neoliberal reform, consolidation of the middle class, and the ascendency of aggressive Hindu Right politics.
ISBN: 9781978814448
Publication Date: 2021-06-18

Finding Books

Recent Books

Emergent Feminisms: complicating a postfeminist media culture by Jessalynn Keller (Editor); Maureen E. Ryan (Editor) Through twelve chapters that historicize and re-evaluate postfeminism as a dominant framework of feminist media studies, this collection maps out new modes of feminist media analysis at both theoretical and empirical levels and offers new insights into the visibility and circulation of feminist politics in contemporary media cultures. The essays in this collection resituate feminism within current debates about postfeminism, considering how both operate as modes of political engagement and as scholarly traditions. Authors analyze a range of media texts and practices including American television shows Being Mary Janeand Inside Amy Schumer, Beyonce's "Formation" music video, misandry memes, and Hong Kong cinema.
ISBN: 9780815386605
Publication Date: 2018-02-26
Feminist Approaches to Media Theory and Research by Dustin Harp (Editor); Jaime Loke (Editor); Ingrid Bachmann (Editor) Feminist Approaches to Media Theory and Research tackles the breadth and depth of feminist perspectives in the field of media studies through essays and research that reflect on the present and future of feminist research and theory at the intersections of women, gender, media, activism, and academia. The volume includes original chapters on diverse topics illustrating where theorization and research currently stand with regard to the politics of gender and media, what work is being done in feminist theory, and how feminist scholarship can contribute to our understanding of gender as a mediated experience with implications for our contemporary global society. It opens for discussion how the research, theory, and interventions challenge concepts of gender in mediated discourses and practices and how these fit into the evolving state of contemporary feminisms. Contributors engage with discussions about contemporary feminisms as they are understood in media theory and research, particularly in a field that has changed rapidly in the last decades with digital communication tools and through cross-disciplinary work. Overall, the book illustrates how the politics of gender operate within the current media landscapes and how feminist theorizing shapes academic inquiry of these landscapes.
ISBN: 9783319908373
Publication Date: 2018-07-24
Feminist media : from the second wave to the digital age by Claire Sedgwick Feminist Media: From the Second Wave to the Digital Age analyses the relationship between second wave feminist media production and capitalism, as well as identifying the tradition that can be drawn between second wave feminism, Riot Grrrl and feminist blogging today. There has been a recent re-evaluation of the importance of second wave feminist media, demonstrated by the digitization of Spare Rib by the British Library in 2015. However, up until now, research on the magazine has been limited. This book analyses the relationship between Spare Rib and the capitalist publishing industry, comparing it to American feminist magazine Ms. The book argues that it is important to understand the cultural economies of the magazines as this had an impact on the assumed readership of the magazines, therefore having an impact on the issues that were privileged. The second half of the book charts a crucial and often overlooked link between feminist media production in the 'second wave' and more contemporary forms of feminist media activism.
ISBN: 9781786610409
Publication Date: 2020-08-07
Feminist Media: participatory spaces, networks and cultural citizenship by Ricarda Drueke (Editor); Elke Zobl (Editor) While feminists have long recognised the importance of self-managed, alternative media to transport their messages, to challenge the status quo, and to spin novel social processes, this topic has been an under-researched area. Hence, this book explores the processes of women's and feminist media production in the context of participatory spaces, technology, and cultural citizenship. The collection is composed of theoretical analyses and critical case studies. It highlights contemporary alternative feminist media in general as well as blogs, zines, culture jamming, and street art.
ISBN: 9783837621570
Publication Date: 2012-10-06
Gender, Race, and Class in Media by William E. Yousman (Editor); Lori Bindig Yousman (Editor); Gail Dines (Editor); Jean McMahon Humez (Editor) Gender, Race, and Class in Media provides students a comprehensive and critical introduction to media studies by encouraging them to analyze their own media experiences and interests. Editors Bill Yousman, Lori Bindig Yousman, Gail Dines, and Jean McMahon Humez explore some of the most important forms of today's popular culture--including the Internet, social media, television, films, music, and advertising--in three distinct but related areas of investigation: the political economy of production, textual analysis, and audience response. Multidisciplinary issues of power related to gender, race, and class are integrated into a wide range of articles examining the economic and cultural implications of mass media as institutions. Reflecting the rapid evolution of the field, the Sixth Edition includes 18 new readings that enhance the richness, sophistication, and diversity that characterizes contemporary media scholarship.
ISBN: 9781544393421
Publication Date: 2020-08-27
