Pride

acedemia.edu

''Masculinity and femininity can then be examined as a set of social expectations, created and maintained in a patriarchy society''  magazines and media in general create this expectation of how they perceive society and offer guidance and advice to maintain the expectation. 

''The traditional characteristics of masculinity are made to seem so correct and natural that men find the domination and exploitation of women and other men to not only be expected but demanded'' mens magazines fully support this as women are often objectified within the magazine, however they are often shown to be dominant and in control whilst being featured in this way. Gender roles are different in womens magazines as whilst women are shown to be in control and dominant, it is within themselves being successful and in control of their health and lifestyle. Womens magazines moves away from traditional characteristics and points of views. 

''portrayals of women in the media that depict them as physically or mentally less able than men, or where their beauty, sexuality or domestic service are the aspects that are most highly valued in them'' magazines such as Good House Keeping represent this traditionalist view point however other magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Women's Fitness suggest that women aren't just rewarded and respected on their beauty but also on how successful they are, where they stand in life and what they want to achieve. women and men share some of the same qualities in todays society 

Rosalind Gill - From Sexual Objectification to Sexual Subjectification: The Resexualisation of Women's Bodies in the Media

''What makes these hyper-sexualised representations of women's bodies different from earlier representations in the 1960s and 1970s is that they are clearly responses to feminism, and, in that sense, I would suggest, are far less 'innocent' than earlier sexualised depictions'' Suggests that feminism has changed over the years as it is now about being bold and sexy. 

''this pervasive re-inscription of women as sexual objects is happening at a moment when we are being told that women can 'have it all' and are doing better than ever before'' gender within magazines are constantly contradicting themselves. it suggests that society doesn't understand what it's portraying upon women. 

'' we are confronted by a popular culture increasingly saturated by representations of women's bodies as objects, and on the other, a mantra-like repetition and celebration of 'women's success' and 'Girl Power'' 


simultaneously as a reassurance for men threatened by girls' increasingly good performance in public examinations and women's success in the workplace. some womens magazines promote women in a positive point of view and show how women are becoming empowering and successful, they point out what they're doing right and congratulate them whereas mens magazines just tell them how to improve with work, women and social events. 

'' older women, bigger women, women with wrinkles, etc are never accorded sexual subjecthood and are still subject to offensive and sometimes vicious representations.''

''Young girls seem to be getting prettier all the time.  There is a return to femininity, but it seems to me that most girls don't give two hoots about men.  It is about being fit and healthy for themselves not for men.'' magazines now offer guidance and advice on how to make yourself feel younger and bring out the best of you. They offer columns on how to stay young for longer and keeping up good health as well as looking your best for yourself, not on how to suit yourself to a man. 

Textual analysis

The womens fitness magazine uses mediation in order for it to appeal to its audeince and promote its ideologies. Selection has been used firstly as the magazine features a long shot of a toned, slimmed down model wearing bikini bottoms and a top. This connotes that anyone can be slim and model like with being active and with a little help. She is featured on a beach connoting that this magazine promotes the ideology that women should have this perfect 'beach body' and should be 'beach body ready'. This is also portrayed through the cover line 'Love your better body' which is featured in a bold, orange font to stand out and make a statement and ideology that happiness comes from having a great body and being active. It also suggests that happiness and being fit starts from within. The models clear complexion and bright smile forces us to identify and engage with the model, the eye contact used also makes her approacable and look friendly making us want to pick up the magazine in the first place. 
Construction/organisation has been used for many cover lines featured on the front. All the cover lines offer advice on how to keep fit or eat healthy, connoting that fitness is important and makes life enjoyable. 

'' 70% of teen girls agreed that magazines strongly influenced what they thought was the ideal body type.''  - education.com

magazines create a construction of the perfect woman and perfect body image instead of featuring real life women of society. Appeals more in womens' magazines then mens because women are portrayed as constantly body conscious and looking for their 'beach body'. 

