TV mini mock: exemplar answers
Teacher example 1
Compared with the past, David Gauntlett argues that in the media today ‘we no longer get singular, straightforward messages about ideal types of male and female identities.’ Evaluate the validity of this claim with reference to the set episode of Humans and Les Revenants
Identity refers not only to the ways in which audiences can identify with representations in media products, but also the way in which said identities are encoded by the media producer. As Gauntlet states, these once stereotypical identities have shifted over time, and have been replaced with far more complicated, and often atypical representations of men and women, in order to appeal specifically to a range of niche audiences. In order to explore this idea, I shall be referring to Humans, a Channel 4 sci-fi/drama first broadcast in 2015 and a remake of the Swedish Real Humans, and the French horror/drama hybrid Les Revenants, first broadcast in France on Canal+ and created by Fabrice Gobert.
Perhaps the most complicated representation of female identity in Humans is the character of Anita. A cyborg or ‘synth’, kidnapped by thieves and reprogrammed, Anita is renamed by the stereotypically British Hawkins family and put to work as a maid. Anita fulfils her role as a stereotypical woman perfectly. The mise-en-scene of her costume emphasises her stereotypical hegemonic status as a maid. This is further anchored through her performance. Her clear-cut British accent and warm yet robotic delivery allows her to control the behaviour of the youngest daughter. In one excellent scene, Anita prepares a ‘perfect breakfast’. The mise-en-scene of the food at the breakfast table, framed in a montage of mid shots and close ups reinforces Anita’s hegemonic status as a perfect mother, cleaner and maid. Her presence in the house forms a binary opposition with Laura, a flustered, hard-working lawyer, who presents a particularly atypical representation of Anita. Laura demonstrates a distrust of Anita for disrupting her family life. In a conversation between the two women, lit by low-key lighting in a stereotypical middle class setting, Laura expresses frustration at having to deal with Anita, and calls her a “stupid machine.
However, Anita is actually Mia, a ‘conscious synth’ capable of love and other emotions. By having her memory wiped and forced in to being a ‘perfect woman’, Anita is an excellent example of a hyperreal representation, where the fake is more appealing than the actual thing that it is representing. By positioning audiences in the uncomfortable situation of the Hawkins family, the audience are forced to confront how unpleasant the stereotypical representation of women as an object used to cook, clean and have sex with really is. In this sense, Anita can be seen to be a complicated and atypical representation of women, and an allegory for how women are treated in society.
On the subject of sexualisation, Anita’s looks are instantly used as a ‘selling point’ when the Hawkins family purchase her. The youngest daughter delightedly announces “I hope she’s pretty!”, emphasising the role that hegemonic attractiveness plays in a patriarchal society that makes huge expectations of the way that women look. However, Anita is nowhere near as sexualised as Niska, another synth sold in to Slavery. Unlike Anita, Nisha has retained her memories, and experiences frustration at being captured. As Leo, her former commander enters the brothel where Niska is being held, the camera takes a voyeuristic mode of address, slowly zooming in to Niska as she herself directly addresses the camera. Through her performance, she symbolically encodes sexuality through the gesture of her pout, and by pushing her breasts together in a stereotypically sexualised manner. However, as soon as Leo enters, the mask slips, and Niska resumes being a ‘normal woman’. Judith Butler argues that gender performativity and the ways in which we ‘act out’ our gender through gestures, costumes and other proairetic aspects shape and influence the world around us. Arguably, Niska’s appearance as a stereotypical and even hyperreal representation of a sex worker manipulates and influences the world around her, reinforcing hegemonic gender norms that she does not wish to live up to.
In a final, particularly unpleasant scene, Niska is sexually assaulted by a client. As he roughly initiates intercourse with her, the camera slowly zooms in to her face, emphasising the pain the she feels. Niska announces that “I was born to feel pain” earlier in the episode, reaffirming her humanity. The target the heterosexual male audience are forced to confront the particularly un-erotic shot of her pained face towards the end of the episode in a particularly uncomfortable mode of address, further emphasising the extent to which gender roles have shifted.
