At this point in time, there is an assumption of equality between men and women, but if you explore further into the media, a clear bias emerges. Women are very often objectified, misrepresented, exploited, distorted or even, absent. Women are represented in the media in many different ways, depending on which item of media you look at.
Certainly, the representations of women in the media has significantly changed within the last 60 years, and mainly in a good way, seeing women as more independent and strong.Women are often stereotyped, and represented to an audience as that stereotype; usually a diva, a sex kitten, a fashionista, a housewife or a business woman. It is very rare that feminism is obvious within a piece of media. An analysis on the content of a 1955 ‘Housekeeping Monthly’ article, The Good Wife’s Guide, reveals the stereotypical zeitgeist of mid 50’s women; a good mother, loyal wife and home-maker.It includes phrases such as ‘have a delicious meal ready on time for his return’, ‘be a little more gay for him’, ‘his topics of conversation are more important that yours’, ‘prepare a light fire for him to unwind behind’, ‘put a ribbon in your hair’, ‘make the evening his’ and ‘a good wife always knows her place’.
These all connote the zeitgeist of the times; that a wife should be seen and not heard, a good cook, a studious cleaner of the home and should not work.They also show that men (as a man wrote the article), thought that women were not interesting enough, or happy enough to them when they got home from work, and that they thought that their own jobs were harder than a women’s (who cleaned, cooked and looked after the children all day). The whole ‘Good wife’s guide’ shows that the dominant ideology of the day was to have a perfect, prim, happy, amusing and child caring/bearing wife. Even in later pieces of media, from the 70’s, typically showed women in roles that mainly focused on attractiveness and dependence on men, set more frequently in and around the house.The women almost always portrayed in traditional roles.
This is now considered a residual stereotype as this type of attitude toward women is rarely seen in our common climate. Most women have jobs out of the home, which can vary from anything to almost everything, and do no longer play the traditional role of women. The traditional role of a woman is nowadays not commonly held by men either, with men being granted paternity leave for child caring (which was in the 50’s, never allowed), and many men now cook at home, sometimes better than the woman.A modern computer game, called ‘Tomb Raider’, features a dominant female protagonist called ‘Lara Croft’. She is the perfect example of a port-modern woman; adventurous, brave, courageous, and completely independent from any man.
She is a fictional character who appeals more to men than women as she unmistakably a woman in her appearance; with revealing clothing, very large breasts, a tiny waist and huge hips. Her clothes extenuate her breast and bottom. Her bodily proportions are very unrealistic, as they are impossible. Many women are said to be envious of her perfect figure, which was created by men, for men.Croft even though she is a post-modern woman, has many character traits if a man; she is ready to use violence at any moment, with her guns strapped to her thighs ready for action.
She also moves and acts like a soldier, but is openly exploited as a sex symbol, being lusted after by men. She is heralded as being an icon symbolising female empowerment, having the ability to prosper and take control in a violent man’s world, but unfortunately many women see her promoting violence, as an un-realistic sex symbol and only created to please men.She is often filmed from a low angle, with an aggressive stance and her guns mounted on her hips, suggesting a power over the gamer. Her clothing is always revealing which greatly contrasts her role as an active, adventurous, and feminist character.
Lara’s relationship with the gamer is also interesting as she has no power of the narrative over the game, and that the narrative is almost always controlled by a man. For the male gamer, she is seen as an ideal creation, being powerful and dressed minimally, he can control her without any of the challenge of a real woman.Laura Mulvey was the theorist who stated: ‘The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly’. This should explain how that when a woman looks at Lara Croft, she almost immediately notices her ‘assets’ instead of her facial features, and judge her by what proportions she is in, and how she looks compared to the viewer. Another theorist said ‘Women are supposed to ignore that the image was created neither by them nor for them’.
This once again asserts that Lara Croft was never meant to be targeted for a female audience, and so does not cater for any of their opinions. The music industry often features women as the object of the video, as the singers are often women, but in many male music videos women are seen as objects of desire. This can be seen in Snoop Dogg and Akon’s video, ‘I wanna love you’. Even from the title it shows the tone of the video. The ‘love’ doesn’t mean love in the traditional sense, but is another world for sex.The language used also shows the class of video, using the word ‘wanna’.
