Angela McRobbie's Gender type theory

McRobbie identifies the conventional stereotypes surrounding men and women in the media. She is a feminist theorist who believes that women are manipulated by the media into thinking they should act in a certain way. She believes that the media try and socialise women into particular gender roles. She usually confines herself into the magazine work environment, but has been known to stretch further and enter the documentary zone. The concept and principle is the same but offers a more diverse insight into the working process.

She believes the media represent men in a stereotypical fashion, for instance: they are viewed as masculine, aggressive, powerful etc. These are conventional aspects of men in today’s society and McRobbie believes the media has some influence over this. Take Natural World as an exampla. All the important roles are male dominated. The reason behind these representations of stereotypical gender attributes and roles is due to the past, whereby these stereotypes were more of a reality then ever before; not only that but were deemed right. Any of the female population that stepped out of line and tried to start a revolution was severely punished. It was only recently that the suffragettes made a real difference. Therefore, because this ideology was embedded in the heart of society for decades, it has always been in the shadows, in the corner of your eye, and the media simply expose and exploit that in order to perceive controversy. This is done and achieved as many demographics enjoy controversy to an extent.

There are always two sides of the coin, she believes that women are also stereotyped, but in a negative light. To an extent this is true to say as they are conventionally represented as weak, subservient, submissive etc. This is often the case regarding media texts, as their characters position is typically an emotional role, for instance: EastEnders the majority of female characters are either mums or an emotional wreck.

Although, in todays contemporary society the institutions are evolving and this theory is becoming more and more irrelevant everyday. Institutions and producers are always challenging the boundaries of these conventional stereotypes due to the fact that contemporary society are moving away from these stereotypical representations.

However, this theory has been challenged a number of times regarding documentaries as, it is often the case where you find female presenters in the lead protagonist role. Take Horizon: The lost Tribes of Humanity for example. She has therefore challenged the representations behind the suggested theory of women by taking charge and pioneering in a leading presenter role.

On the other hand, audiences may enjoy these stereotypes due to one reason and one reason only, suggested by Steve Neale’s genre theory. By using a theory to explain a theory creates a clear and focused direction in which you would like to take. The theory states that audiences enjoy watching media texts as it provides “repetition” because conventions are incorporated and the audience therefore understands. This is the same with stereotypes; they act as conventional elements within a media texts and thus why you can compare this to repetition in terms of audiences enjoyment.