Media Representationwithin a Discourse of Gender and Madness Through Foucauldian Theory
Mayer et al (2011) (Excerpts)
Media representationwithin a discourse of gender and madness through Foucauldian theory
What are the variables studied in the 5 texts that the authors examine?
Examines five recent texts in media studies: Mediating Madness: Mental Distress and
Cultural Representation (Cross, 2010); Madness, Power and the Media: Class, Genderand Race in Popular Images of Mental Distress (Harper, 2009); Reality Bites Back:The Troubling Truth about Guilty Pleasure TV (Pozner, 2010); Media Representationsof Female Body Images in Women’s Magazines (Bale, 2008); and Bad Girls: CulturalPolitics and Media Representations of Transgressive Women (Owen, Stein, & VandeBerg, 2007).
What is the authors’ thesis ?
The authorsargue that mediafixation on a rhetoric of women and girls in crisis contributes to our cultural discourse ofmadness and insanity.
Why is madness constructed as feminine?
Madness is constructed as feminine through media discourses thatsituate women’s behaviors in relationship to culturally constructed gender norms.
As Foucault (1965) observes:Language is the first and last structure of madness, its constituent form;
On language are based all the cycles in which madness articulates its nature. That theessence of madness can be ultimately defined in the simple structure of adiscourse, does not reduce it to a purely psychological body; such discourse isboth the silent language by which the mind speaks to itself in the truth proper toit, and the visible articulation in the movements of the body. (p. 100, emphasisin original)
Why is ‘madness’ related to language?
A discourse of madness is concerned with the language used to definemadness, which contains psychological consequences for identity, and ultimately can bearticulated through the body as illness, distress, or erratic behavior. Thus, media discourses situate women’s behaviors in relationship to culturally constructed gender norms.
How did the ancient Greeks explain the development of madness?
Traced back to ancient Greece where madness developed as a result of‘‘overevaluation of male sexuality associated with male fear of mature femalesexuality’’ as a result of dramatic age differences between marital partners.
Why did clinicians link madness with sexrole?
Diagnostic medicine developed, women’s madness was constructed through‘‘assumptions about sex roles made by clinicians,’’ which often exhibit a ‘‘sex bias injudgments about social functioning’’
What variables play significant roles in identifying madness within cultural systems?
Gender,sexuality, and power play significant roles in how madness is identified, articulated,
and enacted within cultural systems.
How do the authors link women and madness?
Each of theseauthors link the representation of women in various mediated contexts to the
problem of madness, which results in the manifestation of this ‘‘girls in crisis’’narrative.
How does the explanation of a mad person illustrate ‘Foucault’s conceptualization of the subject as constituting rather than constituted’?
Foucault’s(1965) observation ‘‘on language are based all the cycles in which madness articulates
its nature’’*shifting the language would simply shift the cultural normalizingfunction of discourse and reconstitute madness in similar, yet ‘‘new’’ terms (p. 100).This framing isdistinctly gendered, as madness is metaphorically and symbolically represented asfeminine, even when experienced by men (p. 67). Thus, subjectivity is determined bythe cultural process of coding madness, illustrating Foucault’s conceptualization of thesubject as constituting rather than constituted
How do narratives in movies gender differentiate discourse of madness?
Using specific texts containing characters suffering from mentaldistress as evidence, Harper examines how different film genres engage a discourseof madness from a ‘‘fetishization of tragic femininity’’ (Sylvia, Iris, The Hours),which contrasts with the psychological enlightenment experienced by malecharacters suffering mental distress in biopics (Shine, A Beautiful Mind, Pollock)(p. 76). Even ambitious ‘‘madwomen’’ behaviors are seen as ‘‘therapeutically useful’’as opposed to the ‘‘artistic strivings’’ of their ‘‘genius’’ male counterparts in dramas(p. 77), while female protagonists in comedies are generally seen as ‘‘not responsible’’ and ‘‘unable to take charge of their destiny’’ (One Flew Over theCuckoo’s Nest, Bridget Jones’s Diary, House of Fools) (p. 84). According to Foucault
(1965), madness is often culturally defined as ‘‘our blind surrender to our desires,our incapacity to control or to moderate our passions’’ (p. 85). The split in filmis clear*men who surrender to their desires and passions become geniuses;women become subjects of their own self-destruction, eliciting at best pity andsympathy.
