Explain what is meant by 'collective identity' and the role of media in its construction

Collective identity can be described as the shared sense of belonging in a group. Gender has had some bad association within the media, from the stereotypical ideology of the 50's advertisements to the over-sexualised representations that we see within brands and magazines today. It has been widely debated by many theorists as to whether we as a society are in a post feminist state. This argument takes into account, the changes that are present in the expectations and representations of women and men within the media, however some lingering issues within this subject must be considered as they have the potential to serial this entire theory.

During the 1950-60 period, women were often represented poorly within adverts such as Fairy liquid and cigarette posters. Within the fairy liquid advert, we can see a woman teaching her daughter about the washing up process and the different advantages of using Fairy Liquid. The woman is a stereotypical, stay at home mother who spends her time cooking and cleaning within the kitchen. This was representative of the expectations which men had of women throughout this time period as they were expected to marry and stay at home with the children while the father goes out to work in order to provide for his family. The idea that she is explaining all this to her young daughter implies that the advert attempts to push this ideology onto the next generation. Posters at the time would conform to this idea of 'pin up girls' and could possibly implement such theorists as Laura Mulvey who refer to this idea of advertisement focusing on the male gaze. This would imply that the media is being shown from the perspective of a heterosexual male whenever women were represented. It is assumed that the perspective of the male gaze is intended to be dominant to the person who is being viewed.

As time moves on, women begin to have a more active role within society and this expectation of 'stay at home mothers' start to become a thing of the past. While attitudes toward women begin to change, so does the ways that sexism is shown in the media. Media companies now use the idea of the male gaze to promote advertisement more than ever. Advertisement attempts to use this idea of 'sex sells' in order to have a larger audience appeal. However, it can be argued that the genders involved within this form of advertisement has been equalised by having members of both genders represented in this way. Now the female gaze has become implemented more than ever within everyday advertising. Advertisement for companies such as Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch have been objectifying male models in ways that had not previously been seen. Gidden's theory of a changing social structure can be applied within this idea as men are beginning to be treated similarly to males within the media world. However these are not massive changes and it is only when compared to an older time that the changes become more apparent. While this shows that females are no longer singled out in this sense, it does not mean that conditions have become better for gender as a whole. It could be argued that little progress has been made as a result and the focus has just shifted between genders.

Newspapers such as the Sun objectify women by having them appear in glamour shoots for every issue. Even magazines where the intended audience is for women, they are still objectified. The appearance of models are adjusted through the use of software such as photoshop to make them more attractive by reducing fat, sharpening features and enhancing others. This idea that all women within media must be attractive and fall into the same sexist principles that were seen within 50s advertisements, the technology used has just become more advanced. This occurrence is reffered to as hegemony which highlights the ways that appearance is influenced by magazines and advertisements.  Mulvey's male gaze theory can again be brought into consideration as the women are enhanced to the extent that is deemed attractive and are then plastered onto advertisements and magazine covers such as Maxim or Cosmopolitan. The same is done for male models, a famous example being Justin Bieber's Calvin Klein shoot

To conclude, media has often had a bad effect on the ways in which different gender identities are represented. Throughout the 1900's, women were thought to be inferior to the opposite sex. This is evident from the amount of advertisement that would present women as stay at home mothers who take care of the children while the husband works. Other advertisement would be extremely suggestive, using the male gaze in order to attract the attention of the mainly male audience. As time  has moved on there has been a considerable shift in gender representation as theorists such as Buckingham have argued, however it does not necessarily mean that it was a good one. Men have become subjected to begin objectified by media and while the position of women has changed from stay at home to a more independent role, their representation within media has remained dependent on the male gaze. This has become more of a problem as airbrushing and other techniques have been used to set up unrealistic opinions on what human appearance should be. This has caused many people, including young girls to lose dangerous amounts of weight and hate their own opinions.