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‘A Woman from a Newspaper’: A New Face for Ideology and Old Habits
in which women, as patriotic citizens greatly committed to the new Polish state,
are placed as a model of duty and socialist work attitude (Zrybuna Opolska 1954,
vol. 56, p. 4). In other words, the images imply the first probable purpose and
meaning of women’s presence: a ‘contractual’ inclusion of women in the country’s
life and, ipso facto, in its system of production and political realms. The mere
‘visual presence’ was, supposedly, an indication of the progress and improvement
of women’s position in society. It did not however mean that the individual his¬
tories of women and their personal achievements would be ‘on the cover’ of the
new agenda. Yet, the photographic representations do not say much about the very
implementation of the new promises made not solely for the women, but for the
society as a whole.
‘The specific imago mundi of socialism presented in daily newspapers was rather
about the great expectations than about reality itself, although it was nonetheless
dominated by particular codes, rules and conventions. Even though the press illus¬
trations cannot be used as evidence and testimony of past times, they carry a great
interpretative potential. When reading such images, it is crucial to remember not
so much Peter Burke’s (2001) ‘problems of interpretation’, but rather the interpret¬
ative opportunities that emerge and which are usually located in specific and rele¬
vant contexts that reveal people’s cultural worlds. Moreover, photographs perceived
as a sort of wholeness allow us to glance into the everyday life of idealising actions
and dominant conventions characteristic of a particular time and place. The images
of ‘a woman’ seem to be largely dependent on media representation, which is a use¬
ful vehicle for analysing the construction of cultural meanings. The foundations of
such construction lie in the connecting ‘things’, ‘images’, ‘concepts’ and ‘signs’ that
subsequently constitute a meaningful wholeness presented to others.
Photographs published in press identify a name and determine the symbol¬
ic reality (cf. Milivojevié 2004), and, due to the necessity for short, simple and
unambiguous forms, the media models are reduced to representing solely essen¬
tialised ‘types’. Therefore, instead of an affirmation of diversity and heterogeneity,
media produce and propose oversimplified and uncritical patterns of thinking and
cognition. In other words, the presented reality is a simple version of the world’s
complexity and a ‘woman from a newspaper’ becomes an actress on an imagined
(built) theatrical stage. One may presume that such a performance will constantly
be re-enacted; however, in different configuration and stage design. The press, by
employing such a theatralisation, produces, recycles and preserves certain images
of the women’s socio-cultural roles in order to reach a contextually desired per¬
formance.
While analysing the available visual materials, one thing seems obvious: “Gender
relations are the relations of power. There is always someone who dominates, and
someone who is dominated, there is a role of the active and the passive” (Wsciektlosé
Bojany Pejié 2010). One may argue that the media constitute and strengthen the
gender/power inequality by numerous symbolic actions such as silencing, ignoring,
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