Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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GENDER, RACE, AND
MEDIA REPRESENTATION
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that race and gender are social constructions and democratic societies. Cultural studies
underscores their centrality to the processes scholars have devoted considerable atten-
of human reality. Working from it compels tion to studies of media audiences, institu-
us to understand the complex roles played tions, technologies, and texts. This chapter
by social institutions such as the media privileges textual analyses of media that
in shaping our increasingly gendered and explicate power relationships and the con-
racialized media culture. This chapter struction of meaning about gender and
explores some of the ways mediated com- race and their intersections (Byers & Dell,
munication in the United States represents 1992). In addition, we draw considerably
the social constructions of race and gender from research employing various feminist
and ultimately contributes to our under- frameworks. Generally, our critical review
standing of both, especially race.2 of literature from the past two decades
Although research on race, gender, and demonstrates the disruption of essentialist
media traditionally has focused on under- constructions of gender, race, and sexual
represented, subordinate groups such as identities.
women and minorities, this chapter dis-
cusses scholarship on media representations
of both genders and various racial groups.
Therefore, we examine media constructions ♦ Black Feminist Perspectives
of masculinity, femininity, so-called people and Media Representations
of color, and even white people.3 On the of Black Women
other hand, given the limitations of this
chapter and the fact that media research on
race has focused on African Americans, we A feminist critique is rooted in the struggle
devote greater attention to blacks but not to end sexist oppression. We employ femi-
at the exclusion of the emerging saliency nism as a multidisciplinary approach to
of whiteness studies, which acknowledge social analysis that emphasizes gender as a
whiteness as a social category and seek to major structuring component of power
expose and explain white privilege.4 relations in society. We believe media are
Our theoretical and conceptual orienta- crucial in the construction and dissemina-
tion encompasses research that is com- tion of gender ideologies and, thus, in gender
monly referred to as “critical/cultural socialization. We acknowledge feminism
studies.” Numerous theoretical approaches and feminist media studies’ tendency to
have been used to examine issues of race, privilege gender and white women, in par-
gender, and media, but we contend that ticular, over other social categories of expe-
critical/cultural studies represent the most rience, such as race and class (hooks, 1990;
salient contemporary thinking on media Dines, 1995; Dines & Humez, 2003). Black
and culture. More important, unlike most feminist scholars have acknowledged the
social and behavioral scientific research, neglect which women of color, specifically
most critical and cultural approaches to black women, have experienced through
media studies work from the premise that their selective inclusion in the writings
Western industrialized societies are strati- of feminist cultural analysis (hooks, 1990;
fied by hierarchies of race, gender, and Bobo & Seiter, 1991; Valdivia, 1995).
class that structure our social experience. Black feminism positions itself as critical
Moreover, cultural studies utilizes inter- social theory (Hill Collins, 2004) and is not
disciplinary approaches necessary for a set of abstract principles but of ideas that
understanding both the media’s role in the come directly from the historical and con-
production and reproduction of inequity temporary experience of black women. It
and for the development of more equitable is from this perspective that we begin our
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discussion of black female representation in Queen fell in line with “traditional stereo-
the media. typing of other bi-ethnic characters as beau-
Much contemporary academic writing tiful, yet threatening, inherently problematic,
has criticized mainstream media for their and destined for insanity” (p. 117). Larson’s
negative depictions of African American (1994) study of black women on the soap
women (Bobo, 1995; Hill Collins, 2000, opera All My Children found the show con-
2004; hooks, 1992; Lubiano, 1992; sistently embraced the matriarch stereotype.
Manatu, 2003; McPhail, 1996; Perry, In fact, the image of the black woman as
2003). Challenging media portrayals of oversexed fantasy object, dominating matri-
black women as mammies, matriarchs, arch, and nonthreatening, desexualized
jezebels, welfare mothers, and tragic mulat- mammy figure remains the most persistent in
toes is a core theme in black feminist thought. the media (Edwards, 1993).
