ABSTRACT
The feminist critique 167
Women and advertising 171
The feminist analysis of popular culture 176
Feminism and mass culture 176
Feminist theory and the critique of content analysis 179
Feminist theory, patriarchy and psychoanalysis 183
Feminist theory and the study of ideology 189
Feminist analysis, semiology and ideology 194
Feminist analysis, ideology and audiences 197
Conclusion 204
THE RECENT AND GENERAL resurgencc of feminism and feminist theory has been apparent in the growing interest shown by cultural studies and the sociology of culture in popular cultural representations of women. Feminism as an intellectual activity and a political strategy has a long history (Spender 1983). But for this book, there have been two important developments: the emergence of the modern women’s movement from the late 1950s onwards; and the analysis and critique it has advanced of how and why popular culture and the mass media have dealt with women and their representations in an unfair, unjust and exploitative manner within the wider context of gender inequality and oppression.1