Les Revenants, too presents complicated and atypical representations of gender, particularly of women. However, while Humans is primarily focused on sex work and patriarchal hegemony, Les Revenants instead is based on the binary opposition between sex and death. One excellent example of this is the character of Simon. Simon, particularly harmonically attractive, lives up to stereotypical gender roles from his first appearance. When entering the ‘Lake Pub’ bar, Simon is particularly pushy, and directly confronts several people. His pushy nature is emphasised and anchored through the mise-en-scene of his craggy, grumpy face, and the symbolic code of his costume, the suit which he was buried in. Simon is a stereotypical representation of masculinity. However, Simon finds his masculinity subverted several times. After being approached and chatted up by the hegemonically attractive Lena at the pub, the audience are positioned in a stereotypically titillating preferred reading, where we take sexual gratification from two attractive characters conversing. Lena herself is atypical, and just as pushy as Simon, drunkenly announcing ‘buy me a drink and I’ll take you [to where you want to go]. Simon abandons Lena quickly for another woman, the one he is searching for. At this stage, Simon represents a particularly atypical representation of male identity, and starts to emotionally bang his fists against the door and cry and she refuses to open. Simon is a stereotypical, archetypal heartthrob. His character is perhaps included to appeal to the teenage female secondary audience of the programme. However, by demonstrating both stereotypical and atypically emotional traits, he can be seen to be an atypical representation of male identity, and far more complex that traditional representations.
Perhaps the most atypical representation of female identity is Julie, however. While previous hegemonically presented gender roles would see women in their late-20’s and early 30’s as mothers and housewives, Julie bucks the trend by being a complicated and difficult to understand character. While Julie has stereotypically French features and a slim build, she is presented, through her lack of makeup and through her lack of sexualisation as not hegemonically attractive. In a sense, she forms a binary opposition with the sexually objectified Lena. Van-Zoonen argues that gender is encoded through media language. Julies oversized jumpers and popped collars are both stereotypically masculine and resit sexualisation through not flattering her form. Her lack of discernible make-up demonstrates to the audience that she is both subversive, atypical and does not conform to female standards of hegemonic attractiveness.
In a pivotal scene, Julie is stalked by victor, the ‘creepy child’ so very conventional of the horror genre. The threat of the scene is anchored through the proairetic code of the setting, as Julie makes her way back through the intricate mise-en-scène of run-down concrete roads and imposing, concrete buildings. Audiences aware of the horror genre and its conventions will be expecting a jump scare or something else appropriate.
However, Julie completely rejects these stereotypical associations. As she looks out of the window of her flat, the audience positioned with her and through a high angled extreme long shot of her stalker, Julie does not scream, but instead simply intone “what’s he doing out so late?”. This atypical representation of femininity is important for audiences watching this show. As a non-sexualised, powerful and capable young woman, Julie gives young female audiences a character to relate to and look up to. Her complicated and nuanced representation also confirms that Les revenants is a niche show, aimed at a cult audience. A more commercially viable show would have sexualised Julie in order to appeal to a heterosexual male audience, as Van-Zoonen argues, the sole function of women in a media product is to be the focus of a heterosexual male gaze.
Yet not every representation is quite as atypical and subversive. The character of Joe, the father, presents a stereotypical and old-fashioned representation of male identity. For example, in a telling scene when Laura returns from a business trip, she is greeted with a montage of the mise-en-scène of messy shoes and an untidy house. That Joe cannot keep order and tidiness reinforces that there is a binary opposition between men and women, and his performativity of gender actually necessitates employing a hyperreal woman, Anita, in order to help him sort his life out. While he is not a main character by any stretch of the imagination, he is one of several straightforward representations of male identity in Humans, which only emphasises how much more challenging the representations of female identity are in this show.
In conclusion, I have explored how both Humans and Les Revenants present subversive and atypical representations of the typical and ‘ideal’ male and female identities that audiences are familiar with. Gauntlets’ assertion is clearly applicable here, though it is worth noting that both Humans and Les Revenants are atypical, cult shows appealing to a smaller and more enthusiastic audience. While Van Zoonen argued that the female body is used to position and to pleasure heterosexual male audiences, we also see examples of sexualisation here, most notably the characters of Niska and Lena in Humans and Les Revenants respectively. However, both shows present complicated and profound messages about the ideal types of female representations and identities in particular, and both shows present a challenging and highly allegorical experience for their cult target audiences.
Teacher Example 2
Jean Baudrillard suggested that “We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.” Evaluate the extent to which this postmodernist statement applies Humans and Les Revenants
Jean Baudrillard was a postmodern media theorist, who argued that the modern world was far too confusing to make any sense of, and therefore that we were now living in a world without any meaning. This alarming statement is best summed up by his notion of hyperreality. Simply put, given that we are bombarded with so many ‘fake’ and highly constructed representations of reality, we are as a society unable to differentiate between reality and fiction. Ultimately, we choose instead to embrace the hyperreal, and to forget the confusing real which has been erased. I shall argue that we do indeed live in a world where there is more information than ever, and that media products have developed their ideological perspectives in order to reflect this confusing reality. In order to explore this thesis, I shall explore Human, a sci-fi TV show first broadcast by Channel 4 in 2005, itself a remake of the Swedish show Real Humans, and Les Revenants, a highly atypical horror show first broadcast in France by canal+ in 2012, once more a remake of a film of the same name.