Author bell hooks (1992) contends that Black feminist thought also challenges the
black female representation in the media way some media outlets run by black men
“determines how blackness and people are engage in misogynistic depictions of black
seen and how other groups will respond to women. Burks (1996) notices the saliency
us based on their relation to these con- of hooks’s phrase, “white supremacist capi-
structed images” (p. 5). Hudson (1998) and talist patriarchy,” in many black independent
Hill Collins (2000, 2004) both advance the films. She explains that “black independent
notion that media images of black women cinema is not necessarily free of the dominant
result from dominant racial, gender, and white, male, heterosexual hegemony that has
class ideologies. Furthering hooks’s discus- succeeded, at one point or another, in colo-
sion of representation, Hudson (1998) nizing us all” (p. 26). Several cultural critics
argues that “these stereotypes simultane- have focused their studies of black female
ously reflect and distort both the ways in representation on majority-produced and
which black women view themselves (indi- directed Hollywood films (Bobo, 1995;
vidually and collectively) and the ways in Bogle, 2001; Holtzman, 2000; hooks, 1992,
which they are viewed by others” (p. 249). 1994). Many other media scholars have
The study of black female representation is focused their analyses on the way black film-
informed by whiteness studies and, accord- makers depict black femininity, as part of a
ing to Dyer (1997), “the only way to see trend that Burks (1996) argues leaves main-
the structures, tropes, and perceptual habits stream (white) Hollywood producers free to
of whiteness, is when nonwhite (and above construct the black female image in any way
all, black) people are also represented” they like and to reach a larger viewing audi-
(p. 13). ence in the process.
Scholars have studied black female repre- Black female scholars Wallace (1990)
sentation in a variety of media contexts. and hooks (1993) both have written exten-
Meyers (2004) used discourse analysis to sively on the work of black writer/director
examine the representation of violence against Spike Lee’s portrayal of black women.
African American women in local TV news Hooks contends that while Lee is
coverage during “Freaknik,” a spring break
ritual held in Atlanta, Georgia, throughout uncompromising in his commitment to
the 1990s. Her study concluded that the create images of black males that chal-
news “portrayed most of its victims as lenge perceptions and bring issues of
stereotypic Jezebels whose lewd behavior racism to the screen, he conforms to the
provoked assault” (p. 95). Orbe and status quo when it comes to images of
Strother’s (1996) semiotic analysis of the females. Sexism is the familiar construc-
biracial title character in Queen, Alex tion that links his films to all the other
Haley’s miniseries, demonstrated how Hollywood dramas folks see. (p. 14)
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music, while Perry (2003) asserts that any concerned with otherness. The global other,
power granted to female rappers based in media terms, is always paired with the
upon their being labeled attractive in con- West as its binary companion (Furguson,
ventional ways limits the feminist potential 1998). Shome (1996) explains that when
of their music. whiteness is comfortable in its hegemony, it
constructs the other as strange or different
and itself as the norm. Drawing from Said’s
MULTICULTURAL FEMINIST study of Orientalism, Heung (1995) says,
PERSPECTIVES AND MEDIA “The power of the colonizer is fundamen-
REPRESENTATIONS OF tally constituted by the power to speak for
ASIAN, LATINA, AND and to represent” (p. 83). Furthering the
NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN discussion of an East/West binary, the West
is portrayed in the media as active and mas-
Acknowledging Valdivia’s (1995) asser- culine while the East is passive and feminine
tion that feminist work has focused on white (Wilkinson, 1990).
women as ethnic and race studies have Though the number of female Asian
focused primarily on African Americans, we characters represented in the media, espe-
seek to include other “women of color” in cially television, is miniscule, the way they
our analysis of stereotypic female represen- are portrayed in the media is crucial
tation. As we stated in the beginning of this because stereotypes of underrepresented
chapter, our analysis relies primarily on people produce socialization in audiences
black women, as that is where the majority that unconsciously take this misinforma-
of scholarship on race, gender, and the tion as truth (Heung, 1995; Holtzman,
media focuses. However, we agree with Hill 2000). Thus, the portrayal of Ling Woo,
Collins (2004) that many of the arguments Lucy Liu’s character in the television series
made previously about black women also Ally McBeal, garnered much scholarly
apply to women from India, Latin America, attention. Although Woo breaks the sub-
Puerto Rico, and Asia, “albeit through the missive china doll stereotype, she is the epit-
historical specificity of their distinctive ome of the stereotypical dragon lady when
group histories” (p. 12). she growls like an animal or enters a scene
Asian women and Latinas are often por- to music associated with the Wicked Witch
trayed in the media as the exotic, sexualized of the West in The Wizard of Oz (Sun,
“other as well. According to Tajima (1989), 2003). She is knowledgeable in the art of
“Asian women in film are either passive sexual pleasure, which is unknown to her
figures who exist to serve men as love inter- Westernized law firm colleagues, with
ests for White men (lotus blossom) or as a the exception of Richard Fish, her white
partner in crime of men of their own kind boyfriend who experiences it first hand.
