Oldal 396 [396]
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Magdalena Sztandara
neglecting and misrepresenting. Ihus, what kind of future is promised (and what
kind is concealed) for women in press photographs?
The attempt to answer this question should be based on the analysis of different
ways in which the history of culture and customs has constructed the social strategies
of female oppression. Ideology and stereotypes are usually involved in this and are
understood here as habits. It might seem that the ‘socialistic promises (not only
the visual ones) include the redefinition of women’s roles in society as well as their
emancipation (a phrase commonly used in many countries of the Eastern Block);
however, in reality they did not entail any significant changes or transformations.
Their aim was rather to maintain the existing institutions and plans. The media,
as an element of hegemony, transfer and form the constructs of women’s existence
in a way that both the patriarchal and socio-economic systems classify as ‘normal’.
We may attempt to deconstruct the visual representations of women depicted
in the newspapers by pointing out the imposed models of subjugation and limita¬
tion. The visual presence of women sends a clear and unambiguous message to the
viewer: they are builders of a new society. Hence, it is worth taking a close and
interpretative look at the imposed roles of women (a worker, teacher, housewife or
mother) as well as the dominant themes presented in press photographs (reading,
writing, ironing or spinning). The particularly significant and exposed images were
the ones that highlighted the women’s presence and participation in society as well
as their ‘cultural’, ‘social’, ‘educational’, ‘political’ and ‘economic’ development.
Additionally, it is also crucial to analyse the relationship between the ‘private’
and the ‘public’, since most of the contemporary feminist theories and practices
are focused on the spaces in which “the ideology of natural inequality finds its
shelter” (Papi¢ 1989: 41). As the slogan goes, the private is both political and
public, meaning that the mechanisms of patriarchal suppression and the silencing
of women in the public sphere are closely related to the ‘obvious’ socio-cultural
roles imposed on women in the sphere of the private. Such analysis may be fruitful
in two ways. First of all, it allows us to indicate the range of the ‘expected’ socio¬
cultural roles, starting from traditional and stereotypical beliefs and ending with
the ideological and power-related. And secondly, it introduces different (hi)stories
of different meanings, including women’s silenced voices and their forgotten legacy.
‘Forward! For the Struggle for Socialism’. The Media Lives of Women
‘The relationship between visual representations in the media and politics, ideology
and power is an important element of transformational discourse (see Moranjak¬
Bamburaé et al 2006). The period of social realism is a good example of such dis¬
course, especially when we consider the case of reclaimed lands marked by war, cri¬
sis and radical changes of political, economic and cultural systems. It was precisely
in this territory that the official redefinition of cultural, ethnic, national and gender
values was needed and expected.