Book Quotes

Jones A (1993) 'Defending the Border: Men's Bodies and Vuneralbility' Cultural srudies from Birmingham, no2
"Far from imposing dominatnt forms of masculinity upon the audience, film heroes allow the subject space to identify with an ideal self of either gender who embodies desired power".

Healey M. (1994) 'The Mark of a man Masculine identities and the Art of Macho Drag Crtical Quarterly' 36 (1) 86 - 93.
"Poofs can look like real men...therefore real men look like poofs."

Bob Dylan (1941) - Song writter/singer:
"I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom."

Umberto Eco (1932) Travels in Hyperreality (Harcourt):
"The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being honest but afraid like everybody else."

Henry Louis Mencken ('American humorous Journalist and Critic of American life' 1880-1956)
"Complete masculinity, ("heroes") and stupidity are often indistinguishable”

Carol Lynn Pearson (1994) 'The Hero Within':
"Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves.”

Felix Adler (American educator and founder of the Ethical Movement, 1851-1933)
"The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by.”

Norman Mailer (b. 1923), U.S. author. “Petty Notes on Some Sex in America,” (1966).
"Masculinity is not something given to you, but something you gain. And you gain it by winning small battles with honor".

Representations of gender today

Gender in contemporary TV programmes:

. In prime time TV shows, 1192-1993 men took 61% of the total number of speaking roles, women having 39%.

. 1995-1996 study found that men took 63% of the speaking roles, women having 37%.

. 1992-1993- 18% of the female characters took the major role and more than two thirds were the stars of domestic situation comedies.

. 1995-1996 43% of major characters were female, although still less than half.

. 1992-1993- 3% of women were represented as housewives as their main occupation- massive decrease from the 1970. An additional 8% of women were shown as 'homemakers'.

. 1995-1996- On a character b character basis, females male were equal in these respects.

. Overall the 1992-1993 study found that ' the women on prime time TV in the early 1990s was young, single, independent, and free from family and work place pressures' (Elasmer, Hasegawa and Brain, 1999:33).

. 1990s to a certain extent, programme makers arrived at a comfortable, not particularly- offensive modes of masculinity and femininity, which majority of the public seemed to think were acceptable.

Friends is a internationally popular sit-com,the programme series consisted of 3 males (Joey, Chandler and Ross) and 3 females (Monica, Rachel and Phoebe). The three males are shown with masculine qualities, although with some characteristics of "sensitivity" and "Gentleness" and male bonding. The three females are shown as "intelligent" and "non-housewifely".
This gives it a refreshing feel to it rather than the traditional family. Programmes such as "Ally McBeal" (1997) and "Sex and the City" (1998) put successful women at the forefront and focuses on their paths to and for sex.

Buffy is a female icon, a role model to younger teenage girls everywhere, as well as this it can be said she is there for male gaze (Laura Mulvey) this is just my opinion. Buffy has won 'Best television show' in SFX magazines annual readers poll over and over again. Which launched the idea of powerful and heroic women in TV, as seen from the 'New Adventures of Superman' as Louis Lane is a successful reporter as well as a strong independent women, who does at the end need help from the 'sweet and insecure' Superman.

Maggie Humm's Feminism and film:

"Film... often and anxiously envisions women stereotypically as good mother and bad hysterical careerists. in the past and today, every Hollywood women is some eles's other."

Michael Thomson:

"By all means be feisty, but never forget to be feminine".

Charlie Angels starred Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu all hired by an anonymous person named Charlie to solve mysteries. The girls are represented as the redhead (Barrymore), blond (Diaz) and brunet (Liu) these girls are portraying themselves as deadly but sexy, bringing in to mind the idea of 'femme fatale' (deadly women). The women are strong and independent however they are also seen as promiscuous, and the idea of 'the whore' comes to mind as they are role models as they save peoples lives but not after being half naked and doing other male gaze pleasuring activities.

