Research conference

1. 2016 IAMCR conference- Gender
and the Media section
DR. CAROLINA MATOS
LECTURER IN MEDIAAND SOCIOLOGY – DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
CITY UNIVERSITY LONDON
E-MAIL: CAROLINA.MATOS.1@CITY.AC.UK

2. Key concepts and intellectual
frameworks
*Increasing dialogue between the academic disciplines of British Cultural Studies and Latin
American
* Post-colonialism and the “third world woman” – the persistence of problematic representations
* Beyond the “cultural turn” in feminist media studies - Redistribution versus recognition
(Fraser, 2013)
* Economic development and social inclusion, and Brazil’s relationship with minorities and “the
Other”
* Pre-feminist versus post-feminist media texts (i.e. “empowerment” versus “sexist” images)
* Cyber-feminism and the uses of new technologies in the struggle for gender justice
* Towards global gender justice and transnational feminist networks in a digital age

3. Four lines of inquiry
1) the concern with the correlation between media representations of gender and patterns of
inequality in Brazil within a global and regional context;
2) the ways of overcoming the paradox that still exists in our societies between the presence of a
few women leaders in politics, businesses and the media in contrast to the continuous everyday
practices of discrimination and hostility towards ordinary or less privileged women;
3) the possibilities offered by ICTs (information communication technologies) in contributing to
further gender development, serving as a contrast to the persistence of rigid images and
discourses in the mainstream media, while at the same time boosting pluralism and diversity
4) the possibilities of strengthening international feminisms and transnational feminist networks,
creating proximities between British Cultural Studies with Latin American Studies, enhancing
intellectual exchange and collaboration between the North and the South (research, theory and
practice).

4. Methods and research questions
* Feminism theory and multidisciplinary research: Feminist media studies, sociology and
development
* Interviews with international experts, feminists, politicians and bloggers
* Media analysis of ads and images from female magazines as well as discourses from feminist
blogs (2014 - 2016)
* Secondary data, including international reports on gender inequality
Core research questions:
*How do questions of gender, race and nation intersect in determining feminisms in the “Third
World”? What are some of the images and discussions surrounding the Brazilian women in the
media?
* Is the media contributing to advance, change, reflect of reinforce stereotypes and dominant
patterns?

5. British Cultural Studies and Latin American
* Increasing dialogue between the academic disciplines of British Cultural Studies and Latin
American
* Research on gender and feminism has been strengthened as a tradition in Brazil since the
1990’s
* Brazil’s dictatorship ended in the mid-1980’s, and since then there has been a growth of
women in newsrooms, businesses and a “feminization” of politics
* In an interview given to McLaughin and Carter’s edited collection Current Perspectives in
Feminist Media Studies (2013), scholar Ana Carolina Escosteguy argued in favour of a wider
proximity between the two disciplines
* Feminist media studies is at a disadvantage in Brazil: research is still low and competes with
sociology and anthropology for space in a small number of feminist journals (i.e. Revistas de
Estudos Feministas and Cadernos Pagu)

6. Beyond the “cultural turn” in feminist media
studies
* Culture and economics:
* Both the materialism surrounding women’s subordination, the “things”, as well as the “words”,
such as the language and discourse we use to make sense of the world, need to be addressed in
analyses on gender inequality.
* Feminists need to remain engaged with socio-economic issues and the persistence of
inequalities (Jackson and Jones, 1998).
* Nancy Fraser (2013) has talked about the importance of redistributive justice (i.e. poverty,
material conditions economics) and recognition (i.e. cultural values, attitudes and beliefs)
* Limitations of discursive analyses (representations and images), and the need to combine with
political and economic concerns

7. Feminism, equality and democracy
* Democracies in contemporary societies re being accused of suffering from a “democratic
deficit”, and of holding a thin promise of democracy, political equality and popular participation
(Scammell and Semetko, 2007).
* The relationship between equality and democracy has marked the very development of
European modern nation-states
* The quality of democratic decision-making depends on sustained conditions of dialogue,
deliberation and talk. I.e. the underrepresentation of women and ethnic minorities threatens the
democratic vitality of democratic decision-making.
* Philips (1999) argues that the struggle for greater economic equality has been abandoned,
whilst political equality has been often taken for granted

8. Equality, development and democracy: the
challenges for Brazil
* Equality (and gender equality) matters, and continues to matter more today than before
* The president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, affirmed that gender equality is a powerful
motor for economic growth, which could bring social justice.
* “Fragile democracy” - Inequality has been significantly reduced in the last decade, having
started with the social welfare programmes during the Cardoso governments and expanded in the
Lula administrations. During the re-democratization period, the state assumed a more
participatory democratic role (shift from authoritarian to democratic, to semi-authoritarian)
* Brazil’s economic development is closely linked to the strengthening of political
democratization and pluralism, and to the advancement of an agenda of social and economic
equality.

