Womens Domestic Duty: No Change Where Medias Concerned - Essay Example

Women’s Domestic Duty: No Change Where Media’s Concerned Social scientists have long identified the media as one of either bringing about social change by pointing out the social problems that are contributing to a declining society or of bolstering existing ideologies and social structures (Viswanath & Demers 1999). In many ways, cinema has shaped modern society’s view of the 20th century woman. With recognition of its power, cinema is also now being proactively used to help change that image to one that accounts for more of the total woman rather than the sum of her body parts. A large number of studies suggest cinema can bring about significant cultural changes in attitudes regarding women (Riley 1986). Female roles of the 1960s presented three basic character types: the dumb blonde, the sex object and the whimpering victim. This limited view of their future selves gave young girls little to look forward to (Seger 1990). Seger and others indicate these images portray women in a negative light, preventing them from being seen by society as diverse, multi-faceted individuals. These types of depictions help drive such negative self-images that lead to the disorders we’ve seen increasing in recent years among young women (Thoman & Stieber 2003). Actress Renee Zellweger’s choice to gain 20 pounds for her role in Bridget Jones’ Diary is a single bold attempt to portray the modern, ‘normal’ working girl. Speaking of women who recognize these trends and causes, writer Susan Douglas (1994) said “one of the things we are angriest about, because the strategy has been so successful, is the way we have become alienated from our own bodies.” To understand how this has occurred, it is necessary to take a closer look at how the female figure has been portrayed in films over time. To limit the discussion to manageable length, only two films will be discussed in the following paragraphs. By comparing earlier films such as The Stepford Wives produced in 1974 with a later film like Aliens produced in 1986 as they relate to various social theories, one can begin to trace these changing attitudes toward women and their capabilities. In The Stepford Wives, for example, the female body is still largely considered to be the property of the male. This is evident in the very few options Joanna seems to have available to her as her family is moved out of the city into the quiet suburban town of Stepford. Her misery at this move is made palpably clear in the silent opening scenes of the film as she moves around her empty former home and later as she gets upset, although doesn’t actually yell, at her husband for making all the decisions. This element of the film brings out the extreme patriarchy that dominated society even as recently as the 1970s. “Patriarchy is the system which oppresses women through its social, economic and political institutions. Throughout history men have had greater power in both the public and private spheres. To maintain this power, men have created boundaries and obstacles for women, thus making it harder for women to hold power” (Kramarae et al, 1985). Her efforts to pursue a professional photography career are downplayed by her husband and by herself, yet she continues to try to make a name for herself – under her maiden name – because she wants to be remembered. Being a wife and mother, in spite of the fact that she’s good at both, are not fulfilling enough for her, neither is the mindless way in which her peers in Stepford devote themselves to homemaking. As she talks with her friend Bobby about the strange way in which the women of Stepford live their lives, Joanna also reveals the schism that was developing at that time between the radical feminists and the liberal feminists. Rather than hosting a bra-burning party, Joanna wants to get some women together to discuss the inequalities they’re experiencing in pursuing individual interests. Liberal feminists believe the oppression of women begins the way both genders are socialized. Aggressiveness by boys are encouraged by society but girls are generally taught to be ‘ladylike’ which promotes the patriarchal system allowing men to retain their power and control over women. “Liberal feminists believe that women have the same mental capacity as their male counterparts and should be given the same opportunities in political, economic and social spheres. Women should have the right to choose, not have their life chosen for them because of their sex. Essentially, women must be like men” (Kramarae et al, 1985). While the male concept of women has the ladies all appearing in dresses, speaking softly and dedicating themselves to looking pretty and maintaining a clean home, Joanna’s fight to create a better society is seen as reasonable and heroic against incredible odds. Her vitality is brought out in her relationship with Bobby, her creativity is exposed through her images and her courage is seen in her willingness to stand up to her stifling society as well as her husband when the time comes. