Marilee Karl
In India a group of village Harijan women discussed, in front of a video camera, their efforts in organizing an informal sewing cooperative. As they sat working at their machines, they talked about the problems they had encountered and about the benefits they had gained. When this video was shown to Muslim women in another village who were struggling with the decision whether or not to form a carpet weaving cooperative, it helped the women reach a decision to do so. They drew inspiration and awareness from the experience of the Harijan women.
Women's groups in widely differing parts of the world have been experimenting over the past few years with using audiovisuals as tools to help women organize, communicate and take action. This experience in two Indian villages is but one of many. Yet there is little information available about using films, videotapes, slides and filmstrips as basic organizing tools.
Some people dismiss the whole issue as a concern of only a relatively better-off group of women. When so many women are fighting to attain basic human rights, is there time to focus on issues of media and communication? These may seem irrelevant to women who are struggling to survive in unjust social, economic and political situations, whether they are living in richer or poorer countries.
The impact of the media, however, is so great and far-reaching that it concerns every one of us. Information and communication are basic elements that can help people become aware of their situation and do something to change it. Before we can organize and work for solutions to our problems and build a better community and society in which to live, we must have access to information and be able to communicate with each other.
Women in such different countries and diverse situations as workers in Free Trade Zones in the Philippines, peasant women in India, urban poor women in Mexico, migrant workers in Canada are using and producing audiovisuals for self-education, consciousness, organizing and communication among themselves and others. Why and how? What can we learn from each other? How can we share and build on these experiences? In order to answer these questions we need to look first at the mass media and development media and at how most of these fail to provide the information or communication channels women need.
The Impact of Media on Our Lives
How do the mass media portray women? What is the impact of media on our lives? These quotes from studies made in different parts of the world are very revealing:
"Time and again, in our advertisements, women are depicted as vain and seductive, as sex commodities, dull-witted, in constant need of approval (almost always by men) and ultimately best left in the home or kitchen." (Abuse of Women in the Media, Consumers Association of Penang.)
"Mainly in the telenovelas, radio novelas and photonovelas that are so massively popular in Latin America, we see the classic Latin American heroines all revolving around a man to give their lives to. Destiny, fatality and self-denial are dominant traits of the images of women in the popular classes." (Adriana Santa Cruz, The Transnational Women's Model in Latin America.).
"The Indian media reflects the Indian society's hypocritical attitude towards Indian women - a vast reservoir of labour, a class of secondary citizens, confined to homes...sex objects...a weak and silent minority, whose dark sorrows are painted as white fantasies, whose shackles are depicted as glittering jewels." (Asha Ramesh, "The Magazine Scene," Seminar.)
"The content of most...primary school books is...sexist in that the assumption of male supremacy is portrayed in all of them. In geography books men till the fields and feed the animals. In history books men make the tools and fight the battles. The importance of work done by women in the societies under discussion is totally ignored." (Education Widens the Gap Between the Sexes, England.)
These images of women in the mass media and in educational media not only reflect society's thinking but also shape it. For the most part commercially controlled and profit-oriented, the mass media are powerful instruments in the creation and transmission of culture, attitudes, values and social aspirations. The media reflect and reinforce unequal power structures: between rich and poor, developing and developed countries, men and women. The concerns of the least powerful groups in society, their attempts to organize, are largely absent from the media or are marginalized and distorted.
Development Media: The Same Story
Matters are little better in the world of development media:
"Development communication media remain silent about the role of women as workers and professionals. They do, however, show them as mothers and housewives. Because such media sound serious, authoritative and concerned about development, the stereotypes they perpetuate are likely to be more effective. Further, because they are the brainchild of development and communications experts, their inaccuracies are more harmful and alarming." (Kamla Bhasin, "Women, Development and Media," Isis International Women's Journal.)
Development media cover a wide range of materials from economic studies on specific countries to training and literacy manuals intended for people at the grassroots. They include educational materials designed to build awareness about the need to improve local and global development. Enormous amounts of money are poured into these media by governmental, nongovernmental and United Nations institutions specializing in development policy making and projects.
The absence of women in development media reflects male biases about women and points to the fact that development strategies have traditionally neglected women. Worse, this type of exclusion strengthens these biases and reinforces the detrimental effects of development policies on women.
Although women make up more than half the world's food producers, development media usually refer to farmers as "he." In India, for example, "television presenters still begin their programs with: 'Greetings to our farmer brothers.' All experts, interviewers, model farmers are men (even though women produce more than half of India's food)...To add insult to injury, every now and again a program deals with 'women's issues' such as nutrition, home management, etc." (Kamla Bhasin, "Women, Development and Media," Isis International Women's Journal.)
In country after country, this kind of distortion has a great impact on women's lives, maintaining inequalities at home, creating a distorted self-image of women, and reinforcing biases in development plans and in international development aid.
Women Creating Alternative Communications Media
Today women all over the world are creating alternative communication media which challenge the biases of the mass media and of educational and development media as well. Women are creating new and truer self-images, expressing their own views of their world, exchanging information, organizing and educating themselves. They are searching for new ways to gain access to the media and to acquire the technical skills needed to use them.
