Liberal values are progressive or radical often calling for equality. (These are usually left wing because they want equality between men and women as well as for disable people and other ethnicities.
Conservative values are traditional and reactionary, supporting the status quo. (right wing- don’t like change)
Stereotypes are categorising people into groups by only a few characteristics. These can be positive, negative or changing.
Representation of Women:
Common stereotypes were:
♥ Damsel in distress (princess role in Propp theory)
♥ Housewife
♥ Bimbo
♥ Mothers
♥ Madonna
♥ Whore
♥ Ladette
♥ Femme fatale
Gunter (1995) - between 1950/1970s only 25-30% of the people seen on television were women
Tuchman (1975) describes “symbolic annihilation” of women meaning that women are invisible in the media
Lauzen and Dozier research in 1995-1996 showed 43% of female representations
Miles (1975) research showed that sitcoms in this period of time had a balance of both gender roles how the representations of women were sexist.
Humm (1997) suggest films like “Fatal Attraction” (1987) show women making a choice between family and career; women that choose their career were considered as “bad hysterical careerists”
Laura Mulvey’s theory on the “male gaze” states how women are primarily there to be looked at and they are objectified for pleasure for the male spectator.
Freud theory on castration: believed men feel anxiety if they see a woman without a phallic object as it would make them feel castrated, but having the phallic object present would take away their anxiety making women less threatening for men to watch.
Examples
Politics and News:
Minority of women are shown here as it suggests women are not intelligent enough or do not have a strong valid opinion like men.
Newspaper:
Tabloid newspaper “The Sun” consists of page 3 girls. According to Mulvey’s theory these women are objects of the “male gaze” and second wave feminists would agree with this as they believe these women are exploiting their bodies to pleasure men. However, third wave feminists would argue these women are empowered because they are using their bodies to lure men therefore they are the ones maintaining power. Moreover, cultivation theory suggests page 3 girls exist as society is desensitised to them and have accepted that. Additionally as Rupert Murdoch owns “The Sun” his male values are like to be promoted and having the page 3 girls is an example of this as they were only introduced when he re-launched this newspaper.
Rebekah Wade a successful women editor that works for “The Sun” helps reinforce the “status quo” as she is helping exploit page 3 girls as they are one of the primary reasons that help sell the paper seeing that before they were around the newspaper was loosing sales. Moreover, she is helping them become famous for the wrong reasons an example of this is Katie Price known as Jordan who has claimed fame through her breasts which objectify her and help reinforce patriarchy which is why most women look down at her.
Films:
Slasher films have “final girl” theorised by Carol Clover in her book “Men, Women and Chainsaws.” This shows how women are more independent, strong and resourceful seeing that as time goes on they rescue themselves. Additionally, the male viewer can cross gender identify with her. However, slasher reinforces patriarchy by killing off promiscuous women this is illustrated in “Psycho” (1960, Alfred Hitchcock); but having a “final girl” shows the result of feminism.
Progressive text is “Tomb Raider” (2001) where Lara Croft is a strong female protagonist she is shown beating male antagonists with her physical strength, letting her authority, power and determination drives the narrative forward. She carries a gun which connotes her power and could make the audience feel threatened but at the same time anxiety free as it connotes the phallic object which stops men from being castrated. Furthermore, as she appears in games, which is primarily played by males they are able to cross gender identify with her. However, it could be seen as a man controlling her therefore resulting in him in power over her.
“Charlie’s Angels” can be seen as a progressive text too seeing that there are three independent women who are “active” as they are going out fighting showing off their physical strength. However, them listening to Charlie’s demands shows patriarchy is still evident as they are taking orders from a man. Moreover, Charlie is represented godlike as you cannot see him throughout the film and this show portrays his dominance over the angels.
However, contemporary films still portray women in negative roles. An example of a film that does this is “Mere Jeevan Saathi” (2006) a Bollywood film where Anjali is portrayed as the “Madonna” and the vamp/villain is Natasha who is portrayed as the “femme fatale/whore” and as a result is punished at the end, reinforcing misogyny.
Another example is “Kidulthood” where they show young females Becky and Alissa prostituating themsleves to the men making the audience to think the females as weak and that men could control them through money; reinforcing the stereotype of the “whore”.
