Van Zoonen: feminist theories

 Van Zoonen came up with multiple theories: 

• we get our ideas about gender from discourse (written and moving image communication). Like magazines, video games etc. We learn what it is to be female/male from the media products we consume. We see repeated representations of men being portrayed as action heroes and therefore we believe that men have to be heroic and powerful. Seeing females as the damsel in distress in films make us believe that femininity means to be vulnerable. 

• Our ideas about gender have to be looked at in terms of the context, historical context and cultural context- the ideas of gender change depending on this factors. Our ideas of what is was to be feminine in the 1980s may have differed from our perception of being feminine in 2021. 

In the 1980s, being domestic was seen as a feminine attribute. 

• She believes that women are often objectified in the media - this can be seen in a variety of media. She believes that this objectification is present because we live in a patriarchal society. Women are particularly objectified within the music industry: 

• She believes women and men are represented as two very different genders. Women are domestic, men are for the workplace and are involved in politics, men are seen as more individualistic.
• She also believes that men and women's bodies are presented in different ways. Men's bodies are seem as 'spectacle' meaning that men's bodies are seem as spectacular and strong (muscles, abs). We should admire men's bodies through the hard work they have done to achieve this body type. However, females bodies are something we should lust over, not something that they have worked hard to gain.