When we think of "alternative" media, we often think of makeshift, amateur attempts compared to the slick professionalism of mass media. While alternative media may indeed be low-cost and produced with local means, they do not need to be of low quality.
What distinguishes alternative media is not their forms but their objectives, contents and the process through which they are produced and used. Alternative media are designed to enable people to speak out, to communicate, to inform and educate themselves, to empower people to participate in decisions that affect their lives. Alternative media are participatory: they break down barriers between the givers and receivers, the producers and the audience.
Using Audiovisuals for Alternative Communication
Printed media, performance media, audiovisual media, multimedia combinations - all are being used for alternative communication. Puppet shows and radio, dance and books, comic strips and street theater, video and slides: none is intrinsically better than another. A growing number of women's groups the world over, however, are finding audiovisuals particularly useful for alternative communication. Why and how are they being used?
Where there is a high rate of illiteracy, many women's groups find audiovisuals more useful than printed media. Even where literacy is not a problem, how many women have the energy for reading and study after a long day of work outside and/or inside the house? For this reason many women prefer to use films, slides or videos in their organizations.
The Women's Action Forum of Pakistan makes the point that women do not need to be called from their daily drudgery to meetings to be told how miserable they are. They believe it is important to provide women with much needed relaxation and entertainment as well as the possibility to learn from and communicate with each other. Many groups find that audiovisuals are a source of entertainment at the same time as they are tools for education and organization.
With radio, television, films, slides, cassette recorders and video now becoming increasingly familiar elements, cheaper and more readily available in the remotest corners of countries and regions, many more women's groups are now able to get hold of these media than ever before. The equipment needed is also becoming easier to use. This means that overworked women can learn to use and produce audiovisuals without having to invest as much time in training as before. On the other hand, many more women are also demanding the technical knowledge and training that has been a monopoly of men in the past.
Promoting Participation and Organization
Development or improvement in the quality of life is not something that will "trickle down" from the top to the more disadvantaged groups in society, nor will it come about without their active involvement. Only when groups of people organize themselves can they attain deep or long-lasting achievements.
An important reason why women are using audiovisuals is their potential to increase women's self-organization and participation in their communities and in the development process.
Although most development materials speak of people's participation, this is often interpreted in a superficial way: for example, simply involving a large number of people in a project that has been planned and programmed by outsiders.
We define participation in a more far-reaching way. Participation means that women are involved in searching for and deciding upon the solutions to their problems. More, it means that women are involved in deciding what their problems are in the first place and what they feel is important to work on. These may be quite different from what an outside development agent or organizer has in mind.
Audiovisuals do not, of course, automatically promote participation. Commercial films and videotapes are planned and made without the input of the people who go to see them or who buy them for home viewing. Most development and educational audiovisuals are also made without input from their "target audience." Even though these are often viewed by large numbers of people in public places, there is little or no group participation. Commercial films are made for passive consumption by each individual and any reaction - negative, positive, or questioning - on the part of the spectator is individual and fragmented. Development audiovisuals are often fed to people in the same way in the hope that people will swallow the message whole - whether it is "use family planning methods" or "put better fertilizers on your crops."
On the other hand, a group of people gathered together to view a film, video or slideshow can become involved in a discussion of the message of these media.
Discussion is important because it allows people to express their views, react to the message, exchange information, and communicate with each other, all of which are basic elements in building awareness so that people can find ways to work together to change their situation for the better. In an article on methodology and techniques for popular education, Moema Viezzer, the Brazilian writer and activist, says: "Any oppressed group or sector needs to know its own reality, critically and dialectically, in order to create appropriate forms of action to attain its liberation."
When audiovisuals are used by organized groups already active in a process of social change, their potential can be maximized. Audiovisuals can also be used, however, to foster the formation of groups and bring others into an ongoing discussion and into a process of organization and communication. Peasant women in Peru, for instance, were inspired to make a slideshow about their lives and problems after seeing one made by women in Ecuador. They showed this slideshow in neighboring communities to women who became involved in discussing common problems and searching for solutions.
This guide contains suggestions and shares experiences of women's groups in many different countries on how to use audiovisuals in a way that stimulates discussion and reflection.
Creating Audiovisuals
Many women and women's groups are also creating and producing films, videos and slideshows. This is happening in nearly every part of both the developed and developing world. Even where access to training and equipment is difficult to obtain, women are increasingly involved in the creation of audiovisuals.
Many women's groups have learned to produce audiovisuals in the process of making their own videotape or slideshow, sometimes by trial and error, sometimes with the help of skilled amateurs or professionals. Destroying the myth of women's lack of technical aptitude, women are becoming highly skilled in this field.
Creating an audiovisual does not necessarily mean producing it from start to finish. Some women's groups find that getting deeply involved in the techniques of production takes away from concentration on the message and images. They prefer to take part in creating a film, video or slideshow in other ways: discussion of its content, selection of the images, writing the script, interpreting the characters, rearranging already prepared slides, making up a new ending for an existing audiovisual. There are endless ways to be involved in the creation of an audiovisual, some of which are presented later on in this guide.
