Minority Women and Western Media

Minority Women and Western Media: Challenging Representations and Articulating New Voices presents research examining media portrayals of women from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. It provides qualitative and quantitative findings of how women are stereotyped and misrepresented not only because of their gender but also their race, religion, ability, physical attributes, and political status. Whilst their voices are frequently excluded, marginalized and misrepresented, the chapters in this volume show how minority women are creating and articulating new discourses and challenging assumptions and expectations about themselves. This book provides insights into how women are represented in different media, including newspapers, television shows, films, and online platforms. Scholars of media studies, women’s studies, and communication will find this book particularly useful.

“Minority Women and Western Media is an important study in the light of concerns relating to the experiences of minority women across the world's media today and the challenges faced in relation to misrepresentation. It fulfills an important function, one that seeks to improve understandings and build relations in the context of wider social and political polarization given the specific concerns regarding the positions and realities of diverse women across the world today.”

In this concise narrative, editors Bashri and Ahmed offer an invaluable perspective on the diversity of women's voices and representations in Western mass media. The anthology comprises seven chapters that interrogate the legacies of colonialism using intersectional feminism to examine race, ethnicity, status, and ability. Each chapter frames the duality of women's position as outsider to media's framing of men as heroic, while the collection as a whole seeks to "disrupt the master narrative" by questioning false images and stereotypes to understand their pervasiveness across Western societies. Chapters 1 and 7 explore depictions of Muslim women in America and Great Britain within mainstream media outlets as a heterogenous group portrayed in static terms, which has prevented their inclusion and fostered "othering." Further chapters interrogate presentations of minority women's bodies from the perception of self and as "other," notably Leticia Anderson and Kathomi Gatwiri's "Getting Yassmined," which analyzes the process by which two women were "minoritized," or knocked down in status based on race. This accessible volume encourages valuable conversations on the interactions of race, gender, and the media. Highly recommended.

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Minority Women and Western Media is an important study in the light of concerns relating to the experiences of minority women across the world’s media today and the challenges faced in relation to misrepresentation. It fulfills an important function, one that seeks to improve understandings and build relations in the context of wider social and political polarization given the specific concerns regarding the positions and realities of diverse women across the world today.

-- Tahir Abbas, Leiden University
Maha Bashri and Sameera Ahmed’s thoroughly-researched collection is a must-read for anyone looking for fresh and robust international perspectives on the misrepresentation and underrepresention of minority women in the media. It’s a subject we can’t ignore any longer. -- Bruce Mutsvairo, professor in Journalism, Auburn University

Maha Bashri is associate professor of communication at the United Arab Emirates University.

Sameera Ahmed is associate professor at the United Arab Emirates University.

Minority Women and Western Media: Challenging Representations and Articulating New Voices presents research examining media portrayals of women from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. It provides qualitative and quantitative findings of how women are stereotyped and misrepresented not only because of their gender but also their race, religion, ability, physical attributes, and political status. Whilst their voices are frequently excluded, marginalized and misrepresented, the chapters in this volume show how minority women are creating and articulating new discourses and challenging assumptions and expectations about themselves. This book provides insights into how women are represented in different media, including newspapers, television shows, films, and online platforms. Scholars of media studies, women's studies, and communication will find this book particularly useful.

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