How Is Gender Represented In The Extract?

How Is Gender Represented In The Extract?
- Mise-en-scene
- Camera
- Editing
- Sound

As Laura Mulvey (1975) said, women are "objects of desire for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic objects of sexual desire for the spectator within the auditorium." This is shown though the extract due to the female sexual representation through use of mise-en-scene, camera work, editing and also sound. The clip also presents two of the four types of masculinity as stated by R.W Connell (1995). It presents men as sexual desire and also goes against male stereotypes by presenting homosexual males. 

The clip starts with fast paced, up-beat, non-diegetic music that picks up when the main, blonde character comes into shot. This changes the importance of her and also presents her as a 

Homosexuality theories

Theorist ANDY MEDHURST (1998) claims that sexuality disrupt representation claims, like those made by Dyer (“How we are seen determines in part how we are treated; how we treat others on how we see them; such seeing comes from representation” Dyer, 1993), because in the REAL world you cannot ‘see’ sexuality. Unless someone tells you they are homosexual you have no way of knowing.

However, in the media stereotypes are used to explore ideological positions about sexuality. “Films and television comedies are full of images of gay men as effeminate screaming queens…It chooses that aspect of gay male behaviour (SELECTION), inflates it into the defining male characteristic of male homosexuality (MAGNIFICATION), then establish it as the most easily recognizable image (REDUCTION).”

“The ideological implications of stereotyping are obvious, since groups most liable to be stereotyped are those with LESS social and cultural power; indeed one crucial distinction between powerful and less powerful social groups is that the former hold the ability to stereotype the latter.”

“Stereotyping becomes ideological the moment it stops being simply a method of description and becomes a vehicle for values: the image of the screaming queen does not just mean ‘all gay men are like that’, it means ‘all gay men are like that and aren’t they awful’, which in turn means ‘and they are awful because the are not like us.”

“This is why stereotypes of sexuality strive so vigorously to create two, polarized sexualities, hetro and straight, and to insist with such obsessive reductiveness that people who belong to those poles are easily identifiable – hence the recurring presence across media texts of the screaming queen and his female equivalent the butch dyke.”

Medhurst argued this is done to make heterosexual viewers feel safe in the believe that there way of living is the only ‘natural one’. So, stereotyping for the ‘straight’ viewer makes them feel safe and superior. In addition, the embedded social norm of straight sexuality is reinforced.

Class

Marx and Engels (1982):
Marxist argues that the media is used by the ruling classes as a means of control.

Medhurst (1998):
- "Stereotyping becomes ideological the moment it stops being simply a method of description and becomes a vehicle for values."
- Talking about the lower class - "they are awful because they are not like us."

Gandal (2007):
Class is not that dissimilar to the portrayal of race or gender because those that differ from the dominate social group producing TV drama/film etc (middle class white males) portrayed class groups other than their own as the minority.

In other words, upper class and lower class people are portrayed as a 'cultural other'.

Working class males are buffoon like, well intentioned but dumb. Women take upon the masculine role (Homer Simpson)

Middle class men are head of the household, hardworking and smart.

Popular nineteenth century cross-class classploitation tales:
- Sentimental rags to riches: poor boy aided by rich person
- Sentimental/sensational seduction: poor girl ruined by rich boy
- Cinderella seduction/redemption: poor girl ruined then rescued by rich boy.

New popular cross-class classploitation tales:
- Slumming drama: rich girl or boy liberated by poor boy or girl or by downward mobility
- Class trauma: rich boy or girl degraded by lower-class boy
- Slumming trauma: rich boy or girl degraded and liberated by poverty.

Regional Identity

Stereotypes:
- London:
Chavs, rich, black people
- Essex:
Orange, stupid, fake
- Scotland:
Wears kilts, ginger
- France:
Snails, frogs, smell
- Wales:
Sheep shaggers
- Cornwall:
Farmers

Andrew Higson (1998):
"Identity is generally understood to be the shared identity of naturalised inhabitants of a particular political - geographic space - this can be a particular nation or region."

