Why is it so important to look at how women are represented in the media?

In the media women can often be objectified as sex objects to men, it also seems that the media suggests that all women should be slim and attractive taking a lot of pride in their appearance. This is portrayed through women which are often shown on the front of magazine covers, in music videos and on TV adverts. For example the women on the covers of the vogue magazines are usually always slim and wearing lots of make-up.

Furthermore women are objectified heavily through music videos, for example in many mainstream media music videos young women are shown walking round in bikinis and wearing revealing clothing, often whilst dancing in what might be seen as a 'sexy' or 'seductive' way. 

Additionally TV adverts often objectify women in the same way, for example the women models on adverts for women's clothing are normally always slim and attractive, this sends a false ideology to consumers that this is how women should look. Consumers will see this so many times that they start to believe that this is how women should be, and anything less may start to be considered undesirable or unattractive. 

A Brief Encounter - Analysis of how women are represented

In the film brief encounter women were represented in various ways. Different things had to be taken into consideration when looking at the representation of women such, as if they conformed or challenged stereotypes, what they were wearing, the characters which were portrayed, the relationships these women had with other people, their body language, the camera work, sound and the mise en scene.

Throughout this film women are portrayed as very emotional people, for example the main women character in the film often breaks into tears at different situations, this would stereotypically be seen as a feminine action that would often be related to women, therefore it can be said that this women in particular is conforming to existing stereotypes that women are often very emotional people. Furthermore the women who works behind the counter in the small train side restaurant, gets quite upset at one part of the film when two men start making jokes about her, she gets a man to come in and make the two men giving her trouble leave the shop, this could further be seen as a way of women in this film conforming to the stereotype that women are emotional, as she seems like she starts to panic a bit and cannot deal with the situation by herself. These stereotypical female actions could be linked into Jean Baudrillard's 'hyperreality' theory, as the creator of the film have tried to simulate real life in as most convincing way as possible.

Furthermore typical stereotypes of women in society are conformed through characters actions in this film such as the women behind the restaurant counter, as she is seen to be washing up the glasses and serving people food and drink, these are actions that would stereotypically be seen as womens tasks by audiences around the time in which the film was released (1945). Additionally the women in this film conform to stereotypes through their appearance. Many of the women in this film are wearing big fur hats and coats, and also jewellery such as pearl necklaces and pearl earings, stereotypically these items would be worn be women therefore it conforms to the stereotype. Henry Gidden's theory could be applied to this film as some women around the time of the film release, would have perhaps seen a representation of themselves in the female characters of this film due to their appearance and maybe even their nature (at the time).

Near the start of the film the women who plays the main character is seen talking to another women on the train, in her own thoughts through non-digetic dialogue the main character describes this other women as gossipy, this represents her character and women to perhaps be more two faced then say men are, as men are not described in this way at any point in the film.

Women in this film are represented as quite giggerly through their body language, as the main character is often smiling and laughing at different points in the film.

This film could in a way perhaps be trying to represent women as unfaithful and maybe even as liars, this is shown by the simply fact that the main women in this film is willing to cheat on her husband and get people to lie for her on her behalf.

Stereotypes of women

Stereotypes of women from olliedwyer

Theorists

George Gerbner was the man who created the cultivation theory. This theory suggests that the media can often have long term effects on people which can often be indirect and come gradually to an individual. This is often described as a 'drip drip' effect, for example some people may believe that if a particular individual watches films with a lot of bad language, then this person may start to use similar language over a period of time.

Jean Baudrillard came up with the 'hyperreality' theory, this defines something as 'a condition in which reality has been replaced by simulacra. This theorist believes that media simply try's to simulate the real world, in a way which is very distorted from actual reality.

Ronald Barthes theory was similar to that of Jean Baudrillard in that he believed the media simply tried to portray particular images in a way which would seem similar to every day life in the modern world, however his theory suggests once again that these images are simply of a distorted reality

Richard Dyer's theory is that anything which someone might see in the media affects how someone may act as an individual. He believed that the media has a very powerful influence on peoples behaviour.

David Chandler - Representation refers to the construction in any medium of aspects of 'reality' such as people, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Representation always involves 'the construction of reality'.

Henry Jenkins - Came up with the theory that the audience participate in the representation of themsevles and is an extension of self representation, the audience will see a media text and recreate this using all different types of media.

Anthony Gidden's theory refers to the ideology which influence's of ideas on peoples beliefs and actions. 

Laura Mulvey came up with theory of the 'male gaze', she believed that in film audiences have to look at characters from the perspective of the heterosexual male.

Introduction g325

Key terms:

• Denotation 
• Connotation 
• Challenges
• Conforms
• Objectification
• Gaze (male gaze)
• Mediation
• Stereotypes
• Self Representation
• ideology
• dominant ideology 

SKET

The film sket challenges the stereotypes which the media would usually apply to women. Women in the media would generally most often be portrayed as caring, kind, attractive and polite people, however in this film the young women in the opening title sequence are seen violently kicking someone, whilst the girls swear at the man who is being attacked and spit on him. This challenges stereotypes as these girls are behaving more typically as a man would more usually in media productions. 

Near the start of the film opening at around 2:30 a male is seen walking up to a female and putting his arm round her as she passes him. This male gets angry and starts to abuse the girl verbally as she walks away after he tries to grab hold of her. This conforms to the stereotype that men often have control over women in terms of the relationship between the two. 

At 3:22 in the film a women is seen pulling on some jeans over her underwear in front of a male, the connotation of this is that she is simply getting dressed however the denotation is that this male and female have just had sex. This represents objectification that in a way this women is perhaps a sex object, this could also be seen as a way of conforming to a particular stereotype that men have more control over women in comparison to women having control over men.

Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines

Women in both versions of Robin Thicke's blurred lines video are objectified as sex objects for the men in the video. In the explicit version of the video the women are only wearing shoes and very thin underwear which is similar to the colour of their skin, so it looks as if they are not wearing any underwear at all. This video conforms to the male gaze theory as the women are not singing their only contribution to the song and the video, is to dance around the men within the video itself. It would be suggested that these women are in the video to catch the attention of the male audience as they are revealing themselves whilst the men in the video stare at the and dance towards them. It would further seem that this video is to appeal to male gaze as the men in the video are fully clothed and looking respectable, whilst the women are barely clothed and are revealing themselves.

The women in this video also conform to stereotypes of how a women's appearance can often be portrayed in the media. These women are all wearing red lipstick and makeup, this is a stereotypical way of portraying women to be attractive, and to care a lot about their appearance. Each of the women also have long hair which is another stereotype which is used a lot in the media in order to portray females as ladylike and attractive.

It is clear that the women in this video don't care about being objectified as they are not trying to cover themselves up as the dance around the males in the video. This perhaps adds to the stereotype that men have control over women in some instances as the audience of this video can see that the women are clearly their to please the men in the video, and therefore also the majority of the male audience.