AQA GCSE Media Studies - Representation and Gender

1. S T A R T E R
• Note down your initial responses to the following
images:
• State who they are
• Describe what each person is like
• What you feel about them

3. D I S C U S S I O N
• How do you know any of this, if you have never met
these people?
• What you know is how the media has represented
these people to them

4. REPRESENTATION AND
GENDER 2
CLARIFY THE DIFFERENCES BETW EEN SEX , GENDER AND SEX UALITY
ANALYSE THE GENDER REPRESENTATION OF MEN IN ACTION MOVIES
INTRODUCE SOME OF THE CRITICISMS OF GENDER REPRESENTATION

5. S E X , G E N D E R A N D S E X U A L I T Y
• Sex - a person’s biological sex, whether they are
male or female
• Gender - roles or behaviours a person is socialised
into according to their sex, whether they are
masculine or feminine
• Sexuality - a persons sexual preference, whether
they are heterosexual (straight, homosexual (gay) or
bisexual

6. V O Y E U R I S M
• Erotic pleasures gained from looking at a sexual object (who is unaware of
being watched)
• Presence of women solely for the purpose of display (rather than narrative
function)
• Female on display as passive and objectified for a male gaze regardless of
viewers gender
• Voyeuristic treatment of female body in ‘male’ videos - use of dancers as
adornments to the male ego
• The inclusion of women for display is a staple elect in music videos - across all
genres
• Women connote to-be-looked-at-ness and are the object of the male gaze

7. F R E U D A N D S O C O P H I L I A
• Put simply, socophilia is the pleasure of watching -
refers to the mature adult’s desire to see things that
are culturally forbidden or taboo.

8. LAURA MULVEY AND THE MALE GAZE
• Mulvey sees the representation of women in film and
literature (therefore society in general) as being
dominated by a male point of view. Her belief is that
the world is a patriarchy and that men have the
‘active’ roles and women ‘passive’

9. OBJECTIFICATION
• Objectification is related
to the ‘gaze’
• The persons gazed at are
objectified - treated as an
object whose sole value is
to be enjoyed or posed by
the voyeur

10. T H E B O N D G A Z E

11. T H E M A L E
G A Z E
• Analyse the following scene and
answer the following questions
• In what ways can we apply the male
gaze theory to this scene?
• How are the male characters active
and the female characters passive?
• How is the female characters to be
looked-at-ness constructed by the
Director?
• How does the male character fulfil
the role of the ‘gazer’?

12. POST FEMINISM
(1980S)
• A re-appriasal of Feminist
values
• Does not strive for equality as
this assumes men are ‘the best’
- they wish to surpass male
achievements
• Objected to theories which
position them as objets of the
‘male gaze’.
• Identifies a ‘female gaze’ women
actively desiring men

13. POST FEMINIST
READINGS
• Lady Gaga is not on show for the benefit
of male audiences, but is enjoying herself
experiencing different identities
• She is successful, independent and in
control
• Connotes messages of
Empowerment/Confidence/Independence
to female audience
• Offers messages of sexual empowerment
- assertive, provocative and in control of
‘the gaze’
• Confident, sassy sexy icons challenging
traditional assumptions about passive
female sexuality

14. DEKH-LE

15. Look at the two video
game covers. Try to
identify feminist and post
feminist reading in regards
to the representation of
gender.

16. Q U E S T I O N S
• Do you play video games? If yes, how many hours per
day? If not, why?
• Do you find the female characters in the game strong and
independent ?
• Do you find the female characters in the games sexy?
• Do you notice any form of inequality between the male
and female characters in the games?
• Do you know any video games that have a female hero?