The document discusses theories of representation in media. It outlines Richard Dyer's four questions for analysing representation, including what is represented and how. It also summarizes Laura Mulvey's concept of the male gaze in cinema, where the camera and audience assume a male perspective and women are presented as objects for the male gaze. The document notes criticisms of Mulvey's theory and provides questions for analysing representations of gender and applying the Bechdel test.

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Representation

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Analysing Representation – Richard
Dyer
 Dyer identifies four questions to ask of a representation:
 What is represented to us?
 How is it re-presenting the world to us (through technical codes)?
 What does it suggest is typical and what is not?
 Who is speaking? For whom?

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The Male Gaze – Laura Mulvey
 Mulvey identifies three ways of looking associated with cinema:
 The look of the camera that records the film
 The look of the audience that views the film
 The look of the characters in the film

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Mulvey
 Cinema offers voyeuristic pleasures – visual pleasures.
 Men look, women are looked at. Men are active women are
passive.
 The camera assumes a male perspective.
 Powerful female characters are ‘fetishised’

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Criticisms of Mulvey
 Theoretical not empirical model.
 Focuses on heterosexual male spectators.
 Assumes mass audience responding to a text in a uniform way.
 Kathleen Rowe argues that being the object of the gaze is a position
of power.
 Richard Dyer questions the association of looking (subject of the gaze)
with being active, and being looked at (object of the gaze) as being
passive.
 Ann Kaplan argues women can possess the look and make men the
object of the gaze.

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Analysing the Male Gaze
 Watch the trailer for Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.
 How are women represented in this trailer?
 To what extent are powerful female characters ‘fetishised’?
 In pairs screen grab key images from the trailer that could be used to either
support Mulvey’s theory or challenge it. Then do the same for your own trailer.
 Explain how your trailer’s representation is influenced by the process of
construction using Dyer’s four key questions.
 Make sure your powerpoint is uploaded to your blog.

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The Bechdel Test
The Bechdel test derives from an Alison Bechdel comic strip called
Dykes to Watch Out For. The test is designed to assess whether a film
has the following:
1. at least two named women who;
2. talk to one another.
3. talk about something other than men.
The test has it’s own website http://bechdeltest.com . At present of
the nearly 3000 films ‘tested’ 52.1% have ‘passed’
Does your trailer pass the Bechdel test? Refer to examples to
support your answer.