feminism, femininity and popular culture




author: joanne hollows




published:2000




published by manchester university press (manchester and new york)









the female frontier, a comparative wiew of women on the praire and the plains.




author: glenda riley




publisher: university press of kansas




published 1988









media gender and identity, an introduction




author: david gauntlett




publisher: routledge




published: 2002









representing men maleness and masculinity in the media




author kenneth macKinnon




published in great britain 2003




publisher arnold, a member of the hodder headline group









Working girls, gender in sexuality in popular crime:




author Yvonne tasker




published 1998




by routledge









representing women, myths of femininity in the popular media




author myra macdonald




first published in great britain in 1995, this impression reprinted in 2003 by edward arnold, a member of the hodder headline group.









Reading Desperate Housewives: Beyond the White Picket Fence







author: Kim Akass and Janet McCabe







Publisher: I.B. Tauris Publishers 2006

sally brady

"lives of quiet (and not so quiet) desperation"

Media Magazine

april 2005

Quotes on women from books:

Female Frontier:

"they were expected to participate fully in domestic duties, whether for themselves, their parents, and other families." pg2

"the common conception...women would become wives and mothers."pg154

"domestic service attracted a wide variety of women." pg 126

feminism, femininty and popular culture:

"male character is presented as doing a favour for his wife by helping out in order to get in her good books, thereby confirming the nation that it is normal for women to be responsible for domestic labour." pg 23

"second-wave feminism is seen as a product of the past." pg1

"romantic love is pathological, she argued:it is love corrupted by the unequal relationship between the sexes and is used to reproduce patriachy...first, love becomes a woman's vacation, diverting her energies from other pursuits. second, a woman's sense of identity and self-esteem depends on a man's valuation of her as worthy of being loved. third, because romantic love makes women economically dependent on men, it is not about mutual vulnerability but female vulnerability, leaving women open to abuse" Shulamith Firestone thought this pg 73

"the romantic narrative also deals with a basic conflict that Modleski claims faces all women-women's goal in life is meant to be getting a husband, but they must not let it appear to be a goal which is consciously or calculatedly pursued." pg 76

media, gender and identity, an introduction.

"advertisers have by now realised that audiences will only laugh at images of the pretty housewife" pg57

"the 1995-1996 study found that men took 63% of the speaking roles." pg 58

"Gunter goes on to show how studies in the 1970s consistently found that marriage, parenthood and domesticity wer shown on television to be more important for women than men (1995: 13-14)." pg43

"married housewives being the main female role shown. women's interactions were very often concerned with romance or family problems." also in the 1970s bit pg43

"Female characters were unlikely to work, especially not if they were wives or mothers, and even when they did, this work was typically not seen on screen." 1970s part pg43

"men were more likely to be adventurous, active and vicorious, whereas women were more frequently shown as weak, ineffectual, victimised, supportive, laughable or 'meerly token females' (Gunter, 1995)." pg43

representation of gender today:

"gender roles on television became increasingly equal and non -stereotyped." pg 58

"women usually got to be love interests and helpers." pg 64

"the 1992-1993 study found that only 3 per cent of women were represented as housewives as their main occupation." pg 58

"women are seen as self reliant heroes quite often today" pg 90

"representations of gender today are more complex and less stereotyped" pg 90

Germaine Greer: "every woman knows that regardless of her other achievments, she is a failur if she is not beautiful." pg77

The Gender Issue:

"women perform 80% of household tasks and they spend nearly twice as much time as men in child care" pg 33

Representing Men:

"men exhibited less emotional distress than women and traditionally solved their own problems, while women were more likely to deal with the problems of others or to need help in dealing with thier own." pg66

"images of 'soft' men were common...designed to appeal to women." pg 71

Working girls, gender in sexuality in popular crime:

"there are only three ages for women in Hollywood:babe, district attorney and driving miss daisy."

Basmati Advertisement









http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvNrJk0Z2-A
shows women as:
housewives
emotional/sobby
uneducated?

the mother, who is complaining that her son is using microwave Basmati is probably a housewife because she is at home and obviously cooks. She is portrayed as traditional because she disapproves of microwave rice and thinks it should be cooked properly. It also shows her as being good for two things, cooking and children, when she talks about giving birth to him (stereotypical 'mother').
The woman sobbing on the sofa, shows women as emotional.
The girl sitting on the sofa, shows girls should be at home with their mothers, she is not at work, in the whole advert there is no man shown to be at home, the only male shown is successful because there is a picture of him at his graduation, also the guy in the supermarket who is obviously of a high position because he is dealing with complaints and is dressed smartly, as apposed to a supermarket uniform, the people who are at the checkout are women=uneducated.

