The document discusses the representation of gender in the film Shatterproof. It notes that traditionally, femme fatales in film noir are represented as mysterious and seductive women who charm men into dangerous situations. However, in Shatterproof, the femme fatale Leo Newton subverts this by being bisexual. The document also discusses how Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze has traditionally framed women as objects of pleasure for the male viewer but that Shatterproof avoids this by representing the women Myra Frost and Leo Newton as strong-willed individuals rather than objects.

1. GENDER
The representation of gender in Shatterproof

2. ■ The process by which media texts portray
reality (people, places, ideas). All
representations have ideologies behind them,
meaning and values are implicit in the
representations used in media texts which gives
great power/responsibility to media
institutions.
REPRESENTATION

3. FEMME FATALE
■ In most Noir films, the femme fatale is often
represented as a mysterious and seductive
women, who cunningly charms her lovers,
leading them into compromising and
dangerous situations.
■ Leo newton, the femme fatale in Shatterproof
is bisexual, which subverts typical stereotypes.
She conforms to other stereotypes of her being
cunning and seductive.

4. DANIEL CHANDLER
■ All texts, however realistic they may seem, are
constructed representations rather than transparent
reflections of reality. Representations become more
familiar through constant re-use, they begin to feel
'natural' and 'unmediated'. Representation is
selective, some things are foregrounded whilst others
and backgrounded, affecting people's perspectives of
them.

5. RUBY RICH
■ Ruby Rich focuses on the representation of women in the Noir genre, and how this has
changed with the development of Neo Noir. She states there is a difference between
femme fatales in Noir and Neo-Noir, in the original noir
■ The original femme fatales tended to have an affair of some sort while their husband
was away in the war, which was immediately stopped the moment he returned,
showing men still held all the power and they were living in a patriarchal society.
■ However, in Neo Noir, Rich argues “femme fatales are pure evil, with sexuality and
greed the primary markers of their character”. An example of this is Amy from ‘Gone
Girl’ who is represented as a twisted and feisty individual.This shows how women’s
status has changed and how women are portrayed differently now, however women
continue to be represented as unequal to men.They are usually represented as
negative, indecent humans who have no morals. Using the example of Gone Girl again,
Amy attempts to accuse her husband of murder and tries to ruin his life even though
he remained innocent. In our trailer, Myra Frost – the seeker hero - is represented as a
strong-willed, independent woman, this subverts gender stereotypes.

6. LAURA MULVEY
■ Due to a patriarchal society, men dominate the media
industry, and consequently, the camera puts the
audience into the perspective of a heterosexual male.
This means women are framed as objects of pleasure
– for the other characters in the film and for the
spectator who is watching the film.
■ For example, the camera hovers on the curves of a
women.
■ In shatterproof, we have not followed this convention
of representing women as objects. Both of the women
in our film – Myra Frost (seeker hero) and Leo Newton
(Femme fatale) are strong willed indidviauls.

7. HEGEMONY + PLURALISM
ALTERNATIVEVIEWS
■ The ruling class have choice in how things are represented in the media, this reinforces
stereotypes and defines the content of the working class peoples lives - links to Marxism.
Representations are encoded into mass media texts to reinforce dominant ideologies into
society
■ Society is a system of competing groups and interests, none having power. Control of the
media is said to be in the hands of the elite, who allow a considerable degree of flexibility in
production choices. However, the audience are also capable of manipulating the media, if
they do not like a text they will simply not watch it.This leads to ratings to fall and
therefore the media organization must respond by changing their output to something
that will be watched and more liked by the audience.There is an equal power divide
between media creators and audience members.