Wednesday 30 April 2014
How are we to get into a post-feminist world when we actively allow ourselves to be repressed by men?
The ‘Hiddlestoner’ look
1 N/A, 2011, The Philosophy Book, Great Britain: Dorling Kindersley Limited. ↩
‘Tom Hiddleston Frustration’ - it’s our therapy apparently
1 Bennett, P., Slater, J., 2010, A2 Communication and Culture: The Essential Introduction, 2009 Specification, USA, Canada, UK: Routledge. ↩
2 Burton, G., 1999, Media and Popular Culture, Great Britain: Hodder and Stoughton.↩
The classic ‘gentleman’ trope
1 Greer, G., 1970, The Female Eunuch, Great Britain: MacGibbon and Kee Ltd.↩
2 Moran, C., 2012, Moranthology, UK: Ebury Press. ↩
It’s all his fault, he’s a man
Fandoms are made up of many spectators, male and female, but media texts are criticised for creating gendered content. Mulvey defines the criteria of the Male Gaze by suggesting that
1 Mulvey, L., Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975), Screen (vol.) 16.3, Autumn 1975, pp. 6-18,
http://imlportfolio.usc.edu/ctcs505/mulveyVisualPleasureNarrativeCinema.pdf, [Accessed on 26th April 2014]↩
2 Aaron, M., 2007, Spectatorship: The Power of Looking on, Great Britain: Wallflower Press. ↩
We’ll put you up on that pedestal but we can knock you off just as quickly
Sunday 27 April 2014
Empowerment from being united or alienation within an army?
1 Furnham, A., 2008, 50 Psychology Ideas You Really Need To Know, London: Quercus Editions Ltd.↩
2 James Surowiecki, 2005, The power and the danger of online crowds, [Online], [Last accessed 1st May 2014], Available from: http://www.ted.com/talks/james_surowiecki_on_the_turning_point_for_social_media
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Proud to be a ‘Hiddlestoner’, not a ‘screaming fangirl’
1 N/A, 2014, The dark side of fandom, 2/01/14, Observation Deck, [Online], [Last accessed 30th April 2014], Available from: http://observationdeck.io9.com/the-dark-side-of-fandom-1514042157
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I don’t ‘like', I ‘obsess’
When it comes to the expectations of a ‘fan’, they are limited to having an interest in him due to his acting skills or ability to play a range of character types. However, the expectations of a ‘fangirl’ range from being fascinated by his appearance (constant viewing of pictures, having discussions purely about his physical features etc.), to becoming an omniscient fan. Ignoring how scary that concept is, feminists have an idea behind this. Hélène Cixous theorised that throughout history, we have a ‘tendency to group elements of our world into opposing pairs’ (or rather Binary Oppositions) thus creating a divide between the genders.1 An example of this is the head v.s heart debate that suggests men are more influenced by thought or logic, making them more dominant, while women are influenced by their hearts or emotion. With this theory in mind, we can apply it to the differences between the ‘fan’ and the ‘fangirl’ stereotypes. We expect men to be ‘fans’ because they will more likely appreciate an actor for his critical acclamations or how he ‘becomes’ a character, whereas women are expected to ‘fall’ for an actor and become obsessed with them. However, this generalisation is limiting and does not consider that there are male fans who ‘obsess’ over actors, just as there are female fans who appreciate an actor for their performance.
1 N/A, 2011, The Philosophy Book, Great Britain: Dorling Kindersley Limited.↩