Core concepts used to analyze how gender is represented in film, television, and advertising.
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- What is the 'male gaze' as theorized by Laura Mulvey?
- A concept describing how mainstream cinema presents women as objects for heterosexual male visual pleasure, treating them as spectacles rather than subjects with agency.
- Define the 'female gaze' as a counter-concept in media theory.
- A perspective in media that centers female subjectivity, desire, and experience, positioning women as active subjects rather than passive objects of display.
- What does 'representation' mean in media studies?
- The ways that media constructs and portrays versions of reality through images, narratives, and symbols, including how it depicts groups and social identities.
- What is a gender stereotype in media representation?
- A generalized, often reductive portrayal of how a gender should look, behave, or think, reinforced through repeated depictions that limit character complexity.
- Define objectification in media.
- The depiction of people, typically women, primarily as visual or physical objects for consumption rather than as complex human beings with agency and interiority.
- What is the Bechdel test?
- A metric measuring whether a film has at least two named female characters who speak to each other about something other than a man.
- What is the 'damsel in distress' trope?
- A narrative archetype in which a female character is placed in a vulnerable situation and depends on a male character, often a hero, to rescue her.
- Define the 'femme fatale' archetype.
- A female character portrayed as seductive, dangerous, and manipulative, often used in film noir and other genres to punish women for their sexuality.
- What is intersectionality?
- A framework examining how multiple social identities (gender, race, class, sexuality, ability) overlap and interact to create unique experiences of discrimination and privilege.
- Define hegemonic masculinity.
- The culturally dominant form of masculinity in a society, characterized by emotional restraint, physical strength, authority, and heterosexuality, which marginalizes other expressions of male identity.
- What is 'toxic masculinity'?
- Masculine behaviors and traits that are harmful to both men and society, including emotional repression, aggression, dominance-seeking, and devaluation of traits coded as feminine.
- What is tokenism in media?
- A superficial gesture toward diversity by including small numbers of underrepresented people without meaningfully addressing systemic inequality or changing power structures.
- What does sexualization mean in media representation?
- The depiction of individuals primarily in a sexual manner, emphasizing bodily attractiveness and sexual appeal while downplaying other human qualities and characteristics.
- Describe Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model of media.
- A framework showing that media texts contain encoded messages that audiences actively decode based on their own social positions, experiences, and meanings, not passively absorbing a single intended message.
- What is counter-stereotypical representation?
- Media depictions that deliberately challenge and subvert conventional gender stereotypes and roles, presenting characters in non-traditional or unexpected ways.
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