The Gender and Media Reader by Mary Celeste Kearney (Editor) The Gender and Media Reader is an essential text for those interested in gender and media studies, its main topics, debates, and theoretical approaches. The primary objective of this collection is to expand readers' knowledge of how gender operates within media culture through engagement with foundational writings as well as more contemporary research in this field. Taking a multiperspectival approach that considers gender broadly and examines media texts alongside their production and consumption, The Gender and Media Reader enables readers' critical thinking about how gender is constructed, contested, and subverted in different sites within media culture. Along with the main introduction, individual section introductions facilitate readers' understanding of the development of gender and media studies by contextualizing the various topics, debates, and theoretical approaches that have shaped it, as well as by highlighting current trends.
ISBN: 9780415993456
Publication Date: 2011-08-03
Gender and the media: Women's places by Marcia Texler Segal (Editor); Vasilikie Demos (Editor) Media images shape and are shaped by society. They reflect the ways in which the social order changes and stays the same. The contributors to Gender and the Media: Women's Placesconsider a variety of media to explore the impact of what is there, as well as what is missing. Their focus is on women. Networks of the cyberbullying of women of color are rendered graphically and the agency claimed by women in Western Sahara refugee camps is shown in photos. How college women and men respond to the masculinity reflected in hip-hop lyrics and videos, and what it feels like to be a woman in a comic book store are conveyed in excerpts from interviews. Contributors detail how publications discuss rape in India and trafficking in Moldova and ponder the absence of the topic of anorexia in U.S. cinema. Social change is reflected in how trade publications discuss the increasing number of women in the funeral industry. The relation of the local to the global and female invisibility is considered in an analysis of Portuguese punk fanzines. An examination of advice books for American tween girls documents not only the subject matter, but also the racial, ethnic and religious homogeneity and heteronormativity assumed in the text and illustrations. Finally, a comparison of the critical response to identical music recorded by female and male artists provides the opportunity to see the role gender plays in criticism of aesthetic materials.
ISBN: 9781787543300
Publication Date: 2018-11-19
Media-Ready Feminism and Everyday Sexism: how US audiences create meaning across platforms by Andrea L. Press; Francesca Tripodi Unique empirically grounded analysis of how audiences negotiate sexism and feminism across media, from popular television shows to dating apps.
ISBN: 9781438481951
Publication Date: 2021-03-01
Misogyny and Media in the Age of Trump by Maria B. Marron (Editor) Misogyny and Media in the Age of Trump argues that misogyny has increased in the United States under President Trump and that although women's experiences under misogyny are by no means universal, patriarchal social and institutional systems facilitate gender-based hostility. Systemic misogyny and power inequities are at the root of male-on-female bullying, the bullying and harassment of non-hegemonic males and other minorities as well as sexual harassment, rape, and even murder. Given the prevalence of misogyny, and its deep rootedness in religion, it is argued that the social contract needs to be rewritten in order to have a just, gender- and race-equitable society. Misogyny creates a clash of cultures between men and women, hegemonic and non-hegemonic males, feminists and INCELS, the powerful and the oppressed, natives and marginalized minorities, the conservative and the liberal/progressive. This book explores misogyny across media ranging from political and editorial cartoons to news, sport, film, television, social media (especially Twitter), and journalistic organizations that address gender inequities. The authors argue that the current era of conservative populism ushered in by President Donald Trump and the Republicans constitute the social-cultural and political environment that have given rise to the #MeToo Movement and Fourth Wave Feminism.
ISBN: 9781793606181
Publication Date: 2019-12-19
Women's Voices in Digital Media by Jennifer O'Meara In today's digital era, women's voices are heard everywhere--from smart home devices to social media platforms, virtual reality, podcasts, and even memes--but these new forms of communication are often accompanied by dated gender politics. In Women's Voices in Digital Media, Jennifer O'Meara dives into new and well-established media formats to show how contemporary screen media and cultural practices police and fetishize women's voices, but also provide exciting new ways to amplify and empower them. As she travels through the digital world, O'Meara discovers newly acknowledged--or newly erased--female voice actors from classic films on YouTube, meets the AI and digital avatars in Her and The Congress, and hears women's voices being disembodied in new ways via podcasts and VR voice-overs. She engages with dialogue that is spreading with only the memory of a voice, looking at how popular media like Clueless and The Simpsons have been mined for feminist memes, and encounters vocal ventriloquism on RuPaul's Drag Race that queers and valorizes the female voice. Through these detailed case studies, O'Meara argues that the digital proliferation of screens alters the reception of sounds as much as that of images, with substantial implications for women's voices.
ISBN: 9781477324448
Publication Date: 2022-04-26

