...Derek Hillegas Sport Media Triad Research Write-Up 6/6/14 Michael Sam and his portrayal in the Media Introduction: The number of gay athletes that are starting to come out and announce that they are gay are increasing. Every time this happens it is a shock to people and the media gets a hold of this information and makes it known. Homosexual athletes will face challenges. Most locker rooms have a “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, and there are few openly gay male athletes in hyper masculine sports like American Football. Michael Sam became the first open gay player to enter the NFL draft and eventually would be selected in the draft by the St. Louis Rams. He announced he was gay back in February and ever since them he was the main focal point of the NFL up until the Draft. The main point of this paper is to take basic ideologies such as masculinity, violence, Race, Gender, sexuality or meritocracy, and use these ideologies to analyze how the media portrays Michael Sam. Another point that will be touched upon is how the news media and sport media have different ways of portraying Michael Sam in the media. Methods: The first thing I did to conduct my research was to find 10 media sources that were related to how the media portrayed Michael Sam. In these 10 media sources I was looking for different types of ideologies and how the media used these articles to describe Michael Sam. Once I found 10 media Articles I needed to find 2 more Academic articles. It was going to be hard...
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...forward to the biggest college basketball tournament of the year, most commonly known as March Madness. This competition consists of both men’s and women’s NCAA basketball teams who compete in hopes of making it to the respected and heavily televised Final Four. The Final Four is the last game for each remaining team before the National Championship game, where the two deserving teams are matched up against each other. This series of competition creates a rich supply of content for sports media networks to influence viewer’s values and attitudes. Networks have become increasingly knowledgeable and schematic in using sport entertainment as a way to promote their ideologies, values, commercialization and interpretations of sport. Studies have found that people turn to sports in the media for entertainment. The different forms of media are evolving and moving in a more prevalent direction than they have been in the past. With the explosive growth of internet users in the past decade, media companies have created a domain where they can input their interpretations of sporting events and coverage. These domains have become dominated by the 18-34-year-old demographic (Kian, Mondello & Vincent 2009) who use websites such as ESPN, the most widely used website for obtaining sports related news (Lefton, 2006 as cited in Battenfield, Redmond & Ridinger 2014), and Sports Illustrated to read about upcoming games, watch live coverage, or get the low down on games that have already happened...
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...MASCULINITY: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A VISUAL ARTIFACT Visual Culture Essay 2 Module 2 Wessel Viljoen 090029 Genieve Eloff Thursday 14h00 Word Count = 860 TABLE OF CONTENT Pages LIST OF FIGURES…………….....……………………………………………iii 1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………..1 1.1 What is Musculinism…………………………..………………………..1 1.2 Branded Masculinity…………………………………………………….1 2. MASCULINISM AND ADVERTISING………………………………………...2 3. CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………..3 4. BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………...4 LIST OF FIGURES Page Fig 1 Old Spice, The Man Your Man Could Smell Like, 2010. ………………….2 INTRODUCTION 1.1 What is masculinism? Masculinity is a word that describes an idea generated by the media of what it entails to be a man. According to Cohen(2001:5) “a gender is formed by shared beliefs or models of gender that majority of society accepts as appropriate”. Gender ideals are socially constructed in specific historical and cultural context and changes over time and location. As identified by Brannon (1976) being a hegemonic masculine male entails four main themes: (i) No Sissy Stuff: men must never resemble women or display stereotypical characteristics of a woman. Kimmel (2001:35) suggests that “Homophobia is a centralised principle of our cultural definition of manhood.” (ii) The Big Wheel: the ability of real men to obtain wealth, fame, success and status. Typically determined by occupation. (iii) The Sturdy Oak: manliness...
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...eating disorders and lower self-esteem. Moreover, gender is a routine, methodical, and recurring accomplishment that actually surfaces in everyday human interaction (West and Zimmerman, 1987), and gender relations are learned through these advertisements, which essentially serve as a distorted reflection of the real world. These sexualized and stereotypical gender images are teaching the viewers a vast array of social cues, a certain way to interpret social reality, and are eventually reconstructing the definition of femininity and masculinity. Various studies have been done regarding the covert ways that magazine advertisements construct masculinity and femininity. Assuming that significant differences in the portrayal of men and women would be found in terms of magazine type and its target readers, a content analysis will be used to examine and compare the selected fashion magazines to determine how contemporary advertisers define or portray masculinity and femininity to different readerships. Literature...