(dragon ladies)” (p. 309). Pursuing this lotus Patton (2001) explains that the Woo char-
blossom/dragon lady dichotomy, Hagedorn acter is particularly detrimental to Asian
(1997) argues that most Hollywood movies and Asian American women not because
either trivialize or exoticize Asian women: the oversexed seductress reifies existing
“If we are ‘good,’ we are childlike, submis- stereotypes, but because “she is the only
sive, silent and eager for sex. And if we are representative of Asian women on televi-
not silent, suffering doormats, we are demo- sion (besides news anchors and reporters),
nized . . . cunning, deceitful, sexual provo- leaving no one else to counteract this pro-
cateurs” (pp. 33–34). minent mediated stereotype” (p. 252).
Much academic writing surrounding While it is difficult to propose more
Asian female representation in the media work on Asian female representation when
is steeped in postcolonial theory and the number of females in the media are
Orientalist discourse, both of which are sparse, an obvious place to begin would be
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to look into production studies to find out Hill Collins (2004) calls this color-blind
what producers are looking for in casting racism and explains that the significance
an Asian female. Can she not play a detec- attached to skin color, especially for
tive or attorney on one of the three Law women, is changing. She argues that “in
and Order series? Can she be a strong and response to the growing visibility of bira-
funny mom on an Asian American sitcom? cial, multiracial, Latino, Asian, and racially
And is she just as discontented with her ambiguous Americans, skin color no longer
suburban life as white women such that serves as a definitive mark of racial catego-
she could be considered for Desperate rization” (p. 194). This notion of hybridity
Housewives? That popular program has a or Latinidad, defined as the state and
Latina and has added an African American process of being, becoming, or appearing
character for the fall 2006 season, but it Latino/a (Martinez, 2004; Molina Guzmán
features no Asian women as of this writing. & Valdivia, 2004; Rojas, 2004), is gaining
Although most of the academic litera- scholarly attention. However, as a social
ture regarding black and Asian media rep- construct it lends itself to an essentialist
resentation focuses on historically situated group identity, instead of acknowledging
stereotypes, this does not hold true for difference between Dominicans, Mexicans,
Latinas. While there has been some refer- Cubans, and Puerto Ricans, all of whom
ence to Latinas being portrayed as exotic epitomize Latinidad (Estill, 2000).
seductresses (Holtzman, 2000), as tacky Latinas are also finding a place within
and overly emotional (Valdivia, 1995), and the music world and, as with black women,
as the hypersexualized spitfire (Molina their sex appeal is played up heavily in
Guzmán & Valdivia, 2004), the majority their music videos. Shakira and Jennifer
of literature on Latino/a representation has Lopez are some of the most visible who
focused on men. Jennifer Lopez has made have enjoyed music/acting crossover fame.
her mark in Hollywood, but her films have One of the most common tropes surround-
both reified stereotypes of Latinas as ing these and other mediated Latina hyper-
domestic workers (Maid in America, 2003) sexualized bodies within popular culture is
and broken them when she has played tropicalism (Aparicio & Chavez-Silverman,
roles that are not ethnically marked (The 1997; Martinez, 2004). According to Molina
Wedding Planner, 2001; Gigli, 2003; Guzmán & Valdivia (2004), bright colors,
Monster in Law, 2005). In these roles, how- rhythmic music, and olive skin fall under
ever, Lopez is always paired with a white the trope of tropicalism, and sexuality plays
male love interest and, because she rarely a central role. Dominant representations of
plays characters true to her ethnicity Latinas in music videos place emphasis on
(except of course when she played a maid, the breasts, hips, and buttocks (Gilman,
a role that emphasized it), she becomes an 1985; Molina Guzmán & Valdivia, 2004;
assimilated character who does nothing to Negrón-Muntaner, 1991). Desmond (1997)
negate Latina stereotypes. Molina Guzmán calls the Latina body “an urbane corporeal
and Valdivia assert that Lopez is most often site with sexualized overdetermination” (as
allowed to perform whiteness, which ren- cited in Molina Guzmán & Valdivia, 2004,
ders her seemingly raceless and cultureless. p. 211).
