Representation of Gender in Formation

1. REPRESENTATION
OF GENDER IN
FORMATION

2. REPRESENTATION OF GENDER
• Take some screenshots that portray gender representation in the formation
video. Explain in detail how the representation is constructed. Refer to the
following:
• Camera shot/angle/movement
• Editing
• Costume/ props
• Body language
• Setting/location

3. HOW IS GENDER REPRESENTED IN
FORMATION?

4. REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER
• Mind-map the different representations of gender we see in Formation.
Consider representations terminology:
– Stereotype
– Countertype
– Cultural stereotyping
– Marginalization
– Realism / Myth
• Does Formation support or challenge Gauntlett’s Identity Theory?
The idea that whilst in the past the
media tended to convey singular,
straightforward
messages about ideal types of male and
female identities, the media today offer
us a more diverse range of stars, icons
and characters from whom we may pick
and mix different ideas.

5. REPRESENTATION OF
GENDER/BEYONCE
IN FORMATION
• More specifically how are black men and
women represented in the video.
• As Bell Hooks suggests intersectionality
matters
• Can we discuss gender without also
considering how gender interacts with
race/ethnicity and class?
• Beyonce is a black woman (with mixed Creole
heritage) She is middle class/ global superstar
with economic power. Does this have an
effect on the way she is represented in the
video?
• A range of shots of Beyonce sitting/standing
and laying on a police car represents the
female star as a powerful leader.

6. WORKING CLASS AFRICAN
AMERICAN WOMEN
• Working class African American women from the south - New
Orleans (NOLA)
• What are these women’s roles in the video? Are they
active/passive? what are they doing how are they portrayed?
• Tracking shot of women standing at the end of an aisle in a
black hair shop with rows upon rows of different coloured
wigs. The hair is styled straight (Eurocentric).
• The women have stoic facial expressions, they wear edgy hair
styles dyed in a range of bright colours. Working class black
women are often marginalised from mainstream media or
stereotypically represented as being ghetto, aggressive, loud.
In this scene the women seem defiant but at the same time
passive.

7. • Are the women being represented as confined
and oppressed by western idealised standards of
beauty – do their hairstyles bare the scars of
colonial ideologies that ridiculed natural afro
hair?
• Or are they being represented as women who
are leaders in their own style and fashion.
• Does their stoic stance portray their confidence
and unapologetic nature in redefining and
shaping their own diasporic African American
culture through their unique hairstyles in a post
colonial era?

8. PLANTATION HOUSE
SCENES
• How is Beyonce’s gender
represented in comparison to
the men in this scene?
• Who holds the power -
Beyonce the female ‘star’
(Lady of the house) or the
men? How do we know this?
• Beyonce is positioned in the
foreground center of the
frame. She is dressed all in
black with a black hat pulled
down low obscuring the top
of her eyes.

9. • She looks powerfully
commanding as an authority
figure juxtaposed against the
male servants in the
background. Again the men
are represented as passive,
whilst Beyonce commands
the attention.
• Consider how these scenes
seem to challenge patriarchal
dominance and further call
into question the power
dynamic between gender and
class in wider society.

10. MARDI GRAS COSTUME
MASK SCENE
• Again men are used as the
backdrop to Beyonce within the
mise en scene. They are shown
standing posed wearing
decorative carnival masks.
• Offers a more diverse
representation of black
masculinity not often portrayed in
mainstream media. Black
masculinity is portrayed as less
hypersexual and more
romanticised as decorative
backdrops to the black female
star.

11. ANTEBELLUM SCENE
• Wide shots of Beyonce and group of women sitting
in a plantation house wearing antebellum dresses.
• The women are represented as being elegant and
classy. They are equal and in unity. They appear to
be a sisterhood all dressed in elegant dresses
reminiscent of the antebellum dresses rich white
southern women would have worn during the period
of slavery.

12. • As Beyonce pays homage to her Creole ancestral
roots in this scene and represents African American
woman in history who were free people of colour.
• Again the video is used to represent these historic
female figures who are shown in a range of brown
skin tones and with their hair styled individually in a
range of hairstyles portraying their African heritage.

13. • The representations of African American
women in the video seems to challenge the
stereotypical representations of women in
conflict competing against their one
another.
• The women are represented in unity and
notions of colourism are dismantled.

14. BLACK MEN AS COMMUNITY LEADERS
• The video includes montage shots of the
archetypal black pastor preaching and leading
the church congregation in worship.
• This is a familiar representation of African
American church communities in the southern
states.
• Black Men are represented as community
leaders and promoters of Christian moral
values. for the most part this video steers clear
of stereotypical representations of black men as
hypersexual, deviant criminals.

15. • Wide shot of a black cowboy sitting on top of a horse.
This image is powerful in the fact that cowboys in the
south are often associated with white male dominance
and power.
• Slave owners would often sit on top of horses to
position themselves literally and metaphorically above
their black slaves as they oversaw them working the
plantation fields.
• Does the formation seek to reclaim or redefine black
masculinity through this image?

16. BEYONCE’S DANCERS
• There are several scenes throughout the
video of Beyonce and her dancers.
• African American women are represented as
being empowered when in’ formation’
working together, helping one another.
African American femininity or womanhood is
being defined as a sisterhood where everyone
regardless of class or skintone has a place.

17. BEYONCE’S DANCERS
• Although the video seeks to offer more
positive representations of gender
consider the camera shots, editing,
costume and dance moves in the dance
scenes.
• Is the black female body still sexually
objectified? Does this reinforce
stereotypical representations of the female
body or could it be argued that women
can use their sexuality to feel empowered?

18. HOMEWORK
QUESTION
Analyse the representations of gender in Beyonce’s Formation
• Consider the representation of men and women
• Consider how the intersectionality of race and class affects
gender representation
• Consider whether the representations reinforce or challenge
stereotypes
(Refer to bell hooks feminism theory, Paul Gilroy’s ethnicity and
post colonialism theory and David Gauntlett’s Identity theory
where relevant in your response)