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...“Sex/Gender and the Media: From Sex Roles to Social Construction and Beyond,” in Ross, K. (ed) The Handbook of Gender, Sex and Media, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN-10: 1444338544; 365-82. ISBN-13: 978-1444338546 Sex/Gender and the Media From Sex Roles to Social Construction and Beyond Cynthia Carter Introduction In the early years of second-wave western feminism, many gender researchers and feminist scholars distinguished between the notion of sex, defined as biological differences between male and female, and ‘sex roles,’ referring to certain behaviors and characteristics attributed to each sex that was a social construction. The resulting media research centered on images of women in the media (much less emphasis was placed on men) in order to draw attention to inequities in their portrayal in relation to men (in quantitative terms as well as in terms of the use of stereotypes). Since the 1970s, however, the scope of social constructionism has greatly expanded in feminist theory. Some suggest that the distinction between the biological and the social has, as a result, eroded to such an extent that it is no longer possible to understand the difference, while others question the need for this distinction. For instance, in queer and transgender theory and feminist cultural studies, theorists have sought to make strange the ‘sex/gender’ distinction. The key argument made is that biology is no less a cultural construct than gender socialization into masculinity and femininity...
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...ARTICLES Sociology o Sport Journal, 1998, 15, 1-20 f O 1998 Human Kinetics Publishers, Inc. "Disciplining the Body": HIV-Positive Male Athletes, Media Surveillance,and the Policing of Sexuality Shari Lee Dworkin and Faye Linda Wachs University of Southern California This paper analyzes how mainstream print media polices sexuality through framings of HIV-positive male athletes. We analyze the HN-positive announcements of Magic Johnson, Greg Louganis, and Tommy Morrison. Specifically, we discuss differences between the framing of gay men (Louganis) and self-identifiedheterosexual men (Johnson and Morrison). First, there is an extensive search for the ways Magic Johnson and Tommy Morrison contracted HIVIAIDS. Media coverage emphasizes that "straights can get it too" through promiscuity and a "fast lane" lifestyle. Consistent with the historically automatic conflation of HIVIAIDS with gay identity, the media pose no inquiries into the cause of Louganis' HIV transmission. We close our discussion by focusing on the meaning of extending the signifier of HIVIAIDS beyond gay bodies to include working class and black male bodies. Media surveillance of sexual identity and the body reinforces hegemonic masculinity in sport while feeding into the current sexual hierarchy in U.S. culture. Cette Ctude porte sur la f a ~ o n les mCdias Ccrits surveillent et contr6lent la sexualit6 par dont le biais de leur traitement des athlktes masculins skro-positifs.Nous analysons les annonces de skro-positivitk...
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...3 Most Damaging Words you can tell your Son Rationale In our current unit, we are focused on the topic of “Representation of Masculinity in the media” and how it is portrayed much differently to what it actually is. I will be writing as an analyst but also a parent who has gone through this time of where masculinity is the key to your success. Through this written task, the aim is to inform the readers “3 most damaging words you can tell your son” and it how it affects the children. The intended audience for this textual analysis would be parents who try and tell their children to grow up and stop whining. This type of analysis could be found online particularly on blogs that have a direct link to the video. In my written task, logos is the most effective stylistic device. For example, the statement “90% of students wrote pain and anger,” as a feeling they have oppressed due to societies influence on them. This statement makes the reader aware of the troubles they are putting their children though in order to raise them, as society wants them to turn out, engaging them to think of their past encounters with their children. The stimulus text for this piece was a three minute video titled “the 3 most damaging word to tell your son,” as it was a direct relationship with our current unit of representation of masculinity in the media. Another stimulus text that I looked at was a blog site to find the conventions into writing a blog article. Word Count – 253 words Written...