Humans focuses on the lives of cyborgs and their owners. Set in an alternative present day Britain almost completely like our own, the cult, middle aged and middle class target audience are at once bombarded by a complicated array of representations and ideological themes encoded by the producer. By far the most salient and affecting example of hyperreality is the character of Mia/Anita. A cyborg with a consciousness and an ability to feel empathy, Mia is kidnapped early on in the show’s complicated and non-linear narrative, and is purchased by the Hawkins family, themselves a hyperreal stereotype of middle class, middle England sensibilities. When Anita is first introduced to the household, her hyperreal beauty is demonstrated through the use of close-up. Her hair, subtle makeup and plain, yet appealing costume present her as a hyperreal representation of womanhood, both sexually alluring yet sexless and motherly. A closeup shot of the son, Toby, biting his lower lip in proairetic sexual arousal and Joe, the husband’s attention of Anita’s ’18 + plus sex mode’, here presented through the mise-en-scene of a small card, confirms Anita’s stats as a sexualised object as opposed to the full and complicated woman the omniscient audience knows her to be. In this sense, the audience are forced to make sense of a confusing an contradictory narrative, a highly typical aspect of postmodernism.
Anita’s status as hyperreal extends to the performance of her gender and how this profoundly affects the Hawkins family. On the first morning of her servitude, the family are seen emerging in to the stereotypically middle class setting of their living room to be confronted with a montage of mid-shots of the mise-en-scene of an idealised perfect breakfast. The youngest girl, herself obsessed with Anita as some kind of enormous doll playfully asks “is this a party”? to which Joe, the father replies “this is what breakfast is supposed to be like!”. This statement is both telling and important. Breakfast is clearly defined by its status as the first meal of the day. However, Joe is essentially admitting the real breakfasts that they have eaten previously have actually been fake, under par. Anita’s elaborate breakfast spread is ‘perfect’, with pots of jam, and rounds of toast, as reinforced through consistent mid-shots of the scene and setting. By presenting the Hawkins family with a hyperreal breakfast, Anita is demonstrating not only her ability to create a perfect and hyperreal event, but also the fact that she is a hyperreal woman. We can refer to Butlers notion of gender performativity here. Anita’s performativity as a perfect woman, both Madonna and whore (to refer to Freud) clearly upsets Laura, the ‘TV ugly’ mother, who presents a binary opposition to Anita through her hegemonically less attractive looks. Laura barks at Anita to get out of the way, to which Anita instantly does so. Mathilda, the daughter, is also aware of the power of Anita’s hyperreal performativity. After Toby defends her bullying of Anita (Matty calls her a ‘dishwasher’, a deliberately pejorative term denying her humanity), Matilda snaps back “I can guess why you like her so much, crusty sheets”.
The target audience watching this scene will be forced to negotiate a range of responses as according to Hall’s notion of audience reception. However, the number of roles that Anita plays (lover to Leo, sex object to Toby and Joe, sexual threat to Laura, dolly to the little girl and an object to torture for Matty) demonstrates exactly how complicated this representation really is. Humans is a deeply allegorical show, and it utilises this Baudrillardian notion of a lack of meaning and a deliberately confusing mode of address to present a complicated and even contradictory set of ideological values to its audience.
As we shall see, Les Revenants also dwells on sex as a key theme. Yet Humans presents sex in a complicated, atypical, and frankly horrifying way. In a final, short sequence, Niska, like Anita kidnapped and forced to do something against her will, takes the role of prostitute. Her costume is stereotypical, and the connotative symbolism of her red bustier and the highly performative gestures of her clasping her breast both confuse and entice the audience earlier. However, in her final sequence of the episode, Niska is raped by a punter, pushed down, and forced in to sex. She is demonstrated to lack agency. A slow tracking closeup of her face, moving ever closer to her pained eyes forces the heterosexual male target to empathise with her, and to question and feel disgust at the ways in which women are treated in a deeply misogynistic and patriarchally implemented hegemonic society. This scene is played within a larger montage where a diegetic, calm, male scientists voice assures the audience that synths (cyborgs) cannot feel pain and cannot have a consciousness. Niska’s expression, of course, presents the audience through diametric opposition with the harrowing truth that what we are being told is untrue. Without being able to trust the narrative, we are instead forced to embrace the hyperreal, and come to our own difficult conclusion through negotiation, a highly postmodern process.