Close textual analysis of a chosen scene

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI2pFmVPRxQ

This clip shows Bree as being an old fashioned obsessive mother. Gabi as being sex obsessed and 'desperate' and unfaithful.

Dictionary words

Advertisement:when Desperate housewives first started, their marketing was successful as they aired plenty of adverts on tv, and a lot of billboards were also promoting it. the adverts during the programme also suggest the target audience of women, as the adverts are advertising, shampoos, and in general women products.

Billboard:when Depserate housewives was first starting, there were loadsss of advertisements on billboards, and were eye catching because the women were looking very glam.

Celebrity:Susan Myer, also known as Teri Hatcher, is a hugeeee celeb. she is best known from Superman. She is the biggest celeb out of them all, and it think her being in the programme obviously did attract more people to watch it because she is well known, and therefore the show did not make the programme look like 'any old new programme'.

Diegetic Sound:the programme has both diegetic and non diegetic sounds. the non diegetic sound is a very affective music playin which is similar/same as the theme tune, it plays when something is about to happen, such as when one of the women get angry and take action. Also, there is a voiceover who talks us through the programme.

Equilibrium: Todorov's theoryis supported in Desperate Housewives. the beginning starts with the characters jus beginning to plot their revenge on someone or something similar (equilibrium), the dsruption is done, then in the end everything will be fine amongst the characters, however, the audience know something 'bad' is happening, which the charcters discover in the next episode, and the cycle goes on...

Fantasy: the lives of the desperate housewives could be seen as a 'fantasy' because they live in massive houses, have loads of money, nice cars and fit partners!

Genre: the genre of Desperate Housewives is comedy/drama.

Hypothesis: the hypothesis of my coursework is going to be along the lines of: the women in desperate housewives are portrayed in an objectifying way as they are seen as causing disrutption, the title etc.

Institution: the institution is Channel 4 which is well established.

Kiss and tell: desperate housewives seem like women who men would do a 'kiss and tell' on.

Linear narrative: desperate housewives does not have a linear narrative, i think...it has flashbacks.

Mis en scene: it is set on a street, Wysteria Lane. the clothes the women wear are very glamerous (apart from Lynette) this helps with fantasy.

Laura Mulvey

Research on Laura Mulvey:

British feminist film theorist.
Mulvey's contribution was to inaugurate the intersection of film theory, psychoanalysis, and feminism.
She instead stated that she intended to make a "political use" of Freud and Lacan, and then used some of their concepts to argue that the cinematic apparatus of classical Hollywood cinema inevitably put the spectator in a masculine subject position, with the figure of the woman on screen as the object of desire.
Hollywood female characters of the 1950s and 60s were, according to Mulvey, coded with "to-be-looked-at-ness." Mulvey suggests that there were two distinct modes of the male gaze of this era: "voyeuristic" (i.e. seeing women as 'whores') and "fetishistic" (i.e. seeing women as 'madonnas').
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey


Mulvey distinguishes between two modes of looking for the film spectator: voyeuristic and fetishistic, which she presents in Freudian terms as responses to male ‘castration anxiety’. Voyeuristic looking involves a controlling gaze and Mulvey argues that this has has associations with sadism: ‘pleasure lies in ascertaining guilt - asserting control and subjecting the guilty person through punishment or forgiveness’ (Mulvey 1992, 29). Fetishistic looking, in contrast, involves ‘the substitution of a fetish object or turning the represented figure itself into a fetish so that it becomes reassuring rather than dangerous.
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze09.html

Media Representations Who is being represented?
Women are being represented in a stereotypical way, because they are portrayed as 'housewives', hence the title. Also, they always look immaculate and range from the perfect mother to the trophy wife.
Why is the subject being represented in this way?
They are being represented in this way because this is the stereotypic woman. Also because they want to live up to their title, so obviously the programme is going to be about 'housewives' and their problems.
Is the representation fair and accurate?
the representation is not fair and accurate because not all females (mothers or wives) are housewives and behave the way some of the characters do, for example, Edie and Gabi.


Media Languages and Forms
What are the denotative and connotative levels of meaning?
When Gabi is wearing a bikini then that is just her clothes, but the representation of that is her being a sex symbol especially because she is tryin to impress her husband.
What is the significance of the text’s connotations?
the significance of this is to show that 'housewives' are always looking good for their husbands, as that is part of their jobs to also cater for thei partners needs.

