Globalization, gender politics and the media (original) (raw)
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Feminist media studies across borders: re-visiting studies within the Brazilian national context
2019
Feminist media studies in the US and the UK have built a strong tradition of research, which has aimed to look at the correlation between structural gender inequalities in society and how these have been played out in the media. These range from classic studies on soap operas to debates on the sexualization of culture and the construction of forms of femininity within a postfeminist context (i.e. Gill, 2006; McNair, 2002; Ang, 1985; Tuchman at el, 1978). Research on the relationship between gender and the media has arguably become an important arena of inquiry in Latin America. Feminist media studies in countries like Brazil nonetheless is still in need of strengthening and becoming a more robust area of research, despite the emergence of some important work in the field in the last decade (i.e. Ferreira, 2015; Alvarez, 2015: Escosteguy and Messa, 2012). The aim of this paper is to provide a brief critical sketch of some of the research in the field, examining potentialities for fur...
Globalization, gender politics and the media - an introduction
Part I-Women and globalization: equality and emancipation " I shall not go back to the remote annals of antiquity to trace the history of woman; it is sufficient to allow that she has always been either a slave, or a despot, and to remark, that each of these situations equally retards the progress of reason. The grand source of female folly and vice has ever appeared to me to arise from narrowness of mind; and the very constitution of civil governments has put almost insuperable obstacles in the way to prevent the cultivation of female understanding – yet virtue can be built on no other foundation! " Wollstonecraft, M. (1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman)
Mediapolis – Revista de Comunicação, Jornalismo e Espaço Público, 2018
This article provides a critical summary of feminist theoretical perspectives on the potential of online communications for women’s rights, further sketching abrief case study of contemporary Brazilian feminism and the mobilization around women’s rights, particularly in the year 2015. This is done through a discussion of the discursive online practices of websites like Blogueiras Feministas and the NGO Think Olga, part of a wider project (Matos, 2017). Questions asked include how the media can better contribute to assist in gender development, and how online platforms can make a difference. I argue that despite constraints and setbacks, the seeds of a wider transformative influence in the offline world are slowly being planted in a highly fragmented, heterogeneous and erratic blogosphere.
Representation of Women in Media after Globalization
Women's Link, 2015
Abstract: The subject of gender and media has been discussed quite frequently. We have good documentations available on the portrayal of gender as a product and the accompanying body politic1 in media. Media can act as both a perpetrator and as a protagonist. It can either be an accomplice to gender based discrimination by portraying stereotypical sensational images of women or it can provide balanced coverage that empowers women while exposing acts of gender bias. Although the position of women has improved in the 21st century with their participation in politics, business, sports and almost every sphere of life, the media after globalization has started portraying women as a commodity. The attempt by the media to obliterate the political projects of feminism and appropriate certain aspects of the women’s movement’s agenda into the construction of a new sign system revolving around the new liberated modern subject position ‘woman’ only accentuates woman being commodified as a selling strategy for conspicuous consumption (Chanda, 2004). This paper presents a feminist critique of the extent to which women’s issues and characters are covered and presented in media. Further this paper critically analyses the representation of women in media before and after globalization.
“A new feminist turn?” Communication, social media, and feminist digital activism in Brazil today
Transmitiendo la persuasión: la comunicación que influye, 2022
Introduction. Digital projects of recent years conducted by women have become important instances of contemporary feminist activism to oppose gender inequality and fight for social justice. Taking place at the crossroads of communication, media art, and new feminist epistemologies, the genesis of feminist digital activism builds on the notion of an online organization through the use of various platforms such as email, blogs, and social networking sites. This article focuses on the intensification of feminist digital activism in Brazil particularly in the last two years with the 2018 election of Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency. His ultraconservative, far-right positions have targeted women, black people, marginalized groups such as poor workers, and LGBTQI+ communities. As a direct response to this, feminist collectives have endeavored to instrumentalize their dissent into a digital communication agenda in order to address and resist intersectional categories of oppression—including gender, race, class, and heterosexism—openly proclaimed by Bolsonaro since his inauguration. . Methods. The study is based on a two-year ethnographic online observation of three Brazilian feminist groups operating online through multiples spheres of actions from alternative forms of journalism to video activism. It thus includes content analyses of Instagram and Facebook posts as well as of texts, images, and videos uploaded by these activists to alternative media websites. . Results. Firstly, social media platforms can be significant sites for the reconfiguration of feminist repertoires of knowledge production and circulation. Consequently, an assessment of contemporary digital feminism in Brazil demonstrates that the web environment can be a locus of empowering reflections and actions for women, both individually and collectively. Assuming, in this sense, that ICTs have brought change to feminist ways of organizing and working, I analyze the extent to which digital communication may have been leading to a “new feminist turn,” more reticulated and participatory in the 21st century. . Discussion and conclusions. Most of the organizers of the three feminist groups analyzed in this study belong to the media sphere (they are or have been journalists, writers, video makers, visual artists etc.) or to the communication digital sector, which appears to be crucial to articulate their feminist strategies of activism by taking part in action not only as cultural mediators, but practitioners.
The present dissertation intends to contribute to the contemporary and urgent debate of a possible fourth wave of feminism, grounded on the digital environment, by offering a glance at the issue within a yet not very explored context: a developing country of the Global South, Brazil. For this, two Brazilian social media feminist pages are taken as the object of study, as well as its creators and audiences. It is the intention of this dissertation to contribute to the existing global debate by assessing issues raised in international discussions within the perspective of Brazilian study cases, providing a snapshot of who these feminists acting online in Brazil are, what issues they are concerned with and how they act.