...Representations of femininity...

Representations of Femininity


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Feminism has been a recognised social philosophy for more than thirty years, and the changes that have occurred in women's roles in western society during that time have been nothing short of phenomenal. Click here for a brief set of definitions. Yet media representations of women remain worryingly constant. Does this reflect that the status of women has not really changed or that the male-dominated media does not want to accept it has changed?

Representations of women across all media tend to highlight the following:

beauty (within narrow conventions)
size/physique (again, within narrow conventions)
sexuality (as expressed by the above)
emotional (as opposed to intellectual) dealings
relationships (as opposed to independence/freedom)
Women are often represented as being part of a context (family, friends, colleagues) and working/thinking as part of a team. In drama, they tend to take the role of helper (Propp) or object, passive rather than active. Often their passivity extends to victimhood (see the discussion of the misogynistic PantyRaider below). Men are still represented as TV drama characters up to 3 times more frequently than women, and tend to be the predominant focus of news stories.

The representations of women that do make it onto page and screen do tend to be stereotypical, in terms of conforming to societal expectations, and characters who do not fit into the mould tend to be seen as dangerous and deviant. And they get their comeuppance, particularly in the movies. Think of Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) in Fatal Attraction or, more recently, Teena Brandon/Brandon Teena (Hilary Swank) in Boys Don't Cry. America seems to expect its women to behave better than their European counterparts - British viewers adored the antics of Patsy & Edina in Absolutely Fabulous, but these had to be severely toned down (less swearing, NO drugtaking) for the US remake, High Society (which was a flop).

Discussions of women's representation in the media tend to revolve around the focus on physical beauty to the near-exclusion of other values, the lack of powerful female role models, and the extremely artificial nature of such portrayals, which bear little or no relation to the reality experience by women across the planet. It would take almost a whole A-level course to cover these representations and the issues surrounding them in depth (if interested, do Womens or Gender Studies at uni), but you might want to start by reading the following:

Women's Body Image in the Media
Media Report to Women - a roundup of issues
Images of Women in Computer Games - a discussion of PantyRaider
Raw Nerve - Offensive representations
Deadly Persuasion - the power of advertising (lengthy, but worth a read)
The secrets of marketing to women - the startling econmic truth

lol.. best moments of Mr and Mrs smith....

wheres my wife....

In this scene, the woman seems to be rebeling back towards her husband which creates a non patriarcal society. . . which shows that it's dieing out.... she's using knives and guns to kill her husband . . .

Busta rhymes................like the Mr and Mrs smith movie......

women representation books

Seeing and Consciousness: Women, Class and Representationby Gen Doy - Art - 1995
... Representation Acknowledgements I would like to thank all those who helped ... I am also indebted to my seminar students on my Women and the Visual Arts ...
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Representation: cultural representations and signifying practices - Page 366by Stuart Hall - 2003
First, the term women's culture requires some caution. ... gendered and sexual identities are social constructs to which representation contributes. ...
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WhO IS IT FOR??.....

Media audiences

From watching the movie Mr and mrs Smith over the summer i have come to a conclusion that the target audience is 16-25 year old i have said this broad age as it is for the people that are interesed in the movie because of the people who are starring in it like in this movie it is Brad pitt and Angelina Jolie. The media has clearly influenced this use in order to sell the movie.

The conditions that the audience are under is the ways in which how they are always famliarised with the hero and herion automatically but this movie plays with the roles abit, as both the characters are as dominant as each other.

From veiwing the movie, and putting myself into the shoes of the audince it clearly shows that they would read the text 'unrealisticly' this would be because it is not very often you see a woman as the superior one in the movie you would automatically adress the man as one of the superior one the the film. This clearly then shows the human mind and this then shows on whatever the media feeds us we believe, and then that always goes.

As an audience member we are clearly shown that it is possible to recognise the ways and the situations that the director has out us in. Because even though these are not real life situations that we see in the movie, we can relate to it to some extent. For example, The way how men are not always dominant in the relationship and the fact that the woman is always demanding and taking control. The film represents the 21st century relationship but not getting blown up by a bomb that you jus made, i'm talking about how women are more in control over their men, and how women are more treated equally.

Media values and ideology

The criteria that has been chosen for the content to come ouot on how it is, would have been the questions that where asked for eg.. why are men more higher than women are? ..what are the reasons for men being more supeiror?... why have they come to the conclusion that they have to present men and women in a more equal manner.... Doug liman has clearly showed the knowledge that he has gained throughtout the making of the movie and he has made sure that he has answered all the questions that the audience and producers may have had.

Genre

The movie belongs to and Action/comedy genre.

Narative

The audience has been postioned in a way that they do not know who the hero is in the film. i say this because it seems as if Doug Liman has dilibrately made this situation so the audince can decide on who is the supieror one. And the narrative to this movie is all about the relationship of two ordinary people and the ways in which they interact with each other you may think to yourself that it doesn't seem normal to see these two persons together like this because it's not what you see everyday.

The heros/ vilians have been created through alot of research been done into this topic of women being equal towards men. Many theroits would agree as it has answered the questions of the Audience.

The people that have been employed are normal people and who have been in relationships... this may be useful to the director in order to create this film as they are real people and i belive Doug liman wanted to capture the true essence of the realism in the couple.

The mise-en-scene that has been used to create the movie goes well with the idea of ordinary people and there relationship.

music for example:

1. Love Stinks – The J. Geils Band

3. Tainted Love – Soft Cell

4. Baby, Baby – Alana D

5. Express Yourself (Mocean Worker Remix) – Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

6. Mondo Bongo - Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros

7. Lay Lady Lay – Magnet featuring Gemma Hayes

8. I’ll Melt With You – Nouvelle Vague

9. Nobody Does It Better – 8mm

10. Let’s Never Stop Falling in Love – Pink Martini

11. Assassin’s Tango – John Powell

12. Used to Love Her (But I Had To Kill Her) - Voodoo Glow Skulls

13. You Are My Sunshine – Stine J.

14. You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ – Righteous Brothers
15. Making Love Out of Nothing at All - Air Supply

16. You Give Love a Bad Name – Atreyu

17. Love Will Keep Us Together – Captain & Tennille

Going through the list of songs on the soundtrack album it clearly shows that it goes with the movie completely as they are in a love/hate relationship which proves that it is realistic because we don't have perfect relationships.

The themes that are in this movie are ...love....hate...who is better than who?....the more realistic themes.

Media representations

The people who have been represented are the main chracters who are Brad and Jolie as they are the two people that are in the relationship and the Director Doug Liman is the one that is focusing the camera on them two... so they are the ones that are being presened throughtout the movie... we could also say that the reasons for the love and hate relationship proves that they would actulally "ride or die for each other" -(literallly)