Representation contexts and television

 Revision:  theories of representation

bell hooks – Feminism is for everybody. Feminism can benefit all genders by removing stereotypical assumptions. Intersectional feminism: working class, gay disabled women have a different experience to other women. It is complex and political. Race class, gender, ability etc can determine how we are discriminated against, not just our sex! Intersectional feminism is the agreement that every trait affects each other. A black disabled working class lesbian clearly has a different experience to other women. Feminism is for everybody!

Judith Butler – Gender identity is constructed through the acts we repeat every day, called gender performance. Gender is a social construct. Gender performativity is how our performance of gender has an effect on the world around us. For example, Lena’s reaction to Simon entering the pub is a perfect example of gender performativity. Gender performance: our gender is performed by repeated acts. Gender is a social construct, and it means nothing. However, gender has performativity. It affects the world around us. A perfect example is Lena’s lustful response to Simon. Gender is complicated.  

Paul Gilroy – Othering. Certain groups of people are presented as other: presented differently to a hegemonic norm. E.g. Black people constructed as side characters, violent, 2 dimensional, the black best friend, the comic relief. A hierarchy in our society has been constructed. Some groups are even omitted entirely… Postcolonial attitudes have constructed a hierarchy where white people are in a position of power. PoC are routinely othered. For example, black people are often represented as criminals, comic relief, wise and noble, and not the main characters. Other groups that are othered include other minorities

Julie and subversive constructions of gender

• Explain Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity. Use The Returned to support your response. [15]
• How useful are feminist theories for analysing the representations in the set editions of Black Mirror and The Returned? Refer to at least one of the following theories in your response:• van Zoonen’s feminist theory• bell hooks’ feminist theory [30]
• To what extent are the representations in this episode you have studied typical or subversive?

1 - At home

• An establishing shot of the social housing estate where Julie lives instantly constructs her as working class. Social housing often has connotations of crime, violence and deprivation. Through intertextual, the audience has learned to associate the MES of grey concrete with crime. However, we cut to the interior of Julie’s flat, which is cosy, inviting. The MES of stacks of books and a teapot construct a reality of a binary opposition between Julie's sophistication and the place she lives. Julie’s representation rejects lazy stereotypes, constructing a complex representation. This is further complicated by the film Julie is watching, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which provides the audience with valuable information about Julie: she is normal, relatable, complex. She lives alone and watches violent horror movies: an atypical representation of gender. 
• Julie is dressed in a baggy, scruffy jumper, her oversized glasses, her popped collar, her slightly baggy jeans. Julie has dressed for comfort above style. Her performance and costume are clearly not to be looked at: she subverts the male gaze through her loose fitting costume and casual attitude.
• It exists as a binary opposition to the highly constructed and performative femininity of Claire
• By including a character that doesn’t perform femininity, the producers of the show make a daring claim that being stereotypically feminine is not the default mode for women, and a range of complex gender presentations can be included. 
• Julie provides the target audience a complex mix of stereotypically masculine and feminine stereotypes, providing audiences with a role model of alternative female identity. 
• Julie’s performance is blunt and dismissive. She tells Mr Costa to “calm down” in a flat and professional way. She is unwilling initially to leave the flat, shrugging in an annoyed manner. She is professional and medically knowledgeable, working into the night to help her patient. 
• We begin with an establishing shot of a social housing estate, which has connotations of poverty and crime. It is symbolic of working class identity and instantly constructs Julie as a working class woman. We cut to an interior slow PoV tracking shot entering Julie’s living room. The soundtrack of atmospheric noises positions the audience in a tense mode of address, proairetically suggesting that there is imminent danger. However, it is revealed that Julie is lying on a sofa watching a violent horror film: the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This infers that she is a fan of horror films, yet is calm and unaffected by them. The blue light of the television barely lights the room, yet here it connotes comfort and relaxation. The Flat is cluttered yet cosey, filled with stacks of books on every surface, connoting that Julie is intelligent and educated, constructing a complex representation of working class women. 
• Julie’s costume is casual. She wears a baggy jumper, a dress shirt, and slightly baggy distressed jeans. Her outfit is not stereotypically feminine, yet instead demonstrates a casual performance of gender, Julie wears functional clothes. Yet her baggy costume rejects the stereotypical notion of women as spectacle. Her costume does not reveal any aspect of her body. She is completely unobjectified. Her glasses are symbolically nerdy, a character trait that is reinforced through other media, and helps communicate o the audience her complex character. A process of intertextual relay.
• Julie’s performance as she talks with Costa is professional, yet also blunt and terse. She seems vaguely annoyed, yet she is helpful. She uses an educated lexis. A home help is a stereotypically feminine job, yet he manner is subversive. 
• Julie’s performance of gender can appeal to a variety of audiences. People with a similar profession will find the representation appealing and empowering. We may also take pleasure at Julie’s assertiveness, and the fact that she does not become a victim, challenging gender stereotypes. Intersectional feminism. 
• Julie forms a binary opposition with Claire, helping to reinforce her character. 
• She provides the confidence with a concrete frame of understanding, calm, yet also assertive and knowledgeable. 

