Stuart Hall: Representation: Cultural Representation and Signifying Practices

I have been reading the chapter on Genre and Gender.  It is written in relation to soap opera, but I think there are some points that I can apply to my samplers which Value Women.

Hall notes (1997, p345) in a male dominated publishing environment, there is often a space designated for women - the women's page, Woman's Hour - while there is no corresponding section for men.  The feminist analysis of this situation is that the norm is to be masculine and only women's culture needs to be specifically gendered and therefore catered for, by a tiny time/space allocation.  The feminist implication is that mainstream values are actually masculine, when the common, unanalysed, view is that they are gender free.  This leads on to women's issues becoming a deviation from the norm.

The questions Hall poses are: "how is gender constructed in representation; how does gender impact on the cultural forms that do the constructing, and how does the space designated "woman's" differ from the masculine norm?"  He uses soap opera to analyse the questions, but I will try to apply the principles to my creation of samplers (a female specific creation) that portray women.

Hall identifies (p346) the difference of the stereotypical woman (similar to my Mother's definition - stay-at-home mother and wife), and the psychologically rounded character and notes the cultural signifiers which are applied generically to the gender, rather than reflect the gender identities specific to the individual.  He says the psychologically rounded character in the media is as much an artificial construction (albeit more complex) as the stereotype (which is usually simpler).  I think my 6 individual women described on separate samplers will try to show the diversity of why I value them, thereby indicating they are not generic but individuals with assorted skills.

Hall (p347) describes the Marxist view where the groups who own the means of production (i.e. mass media) control and publicise a society's views.  This leads to the rich and powerful classes who control the media drip feed their own ideologies which make the status quo appear natural and suppress the individual analysis of observation and social circumstance (domination). Hall goes on to say that Gramsci adapted the view of domination by introducing hegemony.  Hegemony says power in democracy is partly achieved by force, but importantly, also by persuasion and consent - therefore it is always in a state of flux.  This had led to the targeting of groups, e.g. marginalised and minority viewpoints and negotiation between social, political and ideological perspectives to gain/alter power bases.  Representation is a key site for this.  Hall notes how the "Black is Beautiful" slogan changed race relations in the US and UK.  I wonder if I could make a mark for feminism by a "Women are Valuable" slogan.  (An alliterative slogan trips off the tongue better)