MIGRAIN: Feminist theory

We've explored an important media debate in questioning whether we are in a post-feminist state and now need to add feminist theories to the argument.

As ever, the most important thing here is to develop your own opinion on these debates and theories and, crucially, be able to support these with evidence from media products. There are four main gender theorists in the A Level Media subject content. 

Feminist theory: introductory notes

We will return to all of these theories as we study the Close Study Products across the rest of the course but this will provide a good introduction to the named theorists in A Level Media.

Judith Butler: gender as performance

Butler’s hugely influential work ‘Gender Trouble’ argues that gender is culturally and socially constructed – not ‘natural’. 

She believes we are conditioned to adhere to social norms – both in terms of gender roles and heterosexuality.

Butler believes gender roles are ‘a performance’, a pattern of repeated acts or rituals such as putting on make-up or dressing a certain way.

Butler and the media

If gender is a ‘performance’ rather than biological, we then need to think about what is influencing that ‘performance’.

And that’s where the media comes in. How might the media influence our behaviour in terms of gender roles?


Liesbet van Zoonen: Feminist Media Studies

Like Butler, van Zoonen believes culture – the media – plays a crucial role in establishing gender roles and the dominance of patriarchal ideologies.

Patriarchy: a system that believes in male dominance in the family or society.

She also builds on Mulvey’s idea of the ‘male gaze’ by arguing that the media presents the female body as ‘spectacle’ – sexualised for the benefit of male audiences.

Media teacher and textbook writer Mark Dixon has highlighted five aspects to van Zoonen's theory.  van Zoonen argues that women are typically:

• Objectified – in media products aimed at both men and women.
• Restricted to secondary roles.
• Constructed to present women as passive.
• Framed differently – camerawork and mise-en-scene emphasise appearance or sexuality.
• Presented to reinforce western beauty ideals (e.g. young, slim, white etc.)

David Gauntlett - gender theory

David Gauntlett wrote extensively on gender representation and the importance of role models in the media in the late 1990s.

He believes the explosion in media consumption in the 1980s and 90s gave audiences a chance to actively construct their identities and possibly move away from traditional stereotypes.

However, he still acknowledged Butler and van Zoonen: “Although the popular remix of feminism is accepted by young women, it remains the case that most women and men remain somewhat constricted within particular gender roles.”

Gauntlett and masculinity

Gauntlett looked at men’s lifestyle magazines and found a new, quite different representation of masculinity (reflecting similar changes in women’s magazines as third-wave feminism took hold in the 90s). 

Importantly, he disagrees that masculinity is in crisis – a popular view in the media in recent years. 

bell hooks: intersectionality

bell hooks is a radical feminist who argues that the experience of black women is almost entirely ignored by media and culture. 

Unlike some 1990s third-wave feminists who celebrated female sexuality as empowering, bell hooks sees feminism as a struggle to end patriarchal oppression - a serious political commitment rather than a fashionable lifestyle choice: “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression.”

She also argued that gender oppression could not be discussed without also considering race or sexuality – she called this the intersectionality of points of oppression.

Feminist theory: blog tasks

Create a blogpost called 'Feminist theory - blog tasks' and complete the following tasks on your blog:

Media Magazine reading - two articles on feminism and theory

Read Playing With The Past: Post-feminism and the Media (MM40, page 64 - our Media Magazine archive is here). This is a great example of sophisticated media analysis and an indication of the level we want to be writing at by the end of the two-year course.

1) What examples are provided from the two texts of the 'male gaze' (Mulvey)?

2) Do texts such as these show there is no longer a need for feminism or are they simply sexism in a different form?

3) Choose three words/phrases from the glossary of the article and write their definitions on your blog.

Now read The Theory Drop: Gender Performativity (MM69, page 25) and answer the following questions.

1) How does the writer suggest gender performativity is established from a young age?

2) What does the phrase 'non-binary' refer to and how does it link to Butler's theory?

3) How and why does the media help reinforce gender stereotypes? The writer provides several examples in the final section of the article.


Music video analysis

Finally, write up our analysis of the two music videos we studied in class. This is your opportunity to develop your own opinions on these crucial media debates.

Watch the Beyonce video for ‘Why Don’t You Love Me?’ again: 

1) How might this video contribute to Butler’s idea that gender roles are a ‘performance’?

2) What might van Zoonen suggest regarding the representation of women in this video?

3) What are YOUR views on this debate – does Beyonce empower women or reinforce the traditional ‘male gaze’ and oppression of women? 

Watch Will Jay's video for ‘Gangsta’ again:



1) How does the video suggest representations of masculinity have changed in recent years?

2) What does David Gauntlett suggest about representations of men in the media over the last 20 years?

3) What is YOUR view on the representation of men and masculinity? Are young men still under pressure from the media to act or behave in a certain way?

Complete for homework if you don't finish this during the lessons - due date on Google Classroom.