Imagining Women: Cultural Representations and Gender

1994 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 292
Author(s):  
Elizabeth C. Ramirez ◽  
Frances Bonner ◽  
Lizbeth Goodman ◽  
Richard Allen ◽  
Linda Janes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Representations ◽  
And Gender

Disability and the Posthuman

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Murray
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Work Time ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cultural Spaces ◽  
War And Conflict ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Contemporary Writing

Disability and the Posthuman is the first study to analyse cultural representations and deployments of disability as they interact with posthumanist theories of technology and embodiment. Working across a wide range of texts, many new to critical enquiry, in contemporary writing, film and cultural practice from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Japan, it covers a diverse range of topics, including: contemporary cultural theory and aesthetics; design, engineering and gender; the visualisation of prosthetic technologies in the representation of war and conflict; and depictions of work, time and sleep. While noting the potential limitations of posthumanist assessments of the technologized body, the study argues that there are exciting, productive possibilities and subversive potentials in the dialogue between disability and posthumanism as they generate dissident crossings of cultural spaces. Such intersections cover both fictional/imagined and material/grounded examples of disability and look to a future in which the development of technology and complex embodiment of disability presence align to produce sustainable yet radical creative and critical voices.

scholarly journals Fashioning the Post Colonial Reading: Cultural Representations In Vogue Mexico and Latin America and Arabia Editorials

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martyne Alphonso
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Editorial Content ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
And Gender

This study analyzes regional editorial content as produced by Vogue magazine. Vogue has developed an empire comprised of 22 international editions. Vogue Mexico & Latin America, and Vogue Arabia, are the only two editions that encompass numerous countries, cultures, and voices. Using discourse analysis through a cultural studies lens, this study analyzes six editorial spreads to uncover what cultural messages are being produced, how these images impact national identities, and who is or is not represented in the fashion image. Intersections of fashion with culture, identity, race, and gender, are analyzed through critical discourse analysis to address constructions of power, specifically within a cultural and postcolonial framework. Visual narratives in Vogue Arabia and Vogue Mexico & Latin America reflect values seemingly distinct to their region, but are charged with cultural assumptions and inaccuracies. For postcolonial cultures vying for identities independent of their colonial past, these marketable stereotypes continue to suppress their structural agency.

scholarly journals Theorizing Cultural and Social Intersections of Age and Gender: The Approach of Anocriticism

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 826-826
Author(s):  
Roberta Maierhofer
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Construction ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Gerontological Research ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Narrative Performance ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Dimension

Abstract This contribution discusses empirical applications of the approach of ‘anocriticism’ in interdisciplinary gerontological research. Despite the connection in terms of epistemology and ontology, the intersection of gender and age has been mostly ignored, privileging works focusing either on age or gender (Calasanti & Slevin 2001:27; Denninger & Schütze 2017:7). Age/ing Studies, however, would not have been established as a field without the theoretical and methodological approaches of feminist theory (Maierhofer (2019:2). Anocriticism was originally developed in order to investigate cultural representations of age/ing (Maierhofer 2003, 2004b, 2004a, 2007, 2012), but has recently been taken up in social sciences (Ratzenböck 2016a, 2016b, 2017a, 2017b; Gales and Loos 2020, forthcoming) in order to draw attention to four dimensions: (a) age and aging’s collective cultural construction and relation to gender, (b) the individual dimension of aging, (c) people’s interpretative power and narrative performance, and (d) age/ing’s potential for resistance and change.

The Sprewell/Carlesimo Episode: Unacceptable Violence or Unacceptable Victim?

2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa Walton
Keyword(s):  
Media Representations ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Social Responses ◽  
The Social ◽  
Gender Hierarchies ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Violent Acts ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Normalization Of Violence

NBA player Latrell Sprewell’s attack on his coach, P.J. Carlesimo, in 1997, received extraordinary attention in the media. The coverage of the incident and subsequent trial revealed the media’s attitude toward violence within cultural representations of sport. This paper focuses on the way that violence associated with sport can be understood in relationship to the normalization of violence against women in American culture. Specifically, I focus on how the violent acts of athletes and coaches elicit different social responses depending on the social status of the victim. I argue that media representations, framed within narratives that construct their importance around gendered ideas of private and public spheres, work to support current race, class, and gender hierarchies. I also offer alternative ways of understanding the incident given the peculiar work setting of professional sport.

The impact of advertisements on women’s psychological and emotional states: exploring navigation and resistance of disabling stereotypes

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 791-807
Author(s):  
Ella Houston
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Cultural Stereotypes ◽  
Feminist Disability Studies ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

Representations of disabled women in advertising have been historically problematic. Largely, such portrayals have reinforced disability and gender stereotypes. This is an important issue to address because cultural representations have the ability to challenge or support widespread attitudes and beliefs surrounding identity groups. In addition, representations can generate micro level impact, for example, influencing how individual’s perceive themselves. In this article, Thomas’s (1999) concept of psycho-emotional disablism is used to enhance understandings of the relationship between advertising messages and individual psychological and emotional states. The feminist disability studies research presented in this article explores how women with mental health issues navigate advertising portrayals of mental health and gender. The findings develop existing knowledge of psycho-emotional disablism through demonstrating how individuals often use problematic advertising messages and memories of psycho-emotional oppression as a vehicle for positive self-transformation and as a way of resisting cultural stereotypes.