García Canclini (1995) contends that While not enough academic research is
“the contemporary experience of Latinas, conducted on Native American media rep-
which also holds true of other populations resentation, we would be remiss if we did
shaped by colonialism, globalization, and not mention two studies that examine how
transnationalism, is informed by the com- Native American women are portrayed.
plex dynamics of hybridity as a cultural Portman and Herring (2001) discuss the
practice and expression” (as cited in “Pocahontas paradox,” a historical move-
Molina Guzmán & Valdivia, 2004, p. 214). ment that persists in romanticizing and
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vilifying Native American women. They “masculinities” to reinforce the notion that
argue that Native American women are ideals of manhood vary by race and class
viewed in the media as either strong and across time and cultural contexts (Dines
powerful or beautiful, exotic, and lustful & Humez, 2003, p. 733). Cultural studies’
and that both images have merged together focus on white masculinity as the invisible
into one representation through the stereo- norm, and (to a lesser extent) on black men
type of Pocahontas. While Ono and and black masculinity as deviant, works
Buescher’s (2001) study on Pocahontas to reinforce the conception that black is
examines the commodification of products the trope for race (Nakayama, 1994). Yet
and cultural discourses surrounding the another intellectual movement inadver-
popular Disney film, they also assert that tently may have contributed to this notion.
new meanings have been ascribed to the ani-
mated figure, thus recasting the Native
American woman in a Western, capitalist CRITICAL RACE THEORY AND
frame (p. 25). Ultimately, Pocahantas is no MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF
more than a sexualized Native American BLACK MEN AND BLACK
Barbie. Both Portman and Herring (2001) MASCULINITIES
and Ono and Buescher (2001) agree that the
Pocahontas mythos is particularly harmful Critical Race Theory (CRT) emerged
to Native women because of the way this from critical legal studies in the 1970s as an
historical figure has been exoticized by intellectual response to the slow pace of
media discourses that emphasize her rela- racial reform in the United States. CRT
tionship with her white lover, John Smith. places race at the center of critical analysis
and traces its origins to the legal scholar-
ship of Derrick Bell, Richard Delgado, and
MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF Kimberlé Crenshaw, who challenged the
RACIALIZED MASCULINITIES philosophical tradition of the liberal civil
rights color-blind approach to social justice.
Research on gender and media tradition- A central premise of CRT is that racism is
ally has focused on questions about women an ordinary fact of American life. Although
(and has been conducted primarily by CRT occasionally probes beyond the black-
women). In fact, as noted above, the focus white binary of race, it privileges African
on gender in media studies has come mainly American experiences. Much of the critical
from feminists. However, in recent decades edge in critical race studies is provided by
the study of gender has expanded to include a combination of legal, feminist, multicul-
studies on men and masculinities (Connell, tural, social, political, economic, and philo-
Hearn, & Kimmel, 2005). Feminist schol- sophical perspectives (Delgado & Stefancic,
arship also has produced a proliferation 1999). Despite CRT’s focus on legal studies
of whiteness studies that include increased and policy, we would expect that the field’s
research on white masculinity and, to a search for new ways of thinking about race,
lesser extent, white womanhood. This work the nation’s most enduring social problem,
interrogates gender identities and perfor- eventually would include media. Unfortu-
mances while exploring how masculine nately, media studies scholars have not
forms relate to patriarchal systems. Mas- consciously employed CRT and few criti-
culinity is defined broadly as “the set of cal race theorists have devoted detailed
images, values, interests, and activities held attention to media institutions and their
important to a successful achievement of representations.5
male adulthood” (Jeffords, 1989, quoted Herman Gray’s (1995, 1989) work
in Ashcraft & Flores, 2000, p. 3). We agree shares many of the assumptions of CRT.
