Gender and Identity

- cultural roles of masculinity and femininity
- not natural properties but social constructs
- definitions of gender are specific to time and place
- gender roles change over time, reflect broader cultural change
- representations of gender: ideas are reflected and explored within the media and wider visual culture
- gender and power structures
- why do we use gender as the basis upon which to place discussions of identity
- gender performance
- what are the political, economic, scientific, and social elements that affect attributes to gender
- how is gender represented in visual culture
- do representations in the popular media reflect changing perspectives or perpetuate gender stereotypes
- the gendered body, cultural ideals
- the relationship between gender and consumerism
- gender as construct- gender as per formative act
- socio historical conditioning
- culturally anchored
The male gaze:
- the male gaze is the act of representing women in visual media from a heterosexual male point of view, which reduces women to objects of male pleasure
- mull eyes points to three perspectives 1. That of the man behind the camera 2. That of the characters within the film representation 3. That of the male viewer 
- women are depicted in the passive role of the observed
- men are the active observers in viewing the female from their perspective
ritual subordination of women:
- the social presence of a woman is different
- men pictures as assertive
- women in supportive roles
- men survey
- women are surveyed
gender roles power dynamic:
- men inhabit the world of paid work
- women inhabit the world of the home
- humorous/ironic depiction of men in the home
- women rarely shown in positions of power in the workplace
- men appear in formal dress codes
- women often shown at leisure
- reinforced patriarchal power structures
the gendered body:
- men’s bodies sown as active and forceful
- women’s bodies shown as passive and yielding
- men seen as reserved or detached
- women seen as emotionally outgoing
- the feminine touch, women depicted as tactile