Gender and heterosexuality: discourses and visual images in advertising and the media

Transcrição

1 Gender and heterosexuality: discourses and visual images in advertising and the media Starting date: 2005 Team members: Zara Pinto-Coelho Silvana Mota Ribeiro Aims and approaches This project is based upon the background of our previous research on media discourse and ads images, as well as a PhD research, and results from a common reason and ultimate goal to contribute to a deeper and more effective understanding of a major social problem of our country: gender inequality. Communication studies, in Portugal, have had little contribution to the study of this problem. They often limit their focus to gender in newspaper coverage and its superficial content, and to the reproduction of stereotypes in ads, thereby ignoring the role of discourses and ideologies of heterosexuality in the process of communicating gender inequality. Recent work in gender theory claims that gender and sexuality are dynamic, interrelated social practices, rather than static, immutable, and separate categories (Connell, 1987; Butler, 1990). On the one hand, sexuality is seen as central site of expression, enactment, and acquisition of femininity, as well as masculinity. On the other hand, ways of doing and being a woman or a man seem to be grounded on western societies dominant beliefs, attitudes and values about sexuality, typically on an ideological system sometimes called heterosexism. How is this ideological system represented and communicated in media discourse and advertising images? Previous research has shown that in Western cultures women s ads participate in the ongoing construction of forms of knowing and evaluating gender relations and subjectivities in accordance with heterosexual desire (Puustinen, 2000; Rossi, 2000a, 2000b, 2005). Studies done in the field of gender in

2 media discourse show the same kind of work (e.g. Lazar, 2005). This continuing reproduction of a linkage between gender and heterosexuality establishes a causal relationship between sex, gender and desire (Butler, 1990). This needs to be broken, or at least exposed, if one wants to challenge the hetero-gender hegemony of Western societies. As it is typical of hegemonic orders, this hetero-gender order has been challenged in the past decades (Gauntlett, 2002), so it is important to better understand the role played by media discourse and advertising images in this process, and the meanings of these changes. This is another aim of our project. Besides these feminist goals, this study is also motivated by a need to develop in our country a more discursive and visually-oriented approach to media and advertising. Research done in Portugal does not use the extensive available research on discourse and visual images, thereby often ignoring or analysing only superficially the ways in which the communication process is exhibited in the various structures of media discourse and advertising images. Bringing together our previous research, this project may be an illustration of the relevance of integrating the most relevant advances in the fields of discourse and visual analysis (Critical Discourse Analysis (e.g. Lazar, 2005; van Dijk, 1996; Wodak, 1997; Fairclough, 1995; van Dijk, 2005) and visual social semiotics (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996; Kress and van Leeuwen, 1998)) into Media Studies on Gender. The topics that we have been exploring so far are the following: - The access of women to Portuguese newspapers against the background of a more general debate over the role of the media in the (re)production of gender inequalities in Western societies (van Zoonen, 1994; Tuchman, 1978; Ayerra, 2003; Gallego, 2004; Gans, 1979): qualitative and quantitative developments of women s participation as journalists in newspaper organisations and in newspaper texts and images. - Heterosexuality types in Portuguese newspapers discourse on HIV/AIDS. - The relations between the discourses used in the linguistic and in the visual constructions of HIV/AIDS in Portuguese newspaper discourse, focusing on coconstructions of sexual differences and on the role of gender discourses

3 - Visual representations of normative heterosexuality in magazine ads, and how they act upon women and men differently. - How visual representations of heterosexuality interweave with representations of masculinity and femininity in ads. - Discourses articulated in images of heterosexual ads published in women s magazines and their ideological configurations. - Visual strategies by which heterosexist discourses are (re)produced in ads published in women s magazines. - The role of specific visual choices in the expression of heterosexual discourses. - Changes in advertising representations of women in recent years, especially the construction of a sexually empowered woman. - The regime of looking in women s ads; the ways images invite female viewers to look at images of women. - Visual constructions of the gaze, and the concepts of gender and of sexualities they imply. - How female readers understand and evaluate women ads. Key-words: heterosexuality discourses, gender discourses, visual social semiotics, critical discourse analysis, advertising images, women s magazines, newspapers discourse, media discourse Publications 2009

4 Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S., Contradictions in the (still) gendered structure of Portuguese newspapers production and discourse, International Journal of Iberian Studies, in press. Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S., Discourses of heterosexuality in women's magazines ads: visual realizations and their ideological configurations, Visual Communication, Sage, in press. Pinto-Coelho, Z. A política de género na representação visual do VIH/SIDA: o caso dos jornais portugueses / Gender politics in the visual representation of HIV/AIDS: the case of Portuguese Newspapers, Revista Media e Jornalismo, nº 15, in press. Pinto-Coelho, Z.& Mota-Ribeiro, S. Sexo, género e heterossexualidade: uma análise das estratégias discursivas visuais nos anúncios de revistas femininas / Sex, Gender and Heterossexuality: an analysis of visual discoursive strategies in women ads, Proceedings of? Conference????, April, Lisbon, 2009 ( chedconf/presentations 2008 Mota-Ribeiro, S. & Pinto-Coelho. Z. (2008) A genderização da sexualidade feminina nas imagens publicitárias de revistas para mulheres / The genderization of female sexuality in women s magazine ads ), in Martins, M.L.; Pinto, M. (orgs.), Proceedings of the V SOPCOM Congress, 1-8. ISBN: Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2007), Advertising Images, Visual Syntax and Heterosexuality Representations, Comunicacion e Cidania. Social Journalism International Review, vol. 1, Pinto-Coelho, Z. (2007), Imagens publicitárias: jogos de olhares, género e sexualidades, Comunicação e Sociedade, 11, 2º semestre, Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2006) Access of Women and Construction of Femininity in the Discourse of the Portuguese Press in Proceedings of Breaking

