Monday, January 08, 2007
Task 14
Introduction“There’s a lot of stereotypes floating around which I don’t think are true” [1]
How and why have the representations of women changed and do they break or conform to the stereotypes?
‘Pretty Persuasion’[2], an independent teenage comedy film is about a young girl, Kimberly, a “monstrous girl who is both amoral and immoral”[3], who willingly uses her brain and body to achieve her main goal in life which is fame. What is different about this film is that it exposes various representations of women, presenting much stronger women than shown in history. The representations of women have gradually changed from when they were shown as passive and inferior, although they are still shown to be “objects of the male gaze”[4]. Historically, women have “usually taken supportive roles rather than key, decision making ones”[5] and they often conformed to stereotypes. This film aims to move away from those representations and break away from the traditional stereotypes and fight away from the myths that are perpetuated by the media.
[1] Said by Kimberly in the film, Pretty Persuasion
[2] Pretty Persuasion directed by Marcos Siega 2005
[3] http://emanuellevy.com/article.php?articleID=143
[4] Smelik, Anneke (1998): And the mirror cracked: Feminist Cinema and Film Theory. UK: Palgrave Macmillan
[5] Nelmes, Jill (1996): Introduction to Film Studies. UK: Routledge
Sherish at 1:53 PM
Task 13
Detailed Essay Plan“There’s a lot of stereotypes floating around which I don’t think are true”
How and why have the representations of women changed and do they break or conform to the stereotypes?
Introduction:
- Hypothesis:
o The representation of women has changed but gradually and only to a certain extent
o Women are breaking out of stereotypes
o Women are still seen as ‘objects of the male gaze’
- Talk about how women are slowly trying to break out of stereotypes
- The fact that women have encountered many difficulties in gaining positions of power of authority and control in the industry
- “Recent research suggests that the role of women has not been as silent as once thought” (research #5)
- Talk about Pretty Persuasion – budget etc
(R, I, SC, HC, PC)
Paragraph Two:
- Women represented as INDEPENDENT:
o The protagonist, Kimberly is shown as independent
o She is presented as doing what she wants to
o She isn’t family orientated, doesn’t listen to her step mom unlike Randa, the Muslim girl who is heavily family orientated
o She doesn’t have a boyfriend she’s committed to – uses him for sex
o She follows what she thinks is right herself
o Will do anything to get what she wants
- Talk about how women weren’t usually presented as being independent, but more damsel in distress
- The fact that women were the male side kicks and not the protagonists in most films
- Audience usually saw women to be weaker, but are now seen as more active
- Are sending out the message that they don’t need men in their lives – emphasized by the mother leaving the father and living on her own
(R, Id, A, HC)
Paragraph Three:
- Women represented as SEXUALLY ACTIVE
o Most of the characters in the film are sex driven
o The females in the film use the men for sex
o Kimberly is seen as more in control during sex, this is shown through the camera work
o Kimberly uses sex as a vehicle to help her reach her dream
o The film is based on sex – teacher harassing the school girls
o Kimberly is open about sex – even at home which shows how she has been bought up
o Kimberly is open to try all forms of sex – even homosexual with the journalist
- Talk about how women used to be inferior in sex
- Talk about how sex wasn’t as open as it is now
- Also talk of how women used to be used for sex but here there is gender reversal as women use the males for sex to get what they want
(R, Id, M, G, N, SC, HC)
Paragraph Four:
- Women represented as LESBIANS
o The news reporter and the camera woman are lesbian
o Kimberly uses this to her advantage and offers the reporter sex to spice up the story and make her famous à her dream
o “I could never give up men, I like cock too much, but sometimes, I just need a woman's touch”
o Exploring all forms of sexuality
o The girls watch “lesbian porn” on television too
o Showing the increase of lesbians represented
- Talk about how lesbians are now being represented
- They were normally shown as a stigma