''researchers reporting that teenage girls rely heavily on them for information on beauty and fashion, valuing their advice nearly as highly as that of their peers.''  


MediaSmarts.com        


Representation has gotten to a point where its created a Society that relies on 

superficial points of view from an unknown individual behind a screen rather 

than an individual they trust and have known forever. 


''66 percent of women are influenced by underweight models in magazines. The women who were shown pictures of thin models showed a decline in self-esteem and overall mood'' - LIVESTRONG.COM
Rather than magazines acting like a type of support or advisor for women it does nothing but bring them down when its meant to be lifting them up. Mens magazines fulfil their needs through their stereotypical interests  of cars and how to get the right girl. Women's magazines use underweight models whilst advertising products. Example; a picture of an underweight model and describing her as having a beach body and a fantastic figure whilst advertising diet pills.  

''men's magazines and women's magazines often follow the same general formula. Men's magazines are mostly based around heavily eroticized images of women. And women's magazines are also based around heavily eroticized images of women.'' -TheAtlantic.com (use as intro maybe)

''We provide pictures of girls in the same way we provide pictures of cool cars. It is ornamental. Women's magazines do the same thing.''  - The Atlantic.com - Alex Bilmes 

''The fact that women are assumed to be the objects not just in men's magazines, but in women's as well, indicates just how prevalent, and how constricting, gender expectations can be.'' - TheAtlantic.com 
women can identify with pictures of women so would rather be photographed as objects but they can also be objectifiers.  This shows that gender expectations can be less restricted than expected by society. 

David Guantlett

• 'Magazines bought on one level for a quick fix of glossy entertainment, promote self-confidence, and provide information about sex, relationships and lifestyles which can be put to a variety of uses'. Magazines encourage women to be themselves but then contradict that by coverlines with advice for their futures, looks and fashion. suggests that women are looking for a quick fix at life. 
• 'We lap up this material because the social construction of identity today is the knowing social construction of identity' everyone knows how to become what society wants through media and stereotypes. 
• 'magazines for young women are empthetic in their determination that women must do their own thing' this leaves room for agruments as most magazines who follow this and promote this act in some way as role models for the audience, they guide them in their life, however they contradict themselves by using an independant, determined icon on the front cover. 

Representations of masculinity and femininity in advertisements - William.M O'Barr

• ''Masculine images typically convey power, strength, virility, athleticism, and competitiveness whereas feminine images show beauty, submissiveness, nurturance, and cooperation.''    
• Cosmopolitan goes against this as it connotes empowering, strong minded women who stand up for themselves and do what they believe in.  

scales.me.uk - representations of gender in lifestyles magazines

• ''Although women’s magazines have moved on and offer visions of independence and confidence as well as beauty and domestic concerns yet women are still encouraged to look good.'' 
• beauty is essential. cosmo, vogue, even good house keeping all offer qualities of beauty and sophistication. Looking good is key, doesn't matter about anything else. Suggests that all women are superficial. 

women represented in heat magazine - Katie Bradford

• ''Celebrities act as ‘coaches’ for the audience by revealing their top five tips and favourite style choices. All these elements work together to create this representation that women are concerned with self-image'' represents women as lacking any real intelligence and sophistication. Readers are represented as being interested when they might not be.  The 4C's model - suggests women are aspirers.

• ''By anchoring a lot of the content around the life of the celebrity, it allows their readers to feel closer to their lifestyle.''   ''suggests that one reason for choosing to read such magazines may be to feel involved with the stars and celebrities the magazines write about.''  Suggests that women are shallow and are that unhappy with their own lives that they need to step away from reality and become apart of someone else's. Fulfils their needs for escapism. The succeder. No Gossip in mens magazines stereotypes women as gossiping all the time and connotes that this is why a magazine full of gossip is aimed at them. 