"Representation of national/regional identity are contracted as the narrative as the text unfolds, as characters are pitted against one another, so a sense of identity emerges... but at the ams time producers often resort to stereotyping as a means of establishing characters and identity."

"Stereotyping is a form of shorthand, a way of establishing character by adopting recognisable and well established conventions of representation... the stereotype reduces characters to the most basic form and attempts to naturalise them and the more widely recognisable they because the more readily they are accepted. Except that if a stereotype becomes more widely recognisable it becomes comic."

"As Britain becomes visibly multicultural, so the makers of media texts have attempted to deal with plurality, to find space in representation for cultural minorities, ethnic or otherwise. In doing so, the cultural boundaries of the nation have been redefined, and a wider, more extended and hybrid national 'community' imagined."

Benedict Anderson (1983):
"The unification of people in the modern world is achieved not by military but by cultural means - in particular the media system enables people (of a nation or region) to feel part of a coherent, meaningful and homogenous community."

Corrigan (1992):
"Identity is fluid, unstable and contingent on circumstances."

Medhurst (1997):

"They’re awful because they’re not like us"

Colloquial dialect.

Semantic Field

OCR G322 - youtube revision clips

Ethnicity

Sarita Malik (1998): The word 'race' in the cultural and political terrain has almost universally been aligned with black and Asian people, as though they are the only racial groups that 'own' and ethnicity. 'Whiteness' has been naturalised, as though it is an invisible norm. When it is of course an ethnic group like any other.

1) Examination:
- The relationship between audiences of the media and the messages they transmit.
- Theorists focus on issues around 'textuality' and context' by analysing how various media forms choose to select and present information on different racial groups.

2) Investigation:
- Possible connections between the consumers of media images and those in control of its output.
- Dynamics between ownership, control and content.
- Focuses on the process of media production and considers wider social, political and economic implications of the media.
- It is considered with issues of authorship and examines whether those in control of output (largely white, middle class men) affects the type of images the media produces.

Functionalist View & The Marxist View:
1) The functionalist view argues that program makers 'cater for what the public wants' and simply reflects attitudes, tastes and opines on ethnicity.
2) The other (the Marxist view) is that those in control of media output shape how audiences view race.

Equal Opportunities:
1) BBC Charter (1977): Following viewer complaints and general criticism, this concept was taken seriously by the BBC in 1977 when the committee ruled that 'liberal pluralism' must be the ethos behind programming in order to ensure 'good broadcasting would reflect the competing demands of society which was increasingly multiracial and pluralist.'
2) Liberal pluralism: A philosophy and political principal that argues for the universality (sameness) of humanity.

In media theory the following usually applies:
- Black: African Caribbean and South Asian decent
- Asian: Those from the Indian Subcontinent
- Diaspora: A group of dispersed people e.g. black and Asian people within a British context.

Gender Theories

Images of females used by media present females as sex objects (Wolf)

Men can also be portrayed as objects of sexual desire (Gamman and Marshment)

The four types of Masculinities:
- Hegemonic (most powerful - top of society)
- Complicit (second most powerful)
- Subordinate (least power)
- Marginalised (just about subordinate)

Hegemonic:
- Hegemonic masculinity refers to the dominant form of masculinity within the gender hierarchy.
- Hegemonic  masculinity is associated with "white males", heterosexual, marriage, authority and physical toughness.

Complicit:
- Men in society who do not themselves live up to the ideal of hegemonic masculinity (follow trends)

Subordinate:
- Subordinate masculinity is defined by and in opposition to hegemonic masculinity in a society (binary opposite)
- Homosexuality as a common example of a subordinate masculinity.

Marginalised:
- These could be based on ethnic, religious or racial identifications.
- They are marginalised in that their interests are perspectives are often not taken into consideration by the dominant culture.