Queer representation

Feminist Perspectives on Orange Is the New Black by April Kalogeropoulos Householder (Editor); Adrienne Trier-Bieniek (Editor) Since its 2013 premiere, Orange Is the New Black has become Netflix's most watched series, garnering critical praise and numerous awards and advancing the cultural phenomenon of binge-watching. Academic conferences now routinely feature panels discussing the show, and the book on which it is based is popular course material at many universities. Yet little work has been published on OINTB. The series has sparked debate: does it celebrate diversity or is it told from the perspective of white privilege, with characters embodying some of the most racist and sexist stereotypes in television history? This collection of new essays is the first to analyze the show's multiple layers of meaning. Examining Orange Is the New Black from a number of feminist perspectives, the contributors cover topics such as gender, race, class, sexuality, transgenderism, mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex, disability, and sexual assault.
ISBN: 9781476663920
Publication Date: 2016-07-30
Killing off the Lesbians by Liz Millward; Janice G. Dodd; Irene Fubara-Manuel Spoiler Alert: the lesbian character always dies. That is what seems to happen in television shows and films from all around the world. But is it true and is it something new? And does it even matter when women who love women can be found right across the media landscape? Looking at the fates of characters over decades, this wide-ranging and lively book argues that killing off the lesbian--even if she only appears via the subtext--is nothing new. It is a form of symbolic annihilation that has an impact in real life. Industry surveys and scholarly studies show that it is now easier for actors to come out and be role models. When more women are working behind the scenes the quality of what appears on-screen also becomes more diverse, but the storylines do not necessarily change. From the Xenaverse to GLAAD to the Lexa Pledge, fans have demanded better from the entertainment industry. As their fan fiction migrates from the computer screen to the printed page, they reanimate the dead and insist on happy endings.
ISBN: 9781476668161
Publication Date: 2017-05-30
Lesbians on Television: new queer visibility & the lesbian normal by Kate Mcnicholas-Smith; Kate McNicholas Smith The twenty-first century has seen LGBTQ+ rights emerge at the forefront of public discourse and national politics in ways that would once have been hard to imagine. In Lesbians on Television, Kate McNicholas Smith maps concurrent contemporary shifts in lesbian visibility within popular media, focusing on the small screens of Europe and North America. Central to these shifts has been a re-imagining of queer lives--or a "new queer visibility"--as LGBTQ+ characters have become increasingly visible within popular culture. Kate McNicholas Smith explores this increased visibility through the lens of television, and in doing so, she identifies a "new lesbian normal"--a normalization of lesbian subjects that both helps and hinders those it represents. Structured around five central case studies of popular British and American television shows featuring lesbian, bisexual, and queer women characters--The L Word, Skins, Glee, Coronation Street, and The Fosters--the book develops a detailed analysis of the shaping of a new "lesbian normal" through representations of LGBTQ+ figures, and examines their televisual representation and reception. Presenting critical queer and feminist theory alongside empirical research that includes interviews and multi-platform media analyses, McNicholas Smith works to untangle the social, political, and cultural implications of new visibility in a period of significant social change in the LGBTQ+ experience.
ISBN: 9781789382808
Publication Date: 2020-11-29
Televising Queer Women: a reader by Rebecca Beirne (Editor) This timely collection provides high-quality interdisciplinary essays which address lesbian and bisexual representation in popular television shows such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, E.R., Queer as Folk, Sex and the City, The L Word and The O.C.
ISBN: 9780230600805
Publication Date: 2008-05-12
Queer media images : LGBT perspectives by Theresa Carilli (Editor), et al. Queer Media Images: LGBT Perspectives presents fifteen chapters that address how the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered communities are depicted in the media. This collection focuses on how the LGBT community has been silenced or given voice through the media. Through a study of queer media images, this book scrutinizes LGBT media representations and how these representations contribute to a dialogue about civil rights for this marginalized community. While the communication discipline has been open to the LGBT community, there has been an absence of published research and a marginalizing or tokenizing of the queer voice. Through a study of media representations, this unique collection provides a snapshot into the issues surrounding LGBT identity during a time when the Defense of Marriage Act is called into question and explores what it means to study images through a queer lens.
ISBN: 9781498516105
Publication Date: 2015-03-24