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...plagiarised. Signed: ….......................................................................................................................... ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract List of Illustrations Introduction Methodology Literature Review Chapter 1: Chapter 2: Chapter 3: Historical and Cultural Contexts – Defining the 'Mod' and Youth Cultures in Post WWII Britain Americanisation – Music, Motives and Movement The Signs of Style iv v vi ix xi xi xvii xxi xxii xxiv xxvi xxviii xxix xxxii Interpretative Analysis Photography: Music: Fashion Conclusion Bibliography Appendix iii Abstract The purpose of this research study is to identify the signs of masculinity and European influence that dominated aspects of 'Modernist', or Mod, culture and lifestyle. The Mod is a British subculture which developed in the 1960's. The first stage of this study involves introducing the subcultural theories attributed to the Mod character and the basic roles of masculinity. The second stage introduces a proposed framework used as a methodology in interpreting these signs. A particular reference is the use of Roland Barthes 'Camera Lucida' (Barthes 1982). Following from this, a Literature review will discuss the role of key influences from European and American ideologies that impacted on the style and culture of the...
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...of Feminism is the equality of Men and Women within society and culture, but how does it fit in our current culture values within this day and age? With statements and an analysis from Mies, Gauntlett and MacInnes, the base of feminism is elaborated from ethics, actions taken and the touch on masculinity and its background towards Feminism. As more shall be elaborated in discussion, the first key pointer being what is Feminism, this has always been a sensitive topic to touch, and more women are growing with the image behind, but are women losing the true sense of being liberated? Or are they the main cause of their chains being re-shackled? In achievement of this research the outcome will be how Mass Media has contributed highly in this regard, there has been a huge influence of how a “real woman” is supposed to be like, the way she is supposed to dress, cook, be in a position of corporate power, and still stand behind the pots and hold the vacuum arch. This will be emphasized into more detail on how Susan Faludi embraces the Backlash of Feminism, and how Gauntlett’s view on Mass Media has a huge impact on the Women’s Society as whole, especially making pointers on equality and inequality. Mass media has embarked a large influence in continuing the subordination in the consumer society, not only it the media itself to be blame but women themselves. According to Mies, “The woman question invariably leads to high emotional reactions from men and from women” (Mies 1998:6), in support...
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...budget Hollywood blockbuster. With the male demographic being the hardest to pinpoint in the literature sense, David Fincher’s adaptation helpfully put Palahniuk’s thoughts into the cinematic forefront. This increased the popularity of Palahniuk’s other works and placed him in the cannon of Post-modern American fiction. It is the issues of modern masculinity that grasps critics’ attention more so than any other Palahniuk themes. It is very apparent that masculinity has changed as a natural progression of modernisation. This dissertation will analyse masculinity as it is depicted in Palahniuk’s writings and explore Palahniuk’s intentions and beliefs. I will interpret the responses of select critics in order to gain some understanding of what Palahniuk deems to be the ideal model of masculinity in the modern world, beneath his post-modern twists, transgressive characterization and vecernal style. This discussion will attempt to uncover what Palahniuk portrays as the cause of emasculation, if anything at all. To begin I will discuss the excess of recent decades and how it has effected men’s lifestyle, in reference to money, media, consumerism and access to information. Following on from this I will discuss Palahniuk’s exploration of sex and sexuality in order to gain...
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...Violence from a gender view what role does masculinity play in Ethiopia context. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Main concepts in feminist approach 3. Hegemonic masculinity theory 4. The subculture of violence in peace and conflict 5. The perception on gender versus sex in Ethiopia 6. Gendered dynamics of violence 6.1 Masculinities and violence 6.2 Femininities and violence 7. Conclusion 8. References 1. Introduction The paper critically evaluate the theory which claims that violence has a strong gender dimension and what role does masculinity play in violence. There are feminist theories and assumptions regarding the societal construction of gender, as it is divided into two major categories...