Stereotypes in magazines - representing gender - Theo Sweeting

Female lifestyle magazines 

• ''A recent article in Glamour magazine presented the sex lives of a porn star, a plastic surgeon and a gynaecologist. It first summed up the stereotypical assumptions about such professions from the point of view of the interviewees, and then gave the male and female interviewees a chance to present their side.''  Professions in women's magazines are presented with respect and as a job, whereas being a porn star or example, the person would be objectified within a male magazine. 

• ''The article offered a positive construction of the male porn star, who might have otherwise been portrayed stereotypically as a chauvinist or womanizer or even a sex object himself.''  magazine is challenging stereotypes and gender within itself. 

• ''presents stereotypical ideals of female beauty for the readers to aspire to, and provides many pages of advice on how to recreate such looks''  creates the perception that beauty is all that women need and that is all that matter. They dont need intelligence. Magazine doesn't give tips on how to succeed at life or to gain more useful knowledge, just on beauty. 

• ''contents pages in female lifestyle magazines serve to reinforce gendered stereotypes. The colour schemes and fonts are stereotypically associated with femininity, being predominantly reds, pinks and yellows with curvy and unthreatening fonts''  Suggests that even they layout of the page reinforces stereotypes that women like certain colours and men like others. Connotes that women have certain preferences that cant be shared with men and that  women cant be tough and strong-minded/willed ('unthreatening').

• ''The contents page sections are also frequently broken up by advertisements.''  Suggests that women are more likely to take notice due to this perceived stereotype that all women do is shop. 

The article I have chosen is 'Its a Marvel-ous world - the might world of Marvel'. This archive was written in 2004 by a media student called Karim Flint. I chose this archive as I love marvel and all the texts that they have produced and I look forward to their future films. The archive interested me as it goes into depth about the marvel company and how it became what it is today. It is a history of the company. 

• The article talks about how 'The twenty first century has literally became the age of marvel' and how it got their with a broken past. The article goes on to say how in the 'early nineties marvel suffered serious financial difficulties', but worked its way back up with Ari Arad, the current Marvel president. 
• 
  

I believe that the target audience for my music video would be either the mainstreamer or the explorer. The text has typical conventions of a love ballad/friendship video that would appeal to the mainstreamer such as the video itself being dramatised and heartfelt. Most videos that appeal to the mainstreamer show young people celebrating summer and hanging out with friends or even being reckless to some sort. However my video takes a different approach and adds a twist to the typical mainstream scene as it shows the memories of an unlikely friendship and how it has developed over the years, whilst building up to show one leaving for war and possibly never returning. This supplies the mainstreamer with love and belonging and challenges their need for protection. The video would appeal to the explorer as the build up of past memories allows discovery of where the video is going and what will happen in the end.

There are many uses and gratifications within the video such as escapism/entertainment and personal identity. The use of personal identity is used through editing elements such as the montage. It shows the early stages of the friendship until present. It does this by giving the audience an insight to the characters' emotions and past memories making the narrative more relatable, allowing them to connect with the characters more and creating a sense of nostalgia for the audience as to their own past relationships. The initial use of close up's throughout makes the video more realistic and intimate as it shows the emotions within and creates a relationship between the audience and the characters. The video can also be used for entertainment as it follows the lives of the girls on their journey and allows the audience to do the same. The music featured gives the video a feel of despair but encourages the audience to watch to watch. The lip-syncing throughout which is shown by close up's, provides entertainment as it dramatises the video as well as exaggerating it which makes the audience feel the need to get involved. This interchanges with the montage throughout giving it a more natural feel and making it feel like a genuine music video. The aim the encoders of the video wanted to peruse, was for the audience to feel like they are experiencing the memories of the girls and to look through their eyes. They wanted the audience to feel the emotions of the girls. The ideologies presented within the video are somewhat common, as an encoder I wanted to portray the ideology that no matter what happens and where life takes you, you'll always have friendship to back you up. This ideology is similar to many others within music videos of this genre and narrative, especially since many people in society go through the same thing. The target audience is supposed to take the preferred reading as it is meant to entertain however, audience members are also meant take in the ideologies with the video so that they fully understand it. The target audience for the video is teens as the video and song would be more relatable to them as everybody has that friend they once lost, whether it be moving away to university, for a job or for many other reasons. It is also aimed at teens as every teenager goes through that stage where they feel isolated and alone, this is what the characters are going through as they've been together forever and now its over. The video could also be aimed at young adults as they probably have more experience with friendships and relationships being put on hold for.  Technical codes used within the video are the lighting. We used bright lights within the shots of the character not leaving as it represents hope and peace. This is to give the impression that she is trying to be optimistic about the event. An audio code is the music. Although the music is encouraging for the audience, when placed with the narrative and the characters, it gives the video a feel of desperation, connoting that the characters will do anything to stay.