The study talks about whether "girls power" leads to "girl violence"; this study is by psychologists, Muncer, Campbell, Jervis and Lewis (2001), respond to the growing concern of the Media term "Ladettes", these are women who are assertive with an aggressive attitude which are usually associated with "Lads".

Representations of gender in the past

This chapter and the next one provide an overview of representations of gender in the media, magazines, newspapers and adverts all contain images of women and men, and even songs on the radio might feed into or challenge our ideas about gender. Online magazines and general entertainment sites have become increasingly popular, and these merge with digital television, electronic media becomes yet another source of gender information.

Women and men on TV:

Miles found that there were nearly equal proportions of men and women in situation comedies - although, of course, the gender roles and the humour could still be traditional and sexist, despite this statistical parity - whereas in action - adventure shows, only 15% of the leading characters were women.

Gunter in the 1970s found that marriage, parenthood and domesticity were shown on TV to be more important for women than men. Further the women's movement had been largely ignored by TV as married housewives were seen to be the main female roles shown. While in the 1970s McNeil found that men were given the dominant characters ad the decision makers or the one's that give out the orders.

Men were more assertive (aggressive), whilst women were more passive, men were seen as brave, outgoing and adventurous whereas women were more frequently shown as weak or 'merely token females' (Gunter, 1995).

'The Symbolic Annihilation of Women by the Mass Media' (1978):

"From children's shows to commercials to prime time adventures and situation, television proclaims that women don't count for much. They are 'symbolically annihilated' and they are seen in American television as not important within American society."

'Degrading and trivialising views of women', sports programming remaining 'the preserve of men' and news programmes accused of tokenism or 'window dressing' by including some women in key positions whilst retaining a male-dominated culture (Dyer, 1987: 7-8).

Gillian Dyer observed that the number of women in central roles in police and crime series had increased, but found a new reason fro discomfort:

"This development, although in many ways refreshing, raises new contradictions in the portrayal of power and gender for, ironically 'strong' women policewomen, lawyers, etc. are invariably shown enforcing the patriarchal laws which oppress them."

Women and men in movies:

The films almost always focused on male heroes, women had important roles but were far more likely than men to be shown as frightened, in need of protection and direction, and offering love ans support to the male lead character(s). Some films may challenge this however played with the performance of gender, but only hinted at a challenge to masculine and feminine roles. Gender roles on average, did not differ greatly from previous decades, but male characters were consistently more intelligent more assertive - and much more prevalent.

Masculinity and femininity in films is often rather precarious, gender characterisations are often worthy of some examination. Women's roles, also have much more complexity and value, in history it is full of remarkable female characters in supporting roles.

Marjorie Rosen ('the Cinema Woman is a Popcorn Venus, a delectable but insubstantial hybrid of culture distortions'). She charted the changing representations of women in Hollywood films, nothing backlashes against working women in the 40s and 50s, and against female sexual emancipation in the 60s and 70s; Rosen described women as seen merely as 'sex objects'.

Sharon Smith said:

" Women, in a fully human form, have almost completely been left out of film... The role of a woman in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction, and the mating games she plays with the male characters. On the other hand a man is not shown purely in relation to the female characters, but in a wide variety of roles."

Ann Kaplan said:

"In Hollywood films, then, women are ultimately refused a voice, a discourage, and their desire is subjected to male desire. They live out silently frustrated lives, or, if they resist their placing, sacrifice their lives for their daring."

Kathi Maio observed that Hollywood's ideas about gender were 'often reprehensible', and further went on to say:

" Women are not only given less screen time, when we're up there on the screen we are likely to be portrayed as powerless and ineffectual... Where are the triumphant women heroes to match the winner roles men play constantly?"

Hegemonic or Pluralistic?

In my opinion the pluralistic model is the one that influences me, as I feel that everything has more than one meaning such as all media related things (text, sound, images etc), this is also known as polyvalent. I further believe that uses and gratifications theory is the main ideology as I feel that media is only really made to escape (some media texts allow the user to escape from reality), social interaction (people create personal relationships with the characters in a media text), identify (people often identify a part of themselves in a media text, either through character or circumstance), inform and educate (the audience gain an understanding of the world around them by consuming a media text) and to entertain (consumed purely for entertainment purposes, meaning that text need not have any other gratifications). Furthermore this creates an active audience as I watch and read media things according to any of the uses and gratifications theory.

