미디어 속의 여성 : TV광고를 통해 본 수행적 젠더성 = Women in the Media : A Performative Gender Reflected on the Television Commercials

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The modern era is called the “age of media.” The mass media play an important role to build the collective consciousness in the modern society. The contents that appear repetitively through the media can exert considerable influence on the individual perspective and beliefs. If an image in the media is distorted, it may help to generate a negative stereotype. I think researchers should pay special attention to this type of images.
The television commercials, which are often called a fifteen-second art, help viewers accept quite naturally both the standardized life styles of social classes and the role models which are based on the division between the two genders. The female role and appearance on the media is directly imprinted on what the public consider as a feminie image and role in reality. On the television commercials a woman is usually depicted as physically and mentally retarded, one who works in the lower rank at work and who is under the constant threat of violence, that is, the weaker sex. This stereotyped female role has been displayed over and again to reinforce inequality and discrimination in the real world, being based on the fixed roles.
Recently, however, the traditional stereotype has been changed on the television commercials. Some new types of roles appear to be derived from social independence and sexual pluralism. The fixed image is still used while the alternative is being introduced to reflect the status quo of our society which is quite different from the previous age.
I examine the fixed and negative gender shown on the current television commercials in this article, but, at the same time, scrutinize the overturning power of gender that the new television commercials produced. Judith Butler’s performative gender is a useful tool to reveal that the gender is not natural in essence but its identity stems from performance. It is obvious that the post-gender adaptation can be detected on the recent television commercials. They confirm that the gender, which has been believed to be essential, is actually derived from the stereotypes and based on the imitation of repetitive performances. They show counterevidence that the gender identity is fluid, and help us approach to what is “beyond” the gender.
Butler said that the gender identity is based on the chronic and patterned repetition of behavior. If we repeat any behavior differently, we can modify its identity. If we deconstruct or overthrow the pattern repetitively, we can change the identity itself. On the recent television commercials, for example, the subjective point of view or status of females, transvestites and transgenders disclose some moments of intrinsically overthrowing the normative gender identity. This may be the critical, post-gender point where the paradox of dichotomy is revealed.
If we deny essential femininity and continue to signify female identity in another way, like Butler and other post-structuralists who seriously questioned the gender identity and its cultural values, we can’t be enclosed within the category of gender identity. All kinds of collective identity formed with norm and value can be traced back through the process of forming and implementing. Their border can be blurred and then the limitless possibility of cultural imagination will be open. The television commercials have a power to carry an image of male and female to a wide range of viewers. When they make each gender produce new role models, which are free from the
restrictions of sexitivity and respect their individuality as a whole, they can serve as a guide to realize a fluid gender identity.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 1. 들어가며
• 2. 흐르는 젠더
• 3. 나오며
• 【참고문헌】
• 【Abstract】