All of my music video research inspired my work and helped me decide what elements to use use but the video that stood out and is most similar to my music video is 'California' by Phantom Planet. This is because both videos use similar technical codes such as a montage throughout to show the past and present. These also share a similarity as they would both be featured on music channels such as Kerrang. What works in my video is the characters showing their past lives and day to day activities. This welcomes the audience and makes them feel more involved in the video, challenging their social needs and love and belonging.

Representatation Of Women

The women featured in this video are portrayed as hard working and equal to men. They are shown as beautiful no matter what but also strong willed, independant and caring, as well as fierce. They give the ideology they can do anything that a man can do and that theres no such thing as 'a mans thing' or 'a womans thing'. Throughout the video, we see women 'sweating like a pig' giving the impression that these particular women are somewhat carefree and have more to them than just looks and beauty.

British life stereotyped

                       


Stereotype : Parklife by Blur stereotypes British people as troublesome

Representations Of Brits.

Examples of Brits represented as clumsy, bumbling, out of touch with their emotions or posh. 

Representation of Britain

Traditional, fashioned and 'Twee' 

Representations

Theories of Representation

• Reflexive approach - that what we see is a straight forward reflection of the world

• Intentional approach - were our understanding of reality is created by representations

• Constructionist view - were representations create or construct a meaning, but this is based on a material reality.   This should include the person/thing being represented, The opinions of those encoding the representation, The reaction of the target audience and The context of our society and the dominant ideologies. 

The person/thing/place being represented:
The video features the different events through out the past few decades such as the war, the queens correlation and the riots portraying that Hovis has been around for many years and is as good quality now as it was then.  The boy changes outfit over the course of the video as the decade of the video moves on connoting that whilst time carries on and the world changes, Hovis will always stay the same.

The opinions of those encoding the representation:
The video is constantly shot in medium shot or wide/long shot to show how everything around Hovis  is constantly changing expect the thing itself. The different settings and types of events shown, catches the audiences' attention and reinforces the fact that Hovis has been around for many years and is still as good now as it was then. The music used in the background connotes a sense of nostalgia for the audience as some parts of the video will be remembered by an older audience. The music is uplifting throughout the video, as well as creating a sense of mean for the bread.

The reaction of the target audience:
The advert is aimed at an older-middle aged audience as it focus' on the things that have happened throughout their life time. The audience would probably accept the preferred reading that Hovis has been through everything and will carry on being apart of society, it will never change and will always stay as good as it is.

The context of our society and the dominant ideologies:
Whilst the dominant ideology is that we must fight, love and take care of our country, there are also other ideologies such as we must cherish the little things in life and we must celebrate what is ours.

