Tuchmann, Mulvey, Clover and Gauntlett

on Gender Representation and the Media

Research

Gaye TuchmanGaye Tuchman was an American

sociologist who wrote a famous

essay which surrounded her ideas of

how the media portrayed women in

the 20th century and how this effects

women's lives in society. This

Included events such as: The Vote;

Women entering the paid labour

force and in education; the rise of the women’s movement.

Tuchmann mainly focused how the

female stereotypes affected their

lives. She suggested that the media

were not properly and truthfully

representing the drastic changes of

women's life over the course of the

century. She believes due to the

medias inaccurate portrayal of

women and their lives they live, it

played a part in limiting women's life chances.

(http://www.academia.edu/2282271)

http://prezi.com/fbcqsr42x6hb/gender-representation/

Laura Mulvey

A theory proposed by Laura Mulvey (1975) implies that mainstream hollywood films

portray their female actors in a

scopophilic way. This means that

women are seen in film as object

for male sexual desire - This

concept is called the ‘male gaze

theory’. Her writings such as: the

1975 essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, helped

establish feminist film theory as a legitimate field of study.

Carol Clover

Carol Clover proposed a theory arguing

that classic horror films are designed to

align spectators not with the male

tormentor bit with the female tormented.

This means that the woman suffers all

the pain and trouble throughout the film

and is seen as the victim. At the end of

the film the her comes to vanquish her.

Examples of this includes ‘Scream’.

(http://press.princeton.edu/titles/4982.html

)

David Gauntlett

David Gauntlett is a british

sociologist and media theorist who

work with in media had a particular

focus of the representation of

women over the years. Similar to

Tuchmann’s ideas, Gauntlett felt that females have been

unrepresented by the media and

that it was not until the 70’s until

women were finally portrayed at

heroic. Untill then, women have

played important roles, however

the men seem to over power them.

(http://jeriahimigesinmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/representations-of-gender-in-past.html

)