Women and the Media in Jordan: Gender, Power, Resistance (Gender, Sexualities and Culture in Asia)

"This book provides a feminist, critical study of how gender power relations are played out through and across multiple mediated arenas in contemporary Jordan. It departs from an understanding of womens status in Jordan as a highly charged subject, and a view of the media as not just a locale where tensions play out, but also an important arena for contestation and resistance. The book examines the dynamic relationship between women and the media in Jordan as it manifests at three key levels: labour, representation, and activism. To do so, it engages with wider issues: the political economy of the media, regulatory and legal frameworks, Jordanian womens economic participation, the history of Jordanian feminist activism, gender-based violence, and the political context of the Arab Spring in Jordan. Through choice case studies, the book unpacks the complex role of legal, political, and social factors in shaping womens relationship to the media. It centres womens experiences and highlights their agency, disobedience, and efforts to negotiate and resist the limitations imposed by Jordanian patriarchy and, in doing so, it illustrates how gender, power, and resistance interplay through and within Jordanian media."--Back cover Acknowledgments Contents 1 Introduction References 2 Understanding the Jordanian Mediascape: Pressure and Release 1 Introduction 2 Key Milestones in the History of Jordanian Media 3 The Political, Economic, and Social Context 4 Regulatory and Legal Frameworks 5 Ownership and Investment Patterns, Geographical Disparity, Employment Practices 6 Technologies and Infrastructure 7 Conclusion References 3 Female Media Professionals: Potential and Limitations 1 Introduction 2 Jordanian Women at Work 3 Jordanian Women at Work in the Media: An Overview 4 Digging Deeper: Women’s Accounts of Being Media Professionals 5 A Common Experience: “Women’s Experiences Are No Different to Men’s” 6 Playing Patriarchy: “It Suited Me, I Didn’t Give a Damn” 7 Fighting the Odds: “We Have to Exert Ten Times the Effort of Men” 8 Conclusion References 4 Feminist Media Activism: Disobedience, Femininity, and Jordanianness 1 Introduction 2 Conceptualising Feminist Media Activism and Moral Panics 3 The Context of 2011–2012 4 A Brief History of the Jordanian Feminist Movement 5 Moral Panics and Discursive Contestations: Feminism Under Attack 5.1 Feminist Disobedience and Anti-feminist Activism: The Jordanian Authenticity Discourse 5.2 Women’s Rights and the Foreign Agenda: The Academic Freedom Discourse 6 Conclusion References 5 Female Political Dissidence: Mediating and Gendering the Arab Spring in Jordan 1 Introduction 2 The State vs. Female Activists: Overt Smear Campaigns 3 The State vs. Female Activists: Covert Harassment and Intimidation 4 Conclusion References 6 Representations of Honour-Related Femicide: Changing Discourses 1 Introduction 2 Gender-Based Violence in Jordan 3 Conceptualising Honour-Related Femicide 4 Feminist Activism Against Honour-Related Femicide 5 Media Discourses Around Honour-Related Femicide 5.1 Dominant Media Discourses: 2008–2010 5.2 Changing Discourses: 2020 6 Conclusion References 7 Conclusion Index