Impact of Media on Fashion, Popular Pleasures, and Gender Identity - Essay Example

TOPIC CULTURAL STUDIES: FASHION, POPULAR PLEASURES AND THE MEDIA When I was fifteen years old, I used to frequently browse through Just Seventeen magazine. When I turned seventeen, I read 19 and when I reached the age of nineteen, I started reading Company. After finishing an introductory course to women studies, at twenty-three, my reading material became Marie-Claire. After attaining the feminist gaze, I found out that the first three magazines which I used to read portrayed women as a homogenous group of simple-minded and vain individuals whose only thoughts were to get the attention of the opposite sex, at whatever cost it may be. But even this did not help me give up women’s magazines because I take pleasure in reading them; also fashion has a very strong entertainment value for me. But I decided to make a compromise by not taking up the role of the oppressed woman, a victim of fashion who had destroyed herself at the hands of the image and the fashion industry and read only Marie-Claire because it is more focused on being a woman and womanhood rather than just cosmetics, clothes and sex quizzes. The anguish in choosing the reading material for the aware and modern women helps define the difficult relationship between feminism and fashion. Even though she has an aversion towards the way women are portrayed in media but she herself is an active participant in the utilization and enjoys clothes and shopping (Ferguson 1983). A six-year-old Sally and an eight-year-old Billy are sitting in front of the television enjoying their favorite programs. Suddenly an advertisement disrupts their favorite television show. The advertisement shows a woman cleaning a kitchen with a product that looks to be easy and enjoyable to use. The woman is smiling while she does her chore as she turns towards the camera and states on how quick the product helped her to clean the kitchen. Both Billy and Sally sit patiently through the advertisement and wait for their show to restart. They do not pay any attention towards the advertisement. This is a scene that takes place at every household. Even though the time span is very short but the social impact is way beyond our imagination. A lot of individuals live their lives without being aware that how there advertisements shape their lives and how their roles get socialized. Advertisements places genders into given set roles and help perpetuate gender stereotypes. Gender representation has always been vital in order to understand what it actually means to be male or female. In the images provided to us in the patriarchal mass media surrounding us, it is always supposed that it has been encouraged to mould oneself according to a set ideal. For women, it means passivity, elegance, beauty, and good domestic ability. While for a man it means being aggressive, competitive and business minded. Now in the 21st century however, these ideas no longer seen important in order to be accepted into a society. Now, women are often self-reliant and career focused while a lot of men feel that it is their right to express themselves and indulgence themselves, to love and be loved. The new woman and new man are present in the contemporary society but the representation in advertisement is otherwise. As it is seen in the media, the role of women is highly limiting and stereotypical. Association of women with specific domestic roles has been solidified in advertisement. Women have been portrayed not as decision makers but as domestic providers who are dependent on men and are sex objects. Even though the number of offensive advertisements has declined but women are still seen as belonging to the private life of their homes. Women have to play multiple roles. One dimension is the fulfillment of her home duties and the other being a complete sex object. Early on, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, media provided a very clear cut distinction in roles of gender and the different variations within which they are exhibited. The typical cereal box family was portrayed where the woman was the housewife who took care of the kids and the man was the breadwinner. Happiness and satisfaction in the media was portrayed by woman acquiring commodity goods for her household, family and children. Men on the other hand were portrayed as the macho man, the impregnator and the breadwinner. These stereotyping led to the belief that only very strict adherence to conjugal roles was accepted in society. Gender subordination in advertisements is a result of the universal functions and values. Men in advertisements also face confusion and psychological conflicts as their role as the bread-winner. Furthermore, men in advertisements are encourages to be aggressive, engage in sports, become leader and ultimately grow into a macho man. Men generally are shown as independent, strong, in control of their environment, athletic. On the other hand, women are portrayed as gentle, giggling, and affectionate and basically fixate the woman body as sex objects. Another stereotypical behavior present in advertisements is that of a wimpy man. The wimpy man is shown as person who possesses female traits and has emotional sensitivity. This