The document discusses the representation of social groups, particularly females, in media. It notes that traditionally, male roles drive narratives while female roles are passive and sexualized. However, as women's social roles have changed, so have their media portrayals. Modern female characters are more likely to be career-driven, intelligent, confident, and powerful. The document provides the example of Uma Thurman's character in Kill Bill, who is portrayed as powerful, violent, and independent. It then discusses the specific female characters in the author's film opening, including a dead woman portrayed with a sexualized "male gaze" to provide narrative context without explicitly showing how she was murdered.

1. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT REPRESENT
PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?
Ellie v

2. SOCIAL GROUPS
a social group has been defined as two or more
people who interact with one another, share similar
characteristics and collectively have a sense
of unity.
Social groups and stereotypes are used in films to
quickly establish characters without wasting time
getting to know them one by one.

3. A COUNTER-STEREOTYPE: FEMALE ROLES
Traditionally:
 Men play active roles which drive the narrative
 Women play passive roles and are seen as erotic
objects which slow the narrative
But in our film opening we wanted to reverse that idea
because of the modern age of women now days
becoming more and more successful. A well
respected job where the female is dominant a
detective which is normally a male, female
audiences will them aspire to the female, wanting to
be them or like them

4. STEREOTYPES OF FEMALES
In films and TV there are stereotypes of women being
sexualised and less dominant to the male characters
 Female’s physical attractions such as figure and
breasts to overpower the male
 Easy
 House wife
 Mother

5. CHANGE OF SOCIETY: FEMALES BECOMING
POWERFUL
As women's roles change so does media
representation. Still objectified but also likely to be
 Career driven
 Intelligent
 Confident
 Empowered
 Able (violent)
Our characters in the opening are all female, the
dead character, the forensic character and the
female detective (the main character) although
there is a male gaze on the dead character.

6. AN EXAMPLE A MODERN REPRESENTATION
 Uma Thurman
represented as powerful
and dominant and
independent
 Sword represents
violence and adopts male
characteristics of
aggression
 Use of low angles makes
her look dominant and
powerful

7. THE MALE GAZE
On our dead character there is a male gaze set, but also some enigma
codes. The way we have dressed our character and the use of props
we have made her look like a doll which is an enigma code for the
film, the Music box also goes with the connotation of a doll and
children's toys, The concept of toys coming to life is a common and
historical concept in children's literature, and the idea has been
adapted into numerous horror films and other horror fiction, we've tried
to create something like this in our film opening. The red heels and
stockings have a sexual connotation on our character, also the camera
pans upwards up the body a way a male would look at a vulnerable
female.

8. Our characters costume, props and makeup make it
look like she has been to a party. Something's
happened to her due to her smudged makeup. A
party scene has put our character in a vulnerable
position. The party that our character has been to has
given some narrative to the film later on which has
caused her death.

9. WHY OUR PARTY CHARACTER IS IN A VULNERABLE
POSITION
To the audience the dead character has been
murdered, using a motive for the murder through the
characters clothing explains it to the audience
without showing why or how she died, for example it
would be more understandable for a girl with little
clothing to be murdered because they look attractive
to killers and are an easy target.