Thursday 17 May 2018

Exemplar student response - A2. Explore the different representations of either women or ethnicity in your chosen texts.

A2. Explore the different representations of either women or ethnicity in your chosen texts.


Define:
What is representation? - Representations refers to the process of re-presenting something, usually used in the context of a social group, with the producer’s own ideology of that group encoded into the representation.
Why is it used? - Representations are usually based on stereotypes e.g. women presented as weak, ethnic minority groups presented as villains. Therefore, audiences will already have an assumption of how a certain group will be presented, making them want to see the media product. This ensures that the producer earns a profit. However, representations can be harmful to the group that they are representing as audiences may treat people in the same way that they are in the media product. This can potentially have long-lasting negative effects on the social group in question, in this case, women.

Argument:
My argument? - I shall argue that my three chosen texts all use different representations of women to ensure profit for the producers, however, all three texts approach this in alternative ways. To explore this I will argue that the representations of women in Spectre and The Selfish Giant are highly conventional, whereas Mad Max: Fury Road is highly atypical in the representation of women.

Context:
Spectre - Action/James Bond film, directed by Sam Mendes. Released in 2015.
The Selfish Giant - Social realist film, directed by Clio Barnard. Released in 2013.
Mad Max: Fury Road - Post-apocalyptic film, directed by George Miller. Released in 2015.

Plan:
Intro- (AS ABOVE), use the acronym of DAC.

Spectre- Represents women in a stereotypical way, Bond seducing Lucia scene. Bond uses bodily gestures to force her backwards, uses her for information, etc. Gratification of escapism and voyeurism. Middle class, white men = target audience. Women are sexualised. CONFORMS TO PATRIARCHAL HEGEMONIC CONTROL. GO BACK TO ARGUMENT.

The Selfish Giant- Absence of women, can be a form of symbolic annihilation, however, with the few scenes where women are shown, they are represented in a stereotypical way. The broken window scene. Establishing shot showing a binary opposition. Shaky cam, positions us with Arbor comforting his mother. Enigma code, we do not know for certain what happened. Propp’s character types partly apply. Women are shown to need men, even young boys, in order to be well. Target audience = middle class. Gratification of escapism. CHALLENGES THE RULING CLASS HEGEMONIC CONTROL. GO BACK TO ARGUMENT.

Mad Max:Fury Road- More women, than men. Unconventional in an action movie. Men, are normally seen as the protagonist. Protagonist is a disabled woman with an unconventional appearance. Steve Neal, repetition and difference. Introducing the wives scene. Low angle, tracking shot positions us with Max. Close up of gun, acts as an action code. Close up sexualised shot of pregnant belly (Male Gaze), this is immediately challenged with the  mise-en-scene of chastity belt clattering to the ground, restoring her bodily autonomy. SUBVERTS PATRIARCHAL HEGEMONY. Target audience = men aged between 18-30. Women presented as equal to men. Shows the inequality of men and women in the media, this film is trying to show that. GO BACK TO ARGUMENT.

Concl- Sum up of argument. Sum up the representations in all three of my texts. Which is text is trying to achieve with the use of different representations. This is the least important aspect of the entire answer. Do not stress about the conclusion.


The Answer:

Representations refers to the process of re-presenting something, usually used in the context of a social group, with the producer’s own ideology of that group encoded into the representation. Representations are usually based on stereotypes e.g. women presented as weak, ethnic minority groups presented as villains. Therefore, audiences will already have an assumption of how a certain group will be presented, making them want to see the media product. This ensures that the producer earns a profit. However, representations can be harmful to the group that they are representing as audiences may treat people in the same way that they are in the media product. This can potentially have long-lasting negative effects on the social group in question, in this case, women. I shall argue that my three chosen texts all use different representations of women to ensure profit for the producers, however, all three texts approach this in alternative ways. To explore this I will argue that the representations of women in Spectre, an action film, (Mendes, 2015) and The Selfish Giant, a social realist film, (Barnard, 2013) are highly conventional, whereas Mad Max: Fury Road, a post-apocalyptic film, (Miller, 2015) is highly atypical in the representation of women.

Spectre makes heavy use of stereotypical representations of women throughout the film. Throughout the entirety of the film, there are only 3 named women. This is very stereotypical of the action genre, and the James Bond franchise itself. For example, one of the many conventions of the Bond films include the use of Bond girls. This usually consists of the two women that Bond has sex with during the course of the film. One of the women he sleeps with at the beginning of the film is named Lucia, this scene is essential is presenting the representation of women. When Bond is seducing Lucia, the wide shot of Bond using bodily gestures to push her backwards towards the mirrored wall demonstrates how he, the male, is dominant in this interaction. This is further reinforced through the close up shot of Bond pulling her dress off without her expressed, verbal consent. This could be argued to be promoting a rape culture which still predominantly exists in our mainstream society today, therefore promoting the patriarchal ideology of the producer. Additionally, in the final wide shot before the hard cut to the next scene we see Bond’s body completely covering Lucia’s body, so much so that we can now no longer see her. This once again reinforces the power he has. The costume of his expensive suit has been deemed to be worth more screen time than the woman, Lucia, by the producer. The male, working class target audience will be familiar with these ideas and behaviours as they have been echoed throughout the Bond series, this is therefore a clear use of intertextuality. This makes the audience feel clever as they have correctly interpreted the producer’s intentions. This gives the audience the gratification of both information and voyeurism, as Bond and Lucia are not aware they are being watched in this intimate scene. Yet again, reinforcing the patriarchal hegemonic control that exists in everyday life. This benefits the producer as if this behaviour and treatment of women continues in society, they can continue to successfully follow genre paradigmatic features and gain profit, without being seen as sexist or xenophobic in anyway. Therefore, the stereotypical representations of women are used in an extremely conventional way.