Recognizing the limitations of film as a genre, Harper (2009) argues that televisionoffers more diversity in the representation of mental distress, but that this in turncomplicates the analysis of those images
What are women’s magazines various sets of advice for its readers that would help them overcome ‘madness’?
While magazines like MarieClaire, which offers a ‘‘Real Life Therapy’’ column every month (p. 162), often advisewomen that being content with one’s life is the key to mental health, they imply thatgendered needs must be filled to overcome madness and offer ‘‘retail therapy’’ as asolution
Women’s magazines arecentered on mental health advice in conjunction with gendered demands of physicalbeauty (for instance, how Glamour magazine offers suggestions on how to energize
your brain through shopping), the cultural assumption that women are ‘‘mad’’ bydefinition is reinforced
The management of mental health, just like physical health, is most oftenconstructed as an obligation of femininity, while mental distress is something thatoccurs in and is overcome by men
How does ‘reality’ programs frame women?
Pozner reveals howmedia frames women as irrational, helpless, and mentally distressed through realityprogramming, noting that the ‘‘reality’’ label allows these images to perpetuate adiscourse of ‘‘real women acting badly.’’
In relation to Foucault’s(1965) observations on madness, the women succumb to their desire for heterosexualromance rendering their ensuing acts as subjectified to the humility that accompanieseither rejection or conditional acceptance. The narrative emphasis on the ‘‘happyending’’ creates a vision of women as fundamentally flawed, second-class citizens,capable of anything to secure the fantasy, which codes them for consumption as‘‘mad’’ or ‘‘crazy.’’
What do the UG students found in the 12 magazines?
In 2005, 99.3% of female body images in these 12 magazinesviewed most by female undergraduate students were ‘‘thin.’’ This percentage suggestsa connection between undergraduate women’s consumption of media, particularlywomen’s magazines and the development of body image dissatisfaction, ultimatelybecoming ‘‘an issue of life or death for some undergraduate women
How does F’s framing of madness explain the ways in which women are being treated in society?
Through a Foucauldian frame, madness is ‘‘immediately perceived as difference:whence the forms of spontaneous and collective judgment sought, not fromphysicians, but from men of good sense’’ to determine the appropriate means ofconfining madness (Foucault, 1965, p. 116, emphasis added). Women are encouragedto establish self-constituting body politics that align with culturally acceptable
standards of beauty, standards that confine the body into the smallest possible space.
What was the experience of the sports reporter and how was it interpreted and explained? What would F call such an interpretation?
Based on the actual experiences of sports reporter Lisa Olson, SportsNight’s reporter, Natalie, is the victim of attempted sexual assault during an interviewthat takes place in a men’s locker room during episode six. The authors explain thisincident as a means of relegating women in journalistic fields to the ‘‘appropriate’’rank of sexualized object rather than the suggested position as a critic of maleperformance through the transformation of the locker room as contested, genderedspace. Natalie is seen as a cultural threat, tamed through the ‘‘hysterization ofwomen’s bodies’’ as ‘‘saturated with sexuality’’ (Foucault, 1980, p. 104)
How do the public imagines soldiering of the female, her body and gender identity? How would F interpret these films’ interpretations of soldering?
The authors also deconstruct the coding of American female soldiers through filmswith Gulf War narratives such as G.I. Jane, Courage Under Fire, and The General’sDaughter. These films pose and answer questions about gender, the female body, andmilitary combat. Women in these three films are viewed as ‘‘prey’’ in integratedmilitary settings, their trustworthiness is debated, and double standards are oftenemployed. Representations of women soldiers frame their bodies as strong but
ultimately vulnerable. Linking back to Foucault’s (1965) observations about madness,the women always pay a price for their (mad) bodily transgression; some even facethe ultimate price of death. By examining soldiering through the publicly imaginedfemale body and gender identity, the authors conclude that in G.I. Jane ‘‘the femalebody is the primary problem that needs ‘solving’’’
1