Generation M: Misogyny in Media & Culture

Last updated
Generation M: Misogyny in Media and Culture
Directed byThomas Keith
Written byThomas Keith
Produced byThomas Keith
Edited byThomas Keith, Michael Enriquez, Jonathan Bennett
Distributed by Media Education Foundation
Release date
2008
Running time
60 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Generation M: Misogyny in Media and Culture is a 2008 documentary film written, produced, and directed by Thomas Keith. It explores the issues of sexism and misogyny in American media and their effects. [1] [2]

Contents

Background

Filmmaker Thomas Keith is a philosophy instructor at California State University, Long Beach, and California Polytechnic University. His specializations include American philosophy and pragmatism, with an emphasis on race, class, and gender. [3] The film was distributed by the Media Education Foundation. [4]

Synopsis

The film is divided into five sections. "Female Empowerment?" discusses whether sexualization of women should be viewed as empowering. "The Doll Wars" is about sexualization of dolls such as Barbie and Bratz and its effects on girls. "Idealized Beauty" comments on the commercialization of beauty and the industries of dieting and cosmetics. "The Pink-Blue Dichotomy" focuses on the differences between socialization for boys and girls. "Misogyny and Double Standards" is about violence against women in video games or violent rhetoric by public figures. [4]

It features interviews with the filmmakers Byron Hurt, Jackson Katz and Jean Kilbourne. [4] They discuss topics including cultural norms of feminine beauty, which they view as unhealthy, and how particular activities or characterisations are gendered. [5] The film cites statistics to make its case that misogyny is widespread in contemporary American media. [2]

Reception

Tricia Davis of Teaching Sociology reviewed that the film has a "clear thesis that shows how the media can play a major part in shaping our perceptions of girls and women". Davis found it appropriate for undergraduate sociology teaching, recommending its online study guide. [4] J. Osicki of Library Journal criticized that the documentary is a "competent production" but fails to consider "what factors may be at the heart of gender-specific hostility" and lacks detail of "how both media and consumer awareness can be used by individuals to counter that negativity". [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Misogyny</span> Prejudice against women

Misogyny is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the social roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practised for thousands of years. It is reflected in art, literature, human societal structure, historical events, mythology, philosophy, and religion worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual objectification</span> Treating a person as a sexual object only

Sexual objectification is the act of treating a person solely as an object of sexual desire. Objectification more broadly means treating a person as a commodity or an object without regard to their personality or dignity. Objectification is most commonly examined at the level of a society, but can also refer to the behavior of individuals and is a type of dehumanization.

This is an index of articles related to the issue of feminism, women's liberation, the women's movement, and women's rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Hill Collins</span> African-American scholar (born 1948)

Patricia Hill Collins is an American academic specializing in race, class, and gender. She is a distinguished university professor of sociology emerita at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is also the former head of the Department of African-American Studies at the University of Cincinnati, and a past president of the American Sociological Association (ASA). Collins was the 100th president of the ASA and the first African-American woman to hold this position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rape culture</span> Society in which rape is pervasive and normalised

Rape culture is a setting, studied by several sociological theories, in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality. Behaviors commonly associated with rape culture include victim blaming, slut-shaming, sexual objectification, trivializing rape, denial of widespread rape, refusing to acknowledge the harm caused by sexual violence, or some combination of these. It has been used to describe and explain behavior within social groups, including prison rape and in conflict areas where war rape is used as psychological warfare. Entire societies have been alleged to be rape cultures. It is associated with rape fantasy and rape pornography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of gender</span> Branch of the discipline of sociology

Sociology of gender is a prominent subfield of sociology. Social interaction directly correlated with sociology regarding social structure. One of the most important social structures is status. This is determined based on position that an individual possesses which effects how they will be treated by society. One of the most important statuses an individual claims is gender. Public discourse and the academic literature generally use the term gender for the perceived or projected (self-identified) masculinity or femininity of a person.

Lipstick feminism is a variety of feminism that seeks to embrace traditional concepts of femininity, including the sexual power of women, alongside traditional feminist ideas. The concept emerged within the third-wave as a response to ideals created by previous movements, where women felt that they could not both be feminine and a feminist.

Misogyny in rap music refers to lyrics, videos, or other aspects of rap music that support, glorify, justify, or normalize the objectification, exploitation, or victimization of women. It is an ideology that portrays women as objects for men's ownership, use, or abuse. It diminishes women to expendable beings. It can range from innuendoes to stereotypical characterizations and defamations.

Examples of misogyny exist in many published forms, within multiple cultures and well-observed works. Technological advances in the modern era have contributed proficient means to media and marketing to the resultant mass media in the 21st century. The merging of misogyny and mass media has made numerous examples where studies have concluded correlations between misogynous messages, both obvious and subliminal. Corresponding physical appearance of violence and hateful conduct may be seen relative to exposure.