5 the Glass Ceiling, 2nd International Conference on Women s Studies, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Abril, CD-ROM. Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2006) Analisando os Discursos de Género das e sobre as Imagens Publicitárias de Mulheres: como Articular a Análise Sociosemiótica com a Análise da Recepção / Analysing Gender discourses in and about display ads: how to articulate a social semiotic analysis with reception studies, in Proceedings of VII Congreso Internacional de Comunicación Lusófona, LUSOCOM, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, Abril, CD-ROM. ISBN Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2006) Sex, Gender and Ads: Analysing Visual Images and their Social Effects in Proceedings of IAMCR s 25th Conference, Knowledge Societies for All: Media and Communication Strategies, The American University of Cairo, Cairo, Egypt, 23rd-28th July. Cairo: IAMCR. pp Mota-Ribeiro, S, & Pinto-Coelho, Z. (2005) Imagens de mulheres na imprensa portuguesa / Images of women in the Portuguese Press, in Proceedings of the IV SOPCOM Congress, October, Universidade de Aveiro. CD-ROM, ISBN: Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2005) O acesso das mulheres ao discurso da imprensa portuguesa / The acess of women to the discourse of Portuguese Newspapers, in Proceedings of the IV SOPCOM Congress, October,, Universidade de Aveiro. CD-ROM, ISBN: Communications 2009 Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2009), Olhando para ti : uma compreensão discursiva e visual do gaze em anúncios para mulheres / Gazing back at you : a discoursive and visual understanding of the gaze in women ads, paper

6 presented at the X Congresso Luso-Afro Brasileiro de Ciências Sociais, Braga, Portugal, 4-7 February, Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2009), Sexo, género e heterossexualidade: uma análise das estratégias discursivas visuais nos anúncios de revistas femininas/ Sex, Gender and Heterossexuality: an analysis if visual discursive strategies in women ads, Paper presented at the Ibérico Conference, April, Lisbon, Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2009), Para além da superfície visual: uma aplicação da gramática sócio-semiótica aos anúncios publicitários. Paper presented at the Sopcom Conference, April, Lisbon, Pinto-Coelho, Z., (2009) Figuras da Heterossexualidade na cobertura jornalística do VIH/SIDA / Heterosexuality Types in HIV/AIDS Portuguese News discourse.. Paper presented at the VI Sopcom Conference, VIII Lusocom Conference, April, Lisbon, Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2008), Gazing back at you: a visual approach to gender and sexuality discourses in women s magazine ads, paper presented at ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association) 2008 Congress, Barcelona, November, Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2008), The politics of viewing: A discursive understanding of the gaze in women s ads. Paperthe 26th World Congress of IAMCR (International Association for Media and Communication Research), Stockholm, Sweden, July, Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2007), Discourses of heterosexuality in women's magazines ads: visual realizations and their ideological configurations, Paper presented at the IAMCR Congress, Paris, France, July. Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2007), A genderização da sexualidade feminina nas imagens publicitárias de revistas para mulheres ( Genderization of female sexuality in women s magazine ads ). Paper presented at Sopcom Conference, University of Minho, Portugal, 6-8 Sept.

7 2006 Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2006). Access of Women and Construction of Femininity in the Discourse of the Portuguese Press. Paper presented at Breaking the Glass Ceiling 2nd International Conference on Women s Studies, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, April. Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2006). Analisando os discursos de género das e sobre as imagens publicitárias de mulheres: como articular a análise sociosemiótica com a análise da recepção/ Analysing Gender discourses in and about display ads: how to articulate a social semiotic analysis with reception studies. Paperat VII LUSOCOM Congreso Internacional de Comunicación Lusófona, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, April. Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2006). Sex, Gender and Ads: Analysing Visual Images and their Social Effects. Paper presented at 25th IAMCR Conference (International Association for Media and Communication Research) Knowledge Societies for All: Media and Communication Strategies, American University of Cairo, Cairo, Egypt, July. Pinto-Coelho, Z. (2006) The Uncertain Meanings of Ads: Representation of Women and Viewing Positions of Female Magazine Readers. Paper presented at 4th International Language, Communication, Culture Conference. Lisbon, 28-30, November Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2005). Imagens de mulheres na imprensa portuguesa / Images of women in the Portuguese Press, Paper presented at IV Congresso da SOPCOM, Associação Portuguesa de Ciências da Comunicação, Repensar os Media: Novos Contextos da Comunicação e da Informação, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, October. Pinto-Coelho, Z. & Mota-Ribeiro, S. (2005). O acesso das mulheres ao discurso da imprensa portuguesa/ Access of Women to the Discourse of the Portuguese Press. Paper presented at IV Congresso da SOPCOM, Associação Portuguesa de Ciências da Comunicação, Repensar os Media: Novos Contextos da

8 Comunicação e da Informação, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, October.