Television:
“Hollyoaks” is a soap that shows how women are purely to be looked as they represent them as youthful and sexy in the title sequence and there is only one token female who is fat. However, the majority of the females shown in this soap are placed in a stereotypical role for example Carmel takes on the role of the “blonde bimbo”, Tina the “geeky/clever” one and Michaela as the “troublemaker”.
A reason for these stereotypes could be so the audience can identify with the characters and the producers of the text do not have enough time to go into details about each character so the stereotype is used as short hand.
“Sex and the city” American cable show liberates women as all four women are represented as sexually active especially Samantha who could even be labelled as the “whore” as she is sex obsessed, assertive and independent. However, she is not punished for wanting to have sex neither of the women are which promotes women values and suggests society is accepting that women have sexual needs and desires as well.
Adverts:
Dove adverts are progressive as they show women who are chubby giving a more realistic representation of women. Seeing that, these women are not fat but curvy still makes them attractive to the male audience and placing them with very little clothing reinforces them as objects of the “male gaze.” However, it could be seen as a convention of an advert for the characters to wear revealing or tight clothes to make them look sexy as “sex sells”.
An example, of a post feminism text is the Pepsi advert featuring celebrities Beyonce Knowles and Jennifer Lopez. In this advert, the two females are placed in active roles as they are out fighting and riding motor bikes; typically associated with what a man would do, this role reversal classify this text as post-feminist. However, the women are taking orders from a man indicating they are subordinate to him as they are listening to him by going out and fighting the people he has instructed them to fight.
Moreover, print adverts help reinforce the “male gaze” as the women are shown with fetish objects like whips or dressed in a fetish manner for example, wearing stockings and having phallic objects present make them less threatening to the male spectator as if the phallic object is not present can cause them to feel castrated and to a man can be his biggest fear.
Lastly, there is the Lynx advert in which conventionally attractive and slim female characters are only there to be looked at.
Music:
Spice girls were big in the 1990s and promoted “girl power”. This caused girl groups like Destiny’s child, Pussycat dolls and TLC to come out and promote a similar message.
Pussycat dolls are empowering to women as their songs “I don’t need a man” and “buttons” convey how women are more independent and sexually active now therefore promoting how women are more autonomous.
Christina Aguilera’s lyrics to “can’t hold us down” is really empowering to women as she sings about how she is disgusted with how society are more lenient with one group then the other, she explicitly states how she feels about males stars getting respected and worshipped for bragging about their sex lives, but when women tries to express their sex lives, they get labelled as “sluts” and “whores” which reflects the inequalities that still remain in society today. However, Christina lets people know how she doe not appreciate being called a “bitch” simply because she stands up for herself and is a strong woman.
Even though women promote girl power they are still objectify themselves. However, it could be argued they are not objectifying themselves but doing this to make themselves look good and feel proud of themselves as they have the power to tease a man.
General information about representation of women:
Women representation can be stated as inaccurate due to the lack of female directors. This could be for the reason that women are criticised for neglecting their family and film is really a male dominated industry and being a token female could be hard as men may not take your seriously. Despite this there are a few successful female directors for example Sophia Coppola who directed “Lost in Translation” (2003).
Sophia Coppola poses with her Academy Award for Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation.
The media is mainly controlled by males such as Rupert Murdoch which means that media texts produced are promoting male values in a subtle way; making successful women rare and placed in token roles.
Models are airbrushed by:
Having their pupils dilated to suggest sexual arousal
Irises made blue to connote innocence
Flushed cheeks to indicate sexual arousal and youth
Pimples and wrinkles removed
Teeth whitened to suggest health and youth
Lips are made more red to make the similar to female genitalia
Breasts are enlarged
“Female gaze” introduced in James Bond’s film “Casino Royale” (2006, Martin Campbell) show Bond emerging from the water for the females to gaze at as he is being objectified.