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...Popular culture embraces ideas, perspectives, attitudes, images and phenomena highly influenced by mass media that cater to a large number of common people irrespective of social class and status. It is sensationalist, virtual and consumerist in nature celebrating superficiality. Pop culture expressed through visual images has always been plagued with fetishisation and hyper-sexualisation of bodies represented. Right from the inception, the gendered nature of image culture has invited a sea of criticisms and opinions. Thus the represented space in popular culture, especially if it is in the optic means, can be a useful lens to explore the ideological constructions of a society. Much of popular culture continues to represent women and men in overtly stereotypical ways reproducing predominance of hegemonic masculinity and over-emphasised femininity, placing all other forms of masculinities and femininities in the shadowy background of covert representations. Expressing a serious concern for politicised representations, my thesis focuses on unraveling the ambivalent portraiture of superheroines in the phantasmal world...
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...role attitudes. Jennifer Garst; Galen V. Bodenhausen. Author's Abstract: COPYRIGHT 1997 Plenum Publishing Corporation We posited that media images of men influence the gender role attitudes that men express soon after exposure to the images. A total of 212 men (87% European American, 7% Asian or Asian American, 3% African American, and 3% other) viewed magazine advertisements containing images of men that varied in terms of how traditionally masculine vs. androgynous they were and whether the models were the same age or much older than the viewers. Men who had initially been less traditional espoused more traditional attitudes than any other group after exposure to traditionally masculine models, although they continued to endorse relatively nontraditional views after exposure to androgynous models. These findings suggest that nontraditional men's gender role attitudes may be rather unstable and susceptible to momentary influences such as those found in advertising. Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1997 Plenum Publishing Corporation In the average American household, the television is turned "on" for almost seven hours each day, and the typical adult or child watches two to three hours of television per day. It is estimated that the average child sees 360,000 advertisements by the age of eighteen (Harris, 1989). Due to this extensive exposure to mass media depictions, the media's influence on gender role attitudes has become an area of considerable interest and concern in the past quarter...
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...Portraying Femininity and Masculinity in Media Each and every one of us, weather man or women, have been enticed by the drama or comedy of modern media. In his article, “Gendered television: femininity”, Fiske discusses categorization of shows and their viewers into masculine and feminine groups. He uses the story lines and characters of soap operas to display how they cater to the feminine group. Fiske closely examines six characteristics of almost all soap operas and connects them to society’s feminine associations. In addition, he examines the effects of these soap operas on its female audience. The six characteristics Fiske uses are: disruption, deferment and process, sexuality and empowerment, excess, plenitude and polysemy, and the feminine as decentered. Fish talks about how family disruptions that occur within soap operas are aimed at feminine viewers. He states examples of extra-marital sex and family problems, and the way that only women can solve them, as giving women more power than men. It is this disruption that women viewers can identify with. All of the other characteristics of soap operas that Fiske mentions, like disruption, give women empowerment, self-esteem and self-confidence about their femininity. Therefore, women are more attracted to soap operas. Fiske uses these ideas to support his theory that shows characterize feminine and masculine in order to target a specific gender. Another piece of evidence Fiske uses is the sexual empowerment that soap...
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...How Society Works – Lecture Notes Sep, 11, 2012 Introduction to Classical Social theory * “Theories in sociology are abstract, general ideas that help organize and make sense of the social world” (attempt to link idea’s with actual events) * Classical social theory (1840s – 1920s) – The enlightenment, political revolution (American revolution, French revolution), the industrial revolution * American and French revolution inspired more widespread adoption of democratic principle and rights of citizens * Industrial revolution caused dramatic, rapid urbanization, changes in family relations, gender relations, increased secularization * Classical social theorist and macro and micro theorists – macro are interested are in social theory that can explain huge social phenomenon’s (past and future), micro are interested in smaller scale phenomenon’s * Emile Durkheim was a positivist, saw society as analogous to a body, concerned with social solidarity, and developed the idea of the ‘social fact’ * Social Solidarity: division of labour Organic: present in modern societies, high dynamic density, high degree of labour specialization (works like a human body, everything works together with high specialization) Mechanical: present in traditional societies, low dynamic density , low degree of labour specialization (works like gears, works together to complete society) * Similarities of Social Solidarity: Conscience collective similar ideas...
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