The Male Gaze: Laura Mulvey (1975)
"As erotic objects of desire for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic objects of sexual desire for the spectator within the auditorium"
- The look of the camera
- The looks of the male character
- The looks which originate from the male spectator which imitate the other two constructed gazes

Practise Exam Question

“Is it a fair and level playing field in the area you have studied?”

As stated by the BBC on their article ‘The History of British Cinema’ (BBC, 2010): ‘The British film industry has been through some amazing highs and lows over the last 100 years… but there has always been (despite some amazing creative talent like; Hitchcock, J.K Rowling and Dench) a struggle with finance’.

However, from looking at contemporary cinema – as I am going to do through comparing and contrasting my British and Hollywood case studies – I will understand how this statement is still applied. I will be exploring Skyfall (2012) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) to understand how the balance is still in favour of the massive Hollywood conglomerates, which take up a large percentage of the market place. Despite this however, over the past ten years there has been substantial growth for British films due to a range of different aspects. These aspects include, technological advances, government, lottery and European funding, the Hollywood writers’ strike and British talent such as J.K Rowling refusing to let Hollywood take over the Potter franchise. All of these aspects amount to the British film industry taking larger steps forward in the global film industry.

As stated by McDougall (2008), Britain still cannot compete on a completely level playing field as Hollywood because of the millions of pounds difference in production, distribution and exhibition. This brings with it funding issues for higher budget British films. For example a higher budget British film may need funding from other places – so even though it’s classified as a British film, they still have some outside help meaning that in turn they loose a certain percentage of their profit, from production and distribution to other countries.

Outlined by McDougal (2008), my British case study (Skyfall) is a category D film. Category D films are usually films that are made in the UK with (usually) British cultural content, but financed fully or partly by US companies.

In terms of production, my British case study had a production budget of $150-200 million, while my Hollywood case study had a budget of $220 million. Ideally the British film industry would be self sufficient, as the Hollywood system is, however our film industry hasn’t developed to that extent as of yet. Despite this, it doesn’t mean that we are not making progress in the film industry. This is because the British film industry still grosses a profit from D and E category films – as seen in my case study. Producing films like this does however not take a profit away from Hollywood films. One advantage of D and E category films, like my case study, is that bigger production budgets mean higher quality films and that there are bigger star names and talented crew.

After having compared the production information on my two film case studies you can see a visible difference was made for my British film. My British film starred Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes  while my Hollywood film stared Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Ray Winstone. In terms of crew, the Hollywood film was able to employ Producer: Frank Marshall, Director: Steven Spielberg, Cinematographer: Janusz Kamiński Editor: Michael Kahn, Screen Writer: David Keopp, Music Provider: John Williams, while my British film had Producers: Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Cinematographer: Roger Deakins, Editors: Stuart Baird, Kate Baird, Screen writers: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan, Music: Thomas Newman.  In terms of locations and settings, my British film was filmed in Scotland, England, Japan, Turkey and China, while my Hollywood film was filmed in the USA and Argentina. This shows that due to the Hollywood funding my British case study was on an equal footing to my Hollywood case study.

In terms of content and target audience, the genre of my British film is action, thriller crime, the age rating is 12A, and the primary target audience is mainly male, however based around a family audience in the social brackets of C1 – E. My Hollywood film is also of the action genre, it is rated 12A, and the primary target audience is social grade C1 – E and a main family audience.

The fact that both films were two similar genres meant they were competing for two similar target audiences. My British case study attracted this audience more successfully because of the franchise associated with the Bond movies as well as the diverse nature of the audience that it appeals to around the world.

In terms of age rating (developed due to hypodermic needle theory proving young people are more likely to be influenced by film content and therefore need protecting), research shows the most profitable target group is 15-24 year olds. This is because they have a disposable income and time to socialise. My British film would appeal to this group because it is an action thriller and this age group is stereotypically associated with a film genre of this nature. This could perhaps be shown through Stanley Hall’s theory of rebellion in youths. My Hollywood film would also appeal to this age group – it is the same genre of film and it has the same connotation, which link it to youth and rebellion.