Representation - Love Actually and Four Lions

Representation

Gender and Ethnicity in Love Actually and Four Lions

Men in Four Lions

Women in Four Lions

Questions

• What do we learn about men from Four Lions?• What do we learn about women?

• What words would you use to describe the male and female representation used in Four Lions

• Why do you think they are represented this way?

Ethnicity in Four Lions

Your task

Make a positive/negative table for…White British and Muslim British

Are there any blaring similarities or differences?

PositiveWhite British

NegativeWhite British

PositiveMuslim British

NegativeMuslim British

Terrorism in Four Lions

• Fill in the Venn Diagram which details the similarities and differences between…

Jihadists in Mainstream MediaVs.

Jihadists in Four Lions

Ponder Point

Many commentators have focused on one scene in the film – that in which Omar talks to his wife and his son after the accident with Faissal. Do you think that the scene is a ‘mistake’ by Morris or is it key to ‘humanising’ the characters? What does it make the audience think about?

Ponder Point

Does laughing at the idiocies of the ‘terrorists’ mean that young Muslims are being demeaned or does it mean that they are being ‘normalised’ and made less ‘other’?

Omar vs BarryEthnicity and Masculinity

Questions

• What is interesting about the ethnic

representation in Four Lions?

• What is the effect of these portrayals?

• Are they fair/unfair?

• Does it challenge, or confirm stereotypes?

Ponder Point

A lot of the comedy focuses on aspects of Islam that most people in the UK don’t understand – e.g. the promise of an afterlife for the suicide bombers. Whereas the stereotype circulated in much of the UK tabloid press attemptsto oversimplify and present a monolithic religious culture.

Men in Love Actually

Women in Love Actually

Questions

• What representations of women and men are

shown in Love Actually?

• How are they represented?

• Why are they represented this way?

• What effect does it have on the audience?

White Brits in Love Actually

Other ethnicities in Love Actually

Questions

• What is the predominant ethnicity represented

in Love Actually?

• Describe how it is represented with examples

• Are there any other ethnicities in the film?

• Describe how they are portrayed also

• What are the effects of such representations?

Question

Ideologies are values/messages or beliefs that a media-maker is trying to get across.

What are the dominant ideologies in Love Actually shown through representation?

Recap Link

Essay QuestionDiscuss how either gender OR ethnicity is represented in both Four Lions and Love Actually.