Representation theory

REPRESENTATION THEORY

The Male Gaze – Laura Mulvey

• Throughout the years, women have been

presented to us as submissive and

unequal to empowering and dominant.

• Today, women can still be perceived as

submissive and objectified through media

texts, especially music videos. However,

this ultimately depends on the genre.


• The male gaze refers to how the audience

view women when presented in the media.

She states that women are there be seen

and cinematography and editing are used

to represent them in a sexual way.


• Mulvey’s focus is on:

- How men look at women from these

images

- How women look at themselves

- How women look at other women, are they

meant to conform to these ideologies as

sexual objects?


• The Male Gaze focuses on emphasizing curves of the female body

• Referring to women as objects rather than people

• The display of women is how men think they should be perceived

• Female viewers view the content through the eyes of a man

• Women as often sexualized and seen as objects and viewed based on sexual desire and they way they look.


• The Male Gaze describes how the audiences or viewer are put into the perspective of a heterosexual male i.e the camera lingers over the curves of a woman’s body

• Mulvey states that in film women are typically the objects rather than the possessors, this is displayed by the control of the camera

• Man emerges as the dominants power within the created film fantasy. The woman is passive to the active gaze from the man.


CRITISMS –

• Does not take into account women viewing

men as sexual objects – female gaze.

• The women in these music videos may want

to be sexualized as it could them feel

empowered such as Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj

and Lady GaGa

• The media has influenced how women

should look – hard to change that perception.

Star Theory – Richard Dyer

“Stars are commodities that are produced by institutions”

“A star is a constructed image represented across a range of media and mediums”

“Stars represent and embody certain ideologies”

• Star theory is the idea that icons and celebrities are constructed by institutions for financial reasons and built to target a specific audience or group of people.


Audience & Institutions –

• Stars are made to make money for that purpose alone

• Audiences want to consume what they think is the ideal

• The institution then modifies the stars image around the target audience

• They make a star based on what they think the audience want- e.g the X Factor looking for the ‘full package’


Constructions-

• Stars are built for the audience - a persona is created for the audience to identify with, so stars can differentiate between other stars

• Stars have a signature style to them so that they are remembered

• Institutions exaggerate parts of their personality.


Hegemony –

• We relate to the star because they have a feature that we admire or share

• Develops from an admiration into idolization

• Replicate what they like about a star

• These stars can be bad role models as the pressure of the media takes a toll and they engage in behavior which may be negative

Stereotypes – Tessa Perkins

• Stereotyping is not a simple process and contains a number of assumptions that can be challenged

1. Stereotypes are not always negative

2. They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful

3. They can be held about one’s own group

4. They are not rigid or unchanging

5. They are not always false


• People assume that stereotypes are aimed at and targeted towards the less powerful but this is not always the case, we can make assumptions and stereotypes about the upper class but we don’t know them.

• Once a stereotype has been created it is very hard to change however Perkins states tharover a period of time, this stereotype can change and develop

• It is hard to get rid of a stereotype once you have been given it.


• Stereotypes are not always false –

stereotypes have to have some truth in

them or where else would the

representation come from?

• We may witness it first hand, however

there must be some truth in a stereotype

or the ideology wouldn’t fit


Implications-

• Always erroneous in content

• They are negative concepts

• About groups whom we have little/ or no social contact – a stereotype of a stereotype

• They are about minority or repressed groups creating negative representation of the lower class possibly by giving the upper class more power

• People either hold stereotypes of a group or do not

• Without stereotypes we wouldn’t be able to understand the world, our society and how we fit in.

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Representation theory