9. The media in Brazil and the Internet
*Challenges for Brazil:
A) Internal pluralism and diversity:
*Partisanship in the media versus professionalism and objectivity
* Journalistic professionalism and balance
B) External pluralism:
* Public communications and public service broadcasting (threats of extinction)
* The Internet and the Brazilian blogosphere (i.e. Midia Ninja, O Antagonista, Brazil 247, etc)
C) Civil society, pluralism and social inclusion (i.e. the women’s movement)

10. Gender inequality in Brazil
* According to the 2012 ranking of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Brazil has gone up in 20
positions on gender equality falling (82nd
position to the 62 from a list of 135 countries).
* Improvements in primary education and the percentage of women in ministerial roles
(7% to 27%).
Problems and challenges:
*According to the Map of Violence 2015 – Homicides of women in Brazil, which analysed the
period from 2003 to 2013, Brazil appeared in the fifth place in a list of 84 countries where more
women are killed. This was more than in Syria. Brazil is also behind only Russia, Guatemala,
Colombia and El Salvador, registering 4.8 deaths for every 100.000 women.
* Female political participation has reached 25% in the world, whereas in Brazil MPs take up a
total of 11% of the seats in Congress and are below the minimum of 30% stipulated by the 4th
World Conference on Women.

11. The “Brazilian woman” myth
* Colonial modes of representation (i.e. Weedon, 1999)
* What are the roots of the social construction of Brazilian
femininity?
* The “Brazilian woman” (or Latin America, the Latina) is a
cultural stereotype in Brazil itself
* Since the colonial years, Portuguese and other Europeans arrived
in Brazil and were astonished and tempted by the nudity of the
natives (i.e. the exotic)
* Gilberto Freyre in Casa Grande e Senzala (1933) described how
the environment which started Brazilian life was highly sexually
charged, with the European setting foot in the country and coming
across naked indigenous women, or the “niggers” of the earth.

12. Brazilian femininity and
stereotypes
* Homogenization versus diversity of identities and of experiences of
oppression (i.e. black female Brazilians)
* Brazilian women are seen as sex symbols internationally, and in Brazil,
as recent research has shown, a chauvinistic and patriarchal nuclear
family culture still permeates the imaginary collective psyche
* In many ways we can trace colonialist parallels between the discourses
on Brazilian femininity with Asian and Black
* Williamson (1986) has stressed how exoticism served an ideological
function, having had its roots in European colonialism (fascination with
black female sexuality/repulsion of colonial bodies) (in Van Zoonen,
2000).
* Questions of “empowerment” and “sexist images”

13. Role of the media in (gender)
development
* Studies have shown how the media can have a role in democracy and nation-building (i.e.
Matos, 2012; Waisbord, 2000)
Women still need to be inserted more strongly in development:
* Steeves (2003) has pointed out how development communications has neglected gender
communications, despite four decades of research in gender and development
* As she (2003, 235) states, “feminists scholars and activists must recognise that the
democratization of communications (my emphasis) is irrelevant to the majority of the world’s
women, who remain excluded from access to the media or information technologies.”
* Steeves (2003, 47) underlines various projects for women’s empowerment are being created
through alternative media and networking structures, stating among others practices such as
Women’s Feature Service, a women’s news agency based in New Delhi

14. The "Third World women“: myths and
stereotypes

15. Gender representations and women in
the media in Brazil
* Research has shown that women in journalism are over-
represented in lower positions, and only 10% of those who work in
advertising work in creation
* A research carried out by the postgraduate political sociology
programme of the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) in
Brazil, in association with the National Federation of Journalists
(FENAJ), on the profile of the Brazilian journalist (Quem e o
jornalista brasleiro? “Who is the Brazilian journalist?”) revealed
that most Brazilian journalists are female, young, up to 30 years of
age, single and white.
* “Before we talk about chauvinistic advertising, we need to talk
about chauvinism in advertising”, stated creative director Thais
Fabris, who idealised the project 65/10.

16. Quotes from interviews: gender representations
* Marta Suplicy, senator from the PMDB
“There are many sexist campaigns, but there also has been a growth in the resistance to
stereotypes. In Brazil we do not have a monitoring project, but we do have feminist online
groups which tend to question the companies regarding their sexist and chauvinistic ads. The
way that women are represented in the media directly reflects how society thinks and how
women view themselves. In average, Brazilians consume five hours of daily television, thus
subject to all types of information. However, advertising that tends towards chauvinism today
is not well received. Social networks already point out to these and women are reacting….
This is an advancement. There is a lot of things of bad taste and it is important that media
professionals understand the strict relation between women’s rights and the rupture of social
stereotypes. The reflection is more deep when we consider that we are not only talking about
the uses of the image, but of a whole culture that is being reflected and reinforced…”, said the
senator.