- Nowadays people are more open about their sexuality
(R, Id, M, SC, HC)
Paragraph Five:
- Women represented as being ROLE MODELS
o Kimberly looks up to her mother
o Kimberly lives with her father but does not see him as a role model
o Kimberly is shown to be aspired to by the news reporter who respects what she did
o Could be shown to be a role model to other girls – you have to work hard to get what you want
o Shown that she doesn’t need a man in her life
- Talk about how women have become so in control that they can be role models to each other
- Talk about how this is a teenage film, where the young girls are subconsciously looking up to their elders
(R, Id, G, HC, SC)
Paragraph Six:
- Women represented as having priority to PERSUE AMBITION
o Kimberly aspires to be a TV actress
o We see her trying to reach fame
o She is shown to be assertive to try and get what she wants
o She uses sex and backstabs her friends for this
o Goes to try out to be main actress at the start of the film – and at the end she is shown to have got what she wanted
o How she instigates a plan beforehand and the audience think its coincidence but find out in the end it was all her plan
- Talk about successful women
- How women have to work hard to get what they want
- Show how nowadays women can get what they want whereas in the past they didn’t usually get their way
- Talk of cult of celebrity
(R, N, A, Id, SC, HC)
Paragraph Seven:
- Women represented as FEMME FATALE
o Kimberly is shown to be dangerous
o Uses sex to seduce men
o Introduces Randa to sex, alcohol, porn and men and corrupts her
o Does anything to get what she wants
o False accusations towards teacher – story is told through this
o Randa could also be seen as this – but she is punished at the end as she commits suicide
- Talk about femme fatales in the past and how this has changed
- Talk about how the femme fatales look and how this has an impact on them and the people around them
(R, M, G, N, SC, HC)
Paragraph Eight:
- Women represented as BREAKING TRADITIONAL STEREOTYPES
o There are lesbians
o The mother has divorced the father and lives on her own - not a housewife
o There is a step-mom but she doesn’t do much – plays sports
o Women taking dominant role in sex
o Kimberly does not listen to her father
o Teen film – does not completely revolve around boys
- Talk about how women have started to break out of traditional stereotypical roles
- Talk about traditional views and representations of women
- How teenagers are not like normal teenagers – take interest in other things – e.g. politics
- How women now can do what they want to
(R, Id, N, G, HC, PC)
Paragraph Nine:
- Asian women represented as STEREOTYPES
o Randa is shown to be stereotyped by everyone around her
o Talk of middle east conflict – asked to point out Palestine on the map
o Kimberly: “There's a lot of resentment in this country toward the Middle East and there's a lot of stereotypes floating around which I don't think are true because in the short amount of time I've known you, you haven't tried to bomb anybody and you currently smell okay to me.”
o Terrorism
o Family orientated
o Wants to be a doctor
o Religious – wears a scarf
- Talk about how the Muslim girl conforms to stereotypes
- Talk about how there have now been more inclusion of Asians in mainstream films
(R, Id, A, I, SC, HC, PC)
Paragraph Ten:
- Women represented as PASSIVE
o Men are seen as more dominant in society in general
o Male teacher, lawyer, judge etc
o The teacher is shown as a pedophile
o Brittany on stage in her drama class – humiliated by her teacher
o Teacher wins the court case
o There is a trophy wife – blonde = object of the male gaze
o Females tend to be the laughing stock
o Victims of “harassment”
- Talk about how even though there has been a gradual change there are still some changes that need to be made
- Women are not shown as completely dominant
- There is still a patriarchal society
(R, Id, N, A, M, SC, HC)
Conclusion:
- In conclusion…
- Talk about the fact that there has been changes in the representation of females in film but still at times the female is shown to be inferior
- Women still need to look beautiful and be an object of the male gaze
- Although this film is mostly a female cast – the dominant roles are still played by males
- Is this film a step towards the past?
