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РГПУ им А.И.Герцена |
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Woman-politician on the pages popular women’s magazines Women’s
Strategies and Politics in Transition. Dialogue across the East-West
Divide: Seminar report (St. Petersburg, May 2000)/ vol. 4 / Editorial
board I. Yukina, A. Saarinen, E. Kudriashova. Arkhangelsk: Pomor state
university, 2003. P.
38-47. (0,5 п.л.) |
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The
press is the one of the fundamental means of a mass communication and it reflects a present condition of a society in all
times. The main task of journalism
is the reflect social-political problems of a society, which are
on the agenda.. That’s why it is natural, that any publication
addresses a concrete consumer of a journalistic idea. What problems are
of special concern for the society today? As the thematic analyse of
modern press reveals, two topics are attractive for the reader: the
first one, is politics, and
the second topic is private life in all its displays. The
popular female magazines
try to combine in themselves both topics, for example, releasing
publications in various genres about women-politicians,
the attitude to whom remains complex in many aspects. On the one hand,
they are praised for being pushy, bold and resolute,
on the other hand, the society doesn’t give them the right for
the equal
existence in the world of politics, which has practically
remained "male's", one. The
modern men’s
magazines actually
ignore women-politicians
on their pages. Probably, it
is connected with the fact, that a woman striving to establish herself
in the sphere, which was considered a man's priority long ago, doesn’t
represent any interest for men- readers. Thus
it is very important to note, that the man's magazines don’t idealise
an image of a housekeeper. In man's magazines there exists a precise
emotional attitude to woman: a femininity in a woman is blamed, a weak,
passive, dependent woman is put on a considerably lower position, than
man, while the male image of woman is disrespected, while the masculine
features in a woman are encouraged, such woman is in an equal position
in relation to man. But disregarding the fact that man's magazines
encourage masculinity in woman the sphere of politics all the same
remains inaccessible to woman on the pages of man's magazines. It
is important to point out that the magazines for men in our country
began to appear only during the last decade, before that existed either
magazines for women, or magazines for both sexes , or special magazines
for men connected to a certain “mail” activity ("The fisherman",
"Driving a car"). Thus, it turns out, that there was no
representation of a woman-politician directly for man-reader
earlier, and it doesn’t exist now. Let's
directly address popular
female magazines. To consider a woman-politician image in retrospective
will allow us to define dynamical development of an image. Let's point
out, that the character of representation of a woman-politician in
magazines varies, therefore I distinguish three fundamental periods (Soviet,
period of perestroika, post-soviet period) and subperiods: they allow to
characterise changes of a woman-politician’s images more precisely. In
the Soviet period there were two main magazines for women: "A
working woman" and "A peasant woman". On the pages of
these magazines there were regular articles about women who took part in
the political life of the country. In the 1920-s an image of a
woman-politician is not present on the pages of these magazines yet, but
from issue to issue one idea sounds as refrain, that it is necessary to
select women in worker-peasant councils, though women are warned about
the difficulties, which they will come across on the way only because
they are women. "You’d better stay in your huts... And bear
children" – peasant-woman will hear these words often once she is
a member of worker-peasant
council. To a person who speaks in such a way, a peasant-woman
should
make clear that she can not only bear children, but also sow, and plough...
– she can and she does everything,", - "A peasant woman"
teaches women (1922, №8). Meanwhile V. Lenin’s idea that every cook
should learn how to govern the state is constantly quoted, and as
practical implementation of this slogan
women are actively encouraged to study, this will allow them to
be elected to the Council. The
first victories of women in a political sphere are also shown. "The
Tartar women haven’t got there victory easily. They have been elected
to the Councils and committees only because they worked in organised way",
"A peasant woman" write (1923, №3). So we see, that the way
of women to politics goes through struggle with men, and the magazines
obviously show it. In general, to my mind, in the beginning of the
century fundamental motive of a woman who is striving for power is not
so much changing of a social and economic situation in the country. But,
to a greater extent, the attempt to relieve
from a man's oppression, which is confirmed by the publications.