Representation of Asians:
Theorists:
Ashis Nandy- “The Other”:
A binary opposition of one self
The other=hate/fear
Civilised vs. Uncivilised
Hardworking vs. Lazy
Examples groups of people that are seen as the other:
♥ Immigrants
♥ Homosexuals
♥ Women
♥ Ethnic minorities
♥ Muslims
Colonialism:
Dehumanises colonisers (British)
Brutalises colonised (Indians)
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak- “Third World”
Indian feminist
Argues against “hegemonic historiography”
Wants to move non western discourses in totally new spaces where difference is the norm and new “worlding of the world” is created.
Non west must create its own representation
Third world is:
Ø a creation of the west(British) that locks non-western cultures
Ø how the west views and deal with them into a imperial representation
Homi Bhabha “third space” and “cultural hybridity”
Idea of the “Brown Englishman”( Hideous version of ourselves undermines colonialism) Goodness Gracious Me, Kapoors like to be referred to as the Coopers which satires English culture.
Third space
Hybridity
East and West come together to create something new and different.
Examples of how Asians are inadequately represented:
Lack of Asians in management roles in the BBC. (Only 4% are ethnic minorities in management roles). This suggests (ex director general of BBC)(2002) Greg Dyke’s statement on the “BBC hideously white” is true.
Ethnic minorities still think it is harder for them to get jobs in the media then it is for a white people.
Asians in comedy roles- “brown clowns”- supports the hegemonic view/representation.
Few examples are:
Goodness Gracious Me
Mind your language
Bend it like Beckham
Euro centricity promoted by British as Christians are dominant in USA.
Islamophobia-Popular films ranging from Hollywood blockbusters to children's cartoons are portraying "crude and exaggerated" stereotypes of Muslims such as the Disney film Aladdin represents Arabs as "(cruel) ruthless caricatures (humorous illustration) "with "exaggerated and ridiculous accents”.” Good Arabs" including Aladdin are given American accents while the rest of the cast have "exaggerated and ridiculous Arab accents".- promotes American hegemony
British comedy East is East have helped demonise Muslims as violent, dangerous and threatening, and reinforce prejudices
Those Muslim figures who do appear in the media are seen as either holding extremist views or are "marginalised Muslims" who do not represent the Muslim community.
CBB7 Jermaine calling Jacquie “white trash”.- reflects class differenceJade, Danielle, Jo vs. Shilpa row- reflects racism/bullying/class divide/ignorance
Use and gratification- David Morley- how the audience read the text; dominant/hegemonic reading, oppositional reading & negotiated
Positive examples of how Asians are better represented:
♥ Brown pound- Asians are becoming more wealthy
♥ Asian culture is popular in mainstream- part of the mass media
♥ Self representation. Meera Syal and Gurinder Chada successful Asian women.
Gurinder Chada directed:
Bride & Prejudice (2004)
Third world is:
Ø a creation of the west(British) that locks non-western cultures
Ø how the west views and deal with them into a imperial representation
Homi Bhabha “third space” and “cultural hybridity”
Idea of the “Brown Englishman”( Hideous version of ourselves undermines colonialism) Goodness Gracious Me, Kapoors like to be referred to as the Coopers which satires English culture.
Third space
Hybridity
East and West come together to create something new and different.
Examples of how Asians are inadequately represented:
Lack of Asians in management roles in the BBC. (Only 4% are ethnic minorities in management roles). This suggests (ex director general of BBC)(2002) Greg Dyke’s statement on the “BBC hideously white” is true.
Ethnic minorities still think it is harder for them to get jobs in the media then it is for a white people.
Asians in comedy roles- “brown clowns”- supports the hegemonic view/representation.
Few examples are:
Goodness Gracious Me
Mind your language
Bend it like Beckham
Euro centricity promoted by British as Christians are dominant in USA.
Islamophobia-Popular films ranging from Hollywood blockbusters to children's cartoons are portraying "crude and exaggerated" stereotypes of Muslims such as the Disney film Aladdin represents Arabs as "(cruel) ruthless caricatures (humorous illustration) "with "exaggerated and ridiculous accents”.” Good Arabs" including Aladdin are given American accents while the rest of the cast have "exaggerated and ridiculous Arab accents".- promotes American hegemony
British comedy East is East have helped demonise Muslims as violent, dangerous and threatening, and reinforce prejudices
Those Muslim figures who do appear in the media are seen as either holding extremist views or are "marginalised Muslims" who do not represent the Muslim community.