Les Revenants demonstrates a similarly postmodern perspective, perhaps even more so that Humans. Les Revenants narrative is extremely atypical in the sense that, far from typical horror narratives, it presents a range of hermeneutic codes encoded within the media language, without ever explicating these for the audience. In short, Les Revenants arguably means nothing, and allows the audience an opportunity to negotiate it in any way they wish. It can be read as an extreme example of Jenkins theory that the audience have absolute authority in decoding the ideological perspective of the producer (completely shattering Gerbner’s early assertion that TV cultivates ideology in a straightforward way), and even harks back to Barthe’s much earlier ‘death of the author hypothesis’
An excellent example of Les Revenants deliberately confusing and highly postmodern story telling occurs in the final sequence. After confusingly announcing to the audience that the events that they are seeing are occurring four years earlier, a long take of the hyperreal representation of the setting of the Seurat families stereotypically middle-class household occurs. It is revealed, again through a static long take, that Camille, who is shortly to die before ‘coming back to life’ and Lena are actually identical twins, and are even interchangeable (“could you tell us apart”? Lena disturbingly whispers to her boyfriend during sex). The scene then goes on to cross cut between Lena losing her virginity and Camille, now on a coach to. A school tip, apparently feeling the effects of Lena loosing her virginity. The sex scene is controversial (both actors appear underaged) yet conservatively shot. The warm hues of Lena’s bedroom and the warm mise-en-scène of the sheets and the pink of her cheeks forms a binary opposition with the coldness of Camille’s situation. Bathed in blue and in a particularly unflattering and bulky costume, Camille begins to panic, screaming at the bus driver, and placing the audience in a deliberately uncomfortable mode of address. Suddenly, the mysterious victor, a child with an atypically old-fashioned haircut and strange, staring face is introduced in mid to close up. Once more he forms a binary opposition between the panicking Camille. As the coach plummets off the cliff, the audience are once more positioned with Camille in an intense yet also calm birds’ eye, extreme long shot first person tracking sequence, plummeting off the cliff. The hard cut to black is, of course, highly symbolic of death and finality.
In French, a colloquial term for ‘orgasm’ translates as ‘the little death. The audience, rightly confused by the extremely atypical and complicated turn of events are forced to rely on symbolism to make sense of an arguably nonsensical story. Les Revenants certainly does not have mainstream appeal. Its cult audience is small yet devoted, and, in order to be financed, the show was in part funded by the unlikely source of the French Alps tourist board. Once more, the extremely complicated, deliberately controversial, upsetting and potentially meaningless narrative of Les Revenants functions as a postmodern product, criticising and creating entertainment from a world that has lost all meaning.
Baudrillard argued "We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.” Throughout Humans and Les Revenants, we see irrefutable examples of this. From the complexity and meaninglessness of Les Revenants narrative, to the complicated and conflicting representations of gender performativity in humans, the audience are forced to confront a world they do not quite understand. However, in each instance, a highly allegorical meaning is constructed through hermeneutics. Both shows reflect on the nature of life, love, sex, death, and how all are linked. While it may be true that we live in a world too complicated to understand, both shows impart to the viewer that, conversely, we can still make sense of the world through certain universal truths, no matter how meaningless things seem.
Student example 1
Jean Baudrillard suggested that “We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.” Evaluate the extent to which this postmodernist statement applies Humans and Les Revenants
Jean Baudrillard’s theory of Post Modernism suggests the boundaries between the real world and the world of the media have collapsed and it is no longer possible to distinguish what is reality and what is simulation. As a result of this, we are in a situation where pieces of media seem more ‘real’ than the reality they supposedly represent. This is also referred to as hyperreality. I will be arguing that both Humans an Les Revenants portray many aspects of post modernism
Moreover, hyperreality in ‘Humans’ is conveyed through Anita as she can be seen as the ‘perfect mum’ to Sophie rather than Laura who is her actual mother. Anita is constructed as a hyperreal person through the mis en scene of her voice as when she reads to Sophie it is done with an element of enthusiasm and enjoyment. Sophie herself clearly prefers Anita as she constantly asks for her to read rather than her own mother. During the breakfast scene, Anita constructs a hyperreal breakfast, one of which the audience would not have been able to relate to. She has all the elements of a full breakfast laid out onto the table and the families dismay is evident as soon as they walk in. They all seemed shocked to actually be having breakfast together at a table, which is another example of the fake being better than the real, as it can be argued that the mis en scene of the food on the table is simply aesthetics rather than real physical emotions. We are placed in a voyeuristic manner within this scene as it is almost as if we are physically at the table. This is a simulation of a stereotypical family breakfast.