Similarly, in The Selfish Giant, there is also an absence of female characters. It can be argued that the producers have deliberately used symbolic annihilation in order to concentrate on specific ideologies that Barnard wanted to present about the working class, and challenge the ruling class hegemonic control experienced today. This may be done to shock the middle class target audience into action to fight the stigma behind the working classes, and to help those less fortunate than them. Despite this lack of female characters, they still fulfill a role to drive the narrative forward in a stereotypical way the representation of women is currently used for. For example, the broken window scene is a key scene in exploring the representation of women. The wide establishing shot for this scene immediately shows a binary opposition of old vs new, this is clear through the horse and cart present amongst a council estate. Furthermore, the absence of a father figure/male figure in the household means that the young protagonist has had to fulfill this role. This is made clear through the shaky handheld camera positioning us with Arbor as he uses bodily gestures and facial expressions to comfort his mother in any way he can. Swifty, Arbor’s friend also helps his mother in anyway he can. The mid-shot of Swifty sweeping the shattered glass highlights this. This therefore presents the audience with the ideology that when a woman is without a male partner, this has to be substituted by another male, no matter the age. This highlights how women are seen as fragile and weak, and that for them to be fulfilled or comforted in anyway, women need men. This therefore reinforces the stereotypical patriarchal ideology of being that the nuclear family is essential, and that those families without it are in a lower social position. Once again, this provides the middle class audience with the gratification of escapism as they only have to witness this event, they do not have to experience it themselves. This therefore shows the representation of women to be highly stereotypical of the genre, as in similar social realist films e.g. Kes (1969), women experience symbolic annihilation also.

In contrast to both previous texts, Mad Max: Fury Road completely subverts stereotypical representations of women in the highly atypical post-apocalyptic film released in 2015. The oscar nominated film is very subversive of generic paradigms in many ways. For example, most action films star a male, muscular, physically attractive protagonist. Mad Max: Fury Road does this. However, alongside Max, the other protagonist and arguably the star of the official movie poster, is a disabled, stereotypically unattractive woman named Furiosa. This can be an excellent example of Steve Neal’s repetition and difference as Mad Max: Fury Road contains many conventional features of the genre e.g. one dictator, hot setting, golden colours, etc. Which are seen in other examples such as ‘Waterworld’ (1995). However, the producers have altered things slightly to provide an element of surprise for audiences without them being bored by the same film being repeated, whilst also ensuring profit and critical success. A key scene in exploring the subversive nature of the representation of women is the introducing the wives scene at the beginning of the film. The initial low angle, tracking establishing shot immediately positions the audience with the male protagonist. As the scene develops we are aware that there is tension rising through the non-diegetic anxiety inducing soundtrack alongside the action code of the close up of a gun. When the extremely stereotypically attractive women first appear in the film, Max’s facial expression of him licking his lips is not directed at the women, but rather the water he needs for survival. A clear, yet comedic way, of displaying Mazlow’s hierarchy of needs. The water he needs it placed before his possible sexual desires. Furthermore, the close up tracking shot of the pregnant belly of one of the wives can be argued to play into Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory, however, this is then immediately harshly contrasted with the close up of the the wife removing her chastity belt with the V8 cult symbol clearly displayed. The semiotics of the V8 and pleonastic sound of the belt hitting the ground illustrates how she is restoring her own bodily autonomy. This is directly and extremely clearly subverting patriarchal hegemony, as the females have the ability to restore their own freedom. This therefore shows how the stereotypical representations of women commonly seen in action films and post-apocalyptic films are being deeply challenged by the producers. Despite this clear atypical representation, the producers received extreme success in regards of profit. This demonstrates how stereotypical representations may not always be necessary to ensure profit from audiences, as the film made over $380 million in profit alone.

In conclusion, all three of my chosen texts use representations of certain social groups, in this women, to their own advantage in order to primarily produce profit or promote different, more concentrated ideologies. Spectre and The Selfish Giant conform to traditional stereotypes about women and base the few women present in the media product in a conventional way. Whereas, in contrast to this Mad Max: Fury Road presents an extremely atypical representation of women, through its use of transgression to highlight the inequalities that men and women face in contemporary society which is allowed and accepted due to the dominated patriarchal hegemonic control.

Thanks Jessie for this excellent submission. And just so students reading this are aware: you definitely do not need to go in to this much detail on your plan for your actual exam. You'll quickly run out of time!