Tuesday, 25 November 2008

REPRESENTATION OF GENDER IN THE PAST


Gunter and Elamer(Women and Men on TV)

- In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, only 20per cent of characters were female.

-In the mid-1970s, Miles (1975) found that there were nearly equal proportions of men and women in situation comedies.

-Only 15 Per cent of the leading characters were women, a decade later a 1987 study found female characters to be the most common in comedy programmes (43per cent), but outnumbered two to one in dramas, and in action-adventures shows women had almost doubled their showing to a still low 29 per cent of characters(Davis,1990)

-Gunter study in 1970s consistently found that marriage, parenthood and domesticity were shown on television to be more important for women than men.

-1970s found men to be the dominant characters and the decision makers on TV.

-Men were more likely to be assertive (or aggressive), whilst women were more likely to be passive. Men were seen as: Adventurous, active, and victorious. Women were shown as being: Weak, ineffectaul, victimised, supportive, laughable or 'merely token females' (Gunter, 1995)

-Television proclaims that women don't count for much. They are underreprsented in television fictional life- they are 'symbolically annihilated'.

-Tuchman asserts that those women who were shown to be working were portrayed at 'incompetents and inferiors' as victims or having 'trival' interests, emotional and practical problems or women with little value in the TV world.

-In the mid 1980s television was increasing taking women seriously in programmmes such as (documentaries,discussion programmes and dramas on feamle topics such as infertilityt, cervical/breast cancer, rape ect. (dyer, 1987)

- Eleswhere, TV remained stubborn, with game shows not bothering to change their 'degrading and trivilalsing views of women', sports programmes remaining 'the preserveof men', and news programmes accused of tokenism or 'window dressing' by including some women in key positions whilst retaining a male-dominated cluture (Dyer,1987)

Tuesday, 18 November 2008

Hegemonic... or Pluralistic Views...

- i consider myself to be a pluralistic person, rather than Hegemonic..this is because i believe I'm more of an active person than passive. i believe i interpert a text however i want, and not just the way it has been made to be portrayed.
- However i do also agree with Marcuse saying that the media helps to 'indoctrinate and manipulate and promote a false consciousness to audiences. This is done through the fact that the media is controlled by the ruling classes..and only mainly their ideologies come through in the media.
key points i picked up from the independant study:

- Photographic images which make up the majority of the content of all three mags, depict and represent women as the protypical objects of desire, presenting the idea that women's purpose is to look appealing and attractive to a watching male audience.

- the formula to achieving a high successful readership within a dominantly male audience reflects and enforces the theory of 'Laddism' and the winning formula has been defined as "Beer + Sex + Babes' (Edwards)

-The photographic imagery within the texts is argued to be the most controversial representation of women within the newly developed lifestyle of men.

- 'Lads'- men aged between 15-25, their modern, fashionable young men, not afraid to admit they enjoy porn, women, sex, heavy drinking and sports.

-Women are stereotypically seen to men as only objects of their sexual desire, and should conform to what they view as attractive, this relates to the hypodermic needle, that audiences are passive and easily influenced.

- They depict the modern male as hard and untouchable whilst representing women as an object for men's contemplation with an aim to fulfil his desires and fantasies.

- the degree of sixism within the modern male lifestyle mags and the implict ideology that women should be attractive to the male population represents men as the dominant sex and women the weaker.

Monday, 17 November 2008

Homework!!!

Media Language:- There is a lot of low key lighting being used through-out the clip; giving it a dramtic look. The lighting makes the scene more action packed, it also shows the moods the actors are in. The main protaganist is dressed in asian dress, making the audience aware that this is an indian couple. There is also of tension being created through-out the scene, this is achieved through - the lighting, sound and camera angles.

Genre:-The film Provoked belongs to a more docu-drama and documentary genre because the main aim of the film is to inform, educate as well as entertain.

Representation:-Throughout the film Provoked Asians are being represented, the film predominantly focuses on women and the way in which they are treated.. For example Asians women are expected to stay at home until they get married, or stay home and look after the children whilst the man goes out to work.Stereotypes can be true – for instance a typical Asian housewife is usually forced to stay at home and look after the children and the home whilst the husband works.Women are still represented as a sex symbol, however roles in society as well as in movies have changed and women are now taking upon more masculine and mature roles.Women were categorised into two main groups which were as follows: - ‘whore’ and the ‘Madonna.’No longer a patriarchal society due to the fact that many more women are now working however there is still a problem of the glass ceiling effect which prevents women from achieving better and higher then men.Old fashion faiths has changed and faded in films such as ‘Kill Bill’ promotes female power, dominance and equality to challenge a patriarchal society.Nowadays in films women are portrayed to be strong minded and successful while still being sexy at the same time.

Audience:-The text mainly focuses on women who have/has suffered from domestic violence.

Ideology & Values:-Throughout the film Provoked there has been a lot of referance to the subject of patriarchy, due to the fact that in the film 'Provoked' the central protagonists husband is very strict and expects Ashriya Rai to dress as well as behave as a traditional Asian women. Furthermore, this film reinforces gender stereotypes and that women were seen and in some cultures are still considered to stay at home to look after the children as well as to cook and clean.

Narrative:-An enigma code is created because there is a start, a middle and an end, hence creating suspence as well as tension throughout the rest of the movie to keep the audience engaged to the rest of the film.