scholarly journals Walk the Talk

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 444-465
Author(s):  
Klara Goedecke
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Tv Shows ◽  
And Gender

This article explores two Swedish TV shows centred on close, emotional friendships between men, Våra vänners liv (2010) [Our friends’ lives] and Boys (2015), as examples of postfeminism with a Swedish twist, inspired by Swedish ideologies of gender equality. Explicitly referring to feminism and gender equality, both shows explore what can be considered progressive masculine positions, drawing on ideas about sincerity, authenticity, emotionality and insight in men as central but not easily attained. I discuss portrayals of men as well as their friendships and explore the meanings of race, class and sexuality in the shows. Unlike many US and UK postfeminist representations of bumbling, ironically sexist anti-heroic men, efforts at reaching sincerity and authenticity characterize the protagonists of the shows. Similar to other postfeminist cultural representations, both shows portray political problems as individual ones or, alternatively, as issues that already have been dealt with. For instance, Boys portrays a posthomophobic and postracial Sweden where racism and homophobia are of the past, and both shows portray personal development in individual men aimed at becoming progressive as solutions to problems regarding gender justice. Both shows explore masculine positions that are available and unavailable, comprehensible and incomprehensible in contemporary Sweden, said to be one of the most gender-equal countries of the world. New masculine positions and intimacies between men, incorporating and referring to feminist or gender equality discourses, may be imagined and made available in shows like Våra vänners liv and Boys. However, such references and their consequences must be critically scrutinized.

scholarly journals Fashioning the Post Colonial Reading: Cultural Representations In Vogue Mexico and Latin America and Arabia Editorials

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martyne Alphonso
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Editorial Content ◽  
Visual Narratives ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
And Gender

This study analyzes regional editorial content as produced by Vogue magazine. Vogue has developed an empire comprised of 22 international editions. Vogue Mexico & Latin America, and Vogue Arabia, are the only two editions that encompass numerous countries, cultures, and voices. Using discourse analysis through a cultural studies lens, this study analyzes six editorial spreads to uncover what cultural messages are being produced, how these images impact national identities, and who is or is not represented in the fashion image. Intersections of fashion with culture, identity, race, and gender, are analyzed through critical discourse analysis to address constructions of power, specifically within a cultural and postcolonial framework. Visual narratives in Vogue Arabia and Vogue Mexico & Latin America reflect values seemingly distinct to their region, but are charged with cultural assumptions and inaccuracies. For postcolonial cultures vying for identities independent of their colonial past, these marketable stereotypes continue to suppress their structural agency.

From Slackers in Khaki to Knights of the Red Cross

2019 ◽  
pp. 152-185
Author(s):  
Jessica Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Representation ◽  
British Society ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Cultural Constructions ◽  
First World

This chapter uses a range of cultural representations of the men of the RAMC produced during the war to explore how these men perceived their own work and status, and how these were perceived by those they encountered in their caring roles. Drawing on theories of cultural representation, it uses close readings of cartoons, poetry, hospital magazines, and memoirs to demonstrate the multiple and shifting ways in which the work of RAMC rankers was perceived and understood throughout the war. In contrast to the work of Jeffrey Reznick and Ana Carden-Coyne, it foregrounds the representation of the stretcher bearer and medical orderly to complicate understandings of the construction of power relationships within systems of military medical care. The range of representations explores, and the gendered nature of their construction further demonstrates, the complexity of cultural constructions of gender and gender relations in British society during the First World War.

The silver generation and beauty: Does American culture provide models for positive ageing?

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-219
Author(s):  
Federica Fornaciari ◽  
Laine Goldman
Keyword(s):  
Older Women ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Public Culture ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Cultural Shift ◽  
Normative Expectations ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Positive Ageing ◽  
Body Shapes ◽  
Media Narratives

Abstract Modern US society’s attitude towards beauty has been shaped by the advertising and cosmetics industry to shun older women and worship youth. The discourse in popular and public culture is that ageing equals failure (Peterson 2017). However, the increasing prevalence of emancipatory discourses that are giving a voice to previously silenced minority groups has been making its way to the catwalk with the inclusion of alternative femininity models (Holland 2004), comprising a range of ages, body shapes and ethnic groups, as well as disabled models.A new cadre of older female models is drawing attention to the issue of ageing that might provide a diversified image of what beauty could look like later in life. Informed by frame theory (Goffman 1974) and positive ageing (Gergen 1994; Gergen and Gergen 2001), we conducted an exploratory study applying thematic analysis (Lapadat 2010) to media narratives of age and gender in relation to modes of appearance, particularly fashion. In our analysis, we highlighted the catwalk because it is a microcosm of cultural representations. We sought to establish whether the new trend regarding older women on the catwalk is finding expression in the US media, whether it radiates to other fields of public culture, and whether it represents a cultural shift, or a passing trend. We found some evidence for age-friendly catwalk reports, but even those reports reflected, at best, an ambivalent attitude. The results are discussed in the light of a dialectical discourse where inclusivity becomes both an enabling and oppressive attitude at the same time. While wider representation of older, ethnic and disabled women extends the boundaries of inclusivity, it also extends the scope of the normative expectations of beauty standards to older cohorts.

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