Representations of Women

The three media texts that I have used in this essay is Creed; NUTS magazine, and the music video of Blurred Lines. 

The Constructionist Approach is where representations are created, or where they construct meaning, and the representation is usually a mixture of the person being represented, the opinions of the encoders, the target audience’s reaction, and the context of society. In Creed, the woman (Bianca) is an interesting character, but disappears from any main role in the film once Adonis starts to get recognition for his boxing work. Bianca only really makes an appearance to reconcile Adonis after his fight by making love to him, and only provides about 3 shots of her reactions when Adonis is both losing and winning the fight. Bianca in the film has some sort of element of realism in the film, but the longest shots of her is when she is having sex with Adonis, making her seem that she is an object purely for sex and love. This is evident as the story goes on, her story is an intriguing story, she us a talented singer, but her hearing is slowly progressively getting worse, similar to how a boxer can struggle in a fight, as boxers do progressively get worse in the fight if they are being defeated. However, Bianca’s story ends quite quickly, her role is completely lost as Adonis gets bigger, and the audience is left wondering about Bianca, possibly a tactic by the encoders setting up perfectly for the sequel, but the fact the woman is left for the man, it’s an accurate representation of society, the media is more focused on what the man is doing, and the woman is only there to support the male protagonist, purely as an object. In several other films, the female’s role is left behind, while the male’s role grows. The encoders want to portray Adonis to be a lover, a protector for his family and his loved ones, rather than Ricky Conlan’s role, where he just seems to be some bad-ass man, empathised by his ring walk. But Bianca’s role is important, as the love scenes in the film show the protagonist to have many more masculine qualities, rather than just the typical; “strong, brave warrior”. The encoders possibly don’t want to make Bianca represent sex, but her main role is simply just to enhance the audience’s perception of Adonis, which is a sad representation on society nowadays, that females simply don’t have any role in this specific genre. The film failed the Bechdel Test, which isn’t surprising, but the encoders possibly could have ended the storyline of Bianca better, because it just reinforces the idea that women are sex objects for the male pleasure, and their only main role is to enhance the qualities of masculinity. The target audience of the film is for an Aspirer in my opinion, and Bianca’s role possibly could target the Aspirer and the Mainstreamer. It would target the Aspirer as Bianca, despite her hearing deteriorating, she still aspires to be a big superstar, and the mainstreamer as the dominant ideology in society nowadays is that media texts see women as an object, purely for love making, this film meets that criteria, as Bianca’s main role is to console Adonis with love when he loses. The preferred reading of Bianca’s role is to see her as a family woman, who looks after the man, despite the fact he could be seen as the protector, she is her motivator, possibly representing that although women aren’t positively represented in society, they are still the main source of confidence and happiness in a man’s life. 

The NUTS magazine was a former paper printed daily in Britain, that was constantly criticised for its publication of topless females. The women that featured in the magazine would usually not have any top on, and they were meant to represent the natural beauty of the female human body. As every female body is all usually the same, the pictures would always represent a realistic portrayal of women, as usually the model that they would have selected would have been young, pretty with bright white teeth, a slim body with very little body fat on them, usually with a big bust on them. They would usually stand with a sense of confidence on them, but usually their faces would portray a sense of sluttish, sexy kind of look. She would usually be joyous, giving the implication that she is happy about how her body looks, and that she is proud to be beautiful. The opinions of the encoders, and the audience’s reaction, would be completely different. The encoders have much more control over the representation than the models ever do, because they would have been told how to stand by the encoders, plus the hours of editing by the encoders portray the model to be prettier than she actually is. The encoders reinforce an ideology that the perfect women must be slim, beautiful, and generally, just a pretty girl to look at, a body that men around the world desire. The encoders want women around the world to know that anything other than the model would be looked down upon by men, and they won’t be desired by men as much as most of the models in their magazine would be if they aren’t pretty. The encoders usually create a masthead that would either consist of a “sex” phrase, like “Boobs!”, or the name of the model, so that once the audience knows her name, they will be familiar with that name in the future. The encoders see women as objects, but not exactly sex objects, more objects that are meant to be desired by the target audience. The target audience wouldn’t take the same approach to the encoders representation, as most of the target audience probably take an oppositional reading to the magazine, and see women purely as objects for the pleasure of males, as chances are, men who buy the magazine aren’t observing how beautiful the body is, but more “How can I gain sexual pleasure from this”. The target audience would be a Mainstreamer, as the dominant ideology in society is to see beautiful women in media texts as objects purely for satisfactory purposes. 

Finally, the constructionist approach can be applied to the music video of Blurred Lines, a very controversial video that received plenty of criticism by many in society. The three women in the video are all topless, and the lyrics of the video are completely sexist towards women, constantly saying “I know you want it” and “You’re an animal”, remarks to having sex with the three girls in the video. The women are represented to depict that women are objects for the two men in the video, and that they are just purely there for sex with the man, that is there core purpose in life, and they have no real roles in life other than to make love to the men. The women never really crack many smiles, but more of a natural facial expression that reinforces the idea that women aren’t really happy being used for sex, but that they have to do it for the man to express her love for him. The three models are young, very slim, and one in particular was actually at one point the 2^nd most beautiful girl in the world (Emily Ratajowski). It has a similar representation to the Nuts magazine, in that women everywhere should strive to look like the models in the video, as they all are naturally beautiful, but it reinforces the idea that women who aren’t pretty, or slim, don’t fit in with society. The encoders creating the representation clearly have more control over the models like in the Nuts magazine, as a lot of the time in the music video, they seem to look uncomfortable and awkward around the men, creating an idea that women don’t want to be looked at as an object for sexual pleasure. Emily actually reinforces her own ideology outside of the music video that she is a feminist, and hates the idea that sexual objects are connoted to women, so with these ideas in mind, clearly she had no real role in deciding what she was doing in the video, showing women that their ideas aren’t looked at in society. The target audience was split in their reactions to the representation. Many people saw it as a complete violation of women in society, and that there only real role in society is to please the man, however some saw the representation to be a realistic take of women in media texts and in society, so there probably was a huge split in how the audience took the representation as, with it being hard to decide if people took a preferred or oppositional reading. Many people saw the video as misogynistic, and a complete disrespect to women in the video, and in society in general, as it seems that it promoted rape to be acceptable. The target audience would probably be a male Mainstreamer. 