(R, HC)
Sherish at 1:41 PM
Task 12
Historical TextThe text i decided to do was
The Accused 1988
- Sarah Tobias a young, pretty, blond girl who is flirtatious gets gang raped after a night out
- Her friend is shown to be not supportive as she doesn’t seem enthusiastic to help and give her verdict
- Because Sarah had drank and taken drugs, the court saw this as her “asking for it”
- The court doesn’t really hear her out
- The rape scene is shown as highly graphical
- The legal system questions the motive of the woman
- She is somewhat shown as a stereotype: fragile, scared, weak, passive and inferior
- Told in flashbacks – has a curiosity effect on the viewer
- Women still rely on man to save her – the testimony of the young boy will decide
- Boyfriend expects her to get over it – not caring supportive
- To some extent women are shown in a positive light – there is a female attorney and Sarah kicks out her boyfriend after he is shown to be rude
- Shows how society stigmatizes women
- This film was first of its kind – it opened doors
- Could show the rise of power of women in film
- An Oscar was received for this film
- Point of view shots from the rapist and the victim- sympathize? à Masochistic and sadistic
- Light was mainly on the rape scene
- Long scene – adds realism
- Voyeuristic and pleasuristic
- Knowing object of the male gaze – sexually aggressive and then facing consequences
- Deserved it – enticing men
- Men violent, barbaric and animalistic
- Power
- Flashback from the young boys position
In this film women are shown to be less powerful then men unlike Pretty Persuasion
Sherish at 1:35 PM
Monday, December 11, 2006
Task 11
Summary of arguments of Laura MulveyMulvey declared her intention to make ‘political use’ of Freudian psychoanalytical theory in a study of cinematic spectatorship. Mulvey argues that various features of cinema viewing conditions facilitate for the viewer both the voyeuristic process of objectification of female characters and also the narcissistic process of identification with an ‘ideal ego’ seen on the screen. She declares that in a patriarchal society ‘pleasure in looking has been split between the active man and the passive female’. She also talks of the female being the object of the male gaze. This is reflected in the dominant forms of cinema. Conventional narrative films in the ‘classical’ Hollywood tradition not only typically focus on a male protagonist in the narrative but also assume a male spectator. As the audience is constructed as the male, they are forced to identify with the male character and see through his perspective. Women are presented as the image and the mean as the bearer of the look. In response to Freudian ‘castration anxiety’ Mulvey has 2 modes of looking: voyeuristic and fetishistic.
Laura Mulvey theory in Pretty Persuasion
First look at Pretty Persuasion and you would think that this is a female dominated film and therefore they are the dominating sex. This could be partly true as it is female dominated but a closer look and you will realize that the authoritative roles in the film are those played by males: the lawyer, the teacher, the judge and so on, which gives them the overall power in the film.
In Pretty Persuasion, at one point in the film there is a scene where Elizabeth, a young, pretty, blonde girl is on stage in her drama class and her teacher (who happens to be male) asks her to imagine that she is alone in her bedroom and asks her to do whatever she would do behind closed doors in the privacy of her own bedroom. As the young girl closes her eyes, she starts to undress herself in front of the teacher and her class mates. This allows the male and the audience (who are constructed as male, and therefore forced to identify with the teacher) to be a voyeur and look at things they usually wouldn’t. The young female has become a object of the male gaze and also a form of looked-at-ness.
The fact that there are many pretty girls in the film allows the audience to look at the film fetishistically, the other mode of looking distinguished by Laura Mulvey. Because there are so many pretty girls in the film allows the audience to look and fetish. Fetishistic looking, she suggests, leads to overvaluation of the female image and the cult of the female movie star.
Sherish at 11:09 AM
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Self Evaluation
Attainment 1Effort 1
Punctuality 1
Submission and quality of homework 1
Ability to work independently 1
Quality of writing 1
Organisation of Media folder 2 [need a bigger one...too many handouts!]
Oral contributions in class 1
Standard of Module 5 blog (Year 13s only) 1
Standard of Module 6 blog (Year 13s only) 1
b. Make a list of three targets/areas for improvement over the next half-term.
- Read more articles
- Read and highlight all handouts
- More contribution in class [muhahaha]
Sherish at 1:29 PM
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Pretty Persuasion review in Sight and Sound
This is a review that i found in the SIGHT AND SOUND magazine... i was searching "Pretty Persuasion" on the net and it said that a review was in the magazine but not on the site.. so i ordered a back copy... it was in the JULY 2006 issue ...
