2) What are the two texts the article focuses on?
Pan Am and Beyonce's Why don't you love me?
3) What examples are provided from the two texts of the 'male gaze' (Mulvey)?
- Beyonce putting on the make up maybe seen as her reinforcing Mulveys theory on the male gaze but in a post feminist era it may be suggested that she is doing it for the opposite reason.
- The same applies to Pan Am as the female air hostess's are also there for "male enjoyment" again linking to Mulvey's idea about the Male gaze.
4) Do texts such as these show there is no longer a need for feminism or are they simply sexism in a different form?
Both videos do show off a certain degree of sexuality which of course is going to be said to be objectified, but this is mainly said by Women in my opinion and men are just there to watch. Other women comment and say how to and not to dress because they set the trends based upon the reactions they get from men. Although i do agree that women do, do stuff to feel empowered and its ultimately their choice of how to present themselves in the media just as it is for men. There isn't really a need for feminism anymore especially in some countries but others still need it as everywhere is not like the UK or US and women still don't even hold voting rights or basic rights and there is a clear divide between men and women.
5) Choose three words/phrases from the glossary of the article and write their definitions on your blog.
Male Gaze- Put forward by Laura Mulvey, she said woman act and men look to show how objectified women are in the media.
Feminism- the movement which aims at giving women better and more equal rights to men.
Patriarchy- A system which places men above women, can be applied to
1) Research the No More Page 3 campaign. Who started it and why?
No More Page 3 was started in August 2012 by Actress and Author Lucy-Anne Holmes as a response to the objectification and sexualisation of women in the tabloid newspaper The Sun. Lucy Holmes noticed in the paper that the size of the page 3 girl was the largest in the paper even bigger than the one of Jessica ennis who had just won a gold medal. She believed it was an objectification of women.
2) What reasons did the campaign give for why Page 3 had to go?
In the first place Page 3 was founded because it was seen as something which empowered women but times have changed and people see it for how demeaning it is and how it just objectifies women to be a certain way.
3) Read this debate in the Guardian regarding whether the campaign should be dropped. What are Barbara Ellen and Susan Boniface's contrasting opinions in the debate?
Boniface wanted the campaign to continue and didn't agree with the No more page 3 campaign as she thought it was still empowering for women, whilst Ellen states that page 3 was just a way to pleasure the male gender.
4) The main campaign website has now been replaced by a site called Sexist News, designed to highlight sexism in the media. Give an example of a recent story the website has highlighted. Do you agree with the view of the website?
'Little mixed up about what to wear' they reinforce their feminist values of 'not telling women what to wear' but they had disagreements when it comes to this as they believe if you are influencing the younger generations in a bad way then its too far and to some extent i agree with this but not everybody is as easily influenced.
5) How can the No More Page 3 campaign and Sexist News website be linked to the idea of post-feminism?
It would subvert it more than anything as people see that they are not past the sexual objectification of women or another issue and still campaign to get equality and to be viewed in the same way as men. It is a good thing though because it still campaigns for womens rights when a lot of people have already accepted what women have as enough so have come up with this post feminism era.
6) What are your OWN views on these campaigns? Do you agree with their aims? Is there still a need for these campaigns in the media?
I do agree with the campaigns and especially with the no more page 3 campaign because the first time i saw it i immediately knew this was nothing to do with a magazine and had no place in there. I didn't see it as a way of empowering women but only objectifying them for male pleasure. This just goes to show how hard it is to shift traditional values this can be compared to newspapers and how hard it is to get rid of them, its hard to change things when a generation is not willing to let go.
7) Finally, do you agree that we are in a post-feminist state or is there still a need for feminism?
I believe that some countries are more advanced then others in terms of womens rights and that one day women will be viewed the same all around the world but that may not be for a long time so feminism is getting there in terms of equality but some things may not be open for change, for example in places like Abu -Dhabi culutural factors and traditions prevent women from having a certain freedom but there it is seen as a norm. No country is on the same page about many issues and all have different cultures and some may see feminism as something unnecessary.
