Feminist theories - Van Zoonen's ideas and theories on feminist theory — AQA A-Level Media Studies
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Feminist theories - Van Zoonen's ideas and theories on feminist theory explained
Feminist theories - Van Zoonen's ideas and theories on feminist theory covers 2 specification points, including Gender and power and Gender as discourse..
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Open a point below for its explanation and revision guidance.
Gender and power
Van Zoonen treats gender as something media texts construct and circulate rather than a fixed biological fact, and she asks who benefits when a text assigns men and women different roles, voices and authority. In her account, power operates through repetition: recurring images of women as decorative, emotional or supportive, and of men as decisive or authoritative, normalise a hierarchy that audiences may absorb without noticing. A strong answer identifies the specific textual choice that produces this imbalance, such as camera framing, who speaks, who is looked at, or who resolves the narrative, then explains how that choice positions the audience and whose interests it serves. Link the observation to the wider feminist argument rather than listing stereotypes, and consider whether the text resists, complicates or reproduces the gendered power relation you identify.
Gender as discourse.
Van Zoonen draws on the idea that gender works as a discourse: a set of shared ways of talking about, showing and understanding masculinity and femininity that circulate through media and shape what seems natural or acceptable. A discourse is not one text but a pattern across many, so the same assumptions about how women should look or behave recur in advertising, news, film and social media. Treating gender as discourse means asking what meanings a text makes available, which meanings it excludes, and how audiences may accept, negotiate or reject them. A strong answer names the discourse at work, such as the idea that women are primarily defined by appearance, then shows the textual evidence that carries it and considers how the audience is invited to read it.
Your focus
- Explain how a media text constructs a gendered power relation through specific techniques.
- Analyse how repetition of gendered images normalises hierarchy.
- Evaluate whether a text reproduces or challenges gendered power.
Show all 6 objectives
- Define gender as a discourse in Van Zoonen's feminist framework.
- Identify a gendered discourse operating in a media text with evidence.
- Discuss how audiences may accept, negotiate or reject a gendered discourse.
Feminist theories - Van Zoonen's ideas and theories on feminist theory exam tips
Marking Points
- Identifies a specific textual choice, such as framing, speech allocation or narrative resolution, that constructs a gendered power relation.
- Explains how repetition of that choice normalises a hierarchy between men and women rather than treating a single image as proof.
- Connects the observation to Van Zoonen's feminist argument about how media texts circulate and reinforce gendered power.
- Considers whether the text reproduces, complicates or challenges the gendered power relation identified, using textual evidence.
- Defines gender as a discourse, meaning a circulating set of shared meanings rather than an individual or biological property.
- Identifies a specific gendered discourse at work in the text, such as the assumption that women are defined by appearance.
- Supports the identification with textual evidence showing how the discourse is carried, for example through image, language or genre convention.
- Considers how audiences may accept, negotiate or reject the discourse rather than assuming a single fixed effect.
Examiner Tips
- 💡Name the precise technique before explaining its gendered effect, so the analysis stays anchored in the text.
- 💡Use the phrase 'this positions the audience to...' to show how power is exercised through the text rather than stated.
- 💡Check that every claim about power is tied to something observable in the extract or product you are discussing.
- 💡Name the discourse explicitly, for example 'the discourse of women as decorative', before evidencing it.
- 💡Show the pattern by referring to more than one textual element or convention where possible.
- 💡Use the idea of negotiation to avoid overclaiming a single audience response.
Common Mistakes
- Treats gender as a fixed biological fact rather than a socially constructed category; reframe it as something the text produces and circulates.
- Lists stereotypes without linking them to power; explain who gains authority and who is subordinated by the textual choice.
- Asserts audience effects without evidence; ground the claim in a specific technique and how it positions the viewer.
- Confuses discourse with a single text or image; explain that discourse is a pattern of shared meanings across many texts.
- Reduces discourse to individual opinion; show that it is a social, circulating set of assumptions that shapes what seems natural.
- Ignores audience agency; consider that audiences may accept, negotiate or reject the discourse rather than being passively shaped.