Identities: Applying Feminism

1) What are the five types of feminism outlined on the first page of the Factsheet?

• Radical Feminism: This type of feminism sees the cause of women’s oppression as men. It assumes that men deliberately exploit women as this benefits them. One of the main aims of this theory is to address concerns over violence against women, especially in sexual relationships.
• Liberal Feminism: This type of feminism is mainly concerned with gender socialisation in order to show that gender roles are not biologically determined. The main aim of this type of feminism is to change the ways children are socialised into stereotypical gender roles and to attempt to change social policy to improve the position of women within the family.
• Marxist-Feminism: This feminist approach looks at women’s oppression in relation to capitalism and the class system. One of the aims of this type of feminism is to look at the role of domestic labour within capitalism, namely that women work in the home for ‘free’, and the role women play in producing the next generation of the labour force.
• Black Feminism: This approach is primarily concerned with black and Asian women’s experiences of oppression and exploitation. It combines ideas about capitalism, patriarchy and anti-racism.
• Postmodern Feminism:  This type of feminism is associated with third wave feminists. It acknowledges the diversity amongst women and encourages individual women to find feminist ideas that combine with their own experiences of life to create a brand of feminism suitable for them.

2) Which category would Judith Butler fit into? What about Angela McRobbie? Laura Bates and Everyday Sexism? Explain your answers. 

For Judith Butler, I would think she fits into liberal feminism because she also thinks that gender roles are not biologically determined. Although for Angela McRobbie I would argue that she fits along with the category of marxists feminists because it focuses on women oppression in relation to capitalism and the class system whilst Angela had thought that we as in the audience look at each gender differently through the representation of what the media portrays and the difference between the gender roles they have in society. For the Everyday Sexism project by Laura Beates would fit in the category of postmodern feminism because she has set up an project which allows women to share their experiences of the sexists behaviour they've had towards them and what had then they done, the category of post feminism looks at the power of feminism and encourages individual women to find feminist ideas that combine with their own experiences of what they have experienced to then create a brand of feminism suitable for them. 

3) What was the difference between suffragists and suffragettes? Which approach do you agree with?

Suffragists: The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) was formed in 1897 to unite several existing women’s groups who wanted the vote for women. They wanted to expand rights for all women and tried to achieve their goals through moderate, peaceful and lawful means. They presented reasoned arguments at public meetings and used petitions to raise public awareness of their plight.

Suggragettes: Women’s Social and Political Union. They believed strongly in what they were fighting for and were not afraid to use violent, confrontational and often illegal means to achieve their aims. They wanted the same rights as men and their chosen way to reach this goal was through ‘deeds not words’, most famously chaining themselves to the railings outside Downing Street and the houses of Parliament. 

I agree with the approach Suffragists had taken as fought the rights for women to vote in a peaceful and moderate way, it was less dangerous and no one could have told them off or told them they couldn't do what they done because it was lawful and it wasn't causing harm to anyone. They can go in a way that the peace and the rightful way would draw only positive attention to them and get heard in the right way. 

4) What was Laura Mulvey's argument regarding Hollywood film? Do you agree with it? Why?

The reason why I believe with Laura Mulvey's argument is because Hollywood do object females in women as only a pleasure to the audience and draw on to the male gaze. Within Hollywood, females can never be appreciated for what they can do but they just noticed as 'sex objects' and 'whores' as said by Mulvey and the upsetting thing is that Hollywoods films do this, is because they know this is the sort of this the wider and general audience like to see, it is seen as a norm in Hollywood films and that is just sad. 

5) Watch this YouTube video extract on Jean Kilbourne's Killing Us Softly series and list five examples she gives of the media objectifying women:

6) What is Killbourne's argument regarding the representation of women in advertising?

- Buses and Cars

- Bus Stops

- Doctors Offices

- Airplanes

- Billboards

- Sports Stadiums

- Schools

7) What is Naomi Wolf's argument in The Beauty Myth?

Her argument in the Beauty Myth is how it has been constructed by organisations of magazines and the media in general of how females should look and what 'beauty looks like', through this the audience have to live up to these standards that are set through software on computers. She also states that females that aren't white, she said that women of colour are generally considered beautiful only if they approximate the white ideal, whereas females that are West African are often featured in jungle settings wearing leopard skins as if they were exotic animals. Images on magazines especially set rules/standards for the general public and it would be associated with the word 'beauty.'

8) Why is the representation of women in music videos a controversial topic for feminists? 

This is because some people think that the representation of women in music videos are empowering women because of the control that they have whilst others believe that it is inviting the male gaze upon themselves as this was an example in Beyonces video; "Why Don't You Love Me"

9) What is your view of female artists such as Nicki Minaj or Beyonce - do they empower women or reinforce sexist, patriarchal views?

Both Nicki Minaj and Beyonce are two females artists that are very known to the public for whom they are but also what they represent in their songs or through their public appearances. Both artists speak about power and the rights of females but they go do it very differently. For both of the female artists, i feel though they reinforce the sexist because of how they represent themselves within the media and through their songs, this is done through the clothing they wear and the actions they show towards the public audience. 

10) Has new and digital media given women an opportunity to challenge sexist views or is it simply another media platform for women to be oppressed? Explain your view.

New and digital media has given women an opportunity to challenge sexists views, an example of is through how the Everyday sexism project did or through social media too as females have vocalised their opinion to it towards certain judgements that are made against them. But then I also think that is can be seen as a another media platform for women to be oppressed because people are so vocal and post anything and everything without considering what they are saying or how it may effect a person behind the screen as it can be done through comments under certain posts on social media.