Showing papers in "Journal of Communication Inquiry in 1987"
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23 citations
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14 citations
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TL;DR: The feminist critique of objectivity is part of the ongoing project of feminist theoxy and practice: an interrogation of the dominant belief system and existing social order from the perspective of the experiences of women within that system and order, with the objective of changing the conditions of women's existence as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The feminist critique of objectivity is part of the ongoing project of feminist theoxy and practice: an interrogation of the dominant belief system and existing social order from the perspective of the experiences of women within that system and order, with the objective of changing the conditions of women’s existence. In addition to discussing several features of this critique a n d 2 possible responses to the questions it raises, I will comment on some of the implications of the feminist critique of objectivity for communication research. I will also propose fite criteria for feminist communication research. The power of science and scientists to pronounce truth on subjects which affect women, and the overwhelming male membcrship of scientific profcssions, early attracted the attention of feminists to the production of scientific knowledge. Feminists have been concerned with the equation of the findings of science with truth and knowledge, the designation of scientists as experts. the distance between scientific concepts and research and everyday life: in short, the power of science to predict, control, define, and restrict reality by virtue of its privileged position among other social activities. Scientific explanations of gender inequality in particular have come under feminist scrutiny. Traditional explanations of gender inequality have bccn grounded in scientific observation and objective fact, which in turn are used (as have been explanations of other social inequalities) to justify public policy and rationalize social behavior. At various times in our history researchers have documented a “natural” order of male dominance and female subordination by reference to brain size (Fee, 1979), the behavior of animals (Goldbcrg, 1973; Morris, 1967). and reproductive capacity and brcastfeeding (Ehrenreich and English, 1973).
14 citations
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TL;DR: In 1963, the same year that Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique appeared, an older woman named Mary Kay Ash founded a direct selling skin care and cosmetics company in Dallas, Texas as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Introduction In 1963, the same year that Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique appeard, an older woman named hlary Kay Ash founded a direct selling skin care and cosmetics f m in Dallas, Texas. The company’s strategy was derived fiom the home party plan marketing techniques of companies like Tupperware and Stanley Gifts, but with some differences calculated to capitalize on the specific social and economic situation of the contemporary homemaker. W e Friedan had focused on a malaise among housewives characterized by depression, boredom, illness. and neurosis which she dubbcd. *The problem that has no name,” Mary Kay Ash offered a cure to these‘isolated demoralized homemakers which strangely echoed Friedan’s own solution: cam some money. This program for libcration simultaneously evolved from and appropriated a prevailing middle class American ideology: one’s identity and autonomy were defined by money and the commodities it could purchase. While financial dependence on men left many women trapped within the nuclear family and frequently impoverished when their marriages dissolved, as Barbara Ehrenreich (1983). Michele Barrett (1980), and others have argued (Barrett and McIntosh, 1982; Kuhn and Wolpe. 1978). the entrance of women into the workplace did not significantly alter the sexual division of labor. the family wage system, or the family structure for large numbers of women, who instead work a “double day.”
11 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the politics of sexual difference have been neglected within post-modemism; the time appears to be ripe for a feminist reading of the postmodem scene.
Abstract: Are we being seduced, in a Baudrillardian moment, by the frenzy of postmodemism? From Baudrillard’s delirium of attributes to Jameson’s modemist account of postmodernism. a discourse of cultural commentary confronts us with its reading of the end of ends, the crisis of representation, the implosion of meaning, the return of the repressed. . . . It tempts us with a dreamy vision of an open, inclusive discursive field, capable of theorizing developments across a wide range of disciplines. Postmodemism, more a rhetorical collage1 than a monolithic discourse, has as one of its central themes the rethinking of traditional practiccs of theorizing. Two points here are critical: the first, identified by Lyotard, concerns the loss of credibility of the master narratives of modernism, and, more broadly, the question of the legitimation of knowledge; and the second point, as a corollary to this, questions the universality of grand theory. In considering these issues, I feel a nagging familiarity. Often identilied as items on the postmodem agenda. these issues strongly resemble questions repeatedly raised within feminist theory. Questions regarding the legitimacy of master narratives and the status of theoretical discourse have long been concerns of feminist scholarship. This resonance suggests an important but often neglected question: what is the specific relationship bctween postmodemism and feminism? Is fcminisrn, as Craig Owens (1983) asserts, an instance of postmodem thought? Or are these antagonistic movements, reminding us of the “unhappy marriage of marxism and feminism” (Hartmann, 1981)? I agree with Owens that the politics of sexual difference have been neglected within postmodemism; the time appears to be ripe for a feminist reading of the postmodem scene. But this does not mean that feminism should be grafted onto the postmodem agenda. For just as Lana Rakow argues that “it would be a mistake to see feminist scholarship as fitting into the critical/noncritical dichotomy [in the field of communications]. . .[since] ncither side has given feminism a prominent voice in the on-going discourses of the field” (1985b, p. 5).
