‘Difference Is the One Thing That We Have in Common’

Television production is championing diversity in representation with record numbers compared to previous years. Netflix’s Sense8 is definitely amongst the highest scoring shows as concerns intersectional representation. Such remarkable representation was worth the 2016 GLAAD Outstanding Drama Series award, a prize granted to the most diverse television shows. However, this applause is geared solely to numerical representations while current academic discussion focuses more on the concept of fair representations. Not only is being represented of importance, but how one is represented. The present paper employs photovoice and photo elicitation to investigate how Sense8 fans articulate what constitutes a fair representation of queer gender identities within the show. The present research addresses two gaps in the literature. First, a methodological one: the employment of creative visual methodologies to transcend the limitations of the most common methods used for audience research —interviews and focus groups. Secondly, this study follows the contemporary conversation around fair representation by addressing what is now a gap in the existing literature on queer television: what is fair representation from an audience perspective? The results of this study show how audiences’ perspectives on fair representation differ from those formulated in public and academic debates.

Mediated Representations of Violence Against Women

Violence against women and girls in the 21st century remains a common and profoundly consequential violation of women’s human rights. It is part of gender inequality, an integral part of the social system, and linked to other aspects of human and economic development. When reporting about it, the media produce additional damage by continuously highlighting the hostile and violent treatment of women. Representations of gender and sexuality in the news reinforce the common perception that women are sexual objects and therefore disadvantage women, continuously reinforcing imbalances of power between women and men. This study explores media representations in Croatian online media articles about violence against women. The results of analysis show how violence against women is framed as a private problem, how women are addressed as unfaithful wives and prostitutes which gives excuses for the perpetrator while the blame for the violence is partly shifted to the woman. Also, results show how the secondary victimization is manifested in articles, and how violence against women as a topic is exploited to attract the readers’ attention.

Luxury Fashion Brands and Consumers: Women are more sexualized by consumers than brands on Instagram

This study examines how luxury fashion brands and luxury fashion brand hashtags that consumers use in their posts portray women on Instagram. The study was framed by sexual objectification theory (physical presentation, body display, sexually suggestive poses, and feminine touch) and sexism stereotypes (women in traditional roles such as dependent, caretaker, decorative and sexual object). This study examines 700 Instagram posts, 350 from top luxury fashion brands, and 350 from consumers. Young and skinny women’s images dominate Instagram posts created by luxury fashion brands, while consumers are older and fit. Unexpected results show that luxury fashion brands feature women less sexually desirable, with less sexually suggestive poses and fewer sexist stereotypes than consumers.

While ‘Gramming’ a Wedding in India: Media and the Reproduction of a ‘Bridal Femininity’

This paper examines the changing wedding scenes and performance of bridehood in India in a post-liberalisation period. The study, based on a digital ethnography, explores the changing wedding practices by considering the role of digital media in circulating and reifying the image of an emergent bridehood, tethering it to the ideology of consumption as well as distinctions based on social categories like gender and religion. It looks into the possibility of a scheme that goes beyond the narrative of ‘uniformisation’ in explaining the changes manifested in the performance of bridehood in the Eastern and Western regions of India, with an expansion of social media practices in the recent years.

Stereotypes and Sexualization of Girls and Adolescent Girls in Chilean Advertising: A Case Study

This article presents a case study about three underwear and footwear advertising campaigns aimed at girls and adolescents in the context of the promotion of the back-to-school season in Chile in February 2020. The adverts caused social and media controversy. Social media users accused the brands of sexualizing children and adolescents’ images for marketing and commercial ends. Based on an interpretative analysis of the graphic pieces involved in the campaigns, this article reflects on the representation of girls and adolescent girls. This research observes a resort to female gender stereotypes char- acteristic of the fashion industry extended to childhood. Considering that advertising is one of the main discursive axes central in the social and media construction of infancy, we discuss the risk of normalizing communication strategies which appeal to the increasingly earlier seduction and erotization of infant and adolescent bodies through mass media despite prevailing ethical and self-regulation codes in the country.