Sherish at 10:30 AM
Friday, October 27, 2006
Task Ten: Book Research
- Gilligan, Sarah (2003): Teaching Women and Film. UK: BFi
Focuses on the category “woman” and what it actually means as a construct and a reality. Also helps to understand about women gaining control - Davis, Glyn and Dickenson, Kay (2004): Teen TV – Genre, Consumption, Identity. UK: BFi
Talks about how race and gender affect friendships within girls. This will be of help to me as Pretty Persuasion is about friendship and has a lot to do with race as there is an Asian, Muslim girl. - Cook, Pam and Benink, Mieke (1999): The Cinema Book 2nd Edition. UK: BFi
Information on Laura Mulvey and the male gaze, Sigmund Freud’s fetishism and male sexual anxiety, psychoanalysis, females in film, the female spectator and queer theory. - Tasker, Yvonne (1998): Working Girls. UK: Routledge
Again, this is looking at female friendships but in the melodrama genre. This leads on to lesbian chic which is homosexual relationships within girls. Also looks at how class, ethnicity and race affect female friendships - Nelmes, Jill (1996): Introduction to Film Studies. UK: Routledge
This information is about women and film and the history of women in film. Looks at the feminist revolution and the representation and stereotyping of women in the media. Also concentrates on gender theory and looking at masculinity and womb envy. - Smelik, Anneke (1998): And the mirror cracked: Feminist Cinema and Film Theory. UK: Palgrave Macmillan
Information on the male gaze, the female spectator, female desire and lesbian film studies. - Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender and Identity, An Introduction. UK: Routledge
This book looks at Gender representation in the past, Gender representation in the present, Laura Mulvey and the male gaze, Masculinity and Femininity, Girl power, queer theory - Bennet, Peter and Slater, Jerry and Wall, Peter (2006): A2 Media Studies The Essential Introduction. UK: Routledge
Quite broad information about the media but particularly looking at representation, mediation, stereotypes, minorities, realism and ideologies - Penly, Constance (1988): Feminism and Film Theory. UK: BFi
This book is an in depth look at the place of women in film and how society has changed to allow them to be more known and seen in the media. A lot of feminist theorists give their view on what they think. - Wayne, Mike (2005): Understanding Film Marxist Perspectives. UK: Pluto Press
Marxism in film and how it affects the film. Extracts from Adorno, Gramsci and Althusser. Also looks at Hollywood as Monopoly Capitalism. - Branston, Gill and Stafford, Roy (2003): The Media Student’s Book 3rd Edition. UK: Routledge
Looks at representation within gender, questioning positive and negative images and ideas of changing representation. Also looks at how stereotypes are formed.
Sherish at 5:16 AM
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Task Nine
My class blog buddy is Bushara......her independent study looks at the representation of women in Sex in the City
- Although my text is a film and Bushara's text is a tv show they are similar as they both have strong references to the way that women are represented
- In both texts, women are shown as sex obbsessed, but in their own different ways
- The ages of the characters are different, but they are still represented quite similarly as the females are shown as being quite strong
- The females in Sex in the City enjoy sex for themselves, but the protagonist in Pretty Persuasion has sex with other characters as her way to stardom, which could be seen as enjoyment for herself although its not the sex she enjoys but what she will get out of it
- In Pretty persusasion we see a variety of different females being represented which is also the case in Sex in the City
- In film women are shown to be less active whereas in tv they are shown to be much more independent and strong. Sex in the City is based on older females choosing to do what they want in life and making it happen.
- Both texts provide the male gaze as they have voyeuristic pleasures as well as the fetishistic pleasures
My blog buddy from the other class is Navdeep...
...her independent study is looking at "John Tucker Must Die"
- Pretty Persuasion is a film about a young teenage girl, Kimberly, who is sexually active and uses her sex to get to her main goal in life: fame. She would do anything to become famous and one of the ways she does this is by suing her teacher. Another way is by sleeping with the lesbian reporter whom she blackmails.
- John Tucker Must Die: basically its this guys whos dating 3 women, wen they find out they set him up with this other girl, and persuade her to flirt with him jus so he can really start 2 like her and fall in love with her then once they've got him propa likin her she just leaves him and its revenge
- Navdeeps essay is just about how teenagers now in films are playin roles like getin revenge and vengence and theyre no like damsel in distress type, or jus there for their luks and how they have meaning to their character
- These two texts are both teenage films and both have female protagonists although in JTMD we have a male and a lot of females are stronger
- In both texts the females want revenge on the male
- Both texts have strong representation of women
- The females in both films are subverting the stereotypical roles of females
- Both films are mainstream Hollywood
- The males in the film are seen as evil and abusing femininity
- Navdeeps blog has a lot of info on the representation of women and how it has changed also looks at teen films in general
Thanks for being my Blog Buddies :)
Sherish at 1:17 AM
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Task Eight
Teens in movieshttp://hsc.csu.edu.au/pta/scansw/teen.html#anchor147406
Cult of celebrity
http://hsc.csu.edu.au/pta/scansw/teen.html#anchor147406
Synopsis of films
www.imdb.com
Laura Mulvey male gaze
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey
Male gaze
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze09.htmlFemales in filmhttp://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/824016/index.html
Reviews
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/film/reviews/article1096305.ece
Gender, Race and Ethnicity- on this website there is a lot of information on Islam and the media which relates as in Pretty Persuasion, one of the main girls is Muslim, so this will help me to expand my interpretation of the representation http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources/GenderMedia/index.html
Media Ed - There is an article on this website on "women representing women" which talks about how the gender of the director of the film can affect the representation the audience see http://www.mediaed.org.uk/resource/view_list.php?category=ca_theory
Media, Gender and Identity - talks about how gender is represented in todays society http://www.theory.org.uk/giddens.htm
BFI- On this site i found a 16+ guide on strong women. I can use this as the main protagonist in the film is seen as being strong and dominating http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmtvinfo/library/publications/16+/strongwomen.html
Useful review
http://emanuellevy.com/article.php?articleID=143
Article on feminism in pretty persuasion
http://www.fearofafemaleplanet.com/?p=1
Article on femme fatales
http://www.crimeculture.com/359/FemmesFatales.html
Representation of youth
http://www.mediaed.org.uk/posted_documents/repsyouth.html
Female protagonists in film
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/824016/index.html
Sherish at 11:18 AM
Task Seven
More Keywords....Post Feminism
Part of the post modern perspective which takes the achievemens of feminism for granted and views it as ineffective in explaining the current condition of women and the many identity choices they face.