9 citations
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TL;DR: The UN-sponsored International Women's Decade included an initial conference in Mexico City in 1975, a middecade meeting in Copcnhagen in 1980 and a fmal conference in Nairobi in 1985 as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The UN-sponsored International Women’s Decade included an initial conference in Mexico City in 1975. a middecade meeting in Copcnhagen in 1980 and a fmal conference in Nairobi in 1985. Media coverage of the first two meetings “was widely criticized on two general counts. The first was the small number of printed stories. . . .The second criticism was that the stories that did appear tended to wivialise or sensationalise events, issues and personalities” (Gallagher, 1985. p.
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TL;DR: The most ancient narratives that survive into the present feature the abduction of a woman by an alien (and expressly villainous) culture, from folktales and The Iliad to The Searchers and Hardcore as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Some of the most ancient narratives that survive into the present feature the abduction of a woman by an alien (and expressly villainous) culture. These captivity narratives, from folktales and The Iliad to The Searchers and Hardcore, deal with a cultural tension peculiar to patriarchy. In order to undcrstand the culmral dynamics of maIe dominance within patriarchal societies, many feminist theorists have turned to Claude Levi-Strauss’ (1969) study of kinship stmctures and the social necessity of the incest taboo. Although Levi-Strauss certainly never foresaw the importance his ideas would have for emerging feminist theory, his analysis of patriarchal kinship relations has influenced Shone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1974, pp. 74-91), Juliet Mitchell’s Psychoanolysis and Feminism (1975. pp. 370-6), and many other works. In her essay, ‘The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex” (1975), Gayle Rubin summarizes the importance of Levi-Strauss to a feminist critique of female subordination as follows:
3 citations
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TL;DR: News research and political practice News analysis of the critical stripe generally addresses the ideological productiveness of individual journalistic texts, recurring discourses, and the organization of newswork as discussed by the authors. But most of the time, critical news research is confimed to the academy in its frame of reference, audience and practitioners.
Abstract: News research and political practice News analysis of the critical stripe generally addresses the ideological productiveness of individual journalistic texts, recurring discourses. industry genres or the organization of newswork. In this sense, critical research does a fairly comprehensive job. However, it encounters considerable problems when it comes to connecting this practice of criticism with a socio-political involvement informed by it. There are a number of cases like the one of the Glasgow Media Research Group (1976; 1980; 1982) where research has produced considerable intellectual and political pressure on journalists and news organizations like the BBC to at least take a stand and enter into a public debate . But most of the time, critical news research is confimed to the academy in its frame of reference, audience and practitioners. Many researches do not even attempt to move beyond their institutionalized intellectual practice, and even fewer make it part of their research and Writing. Herbert J. Cans is one exception. He ended his book on Deciding What’s News with suggestions for “reform” (Cans, 1979). His discussion replaced an emphasis on newswork and its ideological productivity with an emphasis on sociological research and its ideological mechanisms. Gans’ suggestions ignored the entire tradition of critical research, which ironically includes ethnomethodology and Garfiiel‘s critique of thc documentary practice of traditional sociology (Garfiiel, 1967).
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TL;DR: Ferraro as mentioned in this paper expressed her pro-choice position and polls demonstrated that even those who attend Church regularly, are split concerning a constitutional amendment banning abortions, and this discord was crystallized through Fenaro's candidacy, as she became the target for attacks by members of the Church hierarchy.
