Feminist apporoaches to media studies

James Bond, Die another Day clip

The audience is positioned with James Bond. This is made clear by the pov shot through his binoculars, furthermore, there is a shot of the woman walking towards the camera as she her way to Bond. The focal point of this scene is the woman's figure, the audience gets to be a voyeur and take pleasure in her sexuality. This overall positions the audience as heterosexual males- the target audience.

The Male Gaze

This theory states that all media products are constructed exclusively for heterosexual men. Meaning that in texts the sole function of women is to be appealing to heterosexual men.

In the poster the woman is stripped down completely to her sexual appeal. Her face is completely invisible meaning the only part of her she can be represented by is her naked body and the word 'witch'. Diluting her personality immediately apart from the lexis 'the soul of a witch.' This represents women as people with intolerable personalities who should be ranked by their sexual appeal- this is visually represented by the view of her the audience is given.

The women on the poster is given power by the knife, however it is stated that this is a 'an Adult picture.' This suggests that when a women is given any form of power it is purely to be sexualised and appease heterosexual men. The audience is positioned behind the witch, with her walking away wielding a knife- barely covered by a tree. This makes her look extremely exposed and incapable of being a threat as she is walking in the direction away from her prey. This re-enforces the male gaze theory as she's not serving any purpose as a scare factor.


John Berger- 'Men act women appear.'

The intradiegetic gaze is where one character looks at another character.
The extradiegetic gaze is where the audience looks at a character.

Both gazes are potentially voyeuristic.

Key Theory 8- Feminist theory, Liesbet Van Zoonen.

Men's and women's bodies are encoded in completely different ways in media products and constructed through media language in completely different ways. Women's bodies are used as a spectacle to sell media products. Therefore the audience is assumed to always be a heterosexual man.

Objectification is the process of turning a human into an object.
Sexualisation is the process of seeing an individual in only sexual ways.

Hegemony is where one group wields power over another. Not through domination but through coercion and consent.

Hegemonic power
Restaurant rules
Hotel rules
School system
Going to someone's house
Being polite
Societal rules
Religion

Women in the media can be hegemonically attractive- what a women should strereotypically like.

Kiss of the vampire

Kiss of the vampire, textual analysis.

This poster uses codes and conventions to display immediately that it is part of the horror genre, The bats in the background connote darkness and act as a proairetic code, especially as they're increasing in size as they fly forward, building the sense that they're going to come out of the poster. This builds nerves in the audience and these nerves tell them that it's a horror movie before they recognise it completely themselves. The bats grow in size until they're bigger than the character's on the poster, this re-enforces that it will be a horror genre with supernatural themes, alongside the lexis vampire. Blood can be seen on the poster dripping from the film title, this blood is not only a convention of the horror genre and is a hermeneutic and proairetic code, but it almost breaks the fourth wall. The film title is not embedded with the action behind it. It uses a font with a black border which makes it appear to be further forward than the character's and separate from the actual film. By having blood dripping from this font it seems as though the blood isn't part of the movie, and is closer to the audience than the character's, bringing the danger to the audience. This use of layout also helps to create a symbolic code. The 'V' in the word 'VAMPIRE' reconstructs a vampire fang, a vampire's fang is stereo-typically recognised as it's key weapon and method of killing. By having this fang made out of the word vampire as well as being at the start of it vampire's are represented as only being cold-blooded killers with nothing more to offer. The colour of the font used looks like human bone and could be a symbolic code for death. Meaning that the 'kiss of the vampire' is death and will kill you. In the background of the poster there is a full moon, another convention for the genre of supernatural horror. There is a man knelt directly below the moon, he is covered in blood which suggests he has been injured and is in pain. He is being held back by a women who is joyful and in power. This is made clear by the bright gold dress she is wearing , the brightness connotes happiness and the gold connotes wealth, which is equivalent to power. The gender roles being subverted by a submissive man and dominant woman has a specialised effect on a 1963 English audience. As at that time society remained misogynistic, this creates an even more supernatural sense, which is re-enforced by the full moon directly above. 