Many professional women in the world of the mass media are involved in the women's movement and are not only creating and producing audiovisuals for women's alternative communication, but passing on their skills to other women as well.
Defining Ourselves and Our World
Women have gone beyond analyzing images of women in the media and reacting to the overwhelmingly negative portrayal of women. In creating audiovisuals, women are taking the initiative. We are creating our own images of ourselves and describing our world as we see it. This has a great impact on the lives of women who have never seen their true images in the media - women in the Third World, working women, minority women, ordinary women everywhere. To see ourselves as we are rather than as outsiders see us, to create our own images rather than try to measure up to a model of Woman that bears little or no relationship to the vast majority of women in whatever part of the globe, is something new and brings with it a new consciousness.
By creating and seeing our own images, many of us have for the first come to value ourselves as we are, to realize that what we do is of value. This also has an effect on others in the community, men and women. In seeing these audiovisuals, these images of women, they too come to appreciate the problems and contributions of women.
A change of attitude on the part of women has often been a noteworthy result. Once we have come to accept and value ourselves, we feel more confident, ready to take action. Seeing ourselves in a video or slideshow gives us a sense of power, of being capable of taking initiatives, rather than just reacting to oppressive situations.
In the process of creating our own audiovisuals, many of us have come to realize that the images of women imposed on us and even the situations in which we live are not necessarily immutable. They give us the impetus to organize ourselves to do something about it.
In making our own audiovisuals we preserve the memory of the group and can use this for reflection and action. These audiovisuals record our level of consciousness of ourselves and our lives. They record our history and actions. This is useful not only for our own groups but for building awareness, understanding and links with women elsewhere.
Audiovisuals created by women's groups at the grassroots are used extensively. While they may be no match for commercial media with organized distribution systems and outlets, they are shown over and over again in their own communities.
Because they show real women and real lives, these audiovisuals are excellent means for communicating and sharing with other women in other communities and even other parts of the world. We can identify with and understand the women portrayed in them, even though our cultures and situations may be very different. They hold enormous potential for building understanding, support and solidarity among women around the world.
Sometimes we are surprised to discover that others are creating images and audiovisuals that could be useful to ourselves or to realize that our work could be useful to women elsewhere. With so many local women's groups often working on the same thing, we can learn from and build on each other's experiences instead of starting from scratch every time. It is inspiring and stimulating to see what other women have done.
When we see images women have created of themselves, we learn and gain more understanding of each other than when we see only images passed on by the mass media. We know that the mass media often divides women through its portrayal of women and their concerns. Through our own media creations we see women's true images and hear each other's voices. We may learn that there are many similarities that link us in spite of our different situations and cultures. We may also find differences or different issues and problems of which we were not previously aware. Only with this kind of understanding can we find ways to try to build true solidarity.
How Can We Build on These Experiences?
This potential is often lost because most women's experiences in creating audiovisuals are isolated ones. So many of these very valuable experiments in creating our own images and telling our own stories have been made by small, local groups of women with few financial resources and little access to communication channels beyond their own community. The enormous value of these experiences could be multiplied if groups had the opportunity to share their videos, films or slideshows with others, if they could communicate their experiences in creating and using these audiovisuals.
How can we break out of this isolation? How can we share our experiences? How can we build networks for finding out about what audiovisuals exist where and share ours with others too? How can we use these audiovisuals to build support and solidarity among women around the world?
Can our audiovisuals have an impact beyond our own communities and even beyond our networks? Could they influence the mass media which continue to generate the same old stereotypes and messages? Can we find ways to circulate the audiovisuals we have created in the channels of the mass media? Or is trying to influence the mass media a diversion of energies from the main purpose of our audiovisuals - empowering ourselves to organize and act?
Can we or do we want to produce the type of film or video acceptable to the mainstream cinema, videotape or television market? With few exceptions, most of the mainstream media is not interested in the alternative visions and images we are creating. Moreover, most of our productions do not have the level of technical sophistication required by commercial media channels, although the quality of many local productions is very high.
High quality and professionalism should not be thrown out the window. Many, many women's groups realize their importance and are becoming skilled in media techniques. Yet they also question the mass media's definition of quality and professionalism. Moreover, many groups find simple techniques most effective for stimulating group discussion and action. In Brazil, for instance, a community group reports its preference for simple sequences of slides rather than slideshows synchronized with soundtracks. In working with peasant women in India, another group found that home-made videotapes replayed immediately aroused more enthusiasm than edited and perfected versions.
On the other hand, there is a growing wealth of productions by professional media women which reflect the insights and images coming from the women's movement. Many of these professional women are banding together to support each other and pressure the mainstream channels to use and distribute their productions. Some are also working to create distribution channels which can compete with the mainstream media outlets. What can be done so that more women and women's groups can obtain and use these films and videos too?
Powerful Images is our contribution to answering some of these questions and to giving women the opportunity to share their experiences. The information gathered here from our network represents a mosaic of the women's movement around the world and documents our history, the growth and activities of women in the past ten years. All these fragments from individual countries and groups form a global picture and perspective of the women's movement and what we are doing. Together with women's groups from many parts of the world, we are working to forge links in a growing network of women who are creating and using audiovisuals for communication, organization and action.