with calls to refer to these gender roles as His ideological analysis (1986) of black
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1992, p. 196). Despite the absence of the The lower-class, sexually impotent
Uncle Tom stereotype, Frank reinforces the White man in Hustler cartoons is, thus,
caricature of the ignorant, ineffectual not an object of identification, but rather
Sambo, while his education and drive chal- of ridicule, and serves as a pitiful
lenge this stereotype. Frank’s character also reminder of what could happen if White
invoked the image of the sexually aggressive men fail to assert their masculinity and
black male without representing a threat allow the black man to roam the streets
to white women. Perhaps most important, and bedrooms of White society. (Dines,
by displaying “feminine” attributes such 2003, p. 459)
as nonaggressive behavior and sensitivity,
Frank—like many white male characters— Dines points out that although racial cod-
challenged essentialist, macho notions of ings of masculinity may shift depending on
masculinity. Ultimately, Frank functioned as socioeconomic conditions, black masculin-
a site for the interplay of characteristics tra- ity continues to be constructed as deviant.
ditionally defined as masculine and feminine Orbe’s (1998) semiotic analysis of black
and offered a way to envision a new black masculinity on MTV’s The Real World
masculinity. In this sense, Frank’s Place— focuses on the imagery and signification
and to a lesser extent, Homicide: Life on the processes surrounding three black males
Street—appears to be exceptions to most featured throughout the six seasons in
media portrayals of black masculinity. the so-called reality (unscripted) series. The
Dines (2003) focuses on the image of the images of the three black men work to sig-
black man as a sexual spoiler of white wom- nify all black men as inherently angry,
anhood in cartoons in Hustler—a hard-core potentially violent, and sexually aggressive.
porn magazine. She locates such depictions Orbe argues that when such images are pre-
within “a much larger regime of racial repre- sented as real life they function to reinforce
sentation, beginning with The Birth of a the justification of a general societal fear
Nation and continuing with Willie Horton, of black men (p. 35). He also argues that
which makes the black man’s supposed sex- what is notably absent from the six seasons
ual misconduct a metaphor for the inferior are any considerable representations that
nature of the black ‘race’ as a whole” (Dines, “signify Black masculinity in a positive,
p. 456). This racist ideology claims that fail- healthy, or productive manner” (p. 45).
ure to contain black masculinity will result in Equally important, the mediated images
a collapse of the economic and social fabric of black masculinity on The Real World
of white society. Specifically, Dines draws on represent a powerful source of influence
the work of Kobena Mercer in analyzing because they are not presented as mediated
how the depiction of black men as being but as real life images captured on camera.
obsessed with the size of their penises is Martin and Yep (2004) demonstrate that
one example of how the dominant regime black masculine performances in the media
of racial representation constructs blacks are not restricted to black males. Drawing
as “having bodies but not minds” (Mercer, on the work of Orbe and others that locate
1994; quoted in Dines, p. 456). Hustler car- black masculine identities in angry, physi-
toons construct a world populated by white cally threatening, and sexually aggressive
working-class hustlers and losers, where behaviors and discourses, Martin and Yep
black men possess two status symbols that utilize a whiteness framework to examine
white men lack, big penises and money. how the white rap artist Eminem has been
However, Dines maintains that it is not presented in the media. Whiteness refers to
white men as a group who are being the “everyday invisible, subtle cultural, and
ridiculed, just lower-working-class white social practices, ideas, and codes that dis-
men—a class few whites see themselves as cursively secure the power and privilege of
belonging to, regardless of their income: White people, but that strategically remain
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racial, how media texts code a variety of Brief, all focus on an “ultimate site” of
racial groups, and ultimately, how these white masculinity where whiteness, mas-
codes work together within a larger sphere culinity, and nationhood converge (Shome,
of racial discourse. p. 369). In these films, the subtheme is that
Scholarship on representations of Native of “one bad white guy” who is outed by a
American males is scarce, but the novel The “good white guy” who “saves, salvages, and
Indian in the Cupboard and the film of the restores the Presidency and the ‘people’”
same name have received some scholarly (p. 369). Another inflection of this theme
attention about Native American masculin- occurs when whiteness is conflated with
ity and paternalism. Taylor (2000) argues nationhood and is marked as being threat-
that “the image of the Indian as the savage, ened and tortured by aliens (e.g., Air Force
a paternalistic role for the White protago- One and Independence Day). The common
nist, and an auxiliary role for the Indian Hollywood strategy of depicting others (as
as the faithful sidekick” all reify existing “aliens”) is significant in this context
stereotypes about Native American males. because “White nationalized masculinity, as
While Sanchez and Stuckey (2000) agree symbolized by the Presidency is first repre-
that the movie was an improvement over sented as being ‘oppressed’ and weakened
the book, they disagree with Taylor and (by aliens) and through great [violent] strug-
assert that The Indian in the Cupboard gles—that tend to constitute the major plot
challenges hegemonic codes and demeaning action of these films—it recuperates and
stereotypes. In line with Hall’s encoding/ salvages itself” (p. 370).
