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![How do action films link to patriarchal ideas
about gender?
[Hint: what typical roles are assigned to men and women?]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/lesson2representationofgenderppt-160224212712/85/Rep-of-gen-ppt-10-320.jpg)
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Rep of gen ppt
The document discusses the representation of gender in media. It explains that gender is a social construct that influences how people are expected to behave and think based on whether they are male or female. Traditional media stereotypes present narrow definitions of masculinity and femininity, with imbalances of power. However, feminism challenged these patriarchal representations, leading to more diverse portrayals of gender over time. Modern media both reflects and influences ongoing debates around gender roles and identities.
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Rep of gen ppt
- 1. REPRESENTATIONOF GENDER Demonstrate knowledgeand understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates. Apply knowledge and understanding when analysing media products and processes, to show how meanings and responses are created.
- 2. GenderGender is perhapsthe basic category we use for sorting human beings. Essential elements of our own identity come from concepts of gender - what does it mean to be a boy or a girl?
- 3. GENDER ROLESGENDER ROLES Themass mediamass media play a crucial role in teaching us how to behave and think in ways that our culture finds acceptable. Sex is biological, gender is CULTURAL. (Gender is a construction)
- 4. Traditional GENDERTraditional GENDER STEREOTYPESSTEREOTYPES Femininity Caring Nurturing Emotional Domestic Sensitive Passive Soft Gentle Masculinity Tough Providing Rational Public/work orientated Thickskinned Active Rough Hard Lower status...poorly paid work – childcare, nursing, teaching Higher status...Influential roles...well paid jobs...political leadership Imbalance of powerImbalance of power
- 5. Many objects, notjust humans, are represented by the media as being particularly masculine or feminine - particularly in advertising - and we grow up with an awareness of what constitutes 'appropriate' characteristics for each gender.
- 6. Classic weak-woman scenesin the films and TV:Classic weak-woman scenes in the films and TV: Man grabs woman by upper arm. Woman exclaims, "You're hurting me!" Man suddenly appears from around corner. Woman gasps and exclaims, "You scared me!" Man and woman are arguing. Man's voice raises and he steps towards her. Woman backs away. Man continues slowly moving towards her (no weapons, by the way, not even a raised fist) and woman continues backing away. Man and woman are running away from gunmen in a forest. Man's hand is always grabbed onto woman's wrist and she slows man down. (A woman cannot run beyond her natural speed if a man has her wrist; A woman's, or man's, fastest sprint can only be accomplished with BOTH arms pumping freely!) Woman is running from man in woods. Woman trips and falls, and man catches up. Woman is hit by man's backhand and falls to floor. Whimpering, she then slithers across floor away from man. What stereotype is constructed?
- 7. Traditionally, men haveheld the power in our society. The system where men have power and control in society is called patriarchy. It is understood as a society run by men for men.
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- 10. How do actionfilms link to patriarchal ideas about gender? [Hint: what typical roles are assigned to men and women?]
- 11. Two of themost common traditional roles women were represented in under patriarchy were the happy housewife and the sex object/ glamorous ideal. How might these stereotypes suit patriarchal ideology?
- 12. From the 1960sonwards, feminismchallenged patriarchy. Feminism sought to gain equality for women and argued that changing representations in the media was vital to do so. Feminism resulted in anti-sexism legislation and increased respect and opportunities for women. Suddenly gender roles were less defined in real life and this was reflected in media representations.
- 13. These representations typifiedthe idea of women: • having a serious career • wearing trousers • smoking, drinking or swearing • playing sport (inc. football) • being ‘unable’ to cook Roles more traditionally allocated to men.
- 14. How do thesemodern action films reflect these changes in representation?
- 15. Men, too, haveseen their represented roles change. • the house husband/ stay-at-home dad • men baking/ cooking • male grooming products • ‘the new man’, in touch with his emotions These are more traditionally ‘female’ roles, leading some to talk of ‘a crisis of masculinity’.