Whilst some gender roles are subverted you can still clearly see many being followed. The women's costumes are an example of this. They are wearing revealing dresses with lots of skin being shown even though it is clearly nighttime and it is safe to assume it's very cold. This suggests that women's prime purpose is to be sexually appealing, not to take care of themselves. Both the women also wear high heels, despite the fact that in an emergency that's the last kind of footwear one would want to be wearing and the proairetic codes make it clear that it is an emergency. This suggests women are too stupid to be properly prepared. The lexis 'kiss' is stereotypically feminine, it makes the audience think that the women will be the ones engaging in kissing vampires. This makes them seem as though they lack common sense. The women's vulnerability is being fetishised, this is made clear by the way she titlts her

Genre

Genre is a type of media product. 

Film
horror
comedy
romance
drama
thriller
sci-fi
documentary
supernatural
slasher
romcom
coming of age
children
animated
action
adventure
fantasy
indie
non-fiction
horror-comedy
parody
satire
historical
war
musical
crime
period
anime
western

Music
pop
rb
drill
rap
classic
ballads
rock
metal
grind
house
alt
country
jazz
edm
acid house
metal
punk rock
indie
musical theatre
thme tune
soundtrack
backing track
synth wave
electro-swing
lofi
vapourwave
dubstep
reggae
latin
opera
raggaeton

Generic-fluidity is the way in which a genre changes over time.

Sub-genre is a genre within a genre, the notions of subgenre and generic hybridity are arguably more important than traditional genres. 

Genre paradigms make up genres and allow the audience to immediately recognise the genre, also known as genre conventions. Iconography is the familiar signs of the genre, such as a cowboy hat for a western movie.

Steve Neale, theories around genre
Key theory 3

Genre is repetition and difference over and over. Texts need to conform

Genre exists to attract a psychographic who want familiarity from codes and conventions, producers needing a sure-fire successful film benefit greatly from it as they know what an audience will want to watch. Likewise, audiences will be able to differentiate between films, knowing what fits their taste.

Wateraid and postcolonial identities.

Colonisation
The process of enforcing one's culture onto another country.

Berger suggests that an advert functions by selling the audience a lifestyle, but what lifestyle is being offered by the WaterAid advert?

To be happier and satisfied with ourselves as you get to help somebody in need. The empty landscape mise-en-scene with no cars or buildings exhibits the lack of advancement, encouraging people to donate. Her costume is also rather tattered and bare compared to first world countries.

The audience is positioned as middle British class people seeing Africa with Claudia. By donating the middle-class white demographic get to feel better about themselves when after being shown helpless African's feel responsibility. 

One criticism of the Binary opposition in this advert is that it creates a divide between 'them' and 'us'- this is called othering.

Paul Gilroy, theories around ethnicity and post-colonial. 
Key theory 11 

In his book 'ain't no black in the union jack' from 1987, Gilroy explored the uncertainty left in the UK following the death of colonialism. Though the British Empire collapsed Gilroy argues we still uphold many subtle racial predjudices- which are ideologically encoded in the media products. We are now living in a post colonial world- Gilroy theorises- where black and white represent a blunt and ideologically manipulative binary.

The use of close-up positions the audience in front of the girl, so close that they could help her. This makes the audience feel responsible for her and her struggles. There's a direct mode of address with the usage of eye contact and first-person lexis, this reinforces the sense of responsibility as the audience is being singled out and can't avoid the issues. The name 'Nancy' is very stereotypically British, it's a reminder of the colonisation Britain was responsible for. In addition, it makes it feel as though the consumer could be in their position and will identify instead of blaming her. Finally, it allows the audience to connect with her as she has a name they can recognise, instead of foreign name un-understandable to a British audience.

First Year Suspense Sequence

Editing

The assembling of footage to create a narrative.

Shot

An interrupted sequence of footage.

