Videogames: Further feminist theory

As part of our study of women in videogames, we need to develop our understanding of feminist theory.

We have looked at a range of feminist ideas earlier in the course including Laura Mulvey, Judith Butler, Angela McRobbie, the concept of post-feminism and more. We now need to explore this further by bringing in the work of bell hooks and Liesbet van Zoonen.

Notes from the lesson

Watch this short extract from Orange is the New Black star Laverne Cox interviewing bell hooks at The New School in New York:

Further feminist theory: blog tasks

Use our Media Factsheet archive on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) to find Media Factsheet #169 Further Feminist Theory. Save it to USB or email it to yourself so you have access to the reading for homework. Read the whole of Factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) What definitions are offered by the factsheet for ‘feminism ‘and ‘patriarchy’?

Feminism is a movement which aims for equality for women – to be treated as equal to men socially, economically, and politically. Patriarchy (male dominance in society). Feminists see the patriarchy as a limitation to women receiving the same treatment and benefits as their male counterparts

2) Why did bell hooks publish her 1984 book ‘Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center’?

In 1984, hooks published Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. She had identified a lack of diversity within the feminist movement, and argued that these diverse voices had been marginalised, being put outside the main body of feminism.

3) What aspects of feminism and oppression are the focus for a lot of bell hooks’s work?

Women in lower class and poor groups, particularly those that are non-white, would not have defined women’s liberation as women gaining social equality with men since they are continually reminded in their everyday lives that all women do not share a common social status.

4) What is intersectionality and what does hooks argue regarding this?

The term intersectionality is used to describe overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination or discrimination. Intersectional identities are not usually addressed – law and policies will often only address one form of marginalised identity, and not intersection of multiple oppressed identities.

5) What did Liesbet van Zoonen conclude regarding the relationship between gender roles and the mass media?

Van Zoonen concludes that there is a strong relationship between gender (stereotypes, pornography and ideology) and communication, but it is also the mass media that leads to much of the observable gender identity structures in advertising, film and TV.

6) Liesbet van Zoonen sees gender as socially constructed. What does this mean and which other media theorist we have studied does this link to?

This means that gender is not a thing people are born with but instead society has constructed it/build it and made it seem like a norm.

7) How do feminists view women’s lifestyle magazines in different ways? Which view do you agree with?

Many feminists believe that women's lifestyle magazines seem to portray women as extremely delicate and in my opinion I slightly agree to a certain extent that sometimes females are shown as sensitive and very feminine.

9) What are the five aspects van Zoonen suggests are significant in determining the influence of the media?

•Whether the institution is commercial or public

•The platform upon which they operate (print versus digital media)

•Genre (drama versus news)

•Target audiences

•The place the media text holds within the audiences’ daily lives

10) What other media theorist can be linked to van Zoonen’s readings of the media?

Stuart Hall’s negotiated readings, arguing that the negotiated readings and subsequent focus on the way meanings are encoded and decoded “implies acknowledgement of gender construction as a social process in which women and men actively engage.”

11) Van Zoonen discusses ‘transmission models of communication’. She suggests women are oppressed by the dominant culture and therefore take in representations that do not reflect their view of the world. What other theory and idea (that we have studied recently) can this be linked to?

David Hesmondhalgh says that cultural industries are all run by one set of values and norms.

12) Finally, van Zoonen has built on the work of bell hooks by exploring power and feminism. She suggests that power is not a binary male/female issue but reflects the “multiplicity of relations of subordination”. How does this link to bell hooks views on feminism and intersectionality?

Women in general and especially those in minority groups need to gain equality and rights before they try to gain power. They both have the belief that both men and women must be on the same team and work together on earning the respect both genders deserve.

Extension task

If you’re interested in some of these ideas, there is plenty more reading and watching you can do. For example, watch this TEDx talk by renowned Nigerian/American novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ‘We should all be feminists’: