Feminist Theory and the Media

Abstract

The second feminist wave, which started in the 1960s in the United States and spread through Europe during the late 1960s and the 1970s, increased interest in media and their relations to gender. On the one hand, the role media play in creating gendered stereotypes and maintaining patriarchal values-that is, creating a distorted, malebiased view on the world-was questioned. These questions gave rise to specific fields of study for feminist scholars-stereotypes and social roles, ideology, and pornography (Van Zoonen, 1994)-which are currently investigated in three academic disciplines: psychoanalysis, social psychology, and cultural studies.On the other hand, feminist scholars raised questions about academic knowledge itself. Relating feminist political viewpoints to academic knowledge, the androcentric character of Western understandings of knowledge was criticized, resulting in three feminist epistemologies: feminist empiricism, feminist standpoint theory, and feminist postmodernism (the latter is also called postmodern feminism). These three traditions share one important view that Western understandings of knowledge are androcentric and prioritize rationality (Hawkesworth, 1989). However, their ideas on how to change the androcentric character of knowledge and how to come to alternative conceptions of knowledge differ tremendously (Smith, 1998). In feminist studies on media, the three epistemologies rarely appear in their "pure" forms; rather, insights often are mixed and used in complementary ways. Nevertheless, values advocated in each epistemological tradition have important repercussions for feminist studies on media and their audiences. To elucidate how epistemological beliefs have had an impact on feminist theory on media, the three epistemological traditions and their specific values and beliefs will be discussed briefly. Next, psychoanalytic, social psychology, and cultural studies approaches to media are discussed in terms of their epistemological beliefs and the impact thereof on the generated theoretical insights. Feminist epistemologiesAndrocentric epistemologies emphasize a strict separation of fact and value, hence prioritizing rationality over the realm of emotions, to which values belong. Feminist epistemologies start from a reverse observation, namely that academic knowledge is saturated with male values (androcentrism) that masquerade as objective truths. Martin (1991), for example, describes how research on biological human reproduction is imbued by male and female stereotypes. Though studies show how egg and spermThe International Encyclopedia of Media Effects. Patrick Rössler (Editor-in-Chief), Cynthia A. Hoffner, and Liesbet van Zoonen (Associate Editors).

Let’s Get Loud: Intersectionally Studying the Super Bowl’s Halftime Show

“…The backlash caused by feminist scholars in the 1980s led to self-criticism, which resulted in discrediting gender studies (or pausing them, as Van Zoonen suggested), also resulted in the emergence of important concepts: intersectionality and queer studies. While intersectionality is rooted in standpoint feminism (Krijnen, 2017), and hence advocates a form of essentialism, queer studies advocates a fluid identity that is constructed continuously by interacting with one's environment. De Ridder et al…”

“Real News Arrives From Abroad”: Transnational Eyewitnessing in Leonora Raines’ War Correspondence for the New York Evening Sun (1914–1918)

“…More broadly, their standpoints show how practices of knowledge production are intertwined with gender, identity, power, and agency ) Code, 1991;Harding, 1993Harding, , 2004Steiner et al, 2020(. Feminist standpoint theory suggests that by adding a normative dimension when assessing knowledge production, scholars can analyze social epistemologies and highlight the voices of underrepresented groups such as women ) Code, 1991;Harding, 1993Harding, , 2004Krijnen, 2017;Krijnen & van Bauwel, 2021(. This article argues that Raines' forgotten eyewitness reports from Paris and Western Europe during 1914 to 1918 are instructive for journalism scholars to understand how, first, this early war correspondent participated in the sourcing and production of transnational news in an environment controlled by foreign military censorship. Second, this study shows how she harnessed her standpoint and role as an "outsider within" to build journalistic authority through writing multi-layered narratives of women, soldiers, refugees, and other civilians in Paris and across Western Europe and thereby producing original and socially situated knowledge about the conflict.…”

“…Feminist standpoint theory builds on the assumption that all knowledge is socially situated )e.g., Harding, 1993Harding, , 2004Krijnen, 2017;Krijnen & van Bauwel, 2021( and that marginalized groups are in a position to ask questions and understand diverse realities in ways that non-marginalized cannot ) Allen, 1996;Harding, 2004;Steiner, 2012, 20141993( argues that, collectively, marginalized groups challenge the partial or distorted claims of dominant groups. This analytical lens and Harding's notion of "strong objectivity" help interpret discourse on media production, and how questions of power intersect with how marginalized groups access information, construct and produce knowledge, and, over time, generate rich perspectives that build on their lived experiences ) Archetti, 2022;Harding, 1993Harding, , 2004Krijnen, 2017(. Echoing Covert's earlier call, Linda Steiner )2012, 2014 has theorized what a reexamination of the experiences and performances of women journalists could look like.…”

“…More broadly, their standpoints show how practices of knowledge production are intertwined with gender, identity, power, and agency (Code, 1991; Harding, 1993, 2004; Steiner et al, 2020). Feminist standpoint theory suggests that by adding a normative dimension when assessing knowledge production, scholars can analyze social epistemologies and highlight the voices of underrepresented groups such as women (Code, 1991; Harding, 1993, 2004; Krijnen, 2017; Krijnen & van Bauwel, 2021).…”

Undergraduate students and time spent on social networking sites: A study of the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria

“…Disquiet with how empirical knowledge is reified as the masculine perspective and an objective presentation of reality, feminists have argued that academic knowledge is saturated with male values (androcentrism) that masquerade as objective truths (Krijnen, 2017). GM, as an extension of feminist critique of inequality, also provides an essential argument of changing the dimensions of empirical knowledge from positivist to Harding's Standpoint theory of locating knowledge in the human experience.…”