Critical contexts
- Ideology, is a set of values, opinions, beliefs and assumptions.
- Pluralism, concept different ideology exists without cancelling each other.
- Mediation, representation of the event, like a filter on reality.
- Reception Theory, how and audience mediate texts and factors that might influence them.
All of the above fits into representation, stereotyping, 'otherness and psychoanalysis.
What do we mean by 'gender'?
- Like race, there is a biological/genetic component to the definition of 'gender' (in sex terms).
- But gender can also be social (and legal) construct: how we are seen by society or identity we choose to adopt.
Gender representation
- TV and film historically relied on gender stereotypes (ideology/mediation)Roles that we used to see:
Housewife, masculine hero, femme fatale, libertine
- Encoded in mise en scene (costume); visual shorthand.
Gaze Theory
- Proposed by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey ('Visual And OtherPleasures', 1975).
- Default viewpoint in visual culture is masculine: the male gaze.
- Determines how we see; what we see.
- Mise en scene and framing.
- Mediation & Freudian voyeurism (scopophilia).
Casanova 73 (Galton & Simpson)
- Single season (7 episode) BBC sitcom.- First three episodes aired pre-watershed (before 9 o'clock).
- Criticism of 'sexual content' and sexul objectification resulted in the series being moved to post-watershed.
Feminist theory
- How women is represented in the media.
- How patriarchal ideology is expressed in culture.
- How women are visulised (design, costume, etc). Their characterisation (stereotypes), and their role in narrative (hero, villain, sex object, etc).- First wave feminism - political equality (Suffragette movements). Second wave feminism - economic & sexual equality (60s-90s). Third wave feminism - diversity, fluidity but still collective action.
- Post feminism - idividualism.Fleabag (post-feminist sitcom?)
- Written by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
- Engages with both feminist theory and individualism.
- Stylistically adopts/subverts traditional 'masculine' perspective: 4th wall monologues to camera.
"I think feminism is integral to everything that I'm trying to write but I didn't know how to articulate my own feelings. I wanted to explode the myth that feminism is without personality, and that women who talk about it are sanctimonious. Fleabag is me trying to inject some humour into the issue."- Phoebe Waller-Bridge
The Bechdel Test
- The drama has to have atleast two women in it who talk to eachother about something besides a man.
Agency
- "Agency" has become new criterion for analysing representation
- To what extent character creates, pushes and changes the plot.
Issues of gender representation
- Is representation pre-determined by gender of those making visual text?
- Have visual depictions and definitions of masculinity also changed?
//All images from Google.com\\
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