CBB7 Jermaine calling Jacquie “white trash”.- reflects class differenceJade, Danielle, Jo vs. Shilpa row- reflects racism/bullying/class divide/ignorance
Use and gratification- David Morley- how the audience read the text; dominant/hegemonic reading, oppositional reading & negotiated
Positive examples of how Asians are better represented:
♥ Brown pound- Asians are becoming more wealthy
♥ Asian culture is popular in mainstream- part of the mass media
♥ Self representation. Meera Syal and Gurinder Chada successful Asian women.
Gurinder Chada directed:
Bride & Prejudice (2004)
Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
Bhaji on the Beach (1993)
Meera Syal produced:
Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee (2005) (TV)
Anita and Me (2002)
♥ 67% of Asians feel they are better represented on television now
♥ 78% of Asians think they are better represented on screen then ten years ago
General points of representation of Asians:
ETHNICITY:
Race: biological inheritance
Culture: (social) society that shape individual’s thoughts
Diversity policy:
Attempt to reflect diverse people whether it is TV, radio or online.
Cultural diversity network:
An organisation that tries to make sure that there are more ethnic minorities on TV
Colonial culture:
Domination of one group and believing their ideologies; refers back to the British Empire
E.g. everyone started speaking English
♥ 2001= 8.6% non white/ethnic minorities. Most ethnic minorities from London.
Meera Syal produced:
Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee (2005) (TV)
Anita and Me (2002)
♥ 67% of Asians feel they are better represented on television now
♥ 78% of Asians think they are better represented on screen then ten years ago
General points of representation of Asians:
ETHNICITY:
Race: biological inheritance
Culture: (social) society that shape individual’s thoughts
Diversity policy:
Attempt to reflect diverse people whether it is TV, radio or online.
Cultural diversity network:
An organisation that tries to make sure that there are more ethnic minorities on TV
Colonial culture:
Domination of one group and believing their ideologies; refers back to the British Empire
E.g. everyone started speaking English
♥ 2001= 8.6% non white/ethnic minorities. Most ethnic minorities from London.
♥ South Asians are the highest/largest ethnic minorities (2million+)
♥ Asians high birth-rate and immigration.
♥ A lot of Asians who work in the BBC often leave because they don’t fit in
MIND YOUR LANGUAGE: (sitcom)
♥ Prime time TV, Saturday night, (LWT/ITV 1977)
♥ 17 million viewers
♥ Brown people onscreen, they were stereotyped and exploited by exaggerating national characteristics.
♥ negative views/stereotypes of Asians which reinforces peoples assumptions
♥ less politically correct
♥ all nationalities equally stereotyped
♥ turned fear and anxiety into humour
♥ head was exaggerated because she was women
♥ people are laughing at the ethnic minorities and their misunderstandings
♥ the character speaking Urdu has no subtitles so the joke can be reversed as teacher can not understand the joke which suggest the text is slightly progressive
♥ Religious violence, Asians are unstable reinforcing Nandy’s theory on the other as well as reflecting the zeitgeist.
GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME (sketch show)
♥ Written by Meera Syal – self representation
♥ BBC 2 (public service broadcaster)- more of a niche audience, more middleclass, however appealed to mass audience
♥ Prime time show
♥ Making fun of English people in the restaurant scene as the Englishman has to conform to be accepted
♥ Using Indian words making the white audience outsiders
♥ Indian culture influenced by black street culture – Homi Bhabha “cultural hybridity”- loosing traditional values
♥ Using cultural myths about “the other” assumptions
Parodies and references in the show
♥ "The Six Million Rupee Man" - Parody of Six Million Dollar Man.
♥ "Skipinder: The Punjabi Kangaroo" - Parody of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.
♥ "I'm a Punjabi Girl..." - Parody of Aqua's Barbie Girl song.
♥ "I want to live like Hindi people" - Parody of Pulp's Common People.
♥ "Asian Bride Shop" - Homage to Monty Python's Cheese Shop sketch and Dead Parrot sketch.
♥ "Maharajah's hotel" - Homage to Fawlty Towers.
♥ "The Delhi Tubbies" - Fictional Asian equivalent of the Teletubbies
No comments:
Post a Comment