Thus, in the article "The Uzbek woman in Councils" ("A
peasant woman", 1925, №35) first of all it is spoken about the
liberation of the Uzbek woman, but not about the things she will be
actually able to do being a deputy. It
is very interesting to analyse how and what materials were offered to
the magazines for by writers. In the magazine " A working woman"
there existed a column "Letter box", within which the editors
explained to the readers, why they accepted or rejected some materials.
The editors answered one of the writers in such a way: "Your poem
"A Jewess" won’t be any good for readers, because your type
of the heroin is not interesting for the magazine. But... you could give
us artistic images of modern working women, for example, the type of a
delegate leading working woman " ("A working woman",
1923, №39). Thus, we see, that the edition purposefully aims at the
representation of an image of woman-politician, largely it is an order
of the state, which needs certain percent of women in power, and it is
easier to show women in power through the press, including female
magazines. May be, that’s why magazines sometimes simply publish
pictures of women-politicians only with small notes about them. The
peasant or proletarian origin of the women is especially stressed, and
then a commendation of authorities comes, which gave women an
opportunity to get education etc. In
the following pre-war period (1930-1941годы) the situation changes
to a certain degree. A too active propaganda of introducing women in to
power disappears. I think, it is connected with the fact, that there is
a certain percent of women in politics, and it is considered to be
sufficient. But at the same time numerous materials appear concerning
the things deputy women must actually do. Besides it is possible to
point out two characteristic features of the publications of this period:
practically within all publications women-politicians speak about
themselves, about the happiness of being the citizens of the USSR and
they give the promises to the readers; it is proved not only by the
contents of the articles, but also by their headings ("I’m not
the only one of this kind", "Big happiness", "To
serve the people", "To work on Stalin’s model", "I’ll
justify the high position of the member of government").
The
stories of women about themselves about their life necessarily include
the facts confirming the main and indisputable involvement of the Soviet
authorities
into the life of woman: "Now I’m an owner, I was cooker till 23 and
now in Kremlin I run the business with the party", says Т.
Shapovalova, member of Presidium II of the All-Union congress of the
collective farmers, who had achieved the highest results ("A
peasant woman", 1935, №3). The dynamics of going up to the top
politics is often the same: "They sent me as an activist, at first,
to the district congress of Councils, then to the regional, to
All-Russian, to All-Union. I’ve be elected the member of central
executive committee of the USSR and a member of the government"
("A peasant woman", 1937, №4). On bright examples the former
illiteracy and striving for knowledge of women is shown and emphasised:
"I have read Ostrovsky’s "As steel was hardened",
Sholokhov’s "The raised virgin soil", I regularly read the
regional newspaper "The Truth of the North", " The News",
the magazine "A peasant woman" ("A peasant woman",
1937, №4). Private lives of women are restricted to stressing their
former low and present high statuses, family and children remain outside
these publications. The
promises of women are absolutely similar in character. The promises are
full of enthusiasm, partly idle talk and boundless optimism, desire to
work for the good of the Motherland: "With my all forces I’ll
strengthen the collective-farm economy, I shall struggle as before for
happy collective-farm life" ("A peasant woman", 1937,
№1). In
the publications there are no descriptions of appearance, character of
the heroines, we can get this knowledge only judging by the pictures.
The pictures of this period are marked by anti-aesthetism of a female
image. Women are often shown in kerchief, making them ugly and they
never smiles. Sooner, the aim of these pictures wasn’t the
representation of the heroine’s appearance as the addition to the
publication, but the representation of features, character imprinted on
the face. During
the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) we observe the shift interests to
the sphere of military actions, All publications are directly connected
with the war, hence, woman-politicians ceases to have interest for
readers. The
following period (the end of 1940-s - first half of 1980-s years) is
characterised by some peculiarities of a female image representation in
politics. much more lively
and emotional essays about women-politicians appear in large numbers.