Adding on, Anita’s stereotypical, hegemonically attractive persona allows her to be placed as a very own hyperreal exploitation as synths can do no wrong. In the ‘real’ world humans are accustoms to making mistakes as this is part of life so placing Anita as this robotic ‘angel’ creates a post modernistic interpretation among her. Joe might actually prefer Anita to Laura due to the very fact that she isn’t real which makes the narrative of the series extremely hard to follow. The producer has done this deliberately to amplify the effects in which post modernism is having amongst society today. This is what Baudrillard argued within his theory that we do indeed get mixed up between what is real and fake. The diegetic sound of Anita’s voice presents a hyperreal representation of women and is almost setting standards of how women should behave and act, Anita herself could be an allegory for everything that is wrong with the world and maybe her schizophrenia type personalities could represent how some people within society put up a front. Anita and Joe’s sex scene is particularly uncomfortable for the middle aged, working class target audience as Joe is having intercourse with a helpless ‘person’. This is a proairetic code as the mis en scene of Joe placing the other 18 card into his back pocket earlier on in the episode prepares the audience for this particularly distressful event. Baudrillard’s statement that we live in a world of more and more information and less and less meaning is constructed throughout this episode of Humans and atypical narrative agrees with this ideology.
Les revenants also abides to Baudrillard’s theory of post modernism as it is constantly representing hyperreal situations through the use of hermeneutic codes. The mis en scene of Lena’s white dress in her sex scene connotes youth and purity and is again, like Humans, an uncomfortable scene for the audience as Lena is a young girl and the target audience is middle aged. Whilst this is going on, Camille is experiencing a lot of pain, seemingly perhaps a panic attack and it is clear she is in trouble through the mis en scene of her panicked face. Perhaps here the producer is connoting that even if sex is enjoyable whilst it is ongoing, it can only really bring one element. Pain. Moreover, a diametric opposition is formed through the blue coach and the purple sheets when Lena is having sex. A polysemic meaning is that Camille is acting out what Lena is feeling and this can be directly linked to Judith Butlers theory of gender performativity where she argues identity is a performance which is constructed through a series of acts and expressions that we carry out. Once more, the voyeuristic bird eye view. close up shot of Lena and her boyfriend allows the audience to be positioned as if we are actually there whilst they’re getting intimate. A post modernistic interpretation of sex is being acted out here as it is shown in a light which makes it seemingly unbelievable and a must have thing in life.
Victors stalking of Julie is both eerie but yet somewhat the audience feels sympathy as his character is so young. These multiple genre conventions form generic hybridity which allows the producer to manipulate the audience. Baudrillard argued that audiences are bombarded with images which no longer refer to anything real. Julie conforms to this as the mis en scene of her looking out the window and the long shot of Victor in the grass conveys she does not believe what she is seeing and therefore she may perhaps be seeing a simulation.
To conclude, both Humans and Les Revenants agree with Jean Baudrillard’s theory of post modernism as they construct hyperreal situations and events within society. They also create a world where the fake is better than the real.
Student example 2
Liesbet Van-Zoonen argues that media language encodes how male and female characters act in media products. Explore how representations position the audience in Humans and Les Revenants
Humans
Liesbet Van Zoonen’s theory can be applied to Humans and les Revenants as we can explore how gender is constructed through the codes and conventions in the media product. She argues that female characters are placed in a media product to appeal to a heterosexual male audience, as the representations of women and men are constructed and portrayed in different ways which changes the position of the audience and how they view that character. Humans is a sci fi TV show that that was broadcasted in 2015 and it stems from the Swedish show, and Les revenants is a thriller TV show that is French. I agree with Liesbet Van Zoonens theory and I will argue that both Humans and Les Revenants use subversive representations of women which will sometimes position the audience in uncomfortable positions and make the audience feel on edge.