Genre Homework

Guardians of the Galaxy

               

The film 'guardians of the galaxy' is a hybrid genre most known for sci-fi but including action, fantasy and comedy. The themes of this movie are family, love, sacrifice and adventure. This is evident through the use of generic codes, specifically mise-en-scene. The setting helps us realise what genre it is by the spaceships flying through the universe past all the different planets. The props show that the genre is set in the future due to the weapons used. The weapons are advanced technology and are not the usual weapons that would appear in films such as The Godfather. Also, the majority of the mise-en-scene is futuristic compared to settings and normal things in everyday life. The bizarre creatures/aliens seen throughout the trailer are also normally identified with genres such as sci-fi. Throughout the trailer the lead characters are shot in close ups and medium close ups and edited in montages showing their abilities and differences. For example, Gamora is shot breaking the ship in a medium close up, the camera goes goes from a medium close up to a close up of Starlord, Drax, Rocket Raccoon and then Groot. The shots show the characters individualities and make the audience grow to love them. The  There are many binary oppositions in this trailer such as good vs evil, love vs loss, new technology vs old technology that connotes that it is a sci-fi genre. The background music goes well with this trailer and implies that it is full of action, it does this as the music builds up and is fast paced connoting that the future is also fast paced and overpowering. The music shows how bold and immense the film will be and the events that will take place, along with the battles. 

A narrative code for this genre is that it is restricted to a certain extent. This is because it leaves us asking questions such as 'what's going to happen? who will win; the good guys or the bad guys?' and we don't know any more than the characters do; almost like we're in it together. Another narrative code is the dialogue. The speech used is not what we would expect to hear from a sci-fi film as there are no 

Media Diary Week 6

Guilty Pleasures 

I have recently started watching the walking dead after it being recommended to me by an eager friend and I have come to find that it is so intriguing that it is now my guilty pleasure. The text is a TV series about a sheriff, Rick Grimes who awakens from a coma to a disease spreading around and zombies taking over the world. It is survival of the fittest as he battles to save his wife and child and the other survivors he encountered  along the way.  I think the target audience would be the explorers as they love mystery and discovering new things. This text allows that as you don't know who is going to be killed next and the problems the group are going to face. I would class myself as the mainstreamer as I would normally watch TV series that is popular within my friendship group such as New Girl or Gossip Girl. When I read this text, I think I take preferred reading as I'm too drawn in to the action and gore of the text and the problems faced to analyse it in any other way. The text fulfils my need for entertainment as I cant stop watching it and it has become addictive. The new characters that join the text every season make it more interesting  as we learn about their background and see them face the challenges that other cant. 

Media Diary Week 4

The text that has 'changed my life' is All Time Low's fifth album Don't Panic: its longer. I have chosen this text because it is my favourite album by my favourite band and has determined my taste in music. The album has 20 songs, however the song that has touched my heart is So Long Soldier as it is about the band on their rise to stardom and as the leader singer, Alex Gaskarth said 'looking back on the reasons we started the band and the dreams and ambitions we had'. I started off listening to All Time Low when I used to go around to my cousins. She was a bigger fan than me and had loved them for years. Every time I'd go around she'd have them on or other bands similar and that's when I started listening to their first album 'Nothing Personal' and my love for them grew. From her music taste and friends around me, I started listening to bands such as Paramore and You Me At Six, who I have seen twice and for a third time next year.  I have been lucky enough to see my favourite band in concert and even got quite close  and in them 2 hours were they sang their hearts out on stage, I'd never felt so overwhelmed with happiness.

Media Diary Week 3

The text that I have consumed this week is American Horror Story; The freak show. The show is set in 1952 in Florida about one of the last freak shows in America and their fight for survival. The members of the freak show battle against 'ordinary' people who don't understand them and do anything to keep the business alive.

I think the text would be class B and the target audience would be the explorer as they would like the dark thrill and mystery of the show. The audience would most likely be teenagers and young adults as it would appeal to them more due to the show being popular worldwide and having that spark of something creative and different. 

I think a typical person who would consume this text would be:

Gender: female

Name: Danielle
Age: 16
Family: lives at home, 1 brother, 1 sister
Self image: loves things that are different, loves discovering new texts to consume, see's herself as quite loud, outgoing
Class: B, Middle
Nationality: British
Religion: none