Abstract: “Amcrica’s 53 million Catholics are increasingly going their own way” (Scioho, 1984, p. 40). Recently they have questioned Church doctrines, particularly concerning issues of sexual morality. During campaign 1984, Geraldine Ferraro expressed her pro-choice position and polls demonstrated Catholics. even those who attend Church regularly, are split concerning a constitutional amendment banning abortions. While the pro-choice controversy raged during the campaign, Catholics were interviewed for a New York T k / C B S news poll, which was conducted in Scptcmber. 1984. One woman, for instance, commented: “I don’t think the Church should have a say in it” She M e r remarked that if she became pregnant and lacked the resources to raise a child, she might have an abortion “even though it is against my religion” (Herbers. 1984% p. 25). Such a statement reflects the discord that exists between members of the Church hierarchy and their American followers. This discord was crystallized through Fenaro’s candidacy, as she became the target for attacks by members of thc Church hierarchy (supported by groups such as the Christian Moral Government Fund). In her autobiography. Ferraro questions why she was “singled out in the abortion issue” (Ferraro, 1985, p. 227). Additionally, she notes she was surprised by “the depth of the fury” which surrounded her candidacy. She comments:
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TL;DR: This essay constructs a theoretical position that integrates newer concepts by providing evidence that, in mass cultural media, the diverse and contradictory discourses of competing political groups are articulated together in a manner that “makes present” a limited cultural repertoire.
Abstract: Recent intensive studies of the relationship between mass culture and ideology have gradually crumbled the portrayal of ideology as a univocal, monolithic tool by which un-challenged elites control and protect their wealth and power.’ A range of concepts have been offered as replacements, including relatively open theories touting the polysemy of mas5 discourses as well as more closed theories emphasizing the agonistic construction of hegemony (e.g., Fiske. 1986; Morley, 1980; Hall er af.. 1978; Kellner, 1982; Williams, 1985). This essay constructs a theoretical position that integrates these newer concepts by providing evidence that, in mass cultural media, the diverse and contradictory discourses of competing political groups are articulated together in a manner that “makes present” a limited cultural repertoire. Because of the competition between different groups, particular vocabulary items in the repertoire gain a presence that influences the belief and behavior of governments and individuals in ways that optimize the economic efficiency of the society.
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TL;DR: The authors translated the German of Marx and Engels into English by translating the first part of the first volume of the book into English, with the help of a translator, Sam Moore, who was trained as a writer in both languages.
Abstract: “It is dreadfully hard to translate the Mun;festo [...I,” wrote Frederick Engels to his friend, Frederick Sorge, in 1883. Rendering the German of Marx and Engels “into literary, grammatical English [...I requires training as a writer in both languages, and training not merely in the daily press” (Marx and Engels, 1953. p. 140). In another leuer to Sorge four yean later, Engels claimed that “[o]nly one man can do that, Sam Moore, and he is working on it now; I already have the first section in 111s’’ (Man and Engels, 1953, p. 176). Indeed, Engels so respected Moore’s ability that on at least one occasion he referred to him as “the best translator I know [...I” (Briefe, 1906, p. 292). It was Samuel Moore, after all, who Engels, as early as 1867, decided would translate Dnr Kap i td (Ilyichov, et al.. 1974, p. 356). And it was Moore who, in 1884, began the formidable task that came to fruition in January 1887 when the English translation of volume one appeared
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TL;DR: For instance, this article characterized the classical realist work as one in which there is a hierarchy amongst the discourses which compose the text, such that an unwritten "metadiscourse" works to resolve all contradictions between character discourses and to insure a unified subject position.
Abstract: Colin MacCabe’s 1974 Screen article, “Realism and the Cinema: Notes on Some Brechtian Thesis” and the 1975 BBC dramatic series, Days of Hope sparked intense debate a b u t the ideological power of classical realist representations of popular history. In the initial essay, MacCabe characterized the classical realist work as “one in which there is a hierarchy amongst the discourses which compose the text” @. 217) such that an unwritten “metadiscourse” works to resolve all contradictions between character discourses and to insure a unified subject position. For MacCabe. the reader has little choice but to accept the wisdom of the text since. to do otherwise is to push against the full weight of the tightly woven textual system.