Gaming

Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: new perspectives on gender and gaming by Yasmin B. Kafai (Editor); Jennifer Y. Sun (Editor); Jill Denner (Editor); Carrie Heeter (Editor); Henry Jenkins Girls and women as game players and game designers in the new digital landscape of massively multiplayer online games, "second lives," "modding," serious games, and casual games. Ten years after the groundbreaking From Barbie to Mortal Kombat highlighted the ways gender stereotyping and related social and economic issues permeate digital game play, the number of women and girl gamers has risen considerably. Despite this, gender disparities remain in gaming. Women may be warriors in World of Warcraft, but they are also scantily clad "booth babes" whose sex appeal is used to promote games at trade shows. Player-generated content has revolutionized gaming, but few games marketed to girls allow "modding" (game modifications made by players). Gender equity, the contributors to Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat argue, requires more than increasing the overall numbers of female players. Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat brings together new media theorists, game designers, educators, psychologists, and industry professionals, including some of the contributors to the earlier volume, to look at how gender intersects with the broader contexts of digital games today: gaming, game industry and design, and serious games. The contributors discuss the rise of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) and the experience of girl and women players in gaming communities; the still male-dominated gaming industry and the need for different perspectives in game design; and gender concerns related to emerging serious games (games meant not only to entertain but also to educate, persuade, or change behavior). In today's game-packed digital landscape, there is an even greater need for games that offer motivating, challenging, and enriching contexts for play to a more diverse population of players. Contributors Cornelia Brunner, Shannon Campe, Justine Cassell, Mia Consalvo, Jill Denner, Mary Flanagan, Janine Fron, Tracy Fullerton, Elisabeth Hayes, Carrie Heeter, Kristin Hughes, Mimi Ito, Henry Jenkins III, Yasmin B. Kafai, Caitlin Kelleher, Brenda Laurel, Nicole Lazzaro, Holin Lin, Jacki Morie, Helen Nissenbaum, Celia Pearce, Caroline Pelletier, Jennifer Y. Sun, T. L. Taylor, Brian Winn, Nick YeeInterviews with Nichol Bradford, Brenda Braithwaite, Megan Gaiser, Sheri Graner Ray, Morgan Romine
ISBN: 9780262113199
Publication Date: 2008-09-19
Feminism in Play by Kishonna L. Gray (Editor); Gerald Voorhees (Editor); Emma Vossen (Editor) Feminism in Play focuses on women as they are depicted in video games, as participants in games culture, and as contributors to the games industry. This volume showcases women's resistance to the norms of games culture, as well as women's play and creative practices both in and around the games industry. Contributors analyze the interconnections between games and the broader societal and structural issues impeding the successful inclusion of women in games and games culture. In offering this framework, this volume provides a platform to the silenced and marginalized, offering counter-narratives to the post-racial and post-gendered fantasies that so often obscure the violent context of production and consumption of games culture.
ISBN: 9783319905389
Publication Date: 2018-10-10
Gaming sexism : gender and identity in the era of casual video games by Amanda C. Cote When the Nintendo Wii was released in 2006, it ushered forward a new era of casual gaming in which video games appealed to not just the stereotypical hardcore male gamer, but also to a much broader, more diverse audience. However, the GamerGate controversy six years later, and other similar public incidents since, laid bare the internalized misogyny and gender stereotypes in the gaming community. Today, even as women make up nearly half of all gamers, sexist assumptions about the what and how of women's gaming are more actively enforced. Amanda C. Cote explores the video game industry and its players to explain this contradiction, how it affects female gamers, and what it means in terms of power and gender equality.
Video games and American culture : how ideology influences virtual worlds by Aaron A. Toscano Digital media are immersive technologies reflecting behaviors, attitudes, and values. The engrossing, entertaining virtual worlds video games provide are important sites for 21st century research. This book moves beyond assertions that video games cause violence by analyzing the culture that produces such material. While some popular media reinforce the idea that video games lead to violence, this book uses a cultural studies lens to reveal a more complex situation. Video games do not lead to violence, sexism, and chauvinism. Rather, Toscano argues, a violent, sexist, chauvinistic culture reproduces texts that reflect these values. Although video games have a worldwide audience, this book focuses on American culture and how this multi-billion dollar industry entertains us in our leisure time (and sometimes at work), bringing us into virtual environments where we have fun learning, fighting, discovering, and acquiring bragging rights. When politicians and moral crusaders push agendas that claim video games cause a range of social ills from obesity to mass shooting, these perspectives fail to recognize that video games reproduce hegemonic American values. This book, in contrast, focuses on what these highly entertaining cultural products tell us about who we are.
ISBN: 9781793601308
Publication Date: 2019-12-12