decoding model, Sanchez and Stuckey pro- Ashcraft and Flores (2000) also examine
vide a negotiated reading of the film and Hollywood film for ways in which masculine
argue that the casting of Native American performances offer identity to middle-class
actors and consultants both lends authentic- heterosexual white men. Specifically, they
ity and provides a resolution to “the tension analyze discursive performances in two
between paternalism and interdependence” films—Fight Club and In the Company of
(p. 87). Men—that provide identity politics to
“white/collar men” (p. 1). Each film’s dis-
course laments the imminent breakdown of
MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS the corporate man, “over-civilized and emas-
OF WHITE MASCULINITY culated by allied obligations to work and
women” (p. 2). To restore the beleaguered
As the previous discussion illustrates, the corporate man, the films (re)turn to “civi-
fundamental delineation in media research lized/primitive” masculinity wherein the
is between the dominant, normative, white, hardened white man finds healing in wounds
heterosexual, and middle-class masculinity (p. 2). Ultimately, this tough guy obscures the
and subordinated masculinities. The crisis race and class hierarchy in which it resides by
in white masculinity is perhaps the most overtly appealing to gender division.
overriding feature of constructions of dom- As much of the research discussed above
inant masculinity, and the most common indicates, both whiteness and hegemonic
response to this crisis is violent behavior by (white) masculinity do not appear to be cul-
white men (Katz, 2003). tural/historical categories, thus rendering
Shome (2000) uncovers the way in which invisible the privileged position from which
the crisis of white masculinity is marked and (white) men in general are able to articulate
negotiated in contemporary film. One dom- their interests to the exclusion of interests
inant theme—that of the presidency or the of women, men and women of color, and
U.S. government in crisis—evident in such children (Hanke, 1992, p. 186). Masculinity—
films as Air Force One, Murder at 1600, whether black or white—must be uprooted
Independence Day, Dave, and The Pelican from essentialist thinking that understands
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gender—as well as race, class and many from racial power structures that privilege
other constructs of personal and collective white people (Rockler, 2002, p. 416).
identity—not as biologically determined or Many cultural critics (Bobo, 1995;
subject to universal laws of science or nature, Clifford, 1983; hooks, 1990) have called
but as products of discourse, performance, attention to the “unequal power relations
and power. inherent in the ethnographic enterprise and
The research discussed above utilizes a to the ‘objectification’ of the subject in
variety of methodological and theoretical ethnographic discourse” (Bobo & Seiter,
frameworks to examine intersections of 1991, p. 290). Thus they argue “the notions
race, gender, and media. This chapter has of gender difference deriving from ethno-
focused on one of the more prominent per- graphic work with all-white samples in
spectives, social constructivism, in which current circulation are reified and ethno-
media texts, images, and narratives are seen centric,” leaving voices of women of color
as intimately connected with broader social “unheard, unstudied, untheorized” (p. 291).
