Patriarchy

What is it?
Means rule of the father (derived from Greek)

Typically a system of government or society where men hold the primary power, and is a
way of retaining power along men. For example inheritance and how previously in history
for a royal family having a boy was important so he could continue the blood line.

 Only in 1990 did marital rape became illegal.

 In some courts a woman’s testament is worth only half of a man’s testament.
 And only this year were women aloud to drive cars in Saudi Arabia.

A system of male dominance of women not only politically but socially and economically.

Gender stereotypes
They originated from when a women’s job was to marry a man.

Women are expected to shave body hair and look good for men.

Aggressive – passive

Domestic – political

These ideas have over perpetuated over the years through the media and advertisements.

Van Zoonen
Her theory is that if the world is male dominated then the media is male dominated as well.
More males in dominant positions of power then females at the moment. This means that
the media produced might have a male skew to it which in some ways can oppress women.
Gender stereotypes are reinforced by media representations. She can be interpreted as a
radical feminist.
Femininity Masculinity Based on these gender
Caring Cruel values this would indicate a
Nurturing Neglect world where women are
Irrational Rational treated to be less than
Private/Home-orientated Public/work- orientated men, as they would be seen
Sensitive Emotionless as weak and submissive
compared to men being
Passive Active
strong and powerful who
Gentle Rough
lead and oppress women.
Soft Hard
 The headline takes away from the importance of the
subject surrounding Brexit and centres the article on
both ladies legs and their shoes. This is derogatory as
it is focusing all the attention on women’s appearance
rather than the large position of power they hold,
which furthermore presents them as dumb and naïve
and more as an object rather than the prime minister
of England. By using the play on words of ‘Legs-it’ it
objectifies them and takes away the seriousness of
Brexit and is insulting to her high status and power.

This article focuses on her ‘cold’ and tries to make her look weak
and unfit for her position in power instead of what she was saying
in the speech. When in reality having a cold is something everyone
experiences and is getting on with her job whilst not feeling 100%.
This article, however presents her to the country as not healthy
and fit to be prime minister and is therefore unable to lead and
make the right decisions for the country. The reality of this, is that
if this was a man he would be ‘praised’ for continuing on whilst
obviously under the weather. It is promoting the idea that women
are not fit for high profile roles in society like Prime Minister.