POWER & THE MEDIA: IDENTITY and GENDER
We are preparing for the 'Power' exam question. Your final essay may consider three topics. Today's lesson on how women are represented therefore may give you a third to a half of your final exam answer.
You will write a short essay on power and gender as part of this topic in answer to the exam question: "The media construct identity." How far do you agree with this view?- define how women are represented and the media's power to shape perceptions about identity
- give an account of three to four theorists with media examples
- The Bechdel Test
- Films that fail the Bechdel Test
- Films that pass the Bechdel Test
- Carol Clover – last girl theory: useful if analysing representation in horror films but mainly the sub genre of slasher horror. These are often aimed at catering for male audiences.
- Angela McRobbie – post feminist icon theory
- Laura Mulvey – male gaze/female gaze: the female form is objectified in a range of media.
- Tessa Perkins – stereotyping has elements of truth and are based on repeated representations, both in society and within the media.
- Judith Butler – queer theory. Gender is not the result of nature but is socially constructed through media and culture.
- brief conclusion that relates to the exam question
In our lesson on gender, we will use these resources:- Laura Mulvey – male gaze/female gaze. Although Mulvey herself has rejected the male gaze theory in recent years there are still strong arguments suggesting the female form is still objectified in a range of media. Can we subvert the theory and suggest male performers/actors are objectified? Video here
- Carol Clover: the representation of the last girl model in slasher films has evolved. First depicted as a hopeless damsel in distress who is bombarded with all sorts of dread and insurmountable fear and panic at first, the moment she is drawn face to face with her attacker, since she then appears tough as a male as she fights against the attacker with a weapon in her hand in her hopes of survival. Examples of slasher films that utilize the ‘final girl’ concept are Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006, Scott Glosserman), the 1997 film Alien Resurrection (1997, Jean-Pierre Jeunet), Urban Legend (1998, Jamie Blanks). You may have newer examples?
- Angela McRobbie: McRobbie concluded from analysing constructions of gender in magazines that the media socialise us into gender roles: masculinity tends to be equated with power and aggression whilst femininity is represented in traditional roles, often as weak or subservient. These stereotypes perpetuate social ideas about gender. However, her Post Feminist Icon Theory suggests that female characters can also be determined, strong, independent and in control but also utilise their sexuality. “Lara Croft, Lady Gaga and Madonna, for example, could be identified as post-feminist icons as they exhibit the stereotypical characteristics of both the male and female – strength, courage, control and logic but also are willing to be sexualized for the male gaze. This control element of their own representation is crucial in understanding the theory”. In Rihanna's tv advert for Reb'l Fleur she has control over her representation: both knowing and innocent, Rihanna explores both sides of her nature in a visual palindrome.
- Digital technology has enabled the representation of the warrior woman in film: examples include Avatar with the CGI alien Neytiri (2009, James Cameron), Lara Croft Tomb Raider (2001), Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000, Ang Lee), Mei in The House Of Flying Daggers (2004, Yimou Zhang), Mulan (2020, Niki Caro), Captain Marvell (2019) and similar films like Captain America, Wonder Woman.
- Robotic 'service' figures tend to be constructed as compliant females: Mia the synth in the popular tv series Humans (2015-18), Arisa in Better Than Us (2018, Netflix), Ava in Ex Machina (2014)
- The director of Avatar, James Cameron, is a notable figure in the screen history of the warrior woman because his previous films include two memorable examples: Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) in The Teminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), and Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in Aliens (1986).
- Judith Butler – Gender is not the result of nature but is socially constructed through media and culture. This theory challenges the assumption that there is a binary divide between gay and heterosexual suggesting in mainstream media heterosexuality is represented as normal. For Butler, gender is 'performative', like a theatre script that is repeatedly performed to a social audience, of acts associated with male or female. For Butler, gender is not innate, but "a series of acts which are renewed, revised, and consolidated through time". This suggests that performances of woman are compelled and enforced by historical social practice. For example, in films like East is East and Bend It Like Beckham, young Asian women are required by their parents to dress in particular ways that count as 'female' or 'suitable' (Jasminder may not wear football shorts, Meenah must wear a sari for visitors).
- Advertisements as gender scripts The conviction that advertisements are gender scripts is best summed up by Goodman (2002): ‘Because the media are the main information source about social processes and images and self-presentation, women are likely to attend to and use media images as guides for their attitudes and behaviours’. Many commentators position advertising as a powerful socialising agent among women, and, in particular, young women. In perhaps the seminal article in the field, Angela McRobbie (1978) studied Jackie! magazine and isolated a number of ‘codes of femininity’ centred on romance, domestic life, fashion and beauty used to indoctrinate young girls. Content analyses also suggest that a variety of subtle cues are used to tell young girls what might be considered suitably ‘feminine’ characteristics.