- 16. Thinking about Menand Masculinity
- 17. Some see tworesponses in modern masculine identity: 1. A ‘feminisation’ of the male as he adopts traditionally feminine roles and attributes, e.g. the metrosexual 2. ‘Hypermasculinity’ – an extreme macho identity aimed at making men distinct from women along traditional lines, e.g. the lad
- 18. ‘Traditional’ (‘Western’?) masculinity: • Strong(physically and mentally) • Rational • In control/self-control • Objective • Unemotional 18
- 19. Metrosexual: • Young • Urban •Fashion conscious • Body conscious • Heterosexual 19
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- 21. DOMINANT masculinity Camera angle,lighting, body language, costume
- 23. Let’s look atsome modern texts and try to apply some of these theoretical viewpoints. Empowered or controlled? Objectified? Feminised men? Hyper-masculine? What qualities or attributes are present? Patriarchal, feminist, post-feminist or retro- sexism?
- 24. Text 1: ‘CaptainAmerica’ trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SlILk2WMTI Text 2: Snickers ‘Inner Diva’ advert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4mP9pR-mzU Text 3: ‘The Heat’ trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O3iRdiplB0 Text 4: ‘Diet Coke’ advert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuHV4gwSXn4 Empowered or controlled? Objectified? Feminised men? Hyper-masculine? What qualities or attributes are present? Patriarchal, feminist, post-feminist or retro-sexism? Watch and make notes on your text, ready to share your ideas.
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- 27. GENDERGENDERTROUBLE?TROUBLE? How do thesepictures challenge assumptions on gender?
- 28. Can you thinkof anCan you think of an example character whoexample character who CONFORMS to gender rolesCONFORMS to gender roles in TV drama?!in TV drama?!
- 29. Can you thinkofCan you think of example charactersexample characters who DEFY gender roleswho DEFY gender roles in TV drama?!in TV drama?!
- 30. • Camera shots,angles, movement and composition • Editing • Sound • Mise-en-scene
- 31.
- 37. POINT – Youshould be describing what technique is being used using the correct media terminology EXAMPLE – You need to describe how this technique is being used EXPLAIN– Here you should be explaining what effect this technique has on the audience and how it creates a subconscious meaning. What representation is being created?
- 38. • Camera shots,angles, movement and composition • Editing • Sound • Mise-en-scene
- 39. Candidates will beassessed on their ability to understand how representations are constructed in a media text through the analysis of different technical areas. Assessment will take place across three criteria: • Explanation/analysis/argument (20 marks) • Use of examples (20 marks) • Use of terminology (10 marks)
Editor's Notes
- #17 Masculinity has become a problem. By this we mean that the concept of masculinity is now used in widely differing ways to problematise issues relating to men and boys, but stands as an accepted category of scholarly inquiry and political endeavour. Once, masculinity was regarded as merely a set of attributes or a quality that a man or boy had more or less of. Yet, in the media, at the UN, at academic conferences, and more recently in policy development in health care, education, international development, welfare and justice, masculinity has become the conceptual framework for trying to understand a set of longstanding, if newly recognised, social issues. This module explores these issues and relates them specifically to questions of sexuality.
- #19 In Western settings, there have also been a number of changes in ‘traditional’ masculinity, usually defined by strength (physical and mental), rationality, and self-control. In the late 1970s and 1980s, there was talk of ‘the new man’ and ‘SNAGs’ or ‘sensitive new age guys’. Motivated by political and personal connections with feminism and gender equality, these men were said to be more caring than ‘traditional’ men, willing to show emotion, commit to relationships, and take responsibility for child care.
- #20 More recently, we have witnessed the rise of the ‘metrosexual’, a term coined by British journalist Mark Simpson to describe the successful, inner-urban man interested in fashion, food, love and lifestyle.
- #21 In response to the metrosexual, commentators and marketers quickly identified the ‘retrosexual’– defined by a more familiar image of rugged manhood. And, more recently still, media commentators have mentioned the rise of the ‘technosexual’; men whose masculinity is defined by their use of new communication technologies and media tools. These are more than just media-creations. What it means to be a man, at least in some social and cultural contexts, is diversifying. Yet, if what a man is is capable of changing, or being more than one thing, we need to better understand the relationship between men and the social and cultural contexts in which they conduct their lives. Yet, getting clear thinking on these shifts and changes is harder than it appears. For a start, what does masculinity mean?