Mise-en-scene

Everything in a shot. i.e- setting, props, characters, hairstyles.

Camerawork

Low angle shot- camera below a subject, makes subject look powerful

High angle- camera above a subject, make subject look inferior 

Close-up- build tension, emphasise elements

Long shot- isolation, vulnerability/ show scenery 

Extreme close up- Very close, shows one feature

Positioning

The way in which a text locates members of the audience, one of the primary ways in which a producer can effect, challenge or involve the audience.

Montage

The way in which two shots are edited together to make meaning.

Film making- Waiting

Pressing button, is calm. Lift doesn't come down- gets more frantic. Lift finally arrives- dives in. Hand comes in to stop.

Identity

Representation- A construction of reality.

Pot noodle, slag of all snacks, female representation- Women have to appease men sexually to be good enough. Pot noodles represent rough sex- 'filthy'. Misogynistic. Re-enforces an extremely negative type of women for a target audience of working-class men. Also suggests men only think sexually and can't commit to a loving marriage.

Establishing shot- Presents a stereotypically middle-class couple with the use of mise-en-scene, such as the neatness of the table and the leafy trees outside. The character Kate is a housewife trope who only has sandwiches to offer, as food represents sex sandwiches represent basic, unfulfilling sex. Whereas pot noodles are the opposite. The sandwich indicates that she is not a slag.

'Slag'- a derogatory term for a woman who 'sleeps around.'

In what ways can we define ourselves to others and ourselves?
Interests, ideology (system of beliefs), demeanour- body language, religion, clothes,

Key theorist no. 7, David Gauntlet- Theories of identity.

He believes that despite many negative perceptions of the media, audiences are capable of constructing their own identities through what they see on television.

Additionally, he writes that there are now many more representations of gender than the traditional 'gender binary.'

Stereotypical roles and characteristics of men
Strong, emotionless, physically capable, uncaring, domestically incapable, dominant, money-makers,

Stereotypical roles and characteristics of women
Physically weaker, in touch with emotions, carers, only domestically capable,

These stereotypes may come from religion, the media.

The purpose of a charity advert is to get people to donate, they guilt trip audiences by showing them a distressing environment and using a direct mode of address.

NSPCC- open your eyes (2000)

Positioning- positioned closely, you're next to the crib of the isolated child and you're looking down on the abuse victim. Put into the position of the abusers to make you feel guilty- encouraging you to help as you feel responsible.

Lighting- Lowkey, with a dim colour palette, so desaturated it's almost black and white. Sad and dark with no colour. Main source of colour is NSPCC logo- green to connote first aid. Anchors the shots of children alongside the music and narration.

Mode of address- consistently direct to involve the audience and evoke empathy.

Shots- lots of close-ups to intensify the emotions, high angles to make children appear vulnerable and position audience as abusers.

Music- Empty to show lack of action being taken, whimsical and sad. Acts as anchorage.

Issues with advert- audience gradually becomes desensitised, people who have not been abused getting paid to act abused, they're getting more attention than those who have dealt with abuse

Water aid

Established in 1981 in response to a UN campaign for clear water.
Patron has been Prince Charles since 1991

The advert was created by atomic London in October 2016 and features a 16 year old Zambian student- Claudia. Set in Zambia but not Lusaka (the capital) as it does not fit the agenda for how Zambia is represented.

Arguably this advert reinforces gender roles,

Stereotypes- Absent.

Stereotypes allow people to make sense of the world and allow the media to represent or target certain groups. They can be hurtful but on the flipside can create a sense of inclusiveness and be comedic.

Richard Dyer, Stereotypes.

Richard Dyer writes that stereotypes have roles, such as to be an ordering process, to act as a shortcut for producers and a reference point for audiences, and to express dominant societal values.

Prestige advertising is advertising designed to enhance the prestige of a company, or a company's products or services.

Prestige is reputation or influence arising from success, achievement or other favourable attributes.