Representation of women

Representation of Women

Over the course of the last 50 years when television and media have become popular and widespread women have been represented in many ways. Some of these ways rely solely on stereotypes in order to get the message across quickly and in order to create a 'shortcut to meaning'. This use of stereotypes can be clearly shown in the Asda Christmas advert. In this advert the mum is shown, through the use of a montage, to be responsible for most of the good things that happen at Christmas, as shown through the shots of her buying presents, getting the tree and hanging up all of the decorations. This also shows women, through stereotyping, as the 'Housewife'. This is shown as there is no man to speak of as she cleans the house, cooks the dinner and organises all of the children's school plays and clothes. The advert also gives supports the ideologies that, although the husband is the one who works to earn the money, the wife is the one who puts the money to good use and uses it to bring the happiness of Christmas into fruition. An archetype used be the Decoders of this advert is 'the Mother'. This is shown through the shots of her taking her children to a school production and the ending shot of her looking on over the family as they relax on Christmas day. However, no media text ever truly reflects a group or event in society as any media text goes through a process of Mediation. This can be seen in this advert. The idea of organisation can be seen as they have shown only events which show the mother to be working hard rather than while asleep or in the bath relaxing. It also shows the shots in a fast paced order, showing that this mother's life is also fast paced and that all of her time is taken up with ensuring that her family have the best Christmas. This helps with the 'Focusing' aspect of mediation which comes together to show the audience that the main points of the advert is to see that mothers and wives are the heart and soul of Christmas. This is also backed up with the tag-line of the advert; “behind every Christmas, there is a mum.”

Another representation of women is Abigail Whistler from Blade: Trinity who could be fixed to the archetype of the 'Tom-Boy fighter'. At the beginning of her introduction scene she is shown as a woman with shopping bags and a baby strapped to her chest. This seems to give off the idea of women as housewives and mothers. However as the scene progresses and the vampires attack she sheds her 'disguise' to reveal herself in a tight-fitting top and combat pants wielding a blade of UV light. This instantly becomes an alternative representation as it goes against the traditional representation of women being emotional and being in need of a man to save her. The use of her expert fighting style also goes against the traditional representation of women as they are not normally shown to be fighters, and if they do they are normally amateurish at best. The encoders have also shown her 'alternate' style through her clothes and hair. Although she doesn't look horrible, her clothes are certainly not meant to be used to attract a mate, being more practical for the type of activities she intends to take part in – vanquishing vampires. However the 'Male Gaze' theory can also be applied. Though her clothes are not particularly tight-fitting, her shirt allows some cleavage to be seen which is clearly visible during the slow-motion shot of her fighting. This has been used in order for the audience to have more time to look at her. The actress herself, Jessica Biel, is known to be attractive and known for her looks which is possibly part of the reason why she was chosen for this part. This attribute to her – being seen as an object for men to observe – makes it seem as though she could also fit into the idea of traditional representations.

The third representation of women is Katy Perry in her video 'Part of Me'. In this music video she is shown to, like Abigail, go against the norm for women representations. The first event which makes her seem different is her decision to leave her cheating boyfriend. This already goes against the norm as women are normally represented to rely sole heartedly on men whereas in this video Katy is shown to cut all ties with him to go out on her own. The second event is her deciding to join the marines. In doing so she cuts off her hair and dons jeans, a hoody and bandages about her chest. this contrasts greatly with the outfit she wore earlier; a peach dress and denim jacket. in this moment she sheds her old life to start anew in the marines. this goes against the norm as in most forms of the media women are represented as obsessed with their looks and appearance, normally moving towards a more girly or sexy look with a tight or revealing dress. Then the montage of her time training for the army also contrasts the traditional representation of women as it shows Katy and her comrades to be doing a lot of physical work and activities. However some details remain incredibly feminine as she puts on her 'war-paint' with a compact, showing that she still takes pride in her appearance no matter where she goes. With all of this, Katy's character could be attributed to the 'independent feminist' archetype who believe that anything a man can do, a woman can do better without any testosterone input.