further enhances the man’s desire to be masculine and aggressive. Today, the scenario has changed. The woman is portrayed in media as the bold and sexy outgoing woman but whose primary satisfaction comes from purchasing fashionable goods and items. As for the man, he is more involved in family but still continues to be the primary breadwinner. Although liberation has been reached in terms of staunch adherence to conjugal roles, gender stereotyping continues to exist within the mainstream media. In today’s world, gender stereotyping has taken a new dimension. Women have become empowered and are aware of what they wear. They are conscious because they know what message they do, or do not, want to give, about who they are, where they come and where are they going. These messages are given out in the language of dressing up which they have learnt through fashion and custom. Fashion, in its broadest sense is a type of custom or style, which shows style of dressing or behavior. There are different types of clothing which are introduced in the latest fashion. Fashion is not only meant for clothes but it also relates itself to accessories, hair, shoes, make-up and even cell phones in today’s world. Moreover, fashion can also be defined as acquiring the latest possible trends in lifestyle, music, clothing, accessories etc. Furthermore, fashion helps in constructing of an identity by providing models and material. It shows the modern personality who is always looking for something new and being admired for it (Borelli 1997). Mass media is a powerful tool which impacts our attitudes, beliefs and the priorities we have for ourselves and others as well as the world surrounding us. Media does not just communicate and reflect reality in a more or less truthful way. Instead, media production involves a composite process of processing, negotiation, and reconstruction. Media does not only give us a visual picture but also shapes and molds the audience’s perceptions. Various messages by the media are interpreted by audiences according to their own perception (Gauntlett 2002). The world is intermeshed with diverse cultures that are reflected in variant gender relations ranging from patriarchal forms to matrilineal. This complex range of gender subjectivities can provide an appearance of media’s simultaneous sensitivity and bias on gender issues. In the media stereotypes are widespread and their consequences on the shared conscience of society are considerable. Emile Durkheim talks about the power of a collective force but maintains that it is not separate from the individual. Collective conscience exists because of the existence of individual conscience. According to Durkheim that among a large number of individuals, individuals become inclined to actions and emotions of which they are incapable when alone. It is through various institutions that the collective conscience is gathered and distributed. The media, as an institution itself, is constantly influencing and being influenced itself by society. Various people who consume media are affected by the collective conscience. Consequently, this leads to the formation of a collective consciousness which helps in providing solidarity for individuals in society (Gauntlett 2002). The media broadcasts an enormous number of messages about acceptable forms of self-expression and identity, sexuality, gender, and lifestyle. At the same time, the audiences have their own strong opinions about various issues being presented on the media. Even though the medias ideas may be inviting, but they can never just take over feelings of the audience. The imbalance in the media can be clearly seen from the way women are being portrayed as complete housewives in the television series known as Desperate Housewives. They are shown as women, who lead their lives gossiping about other people and act as social climbers. On the other hand, the role of women in Grey’s Anatomy and Sex and the City have been emancipated and empowered. They take control of their lives and are fully independent. They are shown as women who are completely self-reliant and do not need men to do their jobs. Meanwhile, the masculine ideals of toughness, aggressiveness is being taken over by emphasis on men’s emotions, their need for advice and the problems they face in their masculinity. An example of this can be seen in the changing level of masculinity towards metro sexuality. In the television series Gossip Girl and the advertisement of perfumes which usually showed women now showcase men an important instrument for selling their products. The traditional women’s magazine appears anathema to feminism, its blend of romance, beauty and domesticity portraying and maintaining female objectification within the feminine ideal. Is it possible for women to escape the system and the so-called oppression through the feminist style or would it be through personal preference. Elizabeth Wilson (1985) argued about the feminist politics of fashion. She states that: ‘A part of this strangeness of dress is that it links the biological body to the social being, and public to private.” (Elizabeth Wilson) It is rightly pointed out in the above statement dress and physical adornment is present in every community and plays