Why is it so important to look at how women are represented in the media?

The dominant ideology of a woman within the media is that they are unintellectual, objectified, maternal and attractive. It is very unlikely that within magazines and music videos a women who is seen as unattractive so the male gaze would be used, and more than often when they are used they are photoshopped to have a certain 'look', big eyes, long legs, toned stomach, big hair, big lips etc. This is very dangerous for young people as they are influenced to feel like this is the only 'look' and it then becomes their goal to look like this to whatever length. Also this lessens the strive to get an education as  women are hardly ever posed in the media in an intellectual role or holding power.

Men and young boys are often exposed to porn and create a false idea of how women want to be treated, this ends in a negative format for women and is one for the reasons why women are not taken seriously in any other role apart from their stereotypes. This point of view follows Richard Dyers theory that how we are seen determines how we are treated and how we are treated is based on the representation we are given by the media.

It is also important to explore how women are represented in the media as in certain cases sexual violence is condoned, for example, blurred lines. Within the song Robin Thicke sings 'I know you want it', more often than not this is what a rapist may say to their victim, and to back this up their is multiple articles against this song in which victims have admitted their rapist has said this to them. Also many rapists have called their victims a 'good girl' when they finally give into their fate. By this song condoning sexual violence it makes women accept that this is now a normal thing when it is not and should not be tolerated.

The media also uses stereotypes to portray women which can be harmful to people of a young age as it makes them limit what they can achieve, for example, in films women are often shown as mothers and to be a homemaker as opposed to a strong business women, this will then limit what they strive to be in the future as they feel that is what they are set out to be, this would then be then conforming to a stereotype and accepting what is, what is. This is not acceptable as women have the potential to be so much more. Also women in movies in the media are often shown to always be in need of a man, this is even shown from early on disney films in which a women needs to be saved by a man in order to live, e.g. sleeping beauty needs the kiss of her male true love to live. This is an incorrect stereotype as women can make it on their own. Disney has started bringing in female heroines to endorse this, e.g, Brave.

Brief Encounter

Within lesson we watched Brief Encounter and studied the representation of women. Throughout this film is appeared to me that the women being represented were conforming to their stereotypes which in the past were more so a dominant ideology as opposed to modern age today in which women step out of their stereotypes.

The first stereotype I noted which women conformed to was the stereotype that they are obsessed with their appearance. Laura is often seen powdering her nose or fixing her hair, in addition to this she always has nice clothes on which represents that she takes time to look good. Theorist David Chandler comments that representation are a construction of relaity. Today we live in an age with icons who dress nice and are obsessed with their appearance such as models like Kate Moss or celebrities like Angelina Jolie. However such people lived in the 1940s when this film was shot, for example, Judi Garland and Jennifer Jones. This stereotype is also enforced with sound, speech in particualr. Laura's husband comments saying "stop beautifying" this suggests that she is constantly fixing her appearance and spends a vast amount of time being vain looking in mirrors in attempt to look better.

Women in this media product are collectively represented to be quite domestic. It is noted through conversation between Alec and Laura that she is a stay at home mother and the only time she goes out is on a Thursday to get shopping for her house. Also Laura's husband later in the film tells her "I want my dinner" signifying that she is the one who prepares the dinner and it is the usual thing that she fends for her husband. Another woman is also seen to be domestic, the middle ages woman who works in the cafe at the station, at the beginning of the film the first action she is seen doing is cleaning glasses. Also the maid which is in this film is a woman and is seen caring to the children and is therefore is represented to be quite hands on domestic. This stereotype follows Barthes theory and appears quite natural, this is because it is an ideology, women are seen to be domestic and home makers god for cooking and cleaning across the world, it is a global attitude.

Another stereotype which is enforced within this film is that women are very emotional. Throughout the most part of this film Laura is seen crying due to the guilt she feels for betraying her husband and because of the thought of Alec leaving. At one point towards the end she even considers committing suicide which expresses the exaggeration of women's emotion. Also Laura's emotions are represent through her voice over narration, this told the audience all of her emotions which were often represented to be all over the place. The use of such a voice over allows other women to relate to her situation which follows Baudrillards theory as a hyper reality has been created in which the lines between reality and what the media has constructed has become blurred because women in real life are in this situation. Mise en scene is also used to portray Laura's emotions, the train station is dark as Alec leaves which represents a dark moment, also when she goes out with Alec it is often bright with sunshine representing it is a happy moment. Also when Alec and Laura nearly get caught by Alec's friend the rain which appears acts as a pathetic fallacy as Laura is crying due to her guilt and how she could of let it get this far.

Theorists

Chandler: representation always constructs a construction of reality within various aspects e.g. places, people, cultural identities etc.