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to save her. The film thus brings out the most dangerous and ugly side of patriarchy as it focuses on the female body as a mere commodity for the male interest, reinforcing the idea that the man is still firmly in control. It is through the media institutions that these belief systems are developed and maintained, continuously redefining roles to be in keeping with the prevailing ideology in spite of changing times and realizations. Analyzing the media from this perspective shows these institutions as being equally “locked into the power structure, and consequently as acting largely in tandem with the dominant institutions in society. The media thus reproduced the viewpoints of dominant institutions not as one among a number of alternate perspectives, but as the central and ‘obvious’ or ‘natural’ perspective” (Curran et al 1982). It can be seen then, that the media is given the power and the task of “renewing, amplifying and extending the existing predispositions that constitute the dominant culture, not in creating them” (Curran et al 1982). Thus, in the end, the audience sees Joanna, calmly and quietly strolling through the aisles of the grocery store wearing a pretty dress, casually greeting the women she’s met in Stepford and finally facing the camera with darkened, vacant eyes that fail to reflect the character the audience has come to know. The male body has succeeded, again, in claiming the female for himself, concerned only with her physical form and not at all with her inner fire. At the same time, though, the media is the one place wherein competing class views can be safely fought out and resolved, usually to the benefit of the existing prevalent ideology. “Ultimate control is increasingly concentrated in monopoly capital; media professionals, while enjoying the illusions of autonomy, are socialized into and internalize the norms of the dominant culture. The media, taken as a whole, relay interpretive frameworks consonant with the interest of the dominant classes, and media audiences, while sometimes negotiating and contesting these frameworks, lack ready access to alternative meaning systems that would enable them to reject the definitions offered by the media in favor of oppositional definitions” (Curran & Gurevitch 1977). The empty lives of the women depicted in the film strike the female viewer with at least as much terror and sense of confinement as was expressed by Joanna throughout most of the film. Although Joanna loses in the end, she has succeeded in getting a warning out. She has tipped off the psychologist she went to go see, conveyed to this woman her terror of returning to Stepford and her conviction that in a few days, there will be a woman who looks like her and sounds like her, but it will not be her. In much the same way, she is warning her audience not to give in to the patriarchal structures in place in greater society. She had something valuable to offer the world and it was stripped from her by the only person who could truly take it away – a mirror image of herself. Although the feminist movements of the 1960s and 70s were somewhat successful in bringing women out of the cave and into the light, not enough had changed by the mid-1980s to truly bring about real change. Women were now accepted into the workforce and it was widely acknowledged that she was capable of contributing more than just housework to society, but in many ways, she was still considered to be working outside of her ‘natural’ boundaries when she stepped away from the ironing board. Many of these ideas are expressed in James Cameron’s 1986 presentation of Aliens. Without knowing anything about her character from the previous film, ??E Ripley’s first appearance within the film is that of a helpless female. She is frozen and drifting in a hypersleep where she has been for the past 57 years. Her first associations are seen to be nurturing as she cuddles her cat, who has been in hypersleep with her, and in her concern to discover what happened to her daughter. Only after these associations have been established are the other aspects of her character revealed as a military officer and a fighter. Yet these revelations work against her as she is not suitably calm enough to be considered a stable source of information. As a result, she is stripped of her rank and sentenced to psychiatric evaluation. Her identification and her chosen appearance includes a close-cropped hair-style intended to give her a more military appearance, made significant by the similar appearance of the other women who accompany her on the later mission. The message here is that only women interested in appearing like men are barely acceptable within this mostly male world. Language reveals the extent to which the women are merely tolerated but not fully accepted within this world. This begins as Ripley is consistently referred to by her last name and later as the military unit wakes up in preparation for their mission. Just as the feminist message of The Stepford Wives exists subtly, so is the anti-feminist message of Aliens. Sexist language can be deliberate, concealed or controlled. The deliberate use of obvious and overtly derogatory sexist terminology is generally considered discriminatory and is a patently unfair treatment of women as compared to men, but this would not be subtle. The intention of concealed sexism is deliberate and discriminatory but the delivery is of a covert nature. Controlled sexism is subtle and more usually not intended to be disparaging or harmful. This type of sexist language is integrated into society’s everyday speech, is considered to be normal and is not recognized by most people as the unfair or unequal treatment of women. “Subtle sexism is particularly interesting from both theoretical and practical perspectives because it may be quite prevalent, and may have an insidious impact on its victims” (Benokraitis & Feagin, 1999). Sexism as it exists in language is a controlled manner of speaking that