In the show Humans, there is a clear representation of women that the producers want to show which is first shown through the narrative construction, for example towards the beginning of the episode the Hawkins family go to a shop to buy a synth (robot) and the youngest daughter says “What if she is not pretty?” which links back to Liesbet Van Zoonens theory of the ‘Male gaze’ that a female character is placed in a media product for the male audience. The daughters own naïve and childish expectations position the audience and force them to construct their own expectations. There is also a representation of Asia women that is shown as Anita is played by an East Asian woman in both the original and British version and this fulfils the stereotype of subversive, dosmesticity and exotic sexuality as the mise-en-scene- of her simple makeup and perfectly straight hair portrays a hegemonically attractive woman that will appeal to a male audience. When Anita is unveiled, it is anchored through a heavenly 'boot up' noise emphasising her status as pure which is also encoded through her ‘start up’ process as she is portrayed to be brand new. The ‘boot up’ noise can also interpret to be sexualised as she is innocent and positions the audience to almost comfort Anita. Anita functions as a threat for the mother as throughout their attractiveness is compared and there are threats of colonialism, she is also seen as a sexual object for the son and for her Husband Joe which encodes the meaning that women are seen as sexual objects. This can be shown when joe casually flirts with Anita, which shows that audience that he is attracted to her which initially makes the audience question Joe as she is at this point just a ‘synth’, this also shows a negative representation of men from the way Joe gazes at Anita as commits to the stereotype that men only want one thing.
Throughout the media product, narrative construction encodes how the characters are portrayed, this can be shown as Anita is referred to as a ‘she’, showing gender performativity and personification. The preferred reading for the audience is to see Anita as a compelling, and interesting character, however there is an Intradiagetic gaze as the characters view Anita in different ways depending on the gender role, For, example Matty with hatred and frustration and the son with undisguised lust she is referred to “crusty sheets’ which has connotations to a typical teenage boy. This position the audience in a weird and uncomfortable manor as the son views Anita as some type of ‘sex toy’. Anita adopts the role of both a maid and a mother which is controversial in the show, this is shown when the mother says “she’s not a slave” and Matty replies with “that’s exactly what she is”, this deliberately positions the audience on either side of the debate, and to select and ideological perspective.
In Humans it explores the way women are treated in society which is allegorical and, in the ending, there is a close up shot of Niska’s face (when she is in a brothel), the montage positions the audience in a deliberately uncomfortable position. This can also be shown in Les revenants which conforms to Liesbet van Zoonens argument, this is evidence in the sex scene with Lena and her boyfriend, the Birds eye view close up of Lena and her boyfriend positions us with them, which feels uncomfortable and weird, positioning us is a voyeuristic way. This is also anchored through the use of low-key lighting which connotes intimacy, privacy and ultimately, sex and this is contrasted with the mid-shot of Lena wearing a white vest top which represents purity and virginity. This also deliberately positions the audience with the character and acts as a direct mode of address and Lena in this scene is portrayed to be a young teenager as Lena pulling a ‘sickie’ to sneak in her boyfriend positions the audience in a relatable moment. A polysemic meaning is used to encode how the female characters act in this media product as Camille (other twin) is acting out what Lena is really feeling, showing gender performativity, this shows the idea that Lena is doing what she is meant to do whereas Camille is freaking out. Camille is at on the school bus when this is happening and the action of her almost gasping for air, positions the audiences in a distressing way, as her reacting like that takes away the stereotype that sex is meant to be for pleasure not pain. At the beginning of the episode Camille’s entrance is emphasized a through stereotypical horror film soundtrack, and it represents a generic cliché that young girls are threatening and creepy which makes the audience question how females are presented. In response to the question i agree with Lisbet Van Zoonen's argument.
Student example 3
Liesbet Van-Zoonen argues that media language encodes how male and female characters act in media products. Explore how representations position the audience in Humans and Les Revenants
As a collective, Lisbet Van Zoonen argues that gender is constructed through encodes and conventions of media products, and the idea of what male/female is changes over a period of time. In this essay, I will be exploring how representations of different genders positions the target audience in different ways. I will further be demonstrating my ideological perspective through analysing Humans, a stereotypical TV sci-fi genre and Les Revenants, an unconventional horror genre tv show (aired on Cannel +). Positioning can be defined as where the audience are placed within a media product.