5 points I learnt

1) Media Theory - (theorists - Propp, Strauss, Todorov, Mulvey etc)

2) Knowledge and understanding of key concepts - M.I.G.R.A.I.N and S.H.E.P

3) Textual analysis

4) Wider reading and reseach

5) Audience theory - hypodermic needle, uses and gratifications theory.

Cover Work (analysis of scene from 'Hancock')

M.I.G.R.A.I.N:

M- Quick shots from train to car shows panic, and distress from the point of view of the driver, also with the quick shots it emphasises what is going to happen i.e. train hitting the car. Natural digetic sounds of the man screaming for help in the car, there is bright natural high ki lighting to show a "peaceful and calm" day, however that is not so. 'Hancock' arrives calmly and moves car out the way with ease and gets hit by the train, however the train gets destroyed and he has no scratches on him. He ends the scene by saying "Oh Shit" this shows his frustration and anger through the rude language he uses.

I- Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc

G- Action/ comedy

R- White middle-class men, as the one in the car is a stereotype of one, as he has a nice suit as well as a grand car, this represents that no matter how rich you are you are still able to make mistakes.

A- This seems like the type of film to appeal to everyone females and males from a very wide range however the certificate of the film is 12 so any male or female over the age of 12 can watch it, further the age range in my opinion is 12 - 21.

I- Patriarchy ideology as it is a man saving the day, as well as a man as the victim. Also the view of capitalism can be added as the government will need to pay for all the damage.

N- It is a straight forward linear narrative, it has no flashbacks or any other thing that could disrupt the flow, it is in chronological order and moves with ease from scene to scene.

11 keywords

Antagonist: The principle opposing figure or villain in a narrative, set by binary opposition against the protagonist - This will be use full for my essay because the film I have chosen to do shows how a hero in this case in seen different to other superheroes.

Audience: Groups or individuals targeted by producers as they intended consumers of media texts. Owning to the wide availability of media texts, the actual viewers, readers or listeners may not be those originally targeted - This will be used to show how audience can be used as a source of major fiance as they are the ones who will be watching it.

Binary opposition: A term used by Claude Levi-Strauss as part of his argument that narratives are structured around oppositional elements in human culture, for example, good and evil, life and death, night and day, raw and cooked etc - I will be using this because this theorist is use full for my essay as I will be applying the binary oppositions of sober vs drunk, good intentions vs bad outcomes, good vs evil etc.

Blockbuster: A big budget Hollywood film - Since the film is a big budget film this will be needed to show how much money is pumped in to Hollywood films.

Broadcast: The wide and random dissemination of media messages (broadly cast, i.e. spread over a wide area.) - The film was aired in over 50 countries worldwide, showing wider range of audience.

Celebrity: An individual who has become the focus of media attention and is therefore widely known and recognised by the public - In 'Hancock' the main character is played by Will Smith who is very famous and will draw in an audience of not only superhero movies but as well as the fans of Will Smith.

CGI: Computer generated imagery - With the large scale of money put in to the film CGI has now become the main focal point in allot of major Hollywood films, giving effects and more eye catching scenery.

Hybrid Genre: A cross between one film genre and another - There are two main genres in this which is action and adventure, so therefore showing a cross between two major genres.

Levi - Strauss, Claude (1908 - 90): French structuralist anthropologist whose analysis of human culture and myth argued for a common origin for all narratives, based on shared human life experience, fears and expectations - (same as binary oppositions).

Narrative theory: A type of thinking that seeks to explain narrative structures and their relationship to wider cultural and genre-related factors - Will be used to describe the genres within the film.

Sony: Multimedia global co-operation with headquarters in Culver City, California, USA (Columbia Pictures) - This is the company that financed the film as well as the company that made it.