perpetuates gender stereotypes and reinforces status disparities between men and women. Those less sensitive to sexism as a whole tend not to define the demeaning terms they use as sexist language. These people are of the opinion that sexist language does not exist or are consciously or subconsciously trying to safeguard traditional patriarchal social hierarchies. Those persons more receptive to sexism and the harm it causes do attempt to adjust their speech patterns so as not to offend (Parks & Roberton, 1998). Yet the nature of language itself focuses on subjugating the female while elevating the male. Although Ripley is consistently thrown into the position of the mother and thus, presumably, the weakest member of the team, it is precisely because of these traits that she is able to survive and be of help. It is because of her mothering instincts that she is able to get Newt to talk to her and it is because of her instinct for safety that she recognizes the danger of the team as they enter into the center of the hive’s nursery. Her protective instinct causes her to take action to try to save the men trapped by the alien as she slams through the tunnels to try to reach them as quickly as possible. Although she is acting in a military way in all those things, capable of driving their machines and operating other equipment, her actions are driven by the instinct to protect those individuals who are with her as well as those who remain back at home. She sees her mission as nothing short of protecting the human species from complete destruction and she gets her help from Corporal Hicks who adopts the fatherly role. In spite of her role as the female figure to be protected, though, her strength as mother is recognized as Hicks sends her back out to battle the aliens to save Newt. Even though she doesn’t need his permission, and he is in no condition to be able to stop her anyway, Hicks final words to Ripley before she dives back in to the alien fortress sound much like he is giving her the go-ahead to seek the child they’ve been protecting. The film then turns out to be a battle between mothers – Ripley as the mother of humanity and the alien mother struggling to repopulate her species. Modern culture is presented as encompassing values and norms universal to all but there remain strong militarist, masculine customs of fraternity that permeates in the political realm that transfers into the media. This social generality of the thought that defines the culture of power has always been dependent upon the exclusion or confinement of women within traditional roles. The public stage is still not widely regarded as a place for the stereotypical traits that associate women with a greater propensity for sentiment and emotion. Based on these deeply ingrained perceptions planted by the patriarchal society, women are not automatically viewed by most to truly escape the bounds of wife, mother and protector or deviant. Social theorists throughout the male-dominated history have consistently made the association of women as being the embodiment of human sexuality and comfort. Since sex has been considered an act that has been historically linked with evil intent in the religious dominated society, its symbol, women, must continue to be suppressed and constrained within the male prescriptives. While the subjugation of women is obvious in some areas of the world, western ideologies that act to suppress women are not as overt as they are displayed in the media. Women still today are not fully accepted on the same social pedestal as men much the same as the poor and non-whites are not. These perceptions of social hierarchy were initiated and reinforced by the propaganda and rhetoric of the ruling class, just as they have been discovered in the films examined here. Civil Rights laws protect women, minorities and the disabled from being discriminated against but the perceptions that have been ingrained in society’s collective conscious persist. These perceptions, though irrational and patently unfair, persist and will probably continue for an indefinite period of time. Until society evolves beyond the prejudices of the past that were induced by those who had power so as to retain it, women will not be considered equal. References Benokraitis, N.V. & Feagin, J.R. (1999). Modern Sexism. (2nd Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Curran, James and Gurevitch, Michael. (1977) Mass Communication and Society. London: Edward Arnold. Curran, James; Gurevitch, Michael & Woollacott, Janet. (1982) “The Study of the Media: Theoretical Approaches.” Culture, Society and the Media. T. Bennett, J. Curran, M. Gurevitch, & J. Woollacott (Eds.). London: Routledge. Douglas, Susan. (1994). “Media: A Girl’s Friend and Foe.” Where the Girls Are: Center for Media Literacy. Available May 25, 2010 from Parks, J.B. & Roberton, M.A. (1998). “Contemporary Arguments Against Nonsexist Language: Blaubergs Revisted.” Sex Roles. Riley, Maria. (Spring 1986). “Women: Female Roles Still Distort Reality.” Media and Values. 35 Center for Media Literacy. Available May 25, 2010 from Seger, Linda. (Winter 1990). “How to Evaluate Media Images of Women.” Media and Values. 49 Center for Media Literacy. Available May 25, 2010 from Thoman, Elizabeth & Stieber, Dale Ann. (2003). “Growing Up Female in a Media World.” Center for Media Literacy. Available May 25, 2010 from Viswanath, K. & Demers, David, (Eds.) (1999). Mass Media, Social Control, and Social Change: A Macrosocial Perspective. 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