What are the non-verbal structures of meaning in the text (e.g. gesture, facial expression, positional communication, clothing, props etc)?
The clothes are very important as that outilines each of the characters personality, for example, Bree is always looking presentable and smart-and her character is known to be tidy and a clean freak. Gabrielle is always dressed 'sexy' - she used to be a model and has affairs, so the clothes give away her personality. Lynette is the worn out housewife- he clothes are mostly baggy and her hair is tied up and not done up whilst at home, as he does not have much time because she is looking after the children.
What is the significance of mise-en-scene/sets/settings?
the mis-en-scene is important because most of the programme is set on the one street, Wysteria Lane. This has an affect that what is being shown is the characters everyday life, also the audience can relate to it becuase even though it is a rich area, it is realistic. However, this also shows that as they are 'housewives' they stay at home most of the time, home being Wysteria Lane.
What work is being done by the sound track/commentary/language of the text?
The commentary is also important because the narrator who is dead, used to be the characters' friend, so she used to be one of them, therefore she comes across as knowing the characters well because they were her friends and as she is watching them and telling the story it is almost as if she is there amongst them. which also makes the audience seem secure about what she is saying as she also talks about how the characters are generally, however, it is not a bias point of view becuase she just basically tells the story.
What are the dominant images and iconography, and what is their relevance to the major themes of the text?

What sound and visual techniques are used to convey meaning (e.g. camera positioning, editing; the ways that images and sounds are combined to convey meaning)?
At the end the narrator always tells the moral of the story etc and this tells the audience about what is 'right' and 'wrong'.
Narrative
How is the narrative organised and structured?
The narrative is in chronological order, however, there are also some flashbacks now and again.
How is the audience positioned in relation to the narrative?
The narrative is easy to follow, especially as there is a voice over who guides us along the story and also adds humor.
How are characters delineated? What is their narrative function? How are heroes and villains created?
Edie and Gabi both create humor to the episodes as they are both portrayed as 'drama queens'. Bree is seen as the villain because she is very cruel to her children but in a sly way as she also blackmails them. In some episodes the villains seem to be the women becuase they act malitious towards their husbands, for example Gabi and Carlos, when they were going through their divorce, Gabi did all she could to keep the house. Also Lynette being the control freak makes the audience sympathise with her husband. However, even though the women are portrayed like this, the audience also sympathise with them becuase we hear their troubles and are not shown the point of view of the men or them talking about their feelings, inlike the women who we all understand the reasons for their actions.
What are the major themes of the narrative? What values/ideologies does it embody?
Genre
To which genre does the text belong?
comedy drama
What are the major generic conventions within the text?
Both comedy and drama are combined, for example, the funny bits are not over the top, there are also emotional scenes.
What are the major iconographic features of the text?
What are the major generic themes?
To what extent are the characters generically determined?
To what extent are the audience’s generic expectations of the text fulfilled or cheated by the text? Does the text conform to the characteristics of the genre, or does it treat them playfully or ironically?
Does the text feature a star, a director, a writer etc who is strongly associated with the genre? What meanings and associations do they have?
Media Institutions
What is the institutional source of the text?
The institution of the text is Channel 4.
In what ways has the text been influenced or shaped by the institution which produced it?
Is the source a public service or commercial institution? What difference does this make to the text?
Who owns and controls the institution concerned and does this matter?
How has the text been distributed?
Media Values and Ideology
What are the major values, ideologies and assumptions underpinning the text or naturalised within it?
What criteria have been used for selecting the content presented?
Media Audiences
To whom is the text addressed? What is the target audience?
The main target audience for this text are females as they can relate and understand the issues.
What assumptions about the audience’s characteristics are implicit within the text?
What assumptions about the audience are implicit in the text’s scheduling or positioning?
In what conditions is the audience likely to receive the text? Does this impact upon the formal characteristics of the text?
What do you know or can you assume about the likely size and constituency of the audience?
I assume the audience for Desperate Housewives is large as they continue to make more episodes/series.
What are the probable and possible audience readings of the text?
As it is a comedy, it is not taken too seriously but more of a comedy and drama.
How do you, as an audience member, read and evaluate the text? To what extent is your reading and evaluation influenced by your age, gender, background etc?
I really enjoy the programme because i find it funny and interesting the way the women deal with their dramas. this is definately influenced by my gender because i can relate to these problems with my friends.