Going back to Bianca in Creed, there are many stereotypes and archetypes of her in the film. She has make up on in every scene that she is in, making her glamorous appearance stand out more to the audience, and with her red lipstick and long eye lashes, these are usually representative of what society believes constitutes beauty. The sexual clothing also emphasises her body and bust to the audience, and her 'sluttish' behaviour when she sings is not uncommon in society, as nowadays, many female singer often wear this type of clothing to stand out more, and gain more recognition, exactly what Bianca is doing. The film stereotypes women to be sexual objects to men, and that their need in life is to make themselves stand out to men, and this is only possible by wearing sexy clothing, as initially, Adonis doesn't like her, but once she wears the revealing clothing, he starts to take a liking to her, proving that women in media texts are only there to assist the male protagonist. This idea is known as "The Male Gaze", very common in films, and females are basically just there in many films just to assist the male protagonist, and are just there to be a 'prize' to the male. There are two possible archetypes of Bianca, the Princess, and The Mean Girl. Initially, she is The Mean Girl, as she slams the door on Adonis, and continues to do what he politely asks her not to do. While the story goes on, Adonis and the audience  starts to realise that Bianca isn't the Mean Girl, but Creed starts to treat her like a princess, as he goes home after a fight to make love to her, and all the time, he tries to protect her by fighting. Princess are usually desired by the men, and often protected through some sort of physical violence, exactly what Bianca is in the film. She is fundamental in him becoming emotional, because now he finds a motivational factor to fight, initially it was for his deceased father, now it's for Bianca, and so he can get back to her and love her. 

The stereotypes and archetypes in both the NUTS magazine and the Blurred Lines music video is that women who are pretty must wear a lot of make up in order to satisfy the man. They stereotype woman to only really have one role in life, and that is to look good for the man, as the encoders in both have full control of what the audience sees of the models. Like Bianca, they all wear eyelashes, big boobs, red lipstick, and sexually revealing clothing, all what society now sees as the "Perfect woman". The woman actually don't say anything in either of the two media texts, which is worrying, as it stereotypes woman to have no say in the relationship, and their voice is not heard in specify when it comes to love and sex. This is a dominant ideology unfortunately, woman are seen as objects by many in these two media genres, and despite the woman being humans, they can't speak up, and their only main function is to please the man. The main archetype is The Princess for all the women involved in both media texts, as they all look beautiful and desirable to many men, many men strive to try and get a women to look like the models that the encoders have used In either text, and the dominant ideology being that if a man will always look for a princess, a sad, but realistic view on society. In the Blurred Lines video, the audience partakes in the protagonist view, regardless of are age, gender, sexuality etc, the audience will always look at the women, and recognise that they are representing beauty, the Male Gaze is common throughout the video, the audience is constantly reminded of the women's beauty, though both the lyrics, and their presence on the screen, as The audience is never more than 2 seconds away from a female.

Mediation is commonly used in magazines, and is a clever way by the encoders to position the audience in such a way in which they see their representation. It goes through three ways, selection, organisation and process. In the NUTS magazine, there would be very little text used, as that would possibly distract the audience from looking at the models, and because the models are the main way of attracting sales, the encoders have to make the models stand out the most. They select models on the basis of their looks, as the encoders are aware that a better looking model would attract better sales than a woman who isn't as good looking as other models. This highlights the key issues in society, that woman are 'graded' on how they look, rather than who they are as a person. This can normalise their ideology by constantly reinforcing their ideology on every magazine front cover, making society start to think that their ideology is right, and that women are only desirable if they are pretty. It's organised in such a way that it makes the audience look straight at the model, rather than looking anywhere else on the magazine. The model will stand out to any man in society, enhancing the number of sales the magazine will get, and leading to more people reading and taking in their ideology, rather than anyone else's in society. Placing the model smaller on the front cover does not serve their ideology, as although the model is still there, it won't serve as the dominant ideology on the front cover, meaning their ideology is going under the radar. 

Finally, Queer Theory is not really used by NUTS and Blurred Lines, but used in Creed. Judith Butler created a theory that gender is just a construction and that the media perpetuates ideologies against men and women that reinforce the differences. For example, Bianca in Creed is obviously taking an interest in boxing, and that she gets attached to the sport, emphasised by the 5 or so scenes where she stands up off her seat when something exciting happens. In society, boxing is a primarily male sport, and should only be enjoyed by males rather than females. Bianca completely writes off this stereotype, and shows that despite Boxing being a physical sport, females can still enjoy it just as much as men do and the fact is, the ideology was only created by society, as the first known use of a boxing match with gloves on took place between two females, but only know is society creating an ideology that Boxing is strictly to be enjoyed and practiced by men.