Laura Mulvey

A beginners’ guide to...Laura Mulvey-http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/subscribers/downloads/archive_mm/_mmagpast/mm21_theory_mulvey.html


• According to the theory, which really assesses the representation of gender and the relationship between the text and the audience from a solely feminist perspective, women in film are simply objects for ‘the gaze’ of the protagonist/male audience.


Feminist film theory studies the way films make meaning for their audiences from the perspective of feminist politics.

FREUD AND SCOPOPHILIA

scopophilia is the pleasure of watching.

Scopophilia then, refers to the mature adult’s desire to see things that are culturally forbidden or taboo.


DEVELOPMENTS OF THE GAZE

Throughout the decades following Mulvey’s essay, the concept of the gaze was developed to incorporate a number of different viewer-positions. For example:

• The spectator’s gaze: the audience looking at the subject on the screen.

• The male gaze: in keeping with Mulvey’s theory describes the male viewing the female, either voyeuristically or fetishistically.

• The female gaze: accepts that women can also gain voyeuristic pleasure from looking at a subject, and that film techniques can sometimes be used to position the female audience to do so.

• The intra-diegetic gaze: when one character in the text looks/gazes at another character in the text. Through the process of identification, this may lead to the spectator’s gaze also.

• The extra-diegetic gaze: when a character in the text looks out of the text at the audience, breaking the imaginary ‘fourth wall’.

The gaze is inextricably linked to power relationships – the bearer of the gaze has the power. In most cases, the subject of the gaze doesn’t even know they are being looked at (we assume); thus the bearer of the gaze has more knowledge than the subject, and therefore, more power. In Mulvey’s original essay, it is the male who holds this power, and the male film-maker who gives it to him. In developments of the theory, the bearer of the gaze may be female, and the subject may challenge the bearer’s power by gazing right back.

Task 4

Representation of beauty in the media -http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty.cfm

By presenting an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits.

“Women are sold to the diet industry by the magazines we read and the television programs we watch, almost all of which make us feel anxious about our weight.”

Challanges in the media's representation of beauty-http://daniela09.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/challenges-in-the-medias-representation-of-beauty/

“beauty is perceived as whatever promises that product offers and the masses agree with it.” (Helium, Stembridge)


BBC article on manipulation -http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10558258

In the age of the airbrush, can we ever really believe our eyes?


Nick Cleg manipulation ban-http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8264640.stm

Members at its party conference also backed proposals to require all photos "retouched" to make them more attractive to be clearly labelled.

"dishonest and harmful" and had contributed to the rise in eating disorders.

doctored images of "whiter teeth, longer legs, flatter tummies and bigger breasts"

"Advertising makes big money from images of flawless women,"


GQ magazine -http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/showbiz/2643777.stm

"So why is it that women think in order to be adored they have to be thin? I just don't understand that way of thinking."

"These days you only get two kinds of pictures of celebrities - paparazzi pictures or pictures like these which have been highly styled, buffed, trimmed and altered to make the subject look as good as is humanly possible,"


The effect of advertising-http://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders/main/eating-disorders-body-image-and-advertising/menu-id-58/

Advertisers often emphasize sexuality and the importance of physical attractiveness in an attempt to sell products

27% of the girls felt that the media pressures them to have a perfect body

Only 9% of commercials have a direct statement about beauty,6 but many more implicitly emphasize the importance of beauty

This constant exposure to female-oriented advertisements may influence girls to become self-conscious about their bodies and to obsess over their physical appearance as a measure of their worth.

the pervasive acceptance of this unrealistic body type creates an impractical standard for the majority of women.

girls reported in a Body Image Survey that "very thin" models made them feel insecure about themselves

68% felt worse about their own appearance after looking through women's magazines

number one wish for girls ages 11 to 17 is to be thinner

Eighty percent (80%) of 10-year-old girls have dieted

Girls who were already dissatisfied with their bodies showed more dieting, anxiety, and bulimic symptoms after prolonged exposure to fashion and advertising images in a teen girl magazine


Real Girls, Real Pressure: A National Report on the State of Self-Esteem
http://www.rocketxl.com/dsef/assets/DSEF_KeyFinding.pdf


Rihanna manipulation-http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1285468/Rihanna-appears-magazine-cover-impossibly-waist.html

Airbrushing of celebrities has become increasingly controversial over the years with critics saying it creates an unrealistic image of women.


Emily Blunt rejection of manipulation-http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1298950/Emily-Blunt-condemns-airbrushing-poses-sexy-photo-shoot-Elle.html

'Airbrushing makes you look like Barbie. Who the hell wants to look like that?'


Gabourey Sidibe's-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/8005734/Elle-magazine-in-Gabourey-Sidibe-skin-lightening-controversy.html


Tina Fey-Scar removal
http://www.examiner.com/celebrity-headlines-in-jacksonville/tina-fey-minus-the-scar-vogue-march-2010-cover-shoot-video


Blake Lively- chest flattened
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/huh-vogue-flattens-out-blake-livelys-chest-1458902


Beat- help females with body image-http://www.b-eat.co.uk/Home

You can’t tell if someone has an eating disorder by their shape and size alone - the real pain of an eating disorder is on the inside not the outside.


Fashion doesn't cause eating disorders.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d5KcT1HZT6k


Beauty and advertising
http://hubpages.com/hub/Beauty--Women-in-Advertising


Article on retouching of images over the decade
http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2010/unattainable-beauty.html


Media Advertising Reality And The Manufactured Beauty Myth
http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/10/18/media_advertising_reality_and_the.htm

Within this universe connotating superficiality and the worshiping of appearances Photoshop reigns like an emperor.


