Miss Representation

Miss Representation 

1. “You can’t be what you can’t see.” What does this quote suggest about how representations of powerful women are, largely, absent from the mass media?

This quote implies that women can only be objects, and that the media expects women to be people that there not.   

1. What does Miss Representation suggest about the way women are represented in the media? 

The media’s representation of women as flawless and perfect is more extreme than ever, computers are used to remove every blemish from every image and give models unnaturally perfect bodies.

3.  What is a stereotype? Which gender stereotypes are being repeated again and again in the media?

A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. Women in the media and there values on how there meant to look. 

4.  In terms of representation of women, what is the problem with mainstream Hollywood films?

Women will watch women movies about men but men wont watch movies about women.

5. What sort of stereotypes are used to represent female leaders?

The stereotypes used to represent female leaders: Bossy, arrogant, attractive and Not so smart.    

6. What does Caroline Heldman argue about representations of women like Lara Croft which, on the surface, may appear empowering?

7. What, according to Gloria Steinem, is the side effect of representations created in a patriarchal system?

8. During prime time television, what age group do the majority of female characters belong to?

9. What does Jennifer Pozner claim about the representation of women on reality television?

She claims that women are dramatic, they fighting over men, women have a melt downs.  

10. Explain how the following factors may influence the representation of gender in the mass media:  cultural attitudes, media ownership, advertising, media regulation.

Institute on Gender in Media

Institute on Gender in Media 

Article 1: Females in leading film roles are dominating the box office 

This article focus on women taking on ‘big roles’, women in films have shown that they can take on the character of a strong person and that not only men are capable of being a stereotypical superhero. Women in the movies are now represented as being the sexy good looking superhero, this shows that women are strong as men.

Article 2: 7 Ways Women and Girls Are Stereotyped, Sexualized, and Underrepresented on Screen

Image 1:

• Ariel wearing sexy clothing 
• The Prince his got more appropriate clothing 
• Ariels outfit grabs more attention, where the Princes features are more his face 
• In a disney movie the characters are wearing ‘sexy clothing’. 

Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen DeGeneres 

Ellen Lee DeGeneres, is an American comedian, television host, actress, wrote, and producer. She starred in the popular sitcom Ellen from 1994 to 1998, and has hosted her syndicated TV talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, since 2003. 

Her stand-up career started in the early 1980s, culminating in a 1986 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Carson likened her to Bob Newhart, and invited her for an onscreen chat after her set; DeGeneres was the first female comedian invited by the ionic host to join him for such a discussion, at a time when such an invitation was widely regarded as one of the most influential endorsements available for a comic. As an actress Ellen also starred in movies, Mr. Wong, Finding memo (the voice of Dori) and  The love letter. 

DeGeneres graduated from Atlanta High School in May 1976, after completing her first years of high school at Grace King High School in Metairie, Louisiana She moved back to New Orleans to attend the University of New Orleans where she majored in communication studies. After one semester, she left school to do clerical work in a law firm with a cousin, Laura Gillen. She also held a job selling clothes at the chain store the Merry-Go-Round at the Lakeside Shopping Center. Her early jobs included working at J.C Penny, and being a waitress at T.G.I Frida's and another restaurant, a house painter, a hostess, and a bartender. She relates much of her childhood and career experiences in her comedic work. 

In 2015, Forbes estimated DeGeneres' net worth at US$75 million.  In 2015, she was named the 50th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes and number two on the World Pride Power list.

She is a fan of the National football league, and has shown particular support for the New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers. In 2011, she attended a Saints practice dressed as Packers Hall of Famer Don Hutson.

In 1997, DeGeneres came out as lesbian. The bold disclosure of her sexual orientation sparked clamorous interest by American tabloids.The contentiousness of the media coverage stunted DeGeneres' professional career and left her "mired in depression”. In her book Love, Ellen, DeGeneres' mother, Betty DeGeneres describes being initially shocked when her daughter came out, but has become one of her strongest supporters; she is also an active member of Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaigns Coming out Project.