various roles depending on the circumstances. It is never just a necessity but it is a statement which transforms ones body from a physical entity to a social one. It is quite visible that clothes serve a more compound purpose than just protecting one’s body. All one needs to do is to take a walk on the streets of any English city on a cold Friday night to find women dressed in skimpy clothes and walking between pubs and clubs. Dresses for women are fulfillment of a number of social, aesthetic and psychological functions. It joins and expresses them together (Borelli 1997). Fashion, is something that adds on to dress in modern western societies. Fashion, which is being channelized through the mass media, is in essence a change in dress styles and no clothes stands outside of fashion. Fashion is a huge part of modern life and everyone dresses accordingly. It is women who are the main consumers of the fashion industry because men are always complaining that they have lack of options when it comes to dressing up. Women, on the other hand, have vast options to choose from like skirts, dresses, tops, shirts, shoes and all the colors of the rainbow. Therefore, it is women who are the efficient participants in the fashion industry. Therefore, it is not a surprise that feminists have argued over the fashion industry, seeing it as oppressive. While others may see it as a woman’s liberating option of making a statement by creating her own personal style through fashion (Ballaster 1991). Fashion and feminism have had a problematic and confusing relationship from the start. The ideology concerning fashion has never been made entirely explicit within feminist discourse and theory. This is mainly due to the fact that within feminist theory there has become a deep distinction between theoretical perspectives concerning the status of women within society (Ballaster et al. 1991). Stacey in 1993 identifies the three ‘classic feminist positions’. Firstly, she names radical feminism, which focuses on patriarchy as a reason for the oppression of women throughout history, liberal feminism, which focuses on individual rights and choices of women. Wilson in 1985 upholds that within feminism itself there have also two different understandings of culture. The radical idea states that all aspects of culture that reproduce sexist ideas and pornographic or violent images of women should be condemned. On the other hand, this idea becomes the liberal understanding that it would be discriminatory of feminists to criticize the popular culture that a lot of women enjoy, be it consuming fashion products or reading romance novels. This difference becomes most evident in the feminist debate over pornography where radical feminists attack pornography as humiliating to women and the principal reason for women’s oppression in society whereas liberal feminists recognize it as women’s right to enjoy pornography and eroticism and be turned on by it. Wilson (1985) recognizes this distinction between ‘moralism’ and ‘hedonism’ within the debate about fashion and sees in it an irresolvable contradiction. Women caring about their looks and dressing up are considered doing so, only to please men, and are therefore seen as oppressed. The difference occurs when a lot of women take pleasure in looking good and pamper them in fashion consumption on a habitual basis. The role of the fashion system in the society needs to b e clearly defined. Joanna Entwistle (2000) describes dress as ‘an activity of clothing the body with an aesthetic element and ‘fashion’ as a specific system of dress’ (Entwistle, 2000:48). She also agrees with Wilson (1985) in stating that the fashion system both supplies the raw material for making of fashionable items as well as providing the discourses and the ideas that surround fashion at any given moment. The cultural processes are important for fashion to become known and fashion marketing takes place on various levels. Fashion magazines, fashion shows, fashion TV shows, and various TV channels that are dedicated solely to fashion and the latest trends (Borelli 1997). The fashion system is a complex and a hierarchical system with many powerful figures working within it to make it what it is. We have the designers who design the clothes, the models who model them and the editors who write about fashion and let’s not forget the superstars who appear on the red carpet wearing the good or the bad clothes of the season. We are told what is hot and what is not by the fashion magazines that are under the spell of the advertisers of fashion and then we have the consumers who buy what is in at the moment. The fashion industry needs the customers more than anything else because nothing is fashion unless people wear it. Bibliography: Ballaster, R., Beetham, M., Frazer, E. & Hebron, S. 1991. Theories of Text and Culture’ in Women’s World’s: Ideology, Femininity and the Woman’s Magazine. London: Macmillan Borelli, L. 1997. Dressing Up and Talking about It: Fashion Writing in Vogue from 1968 to 1993. Journal of Fashion Theory, Volume 1 (3): 247-260. Oxford: Berg. Ferguson, M. 1983. Forever Feminine: Women’s Magazines and the Cult of Femininity. London: Heinemann. Gauntlett, D. 2002. Media, Gender & Identity. London: Routledge. Read More