Unattainable Beauty - Paying the Price For the Media's Portrayal-http://ezinearticles.com/?Unattainable-Beauty---Paying-the-Price-For-the-Medias-Portrayal!&id=1540095

Our view of beauty can be appreciated from many different angles but the point of view most relied upon and considered to be acceptable comes to us from the vessels of the media.

the media's portrayal and deliverance of beauty trends are most damaging to young women

Our society rarely embraces what is "different" unless there is a way to make money off of it.


Weight and Shape Ideals: Thin Is Dangerously In (google scholar)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2000.tb02506.x/abstract


The Influence of Fashion Magazines on the Body Image Satisfaction of College Women: An Exploratory Analysis
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2248/is_n127_v32/ai_20413253/?tag=content;col1

Many contemporary American women covet an unrealistically thin body build for themselves (Lamb, Jackson, Cassidy, & Priest, 1993; Mallick, Whipple, & Huerta, 1987; Silberstein, Striegel-Moore, Timko, & Rodin, 1988; Spillman & Everington, 1989), a phenomenon that could be detrimental to their emotional and physical health.


Beauty myth quotes
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/n/naomi_wolf.html

What is the beauty myth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beauty_Myth

Beauty myth
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/oct/18/classics.shopping

Vouge info
http://www.bookrags.com/history/vogue-sjpc-05/

Task 2

Lacey, Nick. Image and representation: key concepts in media studies. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998. Print.



Pg14- 'Photograpghy is, literally, 'writing with light'.

Photographs represent the 'real world'.


Pg 34- Anchorage is not only provided by words: the actual choice of image is a factor in determining meaning.

Juxtaposition means 'being placed side-by-side'.

'Before and After ' advertisements

ideology is a 'world view'

ideology 'does not express it self as an ideology but as a reality'


Pg131- taken from Talking popular by richard dyer

Re-presentation - this consists of essentially of media language, the conventions which are used to represent the world to the audience.

Being representative of - the extent which types are used to represent social groups. This is dealt with here in a consideration of stereotypes.

Who is responsible for the representation, how the institution creating a media text influences representation - this is particularly contentious in the representation of gender, as it is often men doing the representing.

What does the audience think is being represented to them.

Pg222- because a medium necessarily mediates between the audience and reality, it must be a representation.

pg 223- the technological development of the medium has undoubtedly made images seem more 'real'

Physical alteration of the image is limited to superimposition and airbrushing, a digitalised image can be completely changed.


Argyle, Michael-The psychology of interpersonal behaviour-Penguin- 1986


Eight aspects of NVC - non verbal communication
-facial expression
-gaze
-gestures and other bodiley movements
-bodily postures
-bodily bheaviour
-clothes and apperance
-non verbal aspects of speech


Gregory, R. L.-Eye and brain: the psychology of seeing-Princeton University Press- 1990


'Seeing is believing'


Sullivan, Tim, Brian Dutton, and Philip Rayner. Studying the media: an introduction. London: Arnold, 2003. Print.


pg 112- Mass manipulation model

pg 105- 'surface realism'. This means 'getting the details right'

' inner or emotional realism'. This allows the audience to identify with the situation and characters portrayed and in particular 'feel' or 'share' emotions that are a essential part.


Wolf, Naomi. The beauty myth: how images of beauty are used against women. New York: W. Morrow, 1991. Print.


''There is a secret "underlife" poisoning our freedom; infused with notions of beauty, it is a dark vein of self-hatred, physical obsessions, terror of aging, and dread of lost control."


McCracken, E. (1992) Decoding Women’s Magazines. Basingstoke: Macmillan

pg13-“Together, the visual images and headlines on a magazine cover offer a complex semiotic system, communicating primary and secondary meanings through language, photographs, images, colour and placement.”

pg20-Most women’s magazines covers target consumers by offering them an ‘idealised reader-image’

Final question

'How and why do fashion magazines such as ELLE and Vogue construct unobtainable representations of beauty? Is this a concern?'

Issues, values and theories

Media effects
The influence of mass media on public opinion and official government reaction, and thus even on public policy.

Ownership and control
Who controls and owns the media? Who is creating the texts within the media and what control do they have and carry out.

Regulation and censorship
The control and cover up of media texts and images within media. Rules that are applied.

Media technology and the digital revolution – changing technologies in the 21st century


Laura mulvey

Hypordermic needle

Cultivation theory

Copycat theory

Uses and gratification

Critical investigation and linked production.

Initial ideas:
How has digital image manipulation has created a surreal world and the implications?

Has advertising got a limit to perfection?

How have advertisers created a so called 'Perfect' image within out society?

Media texts


Twiggy- Olay
Britney spears- released images of un-minipulated images along side manipulated images.


I have chosen these texts as they are all acounts of digital image manipulation within the media. They all focus on the 'Perfect' image and also the implications of airbrushing these models upon the general public.


Some of the issues and debates surounding this text are:

Liberal democrats- stop the use of digital manipulated images within adverts for children.

Perfection

Health issues that it creates

What is reality and what is just edited.

These fit in the contemporary media landscape as there is a growing business with digital image manipulation and nearly takes place within every advert that is made. Also addressing current issues with todays teenagers about their personal image.

Representations.

The film 'Fast and furious Tokyo drift' presents several representations upon its audience. From using a young cast it has allowed the director to present the stereotypical teenage character which is far from being mature and more on the side of being rebellious. This prospective that the cast is portrayed comes from the stereotypical association of street racing and joy riding with youngster. The representation of the teenage cast isn't accurate as not all teenagers go out and start street racing, getting drunk and committing crimes. The characters do get a chance to represent themselves, as when the narrative reaches its peak the main character is represented to be mature and well mannered as where as previously at the beginning of the narrative he would run away from his problems. However now he stood on his own two feet and faced his problems.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift