Feminist Standpoint Theory

A relatively interpretive theory in the tradition of critical.

Critical scholars want to make changes, challenge unjustice.

Theorists: Sandra Harding; Julia Wood.

Basic assumption: people have difference opinions about the same situation.

1. Social location: our group memberships that shape our experiences of the worlds and our ways of understanding it

Standpoint: a place from which to critically view the world around us.

Standpoint poses the status quo.

2. Intersectionality: the idea that social identities and institutios (e.g., race, gender, class, sexuality) are interconnected

All the parts constitute each other -> higher/lower your social identity

Gender and other differneces are attributed to cultural expectations arising from how people talk about gender, etc.

(That’s why it’s in the unit of culture)

e.g., How women are looked at, depends on men.

3. Local Knowledge: the knowledge situated in time, place, experience, and relative power

local knowledge is not subjective, and usually quite biased.

Strong objectivity to drop local knowledge down.

People with lots of power tend to subjective, bue people with less power tend to be objective – because they question more and have nothing to lose. Also, people with lots of power have no intention to change.

Muted Group Theory

Critical tradition, Interpretive.

Theorist: Kramarae

Muted group: low-power group who must change that language when communicating publicly.

e.g., Women’s thoughts are devalued, so they need to change the language to make it easier.

1. Reason: Power discrepancies

Power discrepancies between the sexes ensure that women will view the world differently than men.

2. Gatekeepers: editors and other arbiters of culture who determine what will appear in the mass media

It assumed that women were excluded from publication and media representation.

Males control expression.

3. Strategies to make changes

• Translating: Try to make people understand us by adjusting the language
• Speaking in private
• Creating a feminist dictionary
  • e.g., In the long history, the sexual harrassment was not considereed as a word with common meaning.

4. Critiques

• Oppression is more complex than any one group.
• Scholars criticize Kramarae for assuming that men are trying to control women.

Media Ecology

mass communication - reaches wide audiences

A relatively interpretive theory in the socio-cultural tradition.

Theorist: McLuhan

1. Primary assumption: The medium is the message

Medium: specific medium form.

Media: All human invented technology. range, speed, channels.

2. Media ecology studies the interrelationships of people, media culture, and consciousness. And of the changes that occur among them.

Media are influencial because we use it over time until they become an extension of ourselves.

Media teaches us to pay attention to certain things. And thus shape the society.

• Four stages: tribal, literate, print, and electronic.

• With different dominant sense receptors: ear, eye, eye, ear & hand.

• Since the electronic age, we are entering global village.

• Possible fifth age: digital age

3. Faustian Bargain: a potential deal with the devil or selling your soul for potential earthly gain.

More relevant to electronic and digital ages.

4. Critiques

• No evidence.
• No aesthetic appeal.
• McLuhan stopped at description.