Cult of the vulva vs. cult of the phallus: A case study of media presentations of some famous genitals

Abstract

The society we live in is patriarchal, binary and hierarchically coded, evident from social and economic inequality and the stereotyping of men and women. Men are portrayed as active subjects and women as passive objects. Gender stereotyping extends to glorifying the male genitals as active, powerful, excellent and superior and objectifying the female genitals as passive, weak and corrupt. The social power of the media is essential in selecting information through agenda-setting and media framing. This article researches how the two most influential Croatian daily news portals, the progressive Jutarnji list and the conservative Večernji list, present female and male genitals in the media articles, mainly focusing on the genitals of celebrities. Famous people and celebrities are commodified into products created to influence the audience. The media presentation of their genitals can also affect the social perception of female and male sexuality. The research is based on a linguistic discourse analysis that includes language, context and interpretation on articles published in the digital extensions of Jutarnji list and Večernji list in the summer months of 2022 as units of analysis. The analytical matrix includes textual and visual ways of presenting the genitals of celebrities (attributes and connotations), their value and political orientation, and the valorization of sexuality along the axis of sex and gender. Research shows that digital extensions of Croatian daily newspapers (including the portal gloria.hr and sportski.jutarnji.hr), despite their different value orientations, are stereotypical and follow the accepted patriarchal binary dogma of male–female, positive–negative, active–passive, powerful–powerless, and that they depict male and female genitals with a visible cult-phallic media perspective.