relations of domination and subordination. While some authors did devote some time
Although studies of representation fuel to studies of ethnic media audiences (Katz
the majority of this chapter, we would be & Liebes, 1985) leading this call to include
remiss if we did not include a brief discus- women of color in audience research was
sion on audience reception studies. Jackie Bobo (1988, 1995) and her central
work, The Color Purple: Black Women as
Cultural Readers, which first appeared as a
♦ Audience Studies single study and later became a book. In
this book, Bobo (1995) studied how black
women negotiate meaning in two film texts,
The 1980s saw an emerging interest in The Color Purple by white male filmmaker
reader/audience studies especially relating Steven Spielberg, and Daughters of the
to women’s genres such as romance, melo- Dust by female filmmaker Julie Dash. Bobo
drama, and soap opera. Some of the works discovered that despite The Color Purple’s
were Ang’s (1985) Watching Dallas, patriarchal nature, black women found
Radway’s (1984) Reading the Romance, ways to empower themselves through nego-
and Hobson’s (1982) Crossroads: The tiated readings of its text.
Drama of a Soap Opera. In fact, McRobbie Lee and Cho (2003) looked at Korean
(1991) was one of the first scholars to look soap opera fans in the United States and
at how young girls negotiate meaning examined why they preferred the Korean
through magazines. While they did not to the American variety. The authors con-
specifically look at gender, cultural critics cluded that, despite arguments of cultural
John Fiske (1987) and David Morley imperialism, third world audiences like
(1980) have conducted several studies on to watch their own cultural products
audiences and television. On a similar note, (Lee & Cho). Two recent audience studies
Rockler’s (2002) study of both African on women of color may indicate a
American and European American inter- resurging interest in this line of scholarship.
pretations of the comic strips Jump Start Oppenheimer, Adams-Price, Goodman,
and The Boondocks revealed blacks’ oppo- Codling, and Coker (2003) studied how men
sitional readings of the comics through the and women perceived strong female char-
terministic screen of race cognizance. In acters on television, noting that women
contrast to African American readings that were more accepting than men of the pow-
underscored the relevance of racial politics erful female characters and that African
and oppression, white’s interpretations Americans related better to the strong
were produced through the terministic characters than did whites. Rojas (2004)
screen of whiteness that deflected attention argues there is a lack of information on
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how Latinas consume popular culture and races and ethnicities into one homogenized
how they interact and respond to Spanish- group ignores the cultural diversity that
language media (p. 125). She addresses the characterizes human difference.
point echoed by Latino/a scholars (Desipio, The multitude of studies on African
1998; Rodriguez, 1999) that little or no American representations far outnumbers
attention has been paid to Latino audien- those on Asians, Latinos, and Native
ces as subjects of academic research. She Americans. The dearth of representations
examined how immigrant and nonimmi- of these races/ethnicities represented in
grant Latinas from Austin, Texas “evaluate “mainstream” media makes it even more
and negotiate the content and representa- difficult to examine constructions of these
tions presented in Univision and Telemundo, cultures. Studies of media institutions and
the two largest Hispanic networks in the their production and encoding processes
United States” (Rojas, 2004, p. 125). As the could provide invaluable insights into our
U.S. population includes more native understanding of the ways the intersections
Spanish speakers, this type of bilingual/ of race, gender, and sexuality structure
bicultural research becomes more signifi- media content. We must continue to dis-
cant to communication studies. Although mantle the black-white binary that persists
these studies vary considerably by topic, in shaping our understanding of race.
collectively they point to some of the One avenue toward this end is Critical
important ways race and gender identities Race Theory, which we briefly discuss
influence struggles over meaning. Further, above, but which deserves additional atten-
while the audience studies cited above have tion from media scholars. Beyond changing
provided a strong foundation for future the way we look at and study race, Critical
research, women—and especially men— Race Theory’s more complete understand-
from nonwhite races still remain sorely ing of human difference offers enormous
underrepresented in ethnographic audience potential for understanding our multicul-
studies. tural world. Media scholars must join schol-
ars from education and political science and
sociology who have broadened this fast-
♦ Directions for Research growing field from its roots in legal studies.
