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The Codes of Gender: Identity and Performance in Pop Culture

admin — Mon, 17 May 2010 00:01:00 +0000

The main theme of The Codes of Gender is “commercial realism.” As explained by the narrator of this film, Sut Jhally, Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts, a code of gender has to be understood as a shorthand language, a set of rules and behaviors. This is how Jhally analyzes the ways in which both women and men are portrayed in advertisements and on the covers of glossy magazines.

The film is based on the works of the Canadian social anthropologist Erving Goffman, who was born in Alberta in 1922. His greatest contribution to social theory and to gender representation was the analysis of visual communication between spectators, the subjects of their attention and how attitudes about gender are shaped by culture and society.

The film starts with an explanation of the difference between biological sex identity and constructed gender identity, which leads to the process of contrasting these identities in magazine advertising for commercial films. Gender expressions on magazine covers are skillfully manipulated to reflect the identity of women and men– not as they are, but how they should be, according to a societal norm. The women in the advertisements are posed in awkward positions. They lie down with their heads tilted off balance, stand on one leg, or kneel to suggest powerlessness, submission and dependence. Women become sexualized and accepting of their helplessness, embodying both men’s desire and subordination to them. In contrast, men are portrayed as active. Their poses suggest power, strength, and control.

As an example, Professor Jhally uses a clip from the Seinfield TV series that shows the lead character dating an attractive woman with hands that are big, rough, and strong, like the ‘normal’ hands of a man. Jerry Seinfield is put off by the image and loses interest in the woman.

A second example is Danica Patrick, an American auto racing driver, who is also an athlete and therefore does not fit with the stereotypical image of ‘natural’ femininity. But Patrick is portrayed on the magazine covers in the same way as other women. She lies down, ready to be gazed at–weak and submissive. Paul Marciano, founder of Guess, is portrayed as selecting images of passive women for Guess advertisements, as if he was making a statement that ‘women should know their place.’

Another striking feature of the visual images is the association of women with childhood. As though they never left this part of their lives behind, in commercials women are frequently portrayed as childlike, with fingers in their mouths. Women's posture with men is that of father and daughter: constantly hiding behind men, snuggling with men for protection, or resting their heads on men’s arms in sweet and helpless positions. Men, on the contrary, are shown in straight posture, muscular and strong, and project a hyper-masculine image of ‘accepted normality’.

The Codes of Gender will be of interest to all who question the visual images of what is deemed natural and normal. The film is well-made and presented, and it serves as a fitting tribute to Goffman (who died in Philadelphia in 1982). His work was underestimated when he was alive, but his contributions to ‘the codes of gender’ are as equally valid today as they were thirty years ago.

Written by: Anna Hamling, May 16th 2010

Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls

admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Edited by Melinda Tankard Reist

Spinifex Press

Getting Real is a collection of essays that are charges against the worldwide phenomena of the pornification of childhood through advertising, marketing, and pop culture. This was a great book to read, particularly as the authors are Australian and I sometimes wonder how much of our collective reaction to porn and adult images going mainstream is a reflection of our country's Puritanical leanings. For the contributors to Getting Real, the problem is embedded not just in faux-feminism but also a twisting of feminism by marketers and others to make women believe that if they are "in charge" of their sexuality, then there isn't anything wrong with stripping, making out with other women to turn men on, and so forth.

About half way through the book I came across a few statements that made me think, "Wait a minute...This isn't a feminist book!" There's just a tinge of anti-sex sentiment in some essays. So I did some investigating and found that editor Melinda Tankard Reist is part of a women's think tank. Upon further digging, I came to the conclusion that the Women's Forum Australia seems to be what one might get if the National Organization for Women and the Independent Women's Forum had a lefty baby. (If anyone has more information about them, I'd love for you to leave it in the comments.)

While some essays wade into slut-shaming and defaming strippers and sex workers, on the whole Getting Real is a pretty good book. One eye-opening essay on street billboards makes the point that even though it is illegal for people to have porn in the workplace, we have to walk through porn-infested streets on a daily basis. Another essay brought up how many of us are using Flickr and YouTube to share our children's lives, which teaches them to perform publicly. There is also a discussion about the medicalization of girls' bodies. From HPV vaccines to plastic surgery, it's all there to ponder.

The best part of Getting Real was learning a new term: corporate pedophilia. "Sexualizing products being sold specifically for children, and children themselves being presented in images or directed to act in advertisements in ways modeled on adult sexual behavior." This goes far beyond the dress-up of our youth to performance on a daily basis. "The task for today's teenagers is to win back their freedom from the adults who run the advertising agencies and girls magazines and the 'sex-positive' media academics who insist that 'bad girls' are powerful girls."

The essays are well cited, but avoid a lot of academic jargon, making Getting Real a quick read. The book is feminist, but with a dash of moderate conservatism thrown in. The topic brings together some typically opposing forces, and that's always good for the discussion.

Cross-posted from Viva La Feminista

Written by: Veronica I. Arreola, April 27th 2010

Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture

admin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Edited by Carrie McLaren, Jason Torchinsky

Faber & Faber

Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture is an anthology of articles (plus some new material) from ‘90s ad-busting zine Stay Free!. Since I write a zine that deconstructs feminine hygiene advertising, I couldn’t have represented more of their target demographic if I’d tried. So when I saw that it was up for review, I immediately requested it.

I was a little miffed when only a cursory mention of the industry that lent its name to Stay Free! was covered in Ad Nauseam, but I was not disappointed in any other regard. This book is ace. And it’s funny.

