PSA: Your Default Narrative Settings Are Not Apolitical

Image taken from tumblr. Recently, SFF author Tansy Rayner Roberts wrote an excellent post debunking the idea that women did nothing interesting or useful throughout history, and that trying to write fictional stories based on this premise of feminine insignificance is therefore both inaccurate and offensive. To quote: “History is not a long series of centuries in which men did all the interesting/important things and women stayed home and twiddled their thumbs in between pushing out babies, making soup and dying in childbirth.History is actually a long series of centuries of men writing down what they thought was important and interesting, and FORGETTING TO WRITE ABOUT WOMEN. The relevance of this statement to the creation of SFF stories cannot be understated. But what happens when our perception of historical accuracy is entirely at odds with real historical accuracy? Let’s start with the latter claim, shall we? And nor is female achievement restricted to the sciences. I could go on.

The Hawkeye Initiative How female corpses became a fashion trend Marc Jacobs 2014 ad campaign featuring Miley Cyrus. And a dead girl, it seems. Photograph: David Sims/Marc Jacobs For once it's not the image of Miley Cyrus herself that is controversial. It's the woman lying next to her. This ad campaign was released a day after the latest cover of US magazine Entertainment Weekly, which shows the two stars of upcoming film Gone Girl lying on a gurney. This isn't the first time dead women have been used in fashion or entertainment, of course. Last year Vice magazine decided to illustrate their Women in Fiction issue with a fashion shoot depicting a range of well-known writers in the throes of killing themselves, or trying to: Sylvia Plath kneeling in front of an oven; Virginia Woolf standing in a stream, clutching a large stone; Dorothy Parker bleeding heavily into a sink. A 2006 Jimmy Choo ad showed a woman apparently passed out in a car boot, a man in dark glasses sitting beside her, brandishing a spade. Do people actually want these images?

3) How is Gender Constructed Within Mass Media? | Gender in Mass Media The media has a very powerful effect on culture, shaping societal structures and operations. Dominant media forms have heavily assisted in constructing gender and genderalized norms. Advertising and mass media forms display codes that are associated with representing male and female attributes. These gender codes shape the way in which society views gender and assists in determining what is acceptable gender performance. Gender is not formed at birth, this self identification of being male or female is shaped through cultural, and social conditions. Mass media forms set societal standards for men and women. These gender codes become heavily assimilated within mass media and marketing, as many advertisers display men and women to portray stereotypical gender norms and roles. Advertisements marketed toward children expose gender identities and roles. It becomes apparent that gender is socially and culturally constructed through media outlets. Like this: Like Loading...