MIT Week 9
Representation: Gender, Sexuality, Class
Privilege
White privilege – as a white woman, we can walk in the world and do things differently
than non-white women, or non-white people in general. As she observes, she never
thought of herself as an oppressor of others. In her words, “My schooling gave me no
training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a
person in a damaged culture…whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral,
normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is
seen as work which will allow “them” to be more like “us”. Media plays a significant role
in representing who and what is “normal”.
o Example: I know that when Netflix started streaming Friends a few years ago,
secondary school and University students binged on it. If you’ve ever watched
Friends, have you noticed that there are next to no non-white people in it,
especially people of African descent? Even though Friends was set in New York
City? Did you think about that when you watched it? If you’re like me, you didn’t.
Programs with all white casts are rarely if ever made these days- but who are the
leads, and why?
o White privilege isn’t the only type of privilege. You are all privileged in that you
are at a leading university and will most likely lead successful lives. The name
“Western” will open doors for you in a way that it might not for students at
other universities.
Gender
Sex vs. Gender
o Sex:
System of classification based upon a combination of biological and
physiological factors
Usually male or female.
Intersex?
o Gender:
The cultural meanings ascribed to a person’s sex.
Until recently, masculinity or femininity.
Gender has cultural meaning.
Gender Performativity
o Gender is culturally constructed.
o Gender consists of performances that are naturalized in our culture.
o Gender norms link to heteronormativity and the capitalist economy system.
o Those who violate norms risk punishment of some sort.
o Philosopher Judith Butler, pictured here, theorized the very important concept
of gender performativity 30 years ago. Her work called attention to what she
called the performative nature of gender. She did not mean that you could wake
up in the morning and decide what gender to be that day, but that normative
gender performances were repeated in and by culture so much that they were
invisible. That is, they became cultural commonsense. For example, ideas that
women are nurturers and should therefore stay home with the kids while the
husband went out to make money for his family still haunts the cultural
commonsense. More women may be in the workforce but are still represented
as and expected to be nurturing caregivers. Those who step outside of the norms
of masculinity or femininity face punishment of some sort, even violence in the
worst cases.
Connotations associated with gender – if we think of gender as a binary system. You
can see examples all over the place, especially in relationship to work and politics.
Media representations, consciously or not, reinforce these gendered characteristics.
o Masculinity: strong, dominant, aggressive, independent, empowered, active,
rational, pubic, technical, leader, assertive, intellectual.
o Femininity: weak, submissive, compliant, dependent, disempowered, passive,
emotional, private, technophobe, follower, bitchy, “schoolmarm”.
o From an early age, children are socialized and encouraged to perform and
conform to specific gender roles. The repetition of gendered narratives and
images in media has helped to shape cultural norms around what it means to be
a man or a woman, masculine or feminine. The traditional gender binary is
ingrained in our values, ideas, media and products…even colors.
o Boys and men are increasingly pressured with expectations about their looks,
body shape, weight, and other things that girls and women have dealt with for
too long a time. Guys, your arms are supposed to be big, your torso sculpted,
and your belly flat.
Sexuality
Representations of non-hetero sexualities has come a long way in the past few decades,
especially on television. Media tells stories, and stories validate and make visible the
lives that are narrated. Prior to the mid-1990s, gay characters were few and far
between, and gay stories were not told. Actors had to stay in the closet. In Hollywood,
the Motion Picture Production Code, in effect from 1934 to 1968, forbade
representation of “sex perversion” or “sexual deviants”. Hollywood got around that by
portraying homosexual characters are villains who were punished by the end of the film.
Screenplays based on books or plays that featured homosexual characters would
remove them completely, or make any relationships portrayed heterosexual. The code
relaxed a bit around 1961, when the film Lawrence of Arabia, based upon the life of T.E.
Lawrence, became a box office success. The film implied that he was hay and in a
relationship with his companion. Lawrence of Arabia was an exception, and gay men
and women were depicted as depressed, misfit, or suicidal, As Hollywood responded to
the social and cultural changes of the 1960s with a few films targeted to gay audiences.
Growing acceptance of homosexuality in film continued but so did negative
representations.
The US government ignored the AIDS crisis in the 1980s as the diseased ravaged gay
communities until Rock Hudson, a male Hollywood idol, died of the disease. He was
closeted until the very end of his life. As more young men died, more families realized
that beloved relatives were gay. Hollywood began to include more gay characters and to
produce some gay themed movies. In the 1990s, a movement known as the New Queer
Cinema created a vibrant underground and alternative film scene. It faded as queerness
became more acceptable within the mainstream, leaving a legacy of queer films festivals
around the world. Canada has at least 8, including here in London.
Gay characters are often represented as white and upper middle-class. A notable
exception being 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, in which Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledge
played cowboys who fall in love. Both co-stars were straight, and the characters they
played were straight-acting. Hollywood is still wary of producing films that focus too
much on gay and lesbian characters, because they still fear alienating a significant
portion of the audience. Straight actors continue to play gay characters, when there are
plenty of gay actors to be found. Meaningful queer representation is still rare in big
Hollywood movies. This is related to media conglomeration and Hollywood’s economic
imperative. Although homosexuality is far more visible and acceptable to many, culture
wars still rage. There is LGBTQ representation in many if not most films, but usually not
prominent roles.
Television:
o Little representation before mid-1990s
o Representation increases between 1994-1997
o Spawned by increasing debates over multicultural, diversity, shifting media
landscape.
o Rise of niche marketing.
o Appeal to the hip white heterosexual audience.
o Recognition of buying power of upper middle class gay audience.
o Representation of gay and queer people o television over the last few decades
has likely contributed to the further normalization of homosexuality in society.
That said, the job is nowhere near complete, and gay and queer folk and are still
subjected to violence, hate, and discrimination. Television isn’t the only factor,
but the more we see representations of different groups, the more visible they
become in our real lives.
