Feminist Theory - Van Zoonen and bell hooks

Feminist theory in the Media

Van Zoonen

Feminist theory aims to understand the nature of gender inequality in our society. In media studies, theorists such as Liesbet Van Zoonen and bell hooks, look closely at how media products form, uphold or intensify these gender inequalities.

Discourse= communication from the media, such as TV, movies, magazines, video games, etc. From this, we get our fixed ideas about gender.

• Van Zoonen believes that our ideas about gender change depending on the historical and cultural context.
• She also believes that the objectification and sexualisation of women is highly influenced by our patriarchal society. If society is dominated by men, then they tend to be the one who makes the products, therefore, they present men and women in the way that they want.
• Van Zoonen holds the belief that women are often represented as emotional, nurturing, domestic. Females are often confined within this idea in media products.
• She also believes that men are portrayed frequently as individual, suited to business and politics, and also that men's bodies are represented as 'spectacle' - this means something that is seen/'should be' seen as magnificent and that men have worked hard for the chiselled body and sculpted muscles.
• Van Zoonen also argues that women's bodies are commonly represented as something to lust over, and that it is not necessarily something that a woman has worked hard over; a women's body is seen as more of a trophy, or something to have or take.

bell hooks

In hooks' mind, Feminism is the struggle to end patriarchal oppression. She also believes that Feminism is not just a lifestyle choice - it is a political commitment, where you are doing something within society to actually be able to call yourself a Feminist. hooks' ideology also claims that the oppression of women is not a simple thing. Women are not all discriminated in the same way or to the same extent, therefore you cannot connect us all together under the same category. There are many levels of discrimination and oppression that people should understand, to be able to truly appreciate what it is like for all women. 

Discrimination and oppression against women also vary depending on ethnicity and class.