Girls and Women Stereotypes

Girls and Women Stereotypes 

• Attractive 
• Elegant
• Prevailing
• Skinny 
• Make up 
• Stupid/ Twirl hair/Incapable/ Can’t read a map
• Emotional/Weak/men are intimidating/mood swings/breaking a nail/ 
• Relationships/Best friends/ more emotional 
• Relationship for women are driven more by emotions
• Domesticated 

Gender In Media

Gender in Media 

• Pink and White-Stereotype 
• White signifies pure and innocency
• Pink signifies beauty and girly 

• Showing like a bad girl but sexy
• Symbolises evil (red bottle) 
• analogous 

• Stereotypical dumb receptionist
• Works in an office
• She cant even make her own soup
• The other people are panicking  

VIDEO-Cup of Soup Advertisement 

• Famous 
• Paparazzi taking pictures of her (attention all on her) 
• She is dressing in really expensive clothes 

• Crying/Probably over nothing  
• She is a Stereotypical dramatic person 
• Famous 

• Wearing casual clothes (unusual)
• Talking on the phone, looks like she is meeting up with someone 
• She knows Paparazzi are there

• Red dress represents warm colours
• Long dress, formal evening
• Red carpet 
  

• Famous
• All they care about it Beauty 
• The world looks up to them 
• Formal 
• Red carpet

• Model 
• Pink represents girly 
• Skinny (way to much)
• She is stereotypical by making the world think that that’s what we have to look like

Male Advertising

Male Advertising 

Solo Man 

• Australian man, strong 
• Men should be intimidated
• They need to be athletic 
• Men should be able to survive on there own 

Diet Coke Man

• If you drink a coke shirtless you attract women 
• Drinks sloppy and messy 
• Man doing all the hard work 
• The women were hitmatised by him

Lynx Angels 

• Angels walking through, men only looking at them
• No male is good enough to get a good looking woman 

Calvin Klein

• Having a tattoo symbolises ‘Tough’
• Bad boy
• If you where Calvin’s you will be like this 
• Showing off his muscles 
• Men are supposed to be sexy 

Azzaro Men’s Fragrance

• Pretty boy 
• Targeting at males 
• If you where this fragrance you get the women 

Omega Watches 

• Selling class 
• Luxury watch
• Appeals to males- Strong/confident/saves the day/gets all the women 

Twilight Trailer-Men 

• Fighting over the female character 
• Bella is the objects of there affection
• Female character can’t really do anything for herself 
• Strong/tall/good looking/masculine  

Gender Stereotype-Sleeping Beauty

Gender Stereotype

• Aurora: Princess Aurora was represented as a sensitive, innocent, weak and emotional. This is shown by breaking into tears when a problem occurred, the dreams she had about meeting her true love and lying down waiting the strong and powerful prince to come and save her. Thus, showing women as weak and helpless, always waiting for heroine males to come and save them.  

• Prince Philip: Prince Phillip is the love interest of Princess Aurora and the leading male protagonist of Disney's 1959 film Sleeping Beauty. Phillip is known to be brave and heroic, he appears to be fairly easygoing. At times, he is able to subtly persuade people to do as he wants. 

• Flora, Fauna, and Marryweather: Three main characters of “Sleeping Beauty” are the Good Fairies, On Princess Aurora’s 16th birthday, the three fairies tried to bake a cake and sew a dress without using magic, yet they failed and the only solution was using magic. Thus, the message behind those scenes is making children understand that life is difficult. This in turn, creates a fantasy world for children to live in illusions, in a world of magic and dreams that would never come true. This eventually, will make children uncertain about what is real and what is not.

• King Stefan: Stefan is portrayed as a humble figure, living father, and the more forceful side of the kingdom's monarchy consisting of himself and his queen, Leah. When confronted by Maleficent, he remained silent, mostly, but with a stern, and fairly intimidating expression. Aside from that scene, Stefan is mostly seen as a soft-spoken man; specifically during his scenes with the more boastful King Hurbert 

Facts-Sleeping Beauty

Interesting Facts 

• Sleeping Beauty, is adapted from the Charles Perrault and Brothers Grimm versions of the classic fairy tale. 
• Aurora's true love, Prince Philip, took his name from the British prince of the same name, husband of Queen Elizabeth ll, then still new to the throne.
• Much of the musical score is adapted from Tchaikovsky's "Sleeping Beauty" ballet. But George Bruns, who arranged the music, too much of the credit for the score.
• In 1953, Legendary Warner Bros. Animator Chuck Jones worked on "Sleeping Beauty" for four months, at a time when the Warners animation shop was shut down. He did not receive a credit on the film. 
• "Sleeping Beauty" was the first animated feature to be filmed in the wide-screen 70MM Technirama format. 
• It was also the last Disney cartoon feature to use hand-linked cels (the foreground transparencies on which the characters are painted).