In Humans (Leo enters the brothel), the scene starts with Leo situated in a bleak setting, this is demonstrated through mise-en-scene of the low developed setting and low key lighting. The straight cut from Anita reading a story to the brothel scene acts as a diametric opposition, therefore from the start of the scene, the audience is already positioned in an uncomfortable way, thus forming an eased mode of address. In the key scene, Niska (played by Emily Berrington) is emphasising her breasts which is a form of sexualisation, this shows a stereotypical representation of a hegemonically attractive female. Additionally, throughout the episode Leo (played by Collin Morgan) represents a strong dominant male, however when he meets Niska he breaks characters as they are happy to see each other. The mise-en-scene of Leo's dark green clothing acts a symbolic code for the reason that it has military connotations, emphasising his power. Although happy to see each other, it is clearly evident that Leo has dominance over Niska, potentially showing patriarchal hegemony. Through Leo showing his emotions, it is an example of gender performativity which was implemented by Jude Butler. This effects the audience as it makes them question the representation of Leo as he is shown as a dominant male up until this point. It can be concluded that the preferred reading of this scene is unpleasant and disturbing.
A key scene that shows significant representations and places the audience within the media product is the Simon and Adele scene.The mid-shot of Adele's shouting and crying is symbolic as it shows her feelings, this positions the audience through making us feel sympathetic. Furthermore the non-diegetic soundtrack, produced by a band called Mogwai, combined with the low key lighting functions as a proairetic code as it foreshadows something bad will happen to her. In combination of all these elements, the mise-en-scene of Adele's white dress acts as a symbolic code as it has a deeper meaning of innocence and purity. A binary opposition is created through Adeles feminine white dress and Simon's dark, black suit. The black suit demonstrates that Simon is a strong yet potentially dangerous character, therefore the representation of Simon is of a stereotypical man and Adele is represented as a stereotypical woman. Consequently, this positions the audience in a satifactory place because it makes the target audience easily relate to the characters, however a combination of Simon's aggressive banging on the door and Adele crying acts as a hermeneutic code. The audience are placed in a confusing position through this. This relates to Lisbet Van Zoonen's theory as men and women are being represented differently within a media product.
Furthermore, a scene in humans that agin represents gender differently and positions the audience to make judgements on gender is in the breakfast scene. In this scene, the representation of family and women are particularly fundamental. Anita herself is a hyper-real construction. Gemma Chan who plays Anita is a more hegemonically attractive than Laura, this forms a powerful diametric opposition, a theory adapted by Claude-Levis Strauss, through demonstrating what is expected of a stereotypical female and what subverts it. While the mise-en-scene of Laura's facial features blemishes, the make up used on Anita enhances her facial features and is clearly used to show she is the more widely accepted female in society. When promoted by Joe the father, Anita reacts with a fake, empty and repetitive laugh. Through this Anita reinforces patriarchal hegemony. This positions the audience in a creeped out and irritated way as women in this scene are represented as potentially annoying and men as quite simple and basic.
Lastly, a scene in Les Revenants where representations are being subverted and atypical to position the audience is the Mr Costa killing scene. Producers can use subversive representations to manipulate the ideologies of the audience. In this scene, the high angle shot of Mrs Costa infers the power and strength that Mr Costa has over Mrs Costa. This potentially infers that the hyper-real small town in the Alps live in a society where patriarchal hegemony is evident. Moreover, the rope anchors the audience to show she is vulnerable and represents her as being weak, this positions the audience as wanting to help her but as a collective we can't do anything. However, it can argued that this is a fairly atypical and subversive response from Mrs Costa as she is not struggling to get out of the rope. This may symbolically suggest that in our modern day society, men have a dominance over women. Therefore it may be argued that this is an allegory. As a whole, through this, manipulating the audience through showing the producers ideologies makes it easier for the media product to sell. The only reason why any media product exits is too make money.
In conclusion, through the producer constructing complicated representation in both Les Revenants and Humans, it adapts as a whole an uncomfortable mode of address. It would make most audiences disturbed however it may be for this reason why the targeted audience may return to continue watching more episodes. This being a highly effective strategy to make more sales and money.
Student example 4
Liesbet Van-Zoonen argues that media language encodes how male and female characters act in media products. Explore how representations of genders position the audience in Humans(Stereotypical representation of women) and Les Revenants(the same as Humans)
To begin, Van Zoonen believes that women are used in any media products to appeal to the stereotypical hegemony of society that that media product is representing. In my overall opinion, I believe that representation of genders are portrayed stereotypically to the hegemonic norm of a patriarchal society before everyone was treated equally.