WATCH THE PRESENTATION ON THE BECHDEL TEST HERE 
We are preparing for the 'Power' exam question. Your final essay may consider three topics. Today's lesson on how women are represented therefore may give you a third to a half of your final exam answer.
You will write a short essay on power and gender as part of this topic in answer to the exam question: "The media construct identity." How far do you agree with this view?
- define how women are represented and the media's power to shape perceptions about identity
- give an account of three to four theorists with media examples
- The Bechdel Test
- Films that fail the Bechdel Test
- Films that pass the Bechdel Test
- Carol Clover – last girl theory: useful if analysing representation in horror films but mainly the sub genre of slasher horror. These are often aimed at catering for male audiences.
- Angela McRobbie – post feminist icon theory
- Laura Mulvey – male gaze/female gaze: the female form is objectified in a range of media.
- Tessa Perkins – stereotyping has elements of truth and are based on repeated representations, both in society and within the media.
- Judith Butler – queer theory. Gender is not the result of nature but is socially constructed through media and culture.
- brief conclusion that relates to the exam question
- Laura Mulvey – male gaze/female gaze. Although Mulvey herself has rejected the male gaze theory in recent years there are still strong arguments suggesting the female form is still objectified in a range of media. Can we subvert the theory and suggest male performers/actors are objectified? Video here
- Carol Clover: the representation of the last girl model in slasher films has evolved. First depicted as a hopeless damsel in distress who is bombarded with all sorts of dread and insurmountable fear and panic at first, the moment she is drawn face to face with her attacker, since she then appears tough as a male as she fights against the attacker with a weapon in her hand in her hopes of survival. Examples of slasher films that utilize the ‘final girl’ concept are Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006, Scott Glosserman), the 1997 film Alien Resurrection (1997, Jean-Pierre Jeunet), Urban Legend (1998, Jamie Blanks). You may have newer examples?
- Angela McRobbie: McRobbie concluded from analysing constructions of gender in magazines that the media socialise us into gender roles: masculinity tends to be equated with power and aggression whilst femininity is represented in traditional roles, often as weak or subservient. These stereotypes perpetuate social ideas about gender. However, her Post Feminist Icon Theory suggests that female characters can also be determined, strong, independent and in control but also utilise their sexuality. “Lara Croft, Lady Gaga and Madonna, for example, could be identified as post-feminist icons as they exhibit the stereotypical characteristics of both the male and female – strength, courage, control and logic but also are willing to be sexualized for the male gaze. This control element of their own representation is crucial in understanding the theory”. In Rihanna's tv advert for Reb'l Fleur she has control over her representation: both knowing and innocent, Rihanna explores both sides of her nature in a visual palindrome.
- Digital technology has enabled the representation of the warrior woman in film: examples include Avatar with the CGI alien Neytiri (2009, James Cameron), Lara Croft Tomb Raider (2001), Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000, Ang Lee), Mei in The House Of Flying Daggers (2004, Yimou Zhang), Mulan (2020, Niki Caro), Captain Marvell (2019) and similar films like Captain America, Wonder Woman.
- Robotic 'service' figures tend to be constructed as compliant females: Mia the synth in the popular tv series Humans (2015-18), Arisa in Better Than Us (2018, Netflix), Ava in Ex Machina (2014)
- The director of Avatar, James Cameron, is a notable figure in the screen history of the warrior woman because his previous films include two memorable examples: Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) in The Teminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), and Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in Aliens (1986).
- Judith Butler – Gender is not the result of nature but is socially constructed through media and culture. This theory challenges the assumption that there is a binary divide between gay and heterosexual suggesting in mainstream media heterosexuality is represented as normal. For Butler, gender is 'performative', like a theatre script that is repeatedly performed to a social audience, of acts associated with male or female. For Butler, gender is not innate, but "a series of acts which are renewed, revised, and consolidated through time". This suggests that performances of woman are compelled and enforced by historical social practice. For example, in films like East is East and Bend It Like Beckham, young Asian women are required by their parents to dress in particular ways that count as 'female' or 'suitable' (Jasminder may not wear football shorts, Meenah must wear a sari for visitors).
- Advertisements as gender scripts The conviction that advertisements are gender scripts is best summed up by Goodman (2002): ‘Because the media are the main information source about social processes and images and self-presentation, women are likely to attend to and use media images as guides for their attitudes and behaviours’. Many commentators position advertising as a powerful socialising agent among women, and, in particular, young women. In perhaps the seminal article in the field, Angela McRobbie (1978) studied Jackie! magazine and isolated a number of ‘codes of femininity’ centred on romance, domestic life, fashion and beauty used to indoctrinate young girls. Content analyses also suggest that a variety of subtle cues are used to tell young girls what might be considered suitably ‘feminine’ characteristics.
WATCH THE PRESENTATION ON THE BECHDEL TEST HERE
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