*Charlies Angels
*Kill Bill
*Catwomen
*Tomb Raider
Monday, 15 September 2008
Representation Of Women In The Media
Representations of women across all media tend to highlight the following:
· beauty
· size/physique
· sexual/fragile
· emotional dealings
· relationships
However, this has now changed as women are proving they are just as equal to men and take the same roles men do, because REE Milla Jovovich is represented as a hero/protagonist and is in control, as women tend to be represented as femme-fatal or a damsel in distress. Milla Jovovich breaks this tradition of women just as the 'propp' of a film. However, REE isnt the only film that represents women powerful also films such as 'Kill Bill'.
http://www.mediaknowall.com/gender.html
· beauty
· size/physique
· sexual/fragile
· emotional dealings
· relationships
However, this has now changed as women are proving they are just as equal to men and take the same roles men do, because REE Milla Jovovich is represented as a hero/protagonist and is in control, as women tend to be represented as femme-fatal or a damsel in distress. Milla Jovovich breaks this tradition of women just as the 'propp' of a film. However, REE isnt the only film that represents women powerful also films such as 'Kill Bill'.
http://www.mediaknowall.com/gender.html
Women usually tend to be represented as emotional, sexual, beautiful and size/physique. However, in Resident Evil Extinction, Milla Jovovich (Alice) is represented as a strong, dominant and in control. However, can we agrue that this is a fair representation of women? As it is likely that male directors portray women characters different from how women directors portray women characters, simply because it’s harder for them to relate to the characters. So to an extent we can say women are independent, however their are far more independent than before as males were usually associated with the action movie genre, they usually tend to be the protagonist/ hero.
Sunday, 14 September 2008
More about Mulvey's Theory and how I'll use it
Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze will be one of the key theories that I will apply to my independent study as I am focusing on the representation of women in ‘Resident Evil: Extinction’.
In REE, males are the primary audience and they are attracted to the movie through the use of female characters in the film. The females in the film are subjects of the male gaze and have the quality to be looked-at-ness. The main protagonist in REE is a woman, Milla Jovovich; she wears clothes to reveal her body to particularly the main audience. She has fetish zed parts of her body to appeal more the viewers.
She also uses phallic objects in the film; Milla Jovovich uses weapons as the use of the phallic object making her appeal more to the male audience. Voyeurism is also something that is used in Kill Bill, it shows scenes of bloody violence and murders making the viewer feel guilty about watching.
In saying it does follow conventions of the male gaze, it doesn’t however follow the fact that women are normally to play passive roles in action films. In REE the main protagonist is an active female this goes against the stereotype and shows how this has challenged Mulvey’s theories.
In REE, males are the primary audience and they are attracted to the movie through the use of female characters in the film. The females in the film are subjects of the male gaze and have the quality to be looked-at-ness. The main protagonist in REE is a woman, Milla Jovovich; she wears clothes to reveal her body to particularly the main audience. She has fetish zed parts of her body to appeal more the viewers.
She also uses phallic objects in the film; Milla Jovovich uses weapons as the use of the phallic object making her appeal more to the male audience. Voyeurism is also something that is used in Kill Bill, it shows scenes of bloody violence and murders making the viewer feel guilty about watching.
In saying it does follow conventions of the male gaze, it doesn’t however follow the fact that women are normally to play passive roles in action films. In REE the main protagonist is an active female this goes against the stereotype and shows how this has challenged Mulvey’s theories.
Theorists
Laura Mulvey
One of the theorists I will use will be Laura Mulvey. Her theory suggests that women and men both gaze upon one another in sexual context. It is normally the male who is gazing upon the female, and in Resident Evil Extinction this is what attracts some of the male audience.
More about Mulvey's theory in debt:
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze09.html
http://virtual.clemson.edu/caah/women/flc436/mulvey.html
Levi Strauss
Another theorist I will use is Levi Strauss whose theory is all about binary opposition or opposites. This is true in REE as normally it is a male who is the dominant character in action films and a woman whom takes up the passive role, but in REE it’s a woman Milla Jovovich who is the active and main character.
One of the theorists I will use will be Laura Mulvey. Her theory suggests that women and men both gaze upon one another in sexual context. It is normally the male who is gazing upon the female, and in Resident Evil Extinction this is what attracts some of the male audience.
More about Mulvey's theory in debt:
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze09.html
http://virtual.clemson.edu/caah/women/flc436/mulvey.html
Levi Strauss
Another theorist I will use is Levi Strauss whose theory is all about binary opposition or opposites. This is true in REE as normally it is a male who is the dominant character in action films and a woman whom takes up the passive role, but in REE it’s a woman Milla Jovovich who is the active and main character.
Indiana Jones
Directed: George Lucas and Steven Spielberg
Genre: Action / Adventure.
Cast: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Julian Glover, Alison Doody, River Phoenix etc.
Plot: Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr., also called Indy, is a fictional professor, archaeologist, and adventurer who is the main protagonist of the 1981 adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark and its prequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and sequel, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
Also at the time women were represented as passive characters with no real importance in action films. Their purpose was to look good and to be saved by the male protagonist. This proves Laura Mulvey’s point of the male gaze and how women have the quality to be looked-at-ness. Nowadays things have changed and this is proved with movies such as Resident Evil Extinction. It shows has society has changed and become less patriarchal.
Genre: Action / Adventure.
Cast: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Julian Glover, Alison Doody, River Phoenix etc.
Plot: Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr., also called Indy, is a fictional professor, archaeologist, and adventurer who is the main protagonist of the 1981 adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark and its prequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and sequel, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
Also at the time women were represented as passive characters with no real importance in action films. Their purpose was to look good and to be saved by the male protagonist. This proves Laura Mulvey’s point of the male gaze and how women have the quality to be looked-at-ness. Nowadays things have changed and this is proved with movies such as Resident Evil Extinction. It shows has society has changed and become less patriarchal.
Males have dominated the action genre for many years, playing the protagonists in every film. Therefore females were given roles in action films purely because of their physical attraction and to be used as sex objects. Stereotypically women got the passive roles whilst men adopted the active roles. However certain films such as ‘Resident Evil Extinction’ directed by Russell Mulcahy in 2007, portrayed women differently in this male dominated genre. Due to feminism in society, cinema has adapted to the change and has become less patriarchal.
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