Page 112 - Culture Media Language Working Papers in Cultural Studies

HOUSEWIVES AND THE MASS MEDIA 101

The ideology of femininity and feminine values over-determines the structures
of what interests women. It is topics which can be regarded as of ‘domestic’
interest which they see as important or interesting, and it is also significant that
‘domestic affairs’, constructed in terms of ‘news values’ to include the economy
and industrial relations, are not defined as ‘domestic’ in the categories which the
women construct for themselves. ‘Domestic’ clearly relates to their own interests
and not to the definition which is constructed through the hierarchy of ‘news
values’. It can be said that the majority of items which are included in news,
current affairs and documentary programmes have a content which has little or
no intrinsic interest for these women, and the way that they are presented means
that they exclude these women from ‘participation’ at the point of identification
with the items included. At the same time, the women accept that these are
important, and this reinforces the split between the masculine values, which are
interpreted as being important, and the interests which they see as representing
their own feminine values.

The feminine ‘world’ of television
D. Do you like programmes that are like your life or that are entirely different?
R. I think I like things different really, ’cos if it’s like me life, it’s not very
exciting ’cos there’s nothing much really ever happens. Something exciting,
different. I like watching detectives, anything creepy like ghost stories, I love
ghost stories, anything creepy like that.
First, in conjunction with the programmes which women reject, there are
programmes which they choose to watch and to which they obviously relate.
These can be defined as those which are related to their own lives, the programmes
which can loosely be termed ‘realistic’—Coronation Street, Crossroads,
Emmerdale Farm, The Cedar Tree. Secondly, the programmes which can be
described as having ‘fantasy content’ (horror movies, or American movies or
television movies), although not seen as representing ‘real life’ in the women’s
own terms, are seen as an alternative to the reality of their own lives. Finally,
there are the programmes which can be categorized as light entertainment
(quizzes, or competitions which often have an ‘everyday’ or ‘domestic’ theme,
either because the contestants are seen as ordinary people or because of the
subject-matter. In Whose Baby?, for example, the children of celebrity guests
appear and the panel has to guess who is the famous father or mother—a direct
link of parenthood between the ‘famous’ and the ‘ordinary’ viewer (in this case,
the woman).
The programmes which are interpreted by the women as portraying ‘everyday’
or ‘family’ life are, in fact, far from portraying anything which has a point of
real identification with the women’s own lives. The programmes may not relate
to the everyday lives of the women in the study. Within the programmes which
are seen as ‘realistic’ there are common elements of identification. Many of the