In this film we have pretty girls that attract the male, but they know this which makes it ok for them as it is their aim.
Teen Movie
A film directed at a target audience of teenagers and adressing their interests.
My chosen text is a teen movie
Stereotype
The social classification of a group of people by identifying common characteristics and universally applying them in a generalised way.
In this film we have characters that break and conform to the stereotypes that they are given
Representation
Provide models of how we see gender, social groups, individuals and aspects of the world we all inhabit.
Representation is important as my independent study is focusing on the representation of females in my chosen text
Post Modernism
'After the modern' generic variation in media texts and as a definition of cultural attitudes. They don't follow generic conventions or traditional narratives.
My chosen text is not generic or traditional
Gender
Psychological and cultural aspects of behaviour associated with masculinity or femininity, acquired through socialisation, in accordance with the expectations of a particular society.
My texts includes males and females, but they don't particularly just follow their sex in the way they behave. We have a battle of the sexes in this film during the court case
Binary Oppositions
A term used by Claude Levi-Strauss as part of his argument that narratives are structured around oppositional elements in human culture, for example, good and evil, life and death, night and day, raw and cooked.
In this text there is the battle of male and female, good and evil, family and independence and many more binary oppositions
Iconography
The distinguishing elements, in terms of props and visual details, which characterize a genre.
This film is full of iconography relating to the media as the main character has an obbsession with wanting to be famous
Empathy
The ability to share the emotions or piont of view of a group or individual.
Although there is no one person in the film who the audience can empathise with on a whole, during different scenes the audience are able to empathise with different characters
Determinism
A marxist concept that individuals and institutions have no chioce of their behaviour because their decisions are shaped by socioeconomic content of the media
Kimberly is obbsessed by wanting to be famous so everything she does is because of what she sees on the TV
Sherish at 10:19 AM
Teen Movies
http://hsc.csu.edu.au/pta/scansw/teen.html#anchor147406The teen movie, or 'teenpic', is a genre which exploits the teenage market as a mass audience. Variously described as 'whimsical, ephemeral and pervasive' (Martin 1994, 65), this is not a strict, enclosed genre. Ideas of what constitutes a popular culture are continually changing. In this case, the nature of the teen movie genre changes very rapidly over time and there are crossovers with neighbouring genres
French film critic Robert Benayoun once described the 'normal qualities of youth as naively, idealism, humour, hatred of tradition, erotomania (abnormally strong sexual desire), and a sense of injustice' (Martin 1994, 67). This description is very true to the teen movie, because it points to the two poles of the genre (Martin 1994), that is, at the one end, the craziness characterised by freeforall fun, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, and at the other end, the equally important innocence, uncomplicated contact with another human being, and the unformed, impossible dream of a better world tomorrow
It is worth noting the ongoing relationship between teen movies and mass culture (see 'The Contribution of POpular Culture to Social Change). Belton (1966) wrote that 'if films and filmmakers produce culture, they are also produced by it. The movies are inseparable from the society within whichthey exist; one does not produce the other; rather, each interacts with the other and they mutually determineone another'.
Sherish at 9:31 AM