2- Julie comes home

• This montage uses a number of elements which provide intertextual relay to the horror genre. This not only positions the audience within the expectations of the horror film, but also helps to construct Julie as an atypical, relatable woman.
• Horror conventions throughout this sequence include the creepy victor lying just out of view, the dark, isolated setting, and a lone, vulnerable female protagonist. However, subversively, Julie is not worried or perturbed by this situation, suggesting she has done this many times before. Her representation as a tough working class women is complex and subversive, while also being completely relatable. 
• The setting is dark, but also completely lit: a binary opposition. The artificial lighting constructs an unglamourous, working class reality for Julie. She forms a binary opposition with the upper middle class lifestyle of the Seurat family, allowing the show to target a range of audiences.
• In one striking shot, an OS shot from Julie’s living room, we see victor in ELS HA, a stereotypical horror convention. The child Victor in the night-time scene forms a terrifying binary opposition, that positions the audience in a sense of dread. However, Julie’s reaction is understated. “What is he doing here”. “Hello, can I help”. Here, Julie’s blunt performance ounce more subverts the hegemonic expectation of maternal instincts
• Julie’s neighbour, Mme Payet serves as a  binary opposition to Julie’s performance of gender. Mme Payet is intrigued by the developments in Julie’s life, and attempts to form a friendship with her based on their gender. However, Julie sees her as an uncomfortable inconvenience. She stands far too close to Julie, she is sexually inappropriate and oversteps her boundaries. Mme Payet wears a revealing robe, which again contrasts with Julie’s costume, and helps construct a reality where to be a woman is complex.
• The entire sequence is not only highly conventional, but functions as a cliché of horror films. Examples of cliches include the creepy little kid, the spooky soundtrack, the very low key lighting, and the creepy, isolated setting. However, Julie reacts to this horror with complete indifference. She does not look around in a paranoid manner, and she does not appear afraid in any way. In horror films, women are routinely stereotype as terrified victims. Yet even reacting to the episode’s most frightening moment, Victor standing alone in the grass, Julie merely reacts with ‘what’ he doing here?’
• For Julie, being in this environment is routine and depressing rather than scary, constructing a relatable mode of address for a working class audience 
• The poster for a low budget horror film creates a contrast between the sophisticated fear of Les Revenants and the trashy horror of what is being advertised. 
• Julie is scruffy. Her hair is scruffy, which rejects feminine stereotypes. Her jacket is unflattering, yet Julie provides the audience with an alternative and complex representation of femininity. 

While this episode features a lack of ethnic diversity, there are examples of sociocultural othering. Victor is constructed as other, different, strange and creepy. Children in horror films are a popular convention as they are unpredictable. They lack reason, guidance and structure. Victor standing outside the flat is a perfect example of a binary opposition, and of othering. It constructs children as being different, other and abject

Explore how representations in the set episode of The Returned may position audiences. [15]

Audience positioning: how the audience are placed in a media product, by the producer. This can be used to align the audience with certain characters, ideologies and emotions.