Articles of this period often have the same structure. As a rule an
article began with the lyrical introduction of the heroine to the
readers. Then brief biographic digression followed the essence of which
consisted of a colourful and emotional description of pre-revolutionary
unfortunate life of the heroine and her present happiness. "I was
nominated as a candidate to the deputies of the People’s Council in
our area. I go to the polling station on the day of the elections... I
enter the cabin, I read my surname on a white sheet, and I cry... No, I
roar as a wench. Who could think! ", is spoken in the article
"The owner of the life " ("A peasant woman", 1960,
№3). Then
it was told about the profession of the heroine, the specific methods of
her job, innovations, concrete result of her activity (the quantity of
obtained milk or ploughed grounds), etc. So, the milkmaid Н. Zaitseva,
a deputy of the Supreme Council of the USSR, relealed how they lifted
yields of milk, about mechanisation in collective farm ("A peasant
woman", 1955, №5). Then the information about high awards,
which a woman had, was usually included as a necessary part of
the story. The
description of the atmosphere in the collective, the style of
communication of the colleagues were always present. Naturally, in
collective mutual aid always reigned, and our heroine was a vivid
example of all possible virtues. The modesty of the heroine, her
orientation not upon herself, but on others was especially emphasised:
"Telling us about her collective farm, Anna Ignatevna has never
said "I ". Eagerly she speaks about the people of her
corporation or corroborative group, about the women from neighbouring
villages" ("A peasant woman", 1960, №2). As a
consequence, the estimation on the part of the colleagues was the
highest. Such personal qualities as selflessness, exclusive honesty,
decency, desire to help a neighbour, etc were necessarily outlined. Approximately
in the beginning of the 1960-s years, besides the official information (position,
labour merits, education) in magazines there appeared descriptions of
appearance and character of the heroines of the publications but, at the
same time, the description of appearance did not imply any aesthetic
character. "Strong-willed, portly, eloquent Evgenia Aleksevna seems
to have been born to commit feats. Anna Mihailovna doesn’t look like a
heroine: average height, thins, silent, shy. But how imperiously,
tenaciously she start any business she’s been entrusted with"
("A peasant woman", 1960, №2). We see that the description
of appearance and character are mainly reduced to the fact to what
degree the heroine is successful in her activity. More
pictures are published. If earlier within one article only one official
photo was published, from the end of the 1940-s one material was often
accompanied by several photos. There appear pictures on which a woman is
shown with the family. So, in an essay about the deputy of the Supreme
Council of the USSR Т. Shuvandrina, the writer of the essay tried to
show the life of the heroine from different angles: there is her photo
at a work in place, with the colleagues, at home with her son, daughter
- in-law and grandson ("A working woman", 1949, №2). However,
disregarding the fact that the photos inside the family become the
object of journalistic attention, the essays about women-politicians do
not include the information about their family, personal life. It is
important to observe, that in pictures the awards of women attract the
attention first of all. The awards and medals against a dark background,
shift attention from the face. Besides
essays about women-politicians, the magazines of this period regularly
publish their articles about wonderful life under socialism, government
and party taking care of the people, the importance of further work for
improving life, which occupied more then one page and were written in
such language, that there are doubts, whether somebody read these
articles. The
period of perestroika (second half of the 1980-s) is characterised by
the inclusion into publications of the facts of personal life of the
heroines, though on the whole the materials covered the results of work
and participation in political activity.
The information about family was just complementary to an image,
not being a significant characteristic. However in connection with this,
the narrations become more artistic, emotional and as a
result - more interesting. On the pages of magazines the
discussion of the problem concerning the difficult of combining family
and job for women started. Naturally, this theme influenced the increase
of publication on woman-politician. The value of families and husbands
for women is emphasised: "if it weren’t for the husband, who
understands me, takes care of me, helps both with advice, and business I
could hardly live giving myself so fully to work", says N.
Lemesheva, candidate to the People's Deputies of the USSR ("A
peasant woman", 1989, №3). Moreover as we see from these words,
woman is allowed to be weak, incapable to cape with all difficulties
without the support of her
husband. The
pictures also changes. They gain a more aesthetic character. An elegant
coquettish scarf on the neck, a ring on the finger replace awards and
medals. Besides, the photos give some additional information about the
family. So, one article is illustrated with several photos, on which
woman is shown at her working place, among the colleagues, and at home.