For Humans, it’s displays women in a very stereotypical way. Such example of this is Anita in Humans, she is being portrayed as a house-wife or maid, doing the dishes, laundry, cooking and always says to Laura Hawkins that she was built to serve. What makes this fit to the Zeitgeist of women in the 1960’s is the intertextuality of Humans, such as the Women magazine. We can associate Anita’s actions with how women were treated when society was more patriarchal then egalitarian. For the audience, they are positioned by making Anita the main character of the story. Examples that put her as the main character includes marketing such as posters, and her flashback in episode 1, season 1, when Leo loses her when she gets kidnapped. Meaning that she has a key importance to Leo who also is portrayed as important in the plot of Humans. With the audience knowing that she is the main character means that the producer wants the preferred reading to be that the audience follows her story as she seems to be the spine of episode 1, season 1. With this we can consider that the representations of the female gender in Humans is that they are treated as a household object, as she is forced to do all the house cleaning and cooking etc. An example of this objectification can be when Laura Hawkins calls her ‘you’re just a stupid machine’ with Anita replying ‘yes Laura’. For the audience, they are meant to feel sympathy for Anita and also feel like they’re in the same position, to feel angered by how the Hawkins family treats her such as Matty saying that she is a slave. Concluding that for Lisbet Van Zoonen’s theory, this can be considered that females match the hegemony of society, however this is more directed towards the 1960’s when women were portrayed more as house-wives, this suggests that the show Humans is an allegory, with Van Zoonen stating that women are still portrayed to appeal to a male heterosexual audience. With Humans being Anita’s story, the preferred reading is for the audience to associate themselves to Anita the most as she is the one found on all the marketing for the TV show. And with how the Hawkins family treat her, makes the audience feel bitter towards anyone else who treats her badly.
Additionally, Les Revenants follows the same format of following the portrayal of men and women stereotypically. To begin, the best scene to describe how each gender is represented is the diametric opposition between Adele in her white wedding dress, low-key lighting and being indoors, with Simone in his black suit, dark lighting and being outside. One mid-shot of this scene is when Adele collaspes against the front door, this is symbolic of her misery and her lost of sanity after Simone had supposedly died ten years before the tv show is set. The mise-en-scene of the high angle view makes her seem isolated, exposed, alone and weak which follows the stereotypical hegemony of society in the 1960's.
Furthermore, Humans also follows stereotypes of women but in another fashion as well as a house-wife. Theorist Sigmund Freud suggested that men, during his time, perceived women in one of two categories. He coined this the Madonna/ Whore complex, stating that women can either be a virgin, motherly, all caring, benevolent carer with great beauty or rather a whore, a character that craves intercourse, mostly prostitutes who want money. In this case Anita’s house-wife actions are contrasted by Niska, another synth in Humans. She also kidnapped and becomes a robotic prostitute. In episode 1 of season 1, Niska is portrayed as a whore according to Sigmund Freud. For one the mise-en-scene of the brothel when the character Leo enters it has high connotations to how women are represented. For one, Niska is wearing a stereotypical sex worker costume. Each prostitute is numbered, and not called by their real name, Leo says to the brothel owner that he’ll ‘have number 7’, which objectifies Niska and women as a whole yet again. Each prostitute is also in their own chamber as if they are in a zoo, being treated like animals, aka being treated as if they had lower status in society than men. Furthermore, the soundtrack of the brothel scene also makes it sound like an uninviting place to be in, the audience at this point follows Leo as he snakes around the brothel to find Niska, making us feel uncomfortable to be in the brothel. This follows Van Zoonen and Freud’s theories, that women are portrayed to be appealing to the male-gaze, or rather that media sexualises women; and that with the soundtrack making the audience feel uncomfortable with its exploitive nature demonstrates Freud’s belief that men portray the whore of the Madonna/Whore complex as scary and uncaringful, and the soundtrack follows this. This diametric opposition between Anita’s house-wife attitude and the objectification of synths in the brothel demonstrates Freud’s simple complex.
For the audience in this scene they follow Leo around the brothel could possibly show a rather atypical response but also stereotypical response on women. For atypical, Leo feels uncomfortable around the women, suggesting that he is fearful and unmanly, this of course is atypical to the stereotype that men are not afraid of anything and are brave, and with the audience being forced to follow him around the brothel, makes them feel uncomfortable to be around the women. This follows the stereotypical response that women that follow the whore part of the complex can be considered untrustworthy and scary. This can tie in to Stuart Hall’s reception theory, he states that when an audience is given a media product, they give three response to that product. For the producers preferred reading, he wants the audience to feel uncomfortable around the brothel, demonstrating an allegory that women should not be sexualised like this, following Van Zoonen’s theory but also tying in to how Freud’s theory demonstrates how wrong the whore is. For oppositional reading, this can be that women should be perceived to have a lower status in society and disgusting according heterosexual men, which Van Zoonen theory follows.