Tough Female Characters & Femme Fatales in Film & Video Games

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Tough Female Characters & Femme Fatales in Film & Video Games - Presentation Transcript

  1. A discussion of the rise of the female hero character with a focus on film & video games. Joanna Robinson
    • A representation is use of language/images to create meaning.
    • Representations always construct a viewpoint
    • Types - Gender, Race/Ethnicity, Sexuality, Class, Religion/Beliefs
    • “ Ideology is a production of representations”
    • Presented as common-sense/self-evident
    • The Hollywood movie camera has a “male gaze” (Mulvey)‏
    • Different representations will appeal to different viewers
  2. Representations are an Ideologically inscribed form of [powerful] discourse. Kellner & Durham (2001). Social construction of gender (& race & sexuality) – the media as social institution 'Nature versus nurture' & 'Images of women' debate in cultural studies, film studies, sociology and psychology – these images serve as heroes and R ole models. Female characters for women and male for men. There is a history of problematic gendered representations in popular culture They may reproduce various inequalities and beliefs/ideas/ideologies, that negatively impact women and discourage their participation Video games introduce women to technology. Increasingly women play anyhow, but there is a large 'forgotten' audience that is not being catered to!
    • Gender Stereotypes associated with Men:
    • Aggressive
    • Assertive
    • Dominating
    • No Emotions
    • Loud
    • Messy
    • Athletic
    • Math, Science & Tech Oriented
    • CEO
    • Money Maker
    • Gender Stereotypes associated with Women:
    • Weak
    • Fragile
    • Submissive
    • Emotional
    • Quiet
    • Neat/Clean
    • Clumsy
    • Artsy
    • Housewife
    • Child rearing
    • The villain — struggles against the hero.
    • The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
    • The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
    • The princess — marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative.
    • Her father — Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
    • The dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
    • The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
    • False hero/anti-hero/usurper — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess. (Propp, Vladimir 1929).
    • “ men's domestic adjuncts”
    • “ dependent on men”
    • weak, powerless
    • “ sex objects”
    • “ unintelligent”
    • victims to be saved
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    • Film Noir 40s,50s
    • Influenced by German expressionism
    • “ one of the few periods of film in which women are active, not static symbols, are intelligent and powerful, if destructively so, and derive power, not weakness, from their sexuality
    • 1950's
    • Douglas Sirk – key director
    • Domestic, family, emotionally charged themes
    • Bright, natural colours
    • Sensitive men, strong women – Rock Hudson
    • Sweeping musical soundtracks
    • This figure is not necessarily “new” - eg Artemis in Greek Myth, Wonder Woman
    • “ tough girls” or “action chicks” (Inness, 1999)‏
    • Hybrids of attributes traditionally gendered masculine and feminine
    • Can offer empowerment through new visions of female role models
    • Romero's revision of Barbara, Night of the Living Dead
    • 1968 1990
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      • The current state of our media is participatory culture
      • Audiences have the opportunity to participate in their media, producing as well as consuming - prosumers
      • Co-creative media, Emergent or free play
      • Participants can shape and perform their own representations of heroes
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  16. Alyssa
  17. David
    • New user built environments and characters, same old (horror) story?
    • Resident Evil in Second Life
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  25. * A variety of representations...
    • Online gaming/virtual world communities are both cultural artefact and site of (ongoing) culture
    • As digital media creators, it is important to understand the language of character representations in order to harness their power in engaging this participatory audience.
    • There many identities (& their stories) yet to be represented that may attract an even wider audience to games.
    • As online game texts are co-created by the audience they seek to entertain, we see the beginning of what may be an exciting era in media history - the controller in the hands of the audience.
  26.  

+ Joanna RobinsonJoanna Robinson, 11 months ago

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