Dyer: how we are seen is determined on how we are treated and how we treat others is based on how we see them, how we see a person comes from representations

Jenkins: the theory that the audience participate in the representation of themselves and is an extension of self representation, the audience will see a media text and recreate this using all different types of media

Giddens: ideology refers to the influence of ideas on peoples beliefs and actions

Barthes: representations have an appearance of being natural

Gerbner: believes the media is a drip drip theory in which the effect doesnt happen quickly but accumulates, also know as the cultivation theory, believes TV enforces and supports the dominant ideology

Baudrillard: believes in a hyper reality in which the lines between what is real and what is not is now blurred due to the television, a perceived reality has been constructed

Mulvey: constructed the male gaze theory, which her belief is that the media is constructed for heterosexual men, this is enforced through how women are represented, this can be shown through what a women is made to wear, what stereotyped the fulfill, the way they act, what the wear

Stereotypes of a woman

G325 introduction

Key Terms

• Mediation
• Objectification 
• Denotation 
• Connotation 
• Challenges
• Conforms 
• Collective identity 
• Male gaze 
• Self representation 
• Richard Dyer- we are treated on based on what we see and what we see comes from representation
• Hegemony - dominance, one social group over another
• Ideologies- a world view, attitude, belief 
• Dominant Ideology- ideologies we live in a day to day fashion and do not question, they are strong

Sket

Sket challenges the stereotypes of women at the beginning as they are dominant over a male as they beat him, not only this but this shows them to be uncaring and aggressive as opposed to the stereotypes of caring and passive. Also due to being shown as aggressive the girls within this clip are represented to be impolite, which challenges the polite stereotype. This film follows Barthes theory as the representations included seem natural, despite the fact they challenging stereotypes, this is because of the mise en scene. 

This part of the film conforms to the stereotypes given by the media as they male is dominant over the woman pulling her in, representing female to be submissive to the male sex. The female pushes him away which shows that the contact is unwanted, which enforces the stereotype that males are dominant. 

This part is an objectification of women. The denotation is that a women is getting dressed however the connotation is that the woman has just had sex, this conforms to the stereotype given by the media and as the camera closes in on her body the woman is represented as sexy and this is therefore and objectification. 

Blurred Lines

Within this video women are seen dancing for the male singers, this objectifies women and makes it seem as if they are for men. This video also conforms to the male gaze theory as the women are made to be sexy as they are in minimal outfits, this is made for middle aged men as this is what they want to see. This video follows the theory of Martin Baker as it is misrepresenting the real world, not all women look like the women in this video and not all women act like the girls in the video. This video also follows Gerbners theory as it represents values already in society and supports the dominant ideology, which is true, the women are shown to be submissive to the men and the men are shown to be dominant, for example at one point a woman is on a dog lead being walked by the man. 

In this part you can see the woman is quite good looking and is wearing red lipstick which conforms to the stereotype that women care about their appearance. Controversy was made over this video as some of the public saw this video as condoning rape culture- 'I know you want it'. This controversy could be made over Richard Dyers theory that because a representation has been made that women don't mind being objectified, therefore the audience then see this and treat women like this. The representation in this video is founded on realities that don't exist, this enforces the hyper reality, a theory by Baudrillard, and makes a blurred image for what is real and what is not. What is real is the people in video but what is not real is the way that the people are acting.  

Blurred Lines Parody

In this parody video women challenge their stereotypes as they are represented to be dominant by having their feet on top of the men showing that they are in charge. Also in this video women are not objectified, but men are as they are seen only in their boxers which challenges their stereotype also. The women in this parody have created a self representation of themselves which goes against the representation given by the media, they show themselves as women who are the dominant sex and also as independent as opposed to their representation which shows them as dependent on the male sex.

Women conform to their stereotype of caring about their looks as they are all seen wearing make up, like the girls in the real video even the the aim was to challenge. However in this video the male gaze is challenged as the men are the ones who are being objectified as they are seen topless and being touched in the video.


Chandelier

 In this video an 11 year old is dancing for a song that is based on alcoholism and has implications of suicide, because of the content of the song this alone created controversy. However the fact that she is also wearing a nude body suit also makes her seem as if she naked, which also created controversy due to her young age. This video is a matter of self representation for the artist as the young girl dancing in the video is posing as the singer Sia, this has not happened by accident, this has been done purposely.

The dancer challenges her stereotype as she is shown in this screenshot to be pretending to strangle herself, which implicates suicide which implicates depression. The lyrics "im just holding on for tonight" enforce this, anyway, this challenges her stereotype as young girls are meant to be happy and cheery and this video shows a different side which the media doesn't often let an audience see.

Chandelier Cover

 This dance cover shows self representation as they are copying the dance moves they see and have been heavily influenced from what is shown on the web 2.0. This cover is a demonstration of intentional representation.