Feminist theory is a body of literary, philosophical, and sociological analysis that explores the inequality that exists between men and women in societies around the world. Specifically, this theoretical body of knowledge examines gender-based aspects that affect politics, power relations, and sexuality. Feminist theory consists of numerous subcategories that explain gender disparity through differing causal
Latina feminist media studies addresses the intersectional themes of gender, ethnicity, nation, and media in relation to that recently constructed category of Latina/os, i.e., a segment of the US population of Latin American origin. As such, this category both differs from, and overlaps with, “Latin American,” as many US Latinas experience transnational lives through personal
The feminist pornography debates, known as the “porn wars” or the “sex wars,” began in the US, the UK, and many other countries around the world in the early 1980s. These struggles have raised questions about the nature and effects of not only pornography but also prostitution and stripping, highlighting crucial debates about women’s agency
Feminist ethics is concerned with how people can live together with others in healthy, productive ways and how we can build social or political structures to support this. As a way of thinking and acting that is fundamentally transformative and concerned with human good, feminism is itself normative. Its resistance to codification and preference for
Around the world, newspapers and magazines, cable and satellite television programs, radio broadcasts, documentary film, and more recently Internet sites produced by, for, and about women have been crucial to the process of resisting dominant conceptions of women, celebrating oppositional visions of womanhood, and adopting lives as “new women.” Until the 1960s, such journalism outlets
Feminist media pedagogy is a critical teaching practice and body of scholarship concerned with the lives and relationships of both women and men as mediated through cultural forms and institutions. Primarily, feminist media pedagogy focuses on the processes of teaching and learning about the politics of teaching and learning, especially as they are related to
Transnational feminist media studies, an emergent area of scholarship, is both a critical intervention and a response to the challenges posed by globalization. The transborder movement of capital, commodities, images, and people has set in motion a range of social and political issues, affecting multiple aspects of lived experience. Globalization reproduces gender and sexuality in
Black feminist media studies is a growing body of scholarly work that looks at the intersection of media, race, and gender, with a specific focus on women of African descent. This field of research most often designates scholarship produced in the United States or Europe that explores the ways that film, television, broadcast and print
Feminist and gender studies represent key fields of research within communication studies today. It is difficult to discuss their emergence and developments as two separate entities, as the two often overlap. However, it can be noted that mainstream forms of gender studies research tend to differ from feminist studies politically, theoretically, and methodologically. As Dow
Feminist therapy, rather than being a succinct theoretical model, is a philosophy of psychotherapeutic intervention that recognizes the impact of varied social practices on personal well-being. It has its roots in the feminist and equal rights movements of the 1960s, and it embraces the conviction that “the personal is political”—that is, that which affects the