It is would worth to pay attention to a picture in the circle of the
family, on which the husband of the heroine is shown, changing a bulb in
the lamp, and she - plaiting her daughter’s hair. We see that the
distribution of duties is traditional: the husband is engaged in man job,
wife - in female’s. The slow process of feminisation of
woman-politician’s image begins. The
last, post-soviet period (from a beginning of 1990-s till now) is
characterised by cardinal and ambiguous variations in the representation
of woman-politician’s image in the press. It is important to note,
that in the beginning of the 1990-s in Russia appears a huge quantity of
magazines for women. It is possible to define several types of popular
female magazines. Firstly, there are magazines which have a long history
in Russia ("A working woman", " A peasant woman"),
secondly, magazines - Russian analogies of western ones ("Cosmopolitan",
" Marie Claire ", "Elle", "Vogue") and the
last type of magazines - home magazines aimed at copying western
variants, but as the result being only
cheap parody of them ("Liza", " The home hearth").
Each
type of magazines has it’s own peculiarities while interpreting a
woman-politician image. For example, such magazines as " Liza",
"The home hearth" do not find woman-politician as an
interesting object for the reader. The scope of the topics these
magazines is primitive and homogeneous (children, personal life, fashion).
Even mentioning of politics
on their pages seems to be appropriate. However,
the first two types of magazines are to be studied in details. "A
working woman" and " A peasant woman", probably due to
their long-lasting tradition, continue publishing materials about
woman-politician. Though a number of publications decreases
every year and then comes to an zero (after 1995 there is not a
single mention of woman-politician). The beginning of the 1990-s are
characterised by active debates concerning the
participation of woman in political life of the country. The
problem of the establishment of a female party is discussed, meanwhile
women’s voice is becoming
aggressive, which is reflected already in the title of one of the
articles: "Isn’t it time to move? " ("A working woman",
1991, №2). However, this aggression of women can’t be called
unjustified. It’s rather the reaction to the attitude of men to
woman’s attempt to break through into the world of politics. Men
actively resist woman’s party. "There can not be political
parties based on the features of sex or age!". This is men’s
arguments against the establishment of a female party. Naturally, women
are to prove their right for political activity. Regrettably, on the
pages of female magazines all proofs are reduced to the fact that woman
is wiser than man, that as a mother she protects life. These words are
most often confirmed by some examples of successful women’s government
of the state (Princess Olga, Catherine II, etc.). Externally optimistic
attempts to prove, that a woman as a politician in many respects
surpasses a man, seem pathetic against the statements that a woman
should not forget about her "true mission": "how right
was Margaret Thatcher not having let out from her hands the reins of
government of the family and not having forgotten the recipe of a pie
with a cherry stuffing" ("A peasant woman”, 1991, №8). In
the middle of the 1990-s begins an active discussion of a problem of
"woman’s - man's" mission in society. "Is it difficult
for you on "man's" post in such original republic?", -
asks the journalist (the interview is taken in Tatarstan, where the main
religion is Islam). A. Gabutdinova, vice-premier of the government of
Republic Tatarstan gave a nice answer to this: "I do not accept
discrimination. Who is necessary – a man, a woman or a specialist?
Excuse me, but as an economist I feel very self-confident" ("A
working woman”, 1995, №10). At
this time on the pages of magazines completely frank sexism is found
which is revealed through an exaggerated female image of a woman. Here
is the one of most vivid examples: "We ... continue to admire her
mathematical, enterprising mind, man's logic in the combination with the
enormous female charm, generosity and capacity to work hard. Many men
are far behind her" ("A working woman", 1995, №10). It
turns out, that it isn’t normal
for woman to be better then man, it’s something extraordinary, which
demands obligatory specification. Besides
professional work of women-politicians, the journalists begins to pay
attention to the appearance of the heroines. Thus in one of the
interviews with I. Khakamada
she was asked how she would change her image, if she became the
president (the point is that her present image is trousers and short
haircut) ("A working woman", 1995, №3).
Unfortunately,
since recent times neither "A working woman" nor "A
peasant woman" publish materials about women in politics. Probably,
it is connected with the fact that magazines have drastically changed
the sphere of the activity, shifting from politically oriented to
entertaining. Magazines
- Russian analogies of western ones, which fight for the egalitarian
type of relationship, at least externally, ("Cosmopolitan",
"Marie Claire"), cultivate an image of woman-politician as one of the possible forms of a woman’s establishment in
society. But, representing the image of woman-politician,
popular magazines, shift the main accents from her political
to a private life. Let’s have a look first at the
titles of the articles - "Female thoughts of the ladies from
Duma’s" ("Cosmopolitan", 1997, №5), "Khakamada.