In a series of short, sharp essays written over the past fifteen years or so (and the older articles are, revealingly, still very relevant to current marketing trends), the editors and other contributors cleverly debunk, deconstruct and delight in the many ways that advertisers try to put several over on us. There is something for you here whether you are completely new to the topic or have studied it before. Subjects include (but are not limited to) television’s influence on the U.S. legal system, the ins and outs of subliminal advertising, brand loyalty taken to almost unbelievable extremes, and the techniques magazines use to sell ad space by marketing, well, us.

Spoof multiple-choice quizzes at the end of each chapter reveal creepy tidbits you can use to impress your friends. (This worked well for me at the pub last week.) There’s also a brief history of the advertising industry that will catch up anyone new to it, and refreshingly refresh those who've already got the basics down.

The final section is my favorite part—a chronicle of the merry ad-busting japes undertaken by the editors and others, followed by an encouraging word—and a few resources—for any potential japesters out there. Carrie McLaren and Jason Torchinsky acknowledge that although one small prank can’t combat the financial might of major corporations, it can still raise awareness and educate on a small scale, forging personal connections. McLaren continues this with a blog and Brooklyn-based alternative lecture series.

Does this book pass the feminist test? Yep. Historically, most of the advertisers were men, and most of the shoppers they targeted were women. Again and again, Ad Nauseam chronicles in detail and handily exemplifies that old traditions die hard. It’s an excellent tool kit for any feminist, male or female. At $18 in paperback, it's also an expensive toolkit, but its 335 pages are stuffed full of wittily presented stats and examples—all backed up with extensive references and notes, so it is actually very good value for money.

Ad Nauseam would make an accessible companion to a high school or undergraduate module on advertising or media studies, and I’d even go ahead and recommend some of the shorter segments that illustrate each chapter (easy to find on gray background pages throughout the book) for middle school students. Read it all in one sitting like I tried to at first, and your world may be so deconstructed that you can’t put it back together again. As a zine anthology, it’s made for dipping into, and I plan to keep mine on my bathroom bookshelf. (It’s the modern coffee table. You know it is.)

Props to Faber and Faber for allowing Torchinsky to design the cover, which sports a lovingly rendered airsickness bag emblazoned with the book's title on a fetching field of blue. Can a barf bag be beautiful? Scarily, yes. It’s great to know that Torchinsky and his co-editor understand the industry well enough to manipulate it to their advantage, and that they’ve chosen to use their powers for good.

Written by: Chella Quint, October 31st 2009

Chart Your Cycle and Adventures in Menstruating #1-3

admin — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:49:00 +0000

By Chella Quint

I’m one of those women who has never been terribly fond of her period. I spent years trying to escape my own bodily functions and wrote my undergraduate thesis on suppressing menstruation by using birth control pills. More recently, I’ve discovered that my lifelong migraines are linked to my cycle. My period and I have come to an understanding, so while I don’t make up funny nicknames for it, I use cloth pads and organic tampons whenever possible. But I have never been overly fond of my menses and to say my feelings about menstruating are conflicted is quite an understatement. So, proactively and deliberately, I asked to write about Chella Quint’s _Adventures in Menstruating _and _Chart Your Cycle _zines to challenge my own views about my cycle. In addition to learning all sorts of useful information about our cycles and depictions of menstruation in mass media, I developed a new appreciation for zines. The unending conversations these have produced with my friends and partner have been hilarious and enlightening, and I’m sort of enamored with Quint and her work.

Chart Your Cycle was Quint’s first zine, produced in 2005 as part of the 24 Hour Zine Thing. It includes a ten-year chart to track your cycle's ups and down, anatomy diagrams, and resources for female-friendly cycle information and menstrual supplies. It includes a humorous review of a belted pad, as well as an interview with Quint’s mother, the first of an ongoing series of interviews with women of all ages and backgrounds about menstrual taboos and their feelings about their cycles.

Because she apparently had so much fun with the first one, Quint followed up CYC with the Adventures in Menstruating _series, of which three issues are available so far, and frankly, it would be nearly impossible to choose just one as a favorite. The lighthearted, pro-woman take on your period is refreshing and necessary, and I literally screamed with happy laughter while reading each of these. My suggestion: request a copy of all three (or four to include _Chart Your Cycle).

Issue One is packed. Vintage feminine hygiene advertisements are deconstructed, and we receive a crash course in both tampon insertion and imperialism in advertising. Zine #2 includes an interview with Quint’s grandmother about menstruation and pregnancy, and billboards about period products are analyzed a la the vintage ads of the first zine. Quint also does a section called “Product Testing” and reviews Freshelle hygienic wipes, which is both wildly entertaining and completely on point.

My favorite section may have been "Leakage Horror Stories," where Quint and friends detail stories from their youth of leaking in public. Unlike the stereotypical Seventeen-style anecdotes about cute boys and your errant tampon string, these horror stories have an empowering message behind the embarrassment: you’re not alone, and it really isn’t your fault. Did I mention the zines’ hilarious color covers that replicate vintage pulp novels, but have since been Photoshopped to portray leaking, menstrual women?

AiM #3 is the largest to date. It begins with an assessment of feminine hygiene versus war propaganda and the disgustingly similar framework around both. Along these lines, we learn how menstrual pads were born out of the wartime surgical bandage leftovers, prompting the question: how did a bleeding wound come to be equated with our nether regions? Quint goes on to review _Menopause the Musical _(and deconstructs the critical pans while she’s at it) and sanitary disposal units, including pictures! She also discusses inadvertently synching up your cycle with female coworkers and Tampon Crafts.

If you love your period, laughing about your period, or want to hate it less, I wholeheartedly recommend this zine series in its entirety. These handy little booklets have literally changed my entire outlook on menstruation, and they’re a surefire way to spark confessionals among close friends or, if you’re lucky, a stranger on the subway.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, June 5th 2008