This obviously isn’t created by someone who is eloquently spoken, which we find out through-out the video; Much harsh and lurid language is included. Throughout the video, women can be seen dancing for the men in a very sexualised manner, wearing minimalistic and very sexual clothing such as stockings, tights, high heels and lingerie. This and the ration of women to men (7:2) shows that the women are just in the video to please the men.They dance in front of them throughout the video, as the men stand in a place of power. Compared to the women who are very scantily-clad, the men are fully dresses in winter outfits (big furry coats, hats, boots etc. ) which once again shows that the women are there purely as objects of sexual fantasy for the men.
This attitude toward women is also obvious in 50 Cent’s ‘Candy shop’. Even from the beginning it is obvious from the title what the video may entail; Candy: sweet items, indulgent, and to be enjoyed. Shop: To be bought or owned.So even from just the name of the song, we understand that it will include women being bought and used as ‘sugar’. In the first few seconds, we see him arrive at a play-boy type manor in a very expensive car.
This makes us think that no only is he wealthy and eager to spend money, but that his cars are just as important as the women. The ‘manor’ has a very dark colour scheme, mainly black and velvet red, both colours associated to passion and sex. Once again, he is fully dressed in winter attire, including a thick fur coat, while around him are many scantily clad ladies, standing in sexual poses.The scale of women to men, once again shows that he may not only be in a brothel, but will ‘buy’ these women for sexual pleasure. This is hardly the aim of feminism, but the image this video wants to project is power over a woman, wealth and a sexual vibe.
In this video the women are eager for a casual encounter, all maintaining eye contact with the man even though he only stares at their bodies and not at their faces. The man obviously has the power to select which woman he wants, like picking an animal.I personally find this a very powerful and dangerous video, as impressionable people may watch it and see these people as role models. This would introduce us to a society where casual sex and prostitution would be rife, where men would have dominance over women and women see it as their ‘duty’ to please men without a commitment promise.
This would not only lead to a generation of people who would not be able to form personal relationships, but where STD’s would also be rife. Jessie J’s video is quite the opposite in all aspects to ‘I wanna love you’ and ‘Candy Shop’.Instead of the male playing the protagonist role only women appear in the video. Her music is created to show feminism and woman power; the women in the video can do ‘all’ the things men can do, so they have no need of men at all. The title of the song ‘Do it like a Dude’ explains the whole song.
She is willing women to take up power over men and do all the tings men do, so that women kind no longer are at all sufficient on men. Her music draws upon empowerment for women and encourages abandoning men to join a feminist ‘cult’ in their lair to survive without men.All the women are dresses in very masculine clothing, including jumpers, trousers and trainers (All being dark. No bright colours of femininity are present accept on Jessie), as well as a lot having quite masculine haircuts (Some very short or even almost bald) and moving in very masculine ways. When they dance only Jessie J moves in a way that is slightly feminine, but only to tease men by the fact that she can do everything without them and her body is not welcome to them.There are many items in the ‘lair’ which are usually associated with men and not women, such as cigars and meat being hacked with a knife.
The action is very aggressive and the woman obviously is paying no attention to her feminine feature; wearing loose dark clothing, piercings, and no make-up. All the women in the video are very sweaty, not something usually associated with women, but with hard working men, as it is not the social norm to sweat and is not readily accepted if you are a woman.Jessie J often uses quite cores and overtly unromantic reference to men such as dick, crotch and ‘lick my dollar’. These messages are all open to interpretation, but personally I think it’s a rather tongue in cheek mockery of how men like Snoop dog often act in music videos, instead of it actually being inspiration for young women to abandon their men. In this video, all the women are the opposite of the normal representation of women; aggressive, confrontational and no longer in need of men as they can do it all ‘do it like the man’dem’.The representation of femininity in the Disney films ‘Brave’ and ‘Snow white’ are quite different.
Both films have female protagonists (Snow white in one and Merida in the other), but both show a very different aspect of femininity. In one she is the woman who cooks and cleans for 7 men and is reliant on a man to save her, while the other says out loud that she has no need of a man and would prefer to be independent and to have equality between herself and the men.
