Gender & Media-A Sociolinguistic Study On Stereotypical Representation Of Women In Ray 2006

With postmodernism and globalization prevailing, China's media has more or less been involved in it. The identities of Chinese women have not been renewed in substance by the bizarre and motley signs of postmodernism, which are represented as the sexy and intuitionistic visual display, discourse in deconstruction of history and elimination of sublimity. Instead, the stereotypical representation of women strengthens secular prejudice on women and finally render women lose their real identities. This thesis aims to probe both the existence and the origins of stereotypical representation of women in media.The macro perspective has been adopted in this sociolinguistic study, with the integration of linguistics, sociology, cultural theories and media theories. In the theoretical framework, there are four clues: 1.from Saussure's study in arbitrariness of linguistic signs to Hall's code theory; 2. from representation theory to stereotype in media; 3. from Saussure's distinction of"langue"and"parole"to Foucault's theory on discourse and power; 4. from theory of gender and sexuality to women's social identities. All the four clues cross and interact, representing a vivid picture for us: the picture of women's stereotypical representation in media.The three types of analyses: the qualitative study, the content study and the semiotic study employed in this paper are the basic methods for traditional sociolinguistic research. From these studies, the conclusion has been achieved that the images of women have been largely stereotyped as the dependent, fragile and vainglorious"beautiful"bodies and also fetishized, fragmented, excluded from public space. Moreover, femininity as a legacy of patriarchic clan system is also dearly emphasized in media as a convention for women.In the exploration of origins of the stereotypical representation of women, it is found that the conventional concepts left behind from patriarchy still exist in present China as a dominant culture. On the other hand, media has to take its own responsibility for stereotype due to the irresponsible follow of secular culture and thus misguide the mass's understanding of women's identities. As an ending of this thesis, some mistakes and efforts in vain to help women establish their real social identities have been pointed out. The future of women needs to be based on the common development with men.