17. The "Third World women“: myths and
stereotypes

18. Discourses in the blogosphere on
women’s issues
* Topics were selected according to three categories: (1); protest and mobilization; 2) what is
feminism and what it means to be a feminist (i.e. as well as the future of the movement) and 3)
issue-focused themes and concerns (i.e. topics such as health and reproductive rights).
* Sexual harassment, rape and violence towards women (i.e. the case of the Chega de Fui Fui
campaign)
* The Maria da Penha law, reproduction and abortion rights (the focus on “the body” and the
individual control over it)
* Discourses on feminism and women’s role in Brazilian society
* Political representation in Brazil and women in politics
* Gender representations in the media (i.e. criticisms of ads)
* Mobilization and protests against conservative politics and politicians

19. Cyberfeminism and the use of new technologies for
mobilization and counter-discourses
http://blogueirasfeministas.com/
http://thinkolga.com/
http://www.geledes.org.br/

20. Think Olga and the sexual harassment
campaign
The year of 2015 and Brazil’s “Arab Spring”:
* The successful Chega de Fiu Fui campaign, launched in July 2013, was set up to tackle sexual
harassment in public spaces.
* The campaign was also supported by findings of a research conducted by the journalist Karin
Hueck, which interviewed 8.000 people to discuss sexual harassment in public spaces. The
results showed that 98% of them suffered some form of sexual harassment, with 83% not
agreeing with it and another 90% deciding to change clothes before leaving the house to avoid
harassment.
* The campaign on Twitter started after a young 12 year old girl, who appeared on the Brazilian
television programme Master Chef Junior, suffered later from sexual harassment comments on
social media.
This lead to the launch of the campaign #PrimeiroAssedio: voce nao esta mais so (First Sexual
Harassment: you are not alone anymore). The hashtag had 82.000 mentions.

21. Quotes from interviews: Blogueiras
Feministas
* The struggle to debate gender politics in the public sphere:
“We want to have a position of not supporting any candidate….but we have had many texts
criticising the chauvinism and sexism that surrounds female politicians, like a recent one on
jokes made to Dilma Rousseff….We also have some texts about the topic (the relationship
between gender and politics), but unfortunately this is a debate that encounters a lot of
resistance. The proposal of quotas for women as candidates in parties was rejected recently in
the Federal Chamber, but approved in the Senate. However, we know that the parties do not
oblige to this requirement in many ways. The proposals for political and electoral reform
hardly discuss this. On our website we publish texts that reflect this,” said Bia Cardoso, of
Blogueiras Feministas.

22. What can developing countries do?
“Developing country governments can take steps to ensure women’s participation in
political and other institutions in society, including promoting measures to ensure
their equal representation in parliament and other legislative measures at the national
and local levels….. Developing country governments can promote measures that
promote positive norms change about women and girl’s rights and role in society,
including through implementing programs that engage with men and boys, community
leaders and community leaders…. governments can invest in programs that have
specifically designed components to support women and girls acquire new skills,
information and training that enable them to take up new economic opportunities,
including through greater use of ICTs..”
* Lucia Hanmer, lead economist, World Bank Group

23. Some conclusions
* Towards global gender justice: need to combine redistribution (i.e. economic and material
concerns) with recognition (cultural values and attitudes) (Fraser, 2013)
* Need to strengthen transnational feminist networks at the global and local level
* Strengths and limits of women’s movements and online mobilization - Year of 2015 –
Brazil lived it’s “female Arab Spring” with a series of protests pressuring for the continuity of
rights, against the abortion law and in favour of the advancements of women’s rights
* Role of the media in development - What can the media do? - From more diversity and
multiple representations, to inclusion of women’s issues and discourses in the media, greater
awareness and training and strengthening of the status of women who work in the media
* I.e. UN Women’s Media Pact (35 media outlets across the world; media should defend rights
of women in editorials; women as news sources).

24. Selected bibliography
* Bordo, S. (1993, 2003) “Introduction: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body” in
Unbearable weight: feminism, Western culture and the body, Berkeley: University of California,
p. 1 – 42
* Carter, C. (2014) “Sex/Gender and the Media: From Sex Roles to Social Construction and
Beyond” in Ross, K. (eds.) The Handbook of Gender, Sex and Media, London: Wiley Blackwell,
p. 365-382
* Orgad, S. (2014) “When media representation met sociology” in Waisbord, S. (eds.) Media
sociology: a reappraisal, London: Polity
* Philips, A. (1999) Why Equalities Matter, London: Polity Press
* Silva, K. and Mendes, K. (2013) “Negotiating the local/global in feminist media studies –
conversations with Ana Carolina Escosteguy and Anita Gurumurthy” in McLaughlin, Lisa and
Carter, Cynthia (eds.) Current Perspectives in Feminist Media Studies, London: Routledge, p.
127 – 130