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
Thursday, 3 April 2014
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.
Tuesday, 1 April 2014
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.
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."
- 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
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