- #22 We have a great deal of evidence to suggest that masculinity – the social meanings and experience of ‘being’ a man – does not work like sex role theory suggests. Certainly, each person is not free to do or be anything s/he chooses. Becoming a man takes a great deal of work in the face of powerful forces. Educational institutions are one example. In his famous 1977 book Learning to Labour: How working-class kids get working-class jobs, Paul Willis described the curricular and institutional processes that took place in a British boys school and how these processes produced different kinds of masculinity. Only a small number of boys could succeed academically due to the limited number of university places available, and this produced in the majority of the academically failing boys a reactive masculinity that was commensurable with a kind of resilient, if damaged, pride. Willis’s school-failing ‘lads’, as they were termed, were progressively alienated and brushed aside by the school, and took refuge in rehearsing a resistant working-class masculinity—a triumph of the male stereotype. They then found themselves back in the factories and workplaces of their fathers. What Willis’s research revealed was that stereotypical male roles were not simply poured into the boys (or socialised them), but that working-class culture was actively mined by the boys to extract resources to resist the school’s approved ways of being and doing masculinity. Indeed, in Willis’ example, it is ‘failed socialisation’ that actually produces masculine stereotypical behaviour: surely, a theoretical paradox! It was Willis’s work and others like it that led to the Australian study of class and gender inequality in education that produced the formulation ‘hegemonic masculinity’ (Connell, Ashenden, Kessler & Dowsett, 1982). During that study, it was noticed that approved manhood and the associated masculinising processes in the elite boys high schools did not actually achieve a majority practice, i.e. most boys failed to achieve the attributes of successful and approved manhood. In other words, the model of successful masculinity held up as the best one can be could only be achieved by a few; yet this model of successful masculinity provided the yardstick whereby masculinity was measured for all. Consequently, most boys or men could not succeed unless they drew on notions of masculinity found in other institutional or cultural settings to articulate a masculine identity.
- #23 The increasing popularity globally of men’s magazines like Men’s Health certainly indicates a growing concern with men’s bodies for, despite the title, such magazines are largely concerned with body development and fitness. But, these magazines also reflect a nagging concern with being a man, or as it could be better configured: with ‘doing masculinity’. Among the regular items in such magazines is managing to cook for oneself — particularly simple, low fat, tasty treats. Men’s Health (US) even has a regular column entitled ‘A man, a can, and a plan’ designed to turn kitchen klutz into culinary commando. Is this only about role change or shifts in the domestic demographics of the gender order? More than masculinity, it is the abiding sense of the sexual that overwhelms in such magazines. Men are also regularly exhorted to become better consumers. Advertising for men now includes fashion, fitness, cosmetics and, finally, Viagra.
- #27 This particular ad is for a range of underwear called ‘Tutti Frutti’ that utilises a tropical floral motif in a tight-fitting hipster brief. A big, muscled, tanned man with a shaved head, naked save for a coral necklace and his tight, hot pink knickers, sits half leaning out of a front-seat car door, his genital bulge clearly profiled, looking very dejected, his head in his hands. Behind him in the car is an attractive woman who is touching up her lipstick in the rear-view mirror and clearly looking very happy with what has just occurred. The caption reads: ‘Guys are just sexual objects to abuse’. Does masculinity theory provide the best viewing frame here? Might sexuality need to be more central to the analytical gaze? Maybe gay men have something to teach straight men about these shifts in masculine sexuality? (see Simpson 1994). There is increasing evidence that gay men want to appear muscular but lean, in contrast to the larger bulkier style of muscular body sought by non-gay men. How can we explain this difference? Maybe gay men, as the central historical product of the invention and deployment of sexuality as a field of knowledge, reveal the interplay of the sexual with the commercial, revealing the limits of gender as a framework for explaining the changes men are encountering in their personal lives.