Free Feminist Media Studies Essay Sample

This essay tries to explore themes associated with feminist's media critics. First, it studies how gender informs societal norms and values of various societies. It also analyses how feminist critism has been of influence to emerging issues in media, such as media scholarship and media reception by the public. Furthermore, the essay tries to react to the rise in black feministic criticism which has been of much tension across the continents. In conclusion, the article examines the impact of feminist's media studies on the masculinity, In terms of globalization and fame.

Literature review

Early 60s was mainly associated with criticism based on gender. Women were displayed by the media in a totally different perspective compared to men. This act of gender based segregation has attracted many scholars to fund research projects based on feminist's media studies. Currently, gender is depicted as a main issue within which media carries out its tasks. Many research projects are therefore essential in handling the feminists media studies since at the moment, there are many women compared to men in the world. This is from the statistics compiled recently. With media being an autonomous body which is expected to cater for all individuals, it has therefore been prioritized in the event of raising gender awareness all over the world.

From the research carried out by professions, it was established that women had controlled freedom in almost all aspects of life. Women were poorly represented not only in media facilities but also in the way they are portrayed in the drawings. When it comes to provision of education during early years, women were given the last priority after men. Young girls were therefore subjected to early marriages since they had nothing to do other than being subjects to their husbands. Once a suitor came and requested for a hand in marriage, the child's parents had no obligation but to negotiate for the pride price. This was usually done by the child's father since their mothers' had absolutely no say when it came to bridal price negotiation.

In western countries such as the United States of America, china among others, the European culture had undergone much criticism from the scholars of feminist's research programmes from the way they portrayed women in their media. Women were poorly represented, worse of it all in a negative perception. It is quite certain that young ladies were given little knowledge on their representation as women. From the articles studied by the researchers, a young Korean immigrant who happens to be a girl in the United States of America is put under study. The young immigrants were used as slaves indiscriminate of their ages. As if not enough, some men went to an extent of using young women to fulfill their sexual desires. This is shown in the Disney films placed under study. Little or absolutely no education was provided for them. Majority of them was incorporated to various houses as house helps while others were used as laborers in the processing industries.  It is only in the last phase of twentieth century when female gender got attention. Many academic institutions across the west saw how oppressed the female gender was, and was forced to undertake measures to remedy the situation.

Over past, gender has been related to power and culture influence and also a distinguishing factor of biological appearance. Many socio-cultural factors and regulation assumptions have been widely related to gender roles of female compared to that of men.

Women were deemed to be weak and could not handle leadership roles. If political elections were to be carried out and the competition between a man and a woman, it was quite obvious that a man would emerge victorious by a landslide win. Due to the gender segregation, a girl born was made to get used to the fact that she was of a weaker domain and her priorities came after priorities of baby boy being met. This act developed a negative attitude amongst them as women since they saw themselves as not being in a position to provide quality leadership compared to male who in most instances appear to be wiser than them. A Disney film goes a mile further to categorize women as victims of failure who cannot live an authentic life.

Gender segregation has also been of negative impact to the young children. Representation of young women has been hardly looked upon by the critiques. Since children growth is progressive in nature, much attention should be given to their understanding of gender. Usually, children accesses knowledge from not only the basic knowledge imparted on them in schools attended but also from the experiences obtained from their traditional norms and culture. In the Disney's marital aspects, it is clear that the researchers had a different interpretation for the pride prices. This study came out exclusively when a presentation was made to the protagonists concerning marriages. Many informants show that Disney's women experienced more challenges compared to men; such as family matters, demands from parents, and the laws which had been put in place to articulate the norms. For a woman to be married, she had to leave her own opinions and even forget the socio-cultural rules she could ever think of bringing into the marriage once engaged. They were considered to be naive and hence could not come up with vital issues in decision making process. This discrimination resulted from the interpretation that their decisions were misinformed and that such decision could not have any impact on family matters. Contrary, a man could marry at wish in accordance with his volition and when he felt it was fit and appropriate. According to the informants, an example of Prince Eric wanting to marry the woman she had saved him from drowning was given. They got engaged and married but Eric could not remember the voice of her new spouse. The other two girls, Youri and Heesun had a clear understanding on the motive that was behind the marriage. They had an assumption that it was because of the physical traits that were found in the female characters like a beautiful face and a wonderful voice. Although the girls had different opinions in their interpretation, they did share one common stand: Prince Eric married the woman at will unlike them who got married based on decision by other external factors, like being forced into marriage by their fathers. Decision by parents for one to get married was final and no woman had control over. The discussion that was made did not include the reasons behind the Prince marriage. It did not even mention any form of external factors since Prince Eric got married because he felt like, but was not propelled by any individual to reach that conclusion.

Property ownership was also not in favor of the women. Women had no legal rights to own property under the then tight regulation or rules set by the common laws. Men saw women as having little to do with the ownership of property since they were to be married and live under one roof with the husband. In addition, it was only men who were allowed to inherit their family's' property. During that generation, a woman could not be part of inheritance since she was to get married and become part of that family she was married to.

Early 90s saw the representation of women in the media shift position to a positive dimension. According to Klein, depiction of women in the media facilities had taken a totally different direction throughout the twentieth century. Furthermore, her article exemplified the tendency in the discipline of thinking in terms of mainstream versus alternative media. Thus, Klein pointed out that mainstream comics had portrayed women as being subordinate to men and the feminist underground comic usually portrayed men as strong and autonomous characters. Therefore, contrary to the fact that media is known to be oppressive; it can be liberating in the right contexts a times.

Currently, media studies and gender issues are new disciplines currently under close observation. Both emergent issues are associated with not only academic fields but also to the prevailing political roots. Concepts derived from academic and political backgrounds are obtained from social sciences and the humanities currently studied.

Due to the changed direction in the way gender is handled by the media, the public has come to realize that women should be guaranteed equal rights to property ownership just as men do. The act of ensuring that there is equal right to property ownership is very crucial, more especially in poverty eradication process. Women inheritance of property and also giving them a chance to decent housing rights is equally important. When men and women work together as one, better economic prosperity within a country is achieved. Further, incorporating them into governance of the nation enhances various developments within the country, because studies show that women are in a better position to convince the public compared to their male counterparts. Handling of crucial issues such as the fight against a deadly phenomenon of HIV/Aids which is a major threat currently can be dealt with when efforts are combined indiscriminate of gender. With the current generation, each and every individual has a right to a decent education. Gone are those days when education was availed to people based on their genders. The media thus creates public awareness to ensure that people, more especially of feminine gender obtains access to education just as male do. Governments of various countries have embraced the campaigns by the scholars and they have given a helping hand by funding such projects. In addition, equal employment opportunities have been distributed equally in accordance with the gender thus zeroing the level of gender discrimination. Furthermore, governments of several nations have laid down tough rules governing individual rights and freedoms. For instance, cases such as sexually assaulting young girls and women, discriminating against ones gender or color among other oppressive deeds is punishable by law. Such punishment runs from life imprisonment to severe fine imposed on the individuals. Such measures have made many individuals to be morally upright and well disciplined.

From my own point of view, feminists' media studies are very important and should be given priority across all continents. It is time to look at the human rights in a dimension that treats them as equal and deserving equal opportunities that ensures their well being.

 

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