Media and Women’s Representation: From Specific Cases to Media Culture Theory

Abstract

  This report deals with specific cases of female representation in media content and advertisements. They have become the subject of controversy on SNS in recent years from the perspective of media theory and media culture theory in the age of digitalization. This paper tries to explain the following four points. First, based on the intentions of holding the symposium and the presentations by the two preceding speakers, I would like to present a rough sketch of the theme of “representation of women in the media” and organize the points of discussion. Second, based on the results of the second-wave feminist movement against representations of women, improvements were made to stereotype words in conventional media and the language used to express women, and thorough internal examinations aimed at creating gender-equal content. While confirming the achievements, this report also thinks about its limits. Third, this report examines the cultural expansion of free sexual expression in popular culture for women. In the materialistic consumption of masculinity and female sexuality by women, the criticism of “moe-e” seems to be a double standard. Fourth, the subsequent changes in media technology and the transformation from analog to digital media have erased the boundaries between various communities and brought about a revolution in the media environment, such as the seamless transition between the private and public spheres. At the same time as theoretically explaining the above, this report explores the difficulty of dialogue on the “representation of women” and the possibility of overcoming it.