The exploitation of women in mass media is the use or portrayal of women in mass media as objects to increase the appeal of media or a product to the detriment of, or without regard to, the interests of the women portrayed, or women in general. This process includes the presentation of women as sexual objects and the setting of feminine beauty ideals that women are expected to reflect. Sexual exploitation of women in the media dates back to 19th century Paris, in which ballerinas were exposed to harassment and objectification. The ballerinas in the Paris Opera Ballet were ogled by their male audience members and often even expected to perform sexual favors for the male subscribers behind the scenes. Feminists and other advocates of women's rights have criticized such exploitation. The most often criticized aspect of the use of women in mass media is sexual objectification, but dismemberment can be a part of the objectification as well.

Internalized sexism takes the form of sexist behaviors and attitudes enacted by women toward themselves or other women and girls. On a larger scale, internalized sexism falls under the broad topic of internalized oppression, which "consists of oppressive practices that continue to make the rounds even when members of the oppressor group are not present." Internalized sexism can cause a wide range of effects, for instance problems with one's mental health and body image. Modes of internalization of sexism include early childhood inculturation and consumption of media, while language can also moderate power imbalances between groups and perpetuate internalized sexism.

The feminine beauty ideal is a specific set of beauty standards regarding traits that are ingrained in women throughout their lives and from a young age to increase their perceived physical attractiveness. It is a phenomenon experienced by many women in the world, though the traits change over time and vary in country and culture.

Hip hop feminism is a sub-set of black feminism that centers on intersectional subject positions involving race and gender in a way that acknowledges the contradictions in being a black feminist, such as black women's enjoyment in hip hop music and culture, rather than simply focusing on the victimization of black women in hip hop culture due to interlocking systems of oppressions involving race, class, and gender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosalind Gill</span>

Rosalind Clair Gill is a British sociologist and feminist cultural theorist. She is currently Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at City, University of London. Gill is author or editor of ten books, and numerous articles and chapters, and her work has been translated into Chinese, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish.

Gender plays a role in mass media and is represented within media platforms. These platforms are not limited to film, radio, television, advertisement, social media, and video games. Initiatives and resources exist to promote gender equality and reinforce women's empowerment in the media industry and representations. For example, UNESCO, in cooperation with the International Federation of Journalists, elaborated the Gender-sensitive Indicators for Media contributing to gender equality and women's empowerment in all forms of media.

Misogynoir is a term referring to misogyny directed towards black women where race and gender both play a role. The term was coined by black feminist writer Moya Bailey in 2010 to address misogyny directed toward black transgender and cisgender women in American visual and popular culture. The concept of misogynoir is grounded in the theory of intersectionality, which analyzes how various social identities such as race, gender, class, age, ability, and sexual orientation interrelate in systems of oppression.

<i>The Bro Code: How Contemporary Culture Creates Sexist Men</i> 2011 film

The Bro Code: How Contemporary Culture Creates Sexist Men is a 2011 documentary film created by Thomas Keith. The film has been described as a treatise on misogyny.

Pornification is the absorption by mainstream culture of styles or content of the sex industry and the sexualisation of Western culture, sometimes referred to as raunch culture. Pornification, particularly the use of sexualised images of women, is said to demonstrate "how patriarchal power operates in the field of gender representation". In Women in Popular Culture, Marion Meyers argues that the portrayal of women in modern society is primarily influenced by "the mainstreaming of pornography and its resultant hypersexualization of women and girls, and the commodification of those images for a global market". Pornification also features in discussions of post-feminism by Ariel Levy, Natasha Walter, Feona Attwood, and Brian McNair. Pornography began to move into mainstream culture in the second half of the 20th century, now known as the Golden Age of Porn. Pornification is a product of the widespread availability of porn on the internet.

Purplewashing is a compound word modeled on the term whitewash. The prefix "purple" is associated with feminism while the verb "wash" refers to the co-opting strategies that use minority rights to maintain or enhance structural forms of discrimination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Keith (film director)</span>

Thomas Keith is an American filmmaker, educator, and anti-sexist activist. He received both his Masters and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Claremont Graduate University. Keith is a professor of philosophy at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and gender studies at Claremont Graduate University. He speaks to audiences throughout the United States on issues of masculinity, gender violence, media, and popular culture.

References

  1. "Generation M" . Retrieved 2015-05-02.
  2. 1 2 Hicks, Nora (2009). "Generation M: Misogyny in Media & Culture". Afterimage . 37 (2): 62.
  3. "Dr. Tom Keith". Tom Keith. Retrieved 2015-05-02.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Davis, Tricia (2010). "Generation M: Misogyny in Media and Culture". Teaching Sociology . 38 (4): 398–399. doi:10.1177/0092055X10380853. S2CID   144317777.
  5. 1 2 Osicki, J. (August 15, 2009). ""Generation M" (Review)". Library Journal . 134 (13). ProQuest   196804420.