Representations of Women - Exam Answer

The representation of women in the modern media landscape can easily be contrasted with the older (more traditional) representation of women, particularly in the 1940’s. One example of a more traditional representation of women in the 1940’s in a print advert for the government:

In this print advert, we can see many traditional views of women that are represented through a constructionist approach. A constructionist approach consists of four components, the person or group being represented; the opinions of those encoding the representation; the opinions of the decoders and the societal context that the text was produced in. In the context of this Propaganda print advert, we can see that the person being represented doesn’t have much control over her own representation due to its very nature (that being an illustration). The woman in the advert could be described as conventionally attractive – despite working in a strenuous and stressful environment she seems capable of maintaining perfect make up, hair and posture. The woman is also extremely slim and petite. Thus, she meets the standard for a conventionally attractive woman.

In this text, the encoders clearly have more control over her representation due to the advert being an illustration. Thus, it is clear that the representation of the woman in the advert portrays more about the encoders beliefs than it does the person being represented. Subsequently, we can infer that the belief of the encoders is that a ‘capable’ woman should still be conventionally attractive and slim. We can infer that woman is being represented as capable due to the copy ‘Turns out you gals are useful after all”. The encoders also believe that women are something to be worked and serve men, despite having ‘equal’ rights in the workplace. This is apparent through the use of the copy “The soldiers need our help! Gather ‘round, American Women!”  We can infer that the encoders believe that women should be serving and helping men in any way possible, as well as supporting something else – the war. The war carries the ideology that women should be supporting the Second World War not by fighting on the frontlines, but rather by working on the home front and producing ammunition, munitions and helping the men fight on the front lines.

An audience member with a preferred reading would believe that the advert is empowering women, giving them equal status in the workplace and giving women a real chance to support the war and contribute towards their country. However, an audience member with an oppositional reading may believe that the advert is cynical in nature – presenting a false front of equality in order to simply persuade women into working the factories.

The societal context of this print advert is extremely important, the 40s saw the dawn and close of the Second World War; it also saw a shift in the representation of women (albeit not a completely none or anti-traditional representation). The advert is somewhat progressive in the fact that it promotes the idea of women being in the workplace – this ideology was pushed by the fact that the country needed women in factories and hospitals in order to support the war effort. However Western, 40s culture still held a traditional, patriarchal view of society and this is reflected in the print advert. Whilst the advert does at a surface level promote the ideology of equality for women in the workplace, the advert is still condescending in tone and betrays the fact that women are being encouraged to be subservient to men and serve them in their war effort.

But of course, the representation of women has changed significantly in recent years. The videogame series ‘Mass Effect’ has included many alternative and none-mainstream representations of gender, sexuality and race – this freedom is explained through the genre of the game, that being Science Fiction. In the game, the character has a choice that, while unimportant to the narrative, represents a change in ideology and attitudes towards gender in the 21^st Century: the choice to play as either a man or a woman.

The choice to play as a woman in the game actually barely affects the narrative, however it’s this lack of importance placed on gender that reveals how attitudes have changed – the lack of importance on gender reveals a change in ideology, the idea that men and women are not different in any way; that anything a man can do a woman can do and vice versa. However, this isn’t to say that Mass Effect is perfectly utopian in its representation of women and gender. Judith Butler argued that gender is a construction, the qualities and traits we attribute to masculinity and femininity have little to do with the biological differences between male and female. She also argued that the media reinforces and perpetuates these ideologies and views, thus stating that if there are alternative representations of gender within the media – then our view, beliefs and understanding on gender will also change accordingly. Mass Effect could be criticised for creating an arbitrary divide between men and women in some aspects. The female Shepard has clothing items exclusive to her, the same applies to the male. The female version of some of the outfits is rather revealing and promiscuous in nature, whilst the male equivalent is rather practical. These arbitrary divides show that the text still adheres to some traditional views on gender. We can also apply Male Gaze to the text, thus showing how the videogame reinforces traditional views on gender. Regardless of the player’s choice of gender, the player is still forced into viewing the character of Miranda as a sexual object. The camera fetishises and objectifies her by only showing her buttocks in close up, thus forcing the player to see the character through the eyes of a heterosexual man – regardless of their possible choice to play as a lesbian (an option within the game).

However, the videogame does offer alternative views on gender. In the game, there is a species called ‘Asari’ that is mono-gender and hermaphroditic in the sense that it can mate with any species or gender. This representation of a species that is without gender separations and has hermaphroditic qualities is alternative in its view of women and gender due to the fact that it states that gender is not linked to any sort of biological trait.

Despite the representation of women and gender in Mass Effect being imperfect, it is still a far cry from the representations of women in the Propaganda print advert. The differences in representation have come with slow changes over time in society – Mass Effect representing the slow shift towards a more liberal and progressive culture. Whilst the print advert portrays women as subservient and less capable than men, Mass Effect represents women as capable, strong and complex characters – although, the game still sexualises its female characters and fetishises them; implying that the encoders of the advert still see women as sexual objects for the pleasure of men.

Archetypes and stereotype are commonly used in media texts; they can be used to convey a lot of information quickly due to preconceived societal knowledge. One example of an archetype is the damsel in distress that is prevalent among movies (in particular, superhero and action movies) is the damsel in distress archetype. The archetype is exemplified in the 2004 film ‘Spider-Man 2’. Many times during the story, the male hero Peter Parker must overcome personal and physical challenges in order to save the object of his affections, Mary Jane. She is a character whom is represented as being incapable of protecting herself in any form, and serves as a quickly established motive for the protagonist – whether he is romantically pursuing her or physically trying to save her. This archetype is used by films because it’s so easily understood by the audience, ‘Spider-Man 2’ has 2 hours and 15 minutes to tell its story and thus does not have time to explore complex character motivations and idiosyncrasies for every single character and thus relies on archetypes to tell the story efficiently. However, many films have challenged this notion – notably, the 2015 film ‘Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens’. The film included the protagonist ‘Rey’ whom has character motivations that cannot be distilled into an archetype and is strong, independent and not sexualised in any way by the film itself. This use of a well-rounded female character is not exclusive to ‘Star Wars VII’ however, well-rounded female characters have been used recently in ‘Ex Machina’, ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ and ‘Sicario’. The increasing use of well-rounded female characters in movies and particularly within high production qualities TV shows such as Breaking Bad, The Sopranos and Game of Thrones reveals a change in our society - these media texts show us how our society and culture is moving towards a more progressive, accepting society and culture; one that accepts and embraces alternative views on gender.