How does the producer use representations and media language to construct a version of reality? Make reference to KOTV and The Vampire Lovers (1970s)
Knee jerk reaction
Both of these posters use a commination and female empowerment and sexualisation to represent women
Plan
Van zoonen
Colours
Binary oppositions
Violence
Sex
Sexualisation
Costumes
Revealing
Hegemonically attractive
Cleavage
Stuart Hall
Representation
Stereotypes
Font
Horror
Vampire
Genre conventions
Mise en scene
Setting
Intertextuality
Historical/period setting
Introduction
Representations reflect the ideology of the producer. When a producer constructs a media product, they are in effect reconstructing reality. In this essay, I shall argue that the producer of these posters uses a combination of sexualisation and empowerment in order to represent women. Ultimately, both posters present a stereotypical, straightforward representation of women .
Content
- Use of bright pink has a feminine and stereotypically female connotations, which may indicate a more empowered and nuanced representation of women in this film. This is further anchored through the mes of the vampire women, who are not chained up, and are beating a series of hegemonically attractive men and women. This could indicate that this film is attempting to target a female audience
- However, the colour pink here could also have polysemic connotations. The colour pink could also be symbolic of naked skin, which is anchored through the lexis of 'lovers'. This promise of naked women may appeal to a heterosexual male audience
- The colour of the female vampires skin is an unnatural green blue, which is a typical convention of the vampire genre. However, it could also be a convention of the zombie genre. By combining multiple genre conventions, the film may appeal to multiple audiences
- The MES of the man cowering away from the woman creates a binary opposition between him and the hegemonically attractive woman towering over him, creating a position of power and female dominance.
- There are many examples of fetishism and female domination (blimey!) in both of these posters, which may appeal to certain audiences . Sex sells, and is often a technique used to make films look more exciting than they actually are.
- Themes of sex are further anchored through the lexis of 'caution', which suggests potential nudity, and passion, which suggests explicit sex
- Women are consistently represented as sexualised, yet the representation may be a little more complicated. In many cases, we see women who are presented as demonic and threatening, which challenges gender norms and conceptions of being hegemonically attractive
- Audiences are also presented with a hegemonically attractive man in a highly sexualised position, with a big emphasis on the male victim's naked body. We can directly compare this to the representation of the male victim in the kiss of the vampire poster. Potentially the poster may appeal to a larger audience, including heterosexual women and also gay men