Perception of Lima Women about the Representation of ‘Real Woman’ in the Advertising Discourse of Beauty and Feminine Care Products

Advertising has been present in people’s lives through strategies for the sale of products, satisfying their needs, and interacting with them. The advertising of beauty and feminine care products has been one of the most constant through the traditional formula of using stereotypical models of women highlighting their beauty and perfection. However, the evolution of advertising and the empowerment of women is generating new responses in consumers. Precisely, the purpose of this exploratory study is to identify the perception of Peruvian women on how advertising represents the ‘real woman’ in Peru in the field of beauty and personal care products. This study concludes that Peruvian women recognize that there is still a limited presence of ‘real women’ in advertising despite the widespread social demand for a change in the advertising discourse.

‘New Normal’ and Gendered Violence in Nigerian Film Space

Arguably, film is the most magical form of storytelling. It is that genre that is most similar to our dreams; a place where a lot of possibilities abound. In the case of Nigerian films, there is little or no holding back as creativity and imagination are often interlaced with biased and unbiased social constructs. This study considers ‘New Normal’ as the current thematic preoccupation of Nigerian films to trivialise women’s rights and promote abuses. This phenomenon is contextualised as intrusive narratives which are now present as a discomforting trope underscored by subtle and at times brash episodes in Nigerian films. Based on the theoretical framework of symbolic annihilation and objectification, salient mentions of existing (or comparative) thoughts on gender, violence and filmic presence are examined. These contentions are justified through content analysis with the adoption of coding schemes that frame the forms and results of violence in the films studied. It avers Nigerian film space as a gendered platform that inspires flights of fancy, violence, sexual depravity and mental grossness through its treatment of violence related subjects. It concludes that Nigerian films promote an inconspicuous attitude where the interest of the man often defines the destiny and functionality of the woman.

Towards a Critical Understanding of Social Networks for the Feminist Movement: Twitter and the Women’s Strike

The intensive use of digital platforms by the feminist movement has been identified as one of its main characteristics. Numerous studies address the tactical use of social networks by this movement, especially on 8 March in Spain. This paper studies the action repertoires of different actors who participated in the 2019 Women’s Strike conversation, including automated accounts. Empirical results demonstrate that Twitter is not an exclusive field for the feminist movement. Along with activists who promoted and informed the Women’s Strike, political parties proposed concrete policy measures, and conservative factions criticized the movement calling for demobilization. In this sense, for the first time in these M8 mobilizations, bots participated in this polarisation of the debate through partisan hashtags and the dissemination of fake news. The investigation thus confirms that automation techniques and contradictory flows of power are critical elements to understand the real potential of social networks for feminist social change.

Gender Blindness on Turkish Children’s Televisions

The representation of the dominant gender-based discourse on television inevitably affects children’s perceptions of masculinity and femininity. Gender blindness, the embodiment of gender hierarchy in which gender differences are exaggerated and attributed to natural differences between men and women, is inevitably used in the media, especially in children’s broadcasting. This study aims to reveal the gender blindness in children’s television on Turkey’s only thematic children’s television stations Minika GO and Minika Cocuk’, focusing on all local productions aired in 2020. Stuart Hall’s conceptualization of representation debates and text analysis expressed as constructing the meaning world of relationships and collective culture, guided the study. The representations are conveyed to the audience through the narration of the story in the animations, the plots of the story, the presentation of male and female characters, the use of space and images. In the cartoons, the frequency of female and male characters appearing on the screen, the physical appearance of the characters, their behavioral characteristics, and the spatial presentation in the stories were searched. As a result, it is possible to say that male and female characters are depicted unequally in all the themes studied in animations resulting in gender blindness.

Sari, Femininity, and Wall Art: A Semiotic Study of GuessWho’s Street Art in Bengaluru

Graffiti has been conversing with the public for millions of years. In India, this art form is prominent in spaces like historical monuments, schools, colleges, classrooms, public bathrooms, benches, desks, and local transports. With the coming of the Covid 19 pandemic, this art from the streets has come alive in people’s smartphones. This paper explores and interprets the works of GuessWho, a prominent stencil graffiti artist working in the city of Bengaluru, Karnataka, and originally belonging to Kochi, Kerala. This study seeks to understand how the discourse around graffiti can help empower women in their struggle to claim the streets. By focusing on Instagram as a medium of social resistance, the paper explores the role of graffiti and social media in challenging the patriarchal status quo. Semiotics is used to understand the ways in which the production and consumption of forms of street art and graffiti are increasingly shaping the way Bengaluru city negotiates with gender. GuessWho’s graffiti symbolically targets and contests gender discrimination and particularly challenges some of the existing classist, racist, or sexist biases by subverting the use of sari, technology, and gender roles in the artwork.