Stereotypes

Representation of women – male gaze, fashion advertising and the pose

There are many pieces of literature and studies which show the representation of women in the media and western art.

• John Berger’s book ways of seeing provides an accessible introduction.
• Laura Mulvey’s famous essay on the male gaze launched an important literature in the field of cinema.
• Bechelel test – pass have one scene where 2 women (no men) were talking to each other about something other than men.
• Erving Goffman’s somewhat lesser- known study called Gender Advertisements is useful here because he focused on, among other things.

Commercial photographs involved carefully performed poses presented in a style of only natural.

Women are pictured often than men in what Goffman calls the ‘recumbent position’. Goffman points out that omen often pose bending their head at an angle or their bodies, which gives a submissive role as they are positioned lower.


‘Cant’ is often combined with putting a finger in the mouth or otherwise touching the face in a childlike way.

Male gaze

Berger says “women watch themselves being looked at”

Women learn to look at themselves through the eyes of an imaginary man because the ideal spectator is always assumed to be male.

As a result, “female models in ads addressed to women ‘treat the lens as a substitute for the eye of an imaginary male onlooker”.

Cameras always linger on the curves if the female body in media especially films.

Representations of gender

In media the way in which males and females are represented is quite contrasting with a continuous pattern always being shown.

The understanding of gender and sex can be often confused;

“Gender” refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributed that a given society considers appropriate for men and women

Whereas, “Sex” refers to the biological and physical characteristics that define men and women.

Representation of women

Across all Medias the representation of women tends to highlight:

• Beauty
• Size/physique
• Sexuality
• Emotional
• Relationships

The female representation often shows them as being part of a contest which family and friends, for example on who is prettier, or showing a working characteristics – thinking and working as part of a team passive rather  than active.

        Beauty                                               Size                                        Sexuality      
        Emotional                                          Relationships

Representation of males

Masculinity is a concept that is made up of more rigid stereotypes than femininity.

Across all Medias representation of men tend to focus on:

• Strength
• Power
• Attractiveness
• Independence
• Physique 

The male characteristics are often represented as isolated, not reliant on others with the male physique becoming more important and dominant on media.

  Strength                                        Power                           Attractiveness

   Independent                                  Physique

With the representation of males and females it can cause misogyny and misandry.

Misogyny – the hatred or dislike of girls and/or women – sexual discrimination, denigration of women, violence against women and sexual objectification of women.

Misandry - the hatred or dislike of boys and/or men – sexual discrimination, denigration of men, violence against men and sexual objectification of men.

Media language

Construction of magazine font covers

To be able to make s music magazine I need to research how other magazines construct them.

School magazine photoshoot

To create my school magazine's central image I did a photo shoot using two of my friends as the models in the library to promote the key aspects my magazine will be about; learning.

            

           

Magazine Template

Here I have designed the layout of the school magazine I am going to create.

School magazine analysis

Magazine analysis

Today I analysed 2 magazine covers labelling the key features of what makes a magazine. The first one being a fashion magazine and the second being a film magazine.

My first post

Hello!

And welcome to my AS Media Studies blog, I'm Frances and this is my first time using Blogger. This blog is going to feature all the work I'm going to be doing for my AS Media Studies Coursework for 2016-2017.