Simon and Lena walk home 

Genre codes and conventions 

Genre theory 

Genre fluidity

Camera work - framing and composition shot types, angle, position, movement 

Lighting and colour

Editing – pace, type of edits, continuity

Narrative construction, related to narrative theory

Sound – dialogue, music

Mise-en-scene – setting and location, props, costume/dress, hair/make-up

• A further complex representation of gender can be found in the scene just ten minutes later, where Simon is walked home by Lena. This helps to position the target audience in a number of intriguing and relatable ways. 
• The setting and scenario is highly relatable to the teenage target audience. The MES of the streetlights create a relatable and convincing representation of a suburban street scene. The dialogue is terse, stunted, and positions the target audience with Lena
• Lena asks Simon a range of questions, partly because she is interested in him, and she wishes to sleep with him. However, these characters are mismatched and awkward. Simon always walks a few paces in front of her, which subverts the idea that he is well-mannered and gentlemanly. However, this performance of gender has a very real affect on Lena, who appears to be more interested in him as the walk continues
• The couple form a binary opposition, not only in terms of costume and appearance, but also in terms of personality. Additionally, Lena is taller than Simon, subverting the hegemonic expectation within TV that the male will be taller than the female counterpart. Lena on the other hand wears a casual and complex, and constructs a complex representation of women .
• Lena shouts ‘de rien, connard’ (thanks for nothing, motherfucker!), a subversive response that contradicts stereotypical representations of women. Lena’s sexual frustration may be relatable for the target audience who have positioned themselves with Lena, and may wish to see the voyeuristic fantasy of Lena have sex with Simon.

Simon meets Lena in the Lake Pub

• Simon’s character is constructed through his stressed, anxious and determined performance. He is interested in one thing, his fiancé. In fact, the relaxed and attractive environment of the Lake Pub does not interest Simon, who’s nervous performance sees him scan around the room, desperately looking for Adele.
• Simon is hegemonically attractive. He is masculine, with mid length curly scruffy hair, and a suit with an unbuttoned, un-ironed shirt. This demonstrates his relaxed, carefree attitude, which may appeal to a heterosexual female audience. In fact, Simon is sexualised and even objectified through his attractive appearance and slightly revealing costume. This flips and subverts Van Zoonen’s assumption that women are surely used as spectacle, as clearly, the tracking shot encourages the audience to gaze on Simon.
• This ideology is reinforced through Lena’s performance, where she gazes at Simon with undeniable lust. In fact, Lena performatively and assertively shoes away her would-be- boyfriend in order to drink with Simon and take him home. Seeing her as vulnerable, the boyfriend seeks to protect her, yet lena shoes him away, reinforcing her confidence in handling this situation. 
• In this sequence, we are clearly aligned and positioned with Lena, and forced to gaze on Simon as an object of sexual desire. This is reinforced through the use of mid shot in the conversation scene, that focuses on Simon’s revealing costume, and constructs Lena as being modestly and even slightly masculine in her appearance. 
• The representation of gender in LR is highly unconventional, and helps the show to appeal to a younger audience of as similar age to Lena, who will take pleasure in her carefree and fun representation. This not only suggests that representations of gender have changed over time, but also suggests that they have become meaningless: a very postmodern conclusion
• Simon is constructed as a hegemonically attractive yet also sophisticated young man. This sophistication is constructed through his costume. His suit is clean, black, timelessly stylish. However, his formal attire constructs a binary opposition with the setting. Simon is not wearing a tie, and has several buttons undone, constructing a sexually objectified representation of young men. This sexualised representation of a young men reflects a dominant hegemonic representation of masculinity.
• Simon enters the pub, constructed with a tracking shot, instantly positioning the audience with Simon. However, Simon’s determination can be off-putting, He is blunt, he is rude, he is forceful. He therefore additionally functions as a spectacle for the heterosexual female audience 
• Simon’s performance is clipped, rude and forceful. He speaks in slang (ouais instead of oui), and his broody, standoffish representation is constructed through his lack of eye contact and complete lack of small talk. He is solely interested in one person: Adele, his finance. This representation of loyalty and romance is somewhat atypical for the representation of a young man, and positions…
• Lena, however, is purely interested in Simon, sexually. Lena is forward, confident and flirtatious. She laughs, makes eye contact, and leans in to Simon. We can read this representation as a stereotypical construction of a teenage girl, who will appeal to and position the female target audience with her. She provides the audience with the potential to adopt her identity, and to take inspiration from her confidence 
• The scene positions multiple audiences through the hegemonically attractive central characters. The setting of the pub stereotypically aligns younger audience, and provides the audience with an escapist fantasy of friendship and sexual relations. 
• Van Zoonen argues that women’s bodies are used as a spectacle for heterosexual men. However, this sequence presents the highly unconventional ideology of Simon clearly not being interested in her. However, Lena gazes at Simon constantly, and does not hide her sexual desire. This intradiegetic gaze reinforces Simon’s function as a spectacle, once more creating a subversive and atypical representation of men.