An overview of some of the issues and publications on Race, Gender and Representation in the Media.

1. Tangela Richardson
Public Communication Theory
Dr. Zaharna
American University
12/01/2012
GENDER, RACE & MEDIA REPRESENTATION DWIGHT E. BROOKS AND LISA P. HEBERT

2. In our consumption-oriented, mediated society, much of what comes to pass as important is based often on the stories produced and disseminated by media institutions. Much of what audiences know and care about is based on the images, symbols, and narratives in radio, television, film, music, and other media (Brooks & Hebert, 2004).
MAIN IDEA

3. The journal chapter discusses scholarship on media representations of both genders and various racial groups.
The Theory I will explore in the presentation is Critical Race Theory.
The groups identified in the journal article that I will explore for the presentation are media constructions of:
Masculinity
Femininity
Minorities
Caucasians
JOURNAL DISCUSSION

4. Challenging media portrayals of black women as mammies, matriarchs, jezebels, welfare mothers and tragic mulattoes is a core theme in black feminist thought (Brooks & Hebert, 2004).
Actress Hattie McDaniel in movie
Gone with the Wind a 1939 American Historical
Epic Film.
Current Stereotypes of
Black Women or Women
of Color in the media.
BLACK FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES AND MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF BLACK WOMEN

5. Scholars have studied black female representation in a variety of media contexts. Myers (2004) used discourse analysis to examine the representation of violence against African American Women in local news coverage. The news portrayal of most victims is stereotypic of Jezebels whose lewd behavior provoked assault.
Examples of African American Women the media being seen as Jezebels or Villains are:
SCHOLARS AND THEIR STUDY OF BLACK FEMALE REPRESENATION IN A VARIETY OF MEDIA CONTEXTS

6. Nafissatou Diallo is the 32-year-old refugee from Guinea who has accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault at the Sofitel hotel where she worked as a maid in New York City.
In 2009, Rihanna, a chart-topping singer known for her strength, beauty, and voice was severely beaten by then-boyfriend Chris Brown. She is considered a Pop Star Sex Symbol.
In 1989, Robin Givens went from a star on the small screen to being called “the most hated woman in America” after her marriage to Mike Tyson ended with a reported $10 million settlement.
Anita Hill alleged that Clarence Thomas, her then-supervisor at the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, had sexually harassed her.
JEZEBELS IN THE MEDIA

7. Not only are African American Women sometimes portrayed negatively in media and film, other minority women are also portrayed negatively.
Feminist Scholar Hill Collins (2004) states that many of the arguments made previously in other scholarly work written or stated focused primarily on black women- the writings are also applicable to women from India, Latin America, Puerto Rico, and Asia.
MULTICULTURAL FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE AND THE MEDIA

8. Asian and Latinas are often portrayed in the media as the exotic, sexualized “other as well, according to Tajima (1989).
Tajima (1989) states that Asian women in film are either passive figures who exist to serve men as love interests for White men (lotus blossom) or as a partner in crime of men of their own kind (dragon ladies)” (p. 309).
Examples of Asian and Latinas Women in Film are:
Maid in Manhattan starring Latina Actress and Pop Star Jennifer Lopez.
Memoirs of a Geisha – starring Asian Actress Ziyi Zhang.
ASIAN AND LATINAS IN FILM

9. Although most of the academic literature regarding black and Asian women in media focuses on historically situated stereotypes, this does not hold true for Latinas.
While there has been some references to Latinas being portrayed as exotic seductresses (Holtzman, 2000), as tacky and overly emotional (Valdivia, 1995), and as the hyper- sexualized spitfire (Molina Guzman & Valdivia, 2004), the majority of literature on Latinas has focused on men.
WOMEN IN FILM CONTINUED

10. Halle Barry Zoe Saldana Kimora Lee Simmons
FAMOUS BIRACIAL WOMEN THAT TRANSCEND RACE IN MEDIA AND IN FILM

11. Research on gender has been published primarily by women feminist.
According to scholars Dines & Humez (2003, p. 733), the ideals of manhood vary by race and class across time and cultural contexts. Meaning that each race of men is depicted by the nature of the media and the film that they are portrayed in based on the main idea of the storyline.
MEDIA REPRESENTATION OF RACIALIZED MASCULINITIES

12. Critical Race Theory is used to explain the media representations of Black Men and Black Masculinities.
CRT emerged from critical legal studies in the 1970s as an intellectual response to the slow pace of racial reform in the U.S.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) places race at the center of critical analysis and traces its origins to the legal scholarship of Derrick Bell, Richard Delgado, and Kimberle Crenshaw, who challenged the philasophical tradition of the liberal civil rights color-blind approach to social justice.
CRITICAL RACE THEORY

13. In the 1980’s there was an emerging interest from social scientists and communication researchers in women television genres such as romance, melodrama and soap opera.
AUDIENCE STUDIES

14. The multitude of studies on African American representations far outnumbers those on Asians, Latinos, and Native Americans. The lack of representations of these races/ethnicities represented in “mainstream” media makes it even more difficult to examine constructions of these cultures.
The CRT (Critical Race Theory) will become even more important for legal scholars, sociologists, political scientists and other scholars to discuss and write about to forge new research on multicultural audiences.
DIRECTIONS FOR RESEARCH

15. The research in the journal chapter writing has exposed the various ways the media constructs monolithic notions of race and gender.
The scholarship and the research will become even more important, despite conservative backlash, that promotes regressive policies on images in the media.
The media will continue to play an important role in our struggles for understanding of people and cultures.
The media scholars will have to continue to research, in- depth, how multiculturalism works in a multiracial society in media and film portrayals.
CONCLUSION

16. Brooks, D.E., & Hebert, L.P. (2004). Lessons learned or bamboozled? Gender in a Spike Lee film. Unpublished manuscript.
Brooks, D.E., & Jacobs, W.R. (1996). Black men in the margins: Space traders and the interpositional strategy against backlash. Communication Studies, 47, 289-302.
Dines, G., & Humez, J.M. (2003). Gender, race, and class in media: A text-reader (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Hill, Collins, P. (2004). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism. New York: Routledge.
Holtzman, L. (2000). Media messages: what film, television, and popular music teach us about race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
Myers, M. (2004). African American women and violence: Gender, race and class in the news. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 21, 95-118.
Tajima, R. (1989). Lotus blossoms don’t bleed: Images of Asian women. In Asian Women United of California (Ed.), Making waves: An anthology of writings by and about Asian American women (pp. 308-317). Boston: Beacon.
Valdivia, A. (1995). Feminist media studies in a global setting: Beyond binary contradictions and into multicultural spectrums. In A. Valdivia (Ed.), Feminism, multiculturalism, and the media: Global diversities (pp. 7-29). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
REFERENCES