Discuss the way that women are represented in the media

In the media women are represented in various formats. Within this essay I will discuss the 2 which are most dominant; sexy and maternal. However in certain media products, the producers aim to challenge stereotypes and can represent women in an aggressive, impolite format. I will also discuss this.

Women are often objectified within the media to meet the male gaze theory (Laura Mulvey), meaning that they are shown in this way for the entertainment of middle aged middle class men. In the blurred lines video there is not only the video which is suitable for airing on tv which shows women dancing around in knickers but there is also an uncensored version which shows them completely naked. Through this video women are represented to be attractive and sexy, and are engulfed in their looks as they are shown to look flawless. Throughout this video a women is also being lead on a lead as if she is a dog, and the man is her owner, this represents men to be in charge of women and women to be inferior to men. This follows the hyper reality theory (Jean Baudrillard) that means there is a blurred line between what is reality and what is not, this is enforced in real life as women often stay at home with the children where as men go out and work and make the money, therefore make the decisions which leads to the ideology that they are in charge. 

Brief Encounter was released in 1946, and stereotypes with women even existed then. In this film the woman was represented as maternal as she rushes home when her son is hurt and often talks about how she looks after the kids throughout the week. She is also represented as emotional as throughout the majority of the film she is tearing up or crying due to her sadness because she is disgusted with herself for committing adultery. This film follows the theory of Barthes as the representation portrayed of the woman appears normal, or at least for that time. In the 1940's middle class women didn't work, they stayed at home with the children and waited for their husband to come home so they could tend to them, this is exactly what happens in this film which she explains to her love during the film.

Although in some ways Brief Encounter represents the dominant ideology of women, if you look further into the film, it challenges the dominant ideology of women. This is shown through the act of the woman having the affair and represents that women don't actually obey their husbands, and that by being unfaithful, they are not the loyal housewife that the media dominantly represents them to be. 

The film Sket defies the dominant ideologies of women as they represent women as rude and aggressive, this is due to them being shown through fight scenes and shouting profanities from the onset  and throughout. This representation is based on Chandler's theory that representations construct a construction of reality within various aspects, this stretches as much to location and Skets representation of women is a stereotyped based on the location they are in in London which is also stereotyped as rough and aggressive. Sket represents women to be quite masculine within their media product as they are shown with traits that are dominantly represented for men, e.g. being tough and strong. This is shown through when the girls repeatedly beat people up throughout the film.

Analyse your film opening in regards to genre

In our film opening we used the genre of horror and the sub genre of slasher. Within this genre following conventions is important, I feel we followed conventions quite closer, for example, the narrative theory. However we also drifted from the conventions also, for example, we used a woman as the protagonist. We also chose the genre of horror for our film opening as the conventions deemed easier to follow as opposed to other genres, e.g. comedy.

Concerning the genre of our film, as I have already listed, we followed the convention of using the narrative theory of Todorov. By using this theory it entitled us in creating an equilibrium, a disruption to the equilibrium, a recognition of the disruption, a disequilibrium and a new equilibrium. Due to our opening being short, to display that we were using this theory we used a flash forward a minute or so into the opening. Doing this allowed us to show the audience that there was an equilibrium and a disequilibrium as in the flash forward we showed the main character, Riley, to be alone and afraid, we also showed the doll who seemed creepy and could be connoted to be evil.

We also followed conventions of horror to express our genre by the use of mise-en-scene. We ensured to film our flash forward when the scary part of the opening was happening in the dark. With the camera this came out in a night vision mode which emphasised it was night. Also at the beginning of our opening it was raining which acts as a pathetic fallacy of sadness, which can relate to fear, this also quickly fore shadows the tears then seen on Riley's face when she is fearing for her life when the flash forward is taking place. Lastly in the terms of mise-en-scene we used the setting of a park which was isolated as behind the park all that can be seen is a forest, this connotes to the idea of isolation which can be related to the idea of no escape. The ouse of the forest also creates more of an eerie, creepy feel to the opening.

In the genre of horror, conventionally, men are usually the protagonist and the survivor, this is due to the dominant ideology that they are masculine, strong and tough. However in our film opening we decided to use the woman as the protagonist, however giving her partial traits to a man. To emphasise this we even went as far as researching meanings of names for our characters, thus giving us the name Riley, meaning courageous. This is enforced when she is seen alone in the park, being connoted to be the last one standing. Although this did not follow conventions, Stephen Neal notes "Difference is absolutely essential in the economy of genre". The reason we did this was because we liked the idea of a female protagonist, however if I was to do this task again, just to follow the conventions of horror closer, I would make the protagonist a man.

Lastly, to get the biggest audience available for our genre, we researched the figures for which age is the biggest group of movie goers for horror. In our research we found that our biggest audience was among 15-20+, this then became our target audience. To enforce our film upon our target audience we made the classification of our film a 15, this making it view able for the younger end of our target audience. Also to engage and attract the target audience of out genre we used characters which were within the age range of our target audience (16-17), we did this because it made the characters seem more relatable therefore may appeal to the audience more so. We expressed their age through action, for example, making them get drunk in park, this shows their youth as it can be connoted as they are not old enough to go out and drink legally. We also created characters with individual personalities as this therefore meant that within our list of characters there would be at least one person the audience could relate to, which again engages them in the film.