New age " ("Cosmopolitan", 1998, №2), "A child and
/ or work? " (" Marie Claire ", 1998, №9). They clearly
declare what positions authors occupy while drawing the
images of the ladies’ characters. The
portraits, made in the genre of art picture, catch our attention. For
example, Nina Berdnikova, Ella Pamfilova remind more of photomodels,
than women-politicians, and the picture of Irina Khakamada, presenting rather a virgin’s
purity than the decisiveness of the personality, was taken, at least,
ten years ago. Only Galina Starovoitova’s and Helen
Mizylina’s portraits are "real" ones, without artistic
pretentious novelties. The magazines allegedly write about a position of
a women in politics on the basis concrete examples, but
at the same time they don’t even mention the sphere of activity,
line of business, the office they hold. Of course, the names of I.
Khakamada, G. Starovoitova, Aspiring
to analyse a woman’s position in the world of politics, the authors of
the articles constantly slide to the topic of the family, its importance,
and the correlation between family
and work. For example, I. Khakamada says: "My family is my
castle … in which I try to forget everything, which has happened
during a day … they literally save me". The magazines accentuate the
fact that these women
successfully combine the family and work, like I. Khakamada, or
are ready to give up their work, as D. Mitina ("I would leave
politics only for the sake of a child … but only for some time"). Of course, the main thing, the authors of the publications try to emphasise is the capacity of a woman to be a woman even in politics (Nina Berdnikova: "A woman is attractive due to her moods. She as a flower - always different. That’s what she is loved for"). And an article about I. Khakamada starts with her attitude to appearance and fashion: "When I see a girl, pretty or not, fat or slim, but who possesses something special, I immediately imagine what I would have dressed her into, so that she might become better. Starting from hairstyle and finishing with clothes ". It
is also necessary to point out, that in one of the articles all
interviewed deny any feminism in their views, underlining the leading
role of men in politics (for
example, N. Berdnikova: "To my mind, the President must be a man")
or G. Starovoitova: "Women are more humane, though they have broad
intellect in more rare cases"), and they also point to difficulties,
which accompany women in the political world of men (I. Khakamada:
"To remain in politics, a woman must be several times cleverer,
then a men"). The
attempts to make a reader interested sometimes lead journalists to
absolutely absurd ideas like analysis of a wardrobe of women-politician.
Punctually, step by step, the changes of women’s style were considered,
and, for the vividness, all was proved pictures. Journalists haven’t
stinted criticism the especially: "She bravely varied the palette
of a uniform, including into it colour turquoise and yellowish"
("Bazar ", 2001, №1). Summing
up, it is reasonable to define more precisely the
changes of woman-politician’ image in female magazines. In the Soviet
period the character of representation of an image was beforehand
determined by politics of the state. In the USSR there was nothing
personal, all was submitted to the interests of the state. Hence,
all interests of a woman-politician had to be directed to
increasing the well-being of the country, to work for the good of the
Motherland. Consequently, in the publications stress was made on
successful professional work of the heroine, personal life remained in
the background. Naturally, there couldn’t be any aesthetism in the
image of the woman, as aesthetism
did
not correspond to artificially created concept of modest Soviet woman.
The change of values during the period of perestroika allowed to invade
more deeply into private life, which was immediately reflected in
the press. The magazines gradually began to inform readers about
women’s opinions not only concerning social, economic or political
situation of the country, but also concerning their appearance, family.
In post-soviet period the number of the publications about
women-politicians has sharply decreased. If in the Soviet period in each
issue it was possible to find not less than one article, in the
post-soviet period the publications in all female magazines do not
exceed 20. Besides, articles start to resemble publications of "yellow"
press, where the main thing is to show new, best of all notorious aspect
of the famous person’s life. But we can’t blame popular magazines for such one-sided conception of women-politicians, as they satisfy the reader’s interests. On the basis of the analysis of such publications, we can see, that the level of modern Russian women-readers is getting it’s shape, their interests. |
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