Critical race scholars have made an impor-
tant step in this direction by embracing crit-
With the world becoming more multicul- ical race feminism and critical white studies.
tural/racial, there must be further study And critical race theory’s critiques of essen-
regarding the malleability of ethnicity tialism and challenges to social science
depending upon the role being played. As orthodoxies are compatible with the
Hill Collins (2004) points out in her discus- premises of critical/cultural studies.
sion of Halle Berry, blackness can be Another stream of scholarship that we
worked in many ways. As noted in the case discuss above also deserves more critical
of Jennifer Lopez, skin color or ethnicity work. Hip-hop culture is a central contem-
is not a marker of racial categorization. porary arena through which to examine
Actresses like Jennifer Beals, who is black, mediated intersections of race and gender.
usually play characters that lack racial While cultural studies have a tradition of
marking, although she currently portrays a examining the cultural engagement with
black woman in the Showtime series, The L various forms of music, hip-hop culture as
Word. This trend has continued into movies constructed in the media and popular cul-
like the remake of Guess Who’s Coming ture epitomizes many of the contemporary
to Dinner (1967), titled Guess Who (2005), tensions within U.S. media culture along
which starred Zoe Saldana, a Latina who the lines of race, gender, class, sexuality,
plays a black woman. Lumping together regionalism, and age. Beyond the misogyny
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public’s fears about the players—and their true nature or identity, essentialist
thus, by association, the sport—being arguments have little credibility in academic
homosexual. Fans and sponsors are circles. However, essentialist thinking is
encouraged to see basketball as a sport common in the public sphere as popular
to be played not only by those women notions of what is natural in men and
labeled as deviant by dominant ideology women, or in stereotypes of racial and ethnic
but also by those who follow the norma- groups (Brooker, 2003). The research
tive conventions of heterosexual femi- described in this chapter has exposed the
ninity. (p. 404) various ways the media construct monolithic
notions of race and gender. Several studies
Conversely, male basketball players, and have demonstrated how layered representa-
especially black men, have been constructed tions challenge static constructions, leaving,
as fetish objects, so much so that personality, in turn, ambivalent space for alternative def-
glamour, and so-called bad boy behavior initions of gender, race, and even sexuality.
have become the central features of the sport. Our scholarship must continue along these
Media portrayals of the NBA represent black antiessentialist paths, especially in the face of
players as potentially dangerous and menac- backlash and conservative ideals that seek
ing, which in turn allows the WNBA to mar- to promote and implement a regressive poli-
ket itself in positive opposition to these racial tics of difference. Media will continue to play
politics (Banet-Weiser, 1999). a prominent role in these struggles, making
Finally, two studies can be cited for their the work of media scholars all the more
illumination of the intersections of gender important.
with race and sexual orientation. McKay
(1993) documented the ways the media
responded to basketball player Earvin ♦ Notes
“Magic” Johnson’s revelation that he was
HIV-positive by inserting Johnson’s sexual
promiscuity onto “wanton women.” 1. For an alternative perspective that argues
Dworkin and Wachs’s (1998, 2000) com- that biology itself must be viewed as a cultural
parison of media treatment of three stories construction, see Sloop, this volume.
of HIV-positive male athletes illustrated the 2. Issues of gender, race, and media from a
manner in which social class, race, and sex- global perspective are discussed in Section 5 of
ual orientation came into play in the very the Handbook on intercultural communication.
distinct media framings of the three stories. 3. Borrowing from Dyer (1997), we contend
the well-intentioned term people of color func-
tions to reinforce the erroneous notion that
♦ Conclusion white people do not constitute a race of people.
4. We use African American and black inter-
changeably in referring to the multiple identities,
Although the research this chapter experiences, and cultures of Americans of
describes is quite diverse, it is clear that it African descent. We use white to refer to those
has enhanced our knowledge of the social of European/Anglo descent.
constructions of race and gender in impor- 5. Another feature of CRT is the use of sto-
tant ways. Collectively, this literature has rytelling or narrative style. In this vein, although
made another contribution that is less not deliberately employing CRT, Brooks and
transparent: it has dismantled essentialist Jacobs (1996) analyzed HBO’s televisual adap-
ways of thinking about and representing tation of Derrick Bell’s narrative on race (The
race and gender. As a term used to describe Space Traders). The analysis focused on the
the notion that humans, objects, or texts main character, a black man who employed
possess underlying essences that define multiracial identities in combating racism.
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