Gender, Sexuality and the Media: An Intersectional Approach

A special issue of Journalism and Media (ISSN 2673-5172).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 13280

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, PO Box 1782, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Interests: television; gender; morality; qualitative methods

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Guest Editor
Department of Communication studies, Ghent University, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
Interests: media and gender; sexuality; popular culture; representation; visual culture

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Intersectionality is not new. While oftentimes the coinage of the term is attributed to Kimberley Crenshaw, Collins and Bilge trace the construction and the lines of thought related to “intersectionality” further back and show that it originates from multiple areas. The call for intersectional research has grown louder over the year, yet the actual research practices seem to lag behind. Authors emphasise the importance of an intersectional approach, after which a disclaimer follows: due to the lack of space, time, or resources, a full-fledged intersectional approach is impossible or circumvented and the article or study at hand discusses gender, race, and sexuality, requiring the reader to think out the complexity her/him/themselves. We plead guilty to, on occasion, having used this approach ourselves.

Yet, in this Special Issue, we would like to take the opportunity to truly and deeply engage with intersectional research on gender, sexuality and media. Media are understood as a multifarious space for the negotiation of meanings surrounding gender and sexuality, as well as race, (dis)ability, class, age, and other identity markers. For this Special Issue, we would like to invite contributions on the various areas of media—production, content and consumption—as we believe these three areas to be interdependent and hence worthy of investigation. Gender and sexuality are understood from a constructivist approach and as intersectional concepts. We invite contributions that have employed an intersectional approach to the study of media, gender and sexuality. This includes, obviously, contributions that address other identity markers as well.

Questions or topics that could be addressed or reflected upon are, for example: “What does an intersectional approach mean for studies on cultural meanings of media in the past?”, “How does one practically grapple with intersectionality in a particular case study?” (i.e., what are the methodological challenges), and “What do we learn from intersectional approaches that we can not learn in any other way?”. Of course, there are many other questions that could be addressed and would be welcomed as contributions to this Special Issue.

Dr. Tonny Krijnen
Dr. Sofie Van Bauwel
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • intersectionality
  • gender
  • sexuality
  • media
  • identity
  • method
  • cultural meaning
  • challenges

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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11 pages, 269 KiB  
Article
The Mediated Experience of Girls of Muslim Culture in the French Context as a Challenge to Gender Stereotypes and Islamophobia: An Intersectional Perspective
by Arianna Mainardi
Journal. Media 2022, 3(3), 557-567; https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia3030038 - 6 Sep 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2540
Abstract
The paper aims to offer an opportunity to consider intersectionality in the context of digital media. On the basis of empirical research, this paper analyzes the way in which gender, sexuality, color, and religion intersect in online spaces to produce new norms and [...] Read more.
The paper aims to offer an opportunity to consider intersectionality in the context of digital media. On the basis of empirical research, this paper analyzes the way in which gender, sexuality, color, and religion intersect in online spaces to produce new norms and forms of discrimination, as well as space for agency and for the articulation of different voices. In particular, in adopting an intersectional feminist perspective, this paper explores how Muslim girls produce counter-narratives and new spaces for subjectivation at the intersection of gender, religion, and racialization by actively appropriating digital media. Specifically, the paper analyzes French Muslim girls’ relationships with digital media in relation to political life, in the context of growing Islamophobia and the instrumentalization of women’s bodies by populist discourses on religion. On the basis of online and offline observations and explorative interviews carried out in Paris, this paper shows that the girls developed a number of individual and collective strategies involving both online and offline spaces to cope with racist and anti-Islamic rhetoric and practices in a context which they perceived to be characterized by contemporary processes of racialization and everyday discrimination against Muslim people. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gender, Sexuality and the Media: An Intersectional Approach)
12 pages, 1030 KiB  
Article
A Dramaturgical Analysis of Latina Influencers Use of Props and Settings to Signal Identity
by Arthur D. Soto-Vásquez and Nadia Jimenez
Journal. Media 2022, 3(3), 407-418; https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia3030029 - 27 Jun 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2933
Abstract
Dramaturgical analysis has been applied by scholars to social media influencers, but how props and settings are used to signal identity is understudied. This study uses a series of in-depth interviews with Latina influencers who live and work in a mid-size city on [...] Read more.
Dramaturgical analysis has been applied by scholars to social media influencers, but how props and settings are used to signal identity is understudied. This study uses a series of in-depth interviews with Latina influencers who live and work in a mid-size city on the U.S./Mexico border and an analysis of corresponding posts to explore how props and settings can be used to signal gender and race while also communicating authenticity. The findings show that influencers have to carefully and strategically navigate the use of props and settings not to appear fake and contrived. They blend the use of frontstage props with calibrated sharing of backstage settings to approximate an authentic online performance of their branded identity that is approachable but also monetizable. When performing their gender, the influencers adopt a having-it-all performance, balancing family, beauty, career success, and health while using backstage settings to create connection. Finally, Latina influencers on the border portray it as a setting that differs from its mainstream representation as a place to avoid. They also strategically deploy Latina identity to market themselves and localize national trends. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gender, Sexuality and the Media: An Intersectional Approach)
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20 pages, 798 KiB  
Article
I Want to Be You(r Friend): An Investigation of the Effects of Gendered Personality Traits on Engagement with Different Modern Family Characters
by Bartosz G. Żerebecki, Esther van der Vliet and Julia Kneer
Journal. Media 2022, 3(2), 362-381; https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia3020026 - 18 Jun 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3458 | Correction
Abstract
The extant research focused on gender understood as a single item to explain wishful identification and parasocial relationships with TV characters. This study focused on gendered personality traits and how they contribute to wishful identification, parasocial relationships with (non-)stereotypical male and female characters [...] Read more.
The extant research focused on gender understood as a single item to explain wishful identification and parasocial relationships with TV characters. This study focused on gendered personality traits and how they contribute to wishful identification, parasocial relationships with (non-)stereotypical male and female characters of the TV series Modern Family, and the series enjoyment in general. Participants (N = 508) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions with questions about either stereotypical male or female or non-stereotypical male or female characters. Respondents also answered questions about their own gender traits (positive/negative feminine/masculine), wishful identification, parasocial friendship and love for the assigned character, and enjoyment of the series. Different gendered personality traits were associated with wishful identification, parasocial friendship, and love with different types of characters, as well as series enjoyment. Thus, we conclude that media characters should exhibit both stereotypical and non-stereotypical traits to reach a broad and diverse audience. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gender, Sexuality and the Media: An Intersectional Approach)
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2 pages, 173 KiB  
Correction
Correction: Żerebecki et al. (2022). I Want to Be You(r Friend): An Investigation of the Effects of Gendered Personality Traits on Engagement with Different Modern Family Characters. Journalism and Media 3: 362–81
by Bartosz G. Żerebecki, Esther van der Vliet and Julia Kneer
Journal. Media 2022, 3(4), 731-732; https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia3040048 - 18 Nov 2022
Viewed by 1194
Abstract
In the original publication, there was a mistake in Table 1, Table 3 and Table 5 [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gender, Sexuality and the Media: An Intersectional Approach)
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