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key words: representation
Male Gaze- The act of depicting women and the world, from a straight (heterosexual) male perspective that sexualises women for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer.
Voyeurism-An interest in observing unsuspecting people while they undress, are naked, or engage in sexual activities. The interest is typically more in the act of watching, rather than in the person being watched.
Patriarchy-a social system in which the male gender hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property.
Positive Stereotype– refers to a subjectively favourable belief held about a social group. Some popular examples of positive stereotypes can be Asians with better math ability or African Americans with greater athletic ability.
Negative stereotype-a stereotype that describes the undesirable, objectionable, or unacceptable qualities and characteristics of members of a particular group or social category.
Counter-Type-a positive stereotype that emphasizes the positive features about a person. An example of a countertype is that all woman are nurturing.
Misrepresentation-an inaccurate statement of a material fact made by one party which affects the other party’s decision in agreeing to a contract. If discovered, the contract can be declared void.
Selective representation– is only showing some events, not all, sometimes chosen based on importance or viewer preference.
Dominant ideology– the attitudes, beliefs, values, and morals shared by the majority of the people in a given society.
Constructed reality– when people and groups interact in a social system create concepts or mental representations of each other’s actions.
Hegemony- Perceived process by which certain values and ways of thought promulgated through the mass media become dominant in society.
essay prep
I produced an alien warrior game and I created a dominant signifying image that was essentially feminine. This corresponds to Toril Moi’s analysis of the distinction between female, feminine, feminist categories of representation (1987). Only in my production there is a clear focus on the female gender. This can be identified in the posture that I created for my main character, it is an exaggerated hip-sway, almost sexual pose, which when I tested it on my target audience they recognised as “a typical female pose!”.
GAMES COVER
For my video games box inlay products, I intend to make two that represent the significance of the male gaze. This means that I am going to make one cover that could be suggested to be objectifying women and another that isn’t suggested to be objectifying women. This is because I would like to support the stereotype of the idea that the female body is constantly sexualised throughout the male gender.
I will do this by producing my first cover with the main character as a woman named Carrie Alpin, this woman will have an over exaggerated definition within her bum and tight clothes, this is because these features can over sexualise a woman’s body. She is going to be wearing a tight grey tank top, which will define her breasts, weight and hips. For her bottom half she will be seen wearing what looks like grey leggings, these also define her hips but help to define her bum. I am going to show two images of her from both a front and back view in order to see how the clothes fit her and to see her whole body. For both of my covers I am going to use a space/galaxy like theme.
For my second cover which will oppose the stereotype of the male gaze, I will produce the main character, who is also a woman named Jennifer Rigley, with baggy clothes on which will be an oversized yellow firefighter jacket which goes long enough to cover her bum and baggy yellow firefighter trousers which will not give any definition to the woman’s figure. The placement in which the woman will be is the exact same as as my other cover, this is so that the audience can focus solely on the difference in how her body and figure is presented.
The type of media language I am aiming to use within my covers are graphical features such as a dropcap. I also am going to use elements of real print product such as an age limit, an age limit is important to use as most video games are mixed with violence so could be offensive to someone of a younger age considering that the target market for video games are also more often for boys of a younger age.
I would like to represent these video games box inlay products as something to suggest the importance of sexualising the female body as I feel that it is wrong and unethical. The context that I am going to include into my covers is the impression of the male gaze.
The kind of company that would make my product would be xbox or ps4 as they are the most well-known video games companies.
REPRESENTATION
In the book ‘Ways of seeing’ by John Berger it is suggested that woman are sexualised and depicted. This occurs within video games to give the assumed straight male that is playing a certain sense of empowerment, this is thought of as the male gaze.
The male gaze, developed by Laura Muvley, by definition is the act of depicting women and the world in visual arts and in literature, from a masculine and heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as a sexual object that aids for pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer.
In Johns book he talks about the way both men and women are presented in visual culture, he suggests that both genders entice different ‘gazes’ meaning that they are looked at differently for example from different angles. This happens particularly for the female gender as there is an obvious representation of their bum and an over exaggeration of a hip sway.
Levelling up Quotes= ‘some of the only places where Black characters could be found was in sports games’
‘ the most-active gameplaying demographic is African American teenagers’
Diversity Matters= ‘Aimed at children affected by cancer’
‘narrative game about multiracial communities living in the city’s urban areas’
Laura Mulvey= ‘One is scopophilia’
‘The determining male gaze protects its phantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly’
KEY TERMS
SEMIOTICS
Sign- stands in for something else
Code- used to construct meaning in media forms
Convention- the accepted way of doing something
Dominant signifier- the main thing that stands in for something else
Anchorage- words that go along with an image to give meaning of context
FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE= Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist, semiotician and philosopher. He believed that semiotics is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign.
Signifier- stands in for something else
Signified- thing or idea trying to be evoked
CS PIERCE= Charles Sanders Peirce was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist. His Sign Theory, or Semiotic, is an account of signification, representation, reference and meaning.
Icon- physically resembles an object
Index- has a link to an object
Symbol- no relation to object/ decided by society two things should be linked
ROLAND BARTHES= Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His Semiotic Theory broke down the process of reading signs and focused on their interpretation by different cultures or societies
Signification- process of the construction of meaning from the signs
Denotation- first level analysis (what a reader can see on the page)
Connotation- meanings or associations we have with the image
Myth- naturalizes events turning history into nature
Ideology- a world view about how society should fuction
Radical- something you wouldn’t expect / out of the ordinary
Reactionary- what you would expect/ follows stereotypes
Paradigm- collection of similar signs
Syntagm- order of signs linking to each other
MEDIA BANNER
Iconic Signs=tv, chair, remote control
Indexical Signs= snapchat and instagram icons link to social media, camera links to a music video, newspapers link to reading
Symbolic Signs= pink, blue, the word media
INDUCTION TASK EVALUATION
- Within my induction task my main aim was to inform an audience about my brothers views on how education works at Oxford university and his opinions on the university as a whole. I used a magazine called Beyond Education as a template to write this interview, this helped me to understand the kind of style to write in.
- The kind of media language I used within my interview were drop caps, coloured font and a small picture, the reason I used these were to create elements of a real print product. I used a small picture because my interview is based on education, which is thought of as a more serious and studious topic to talk about. My use of graphical features such as drop caps are a way to grab the readers attention because they can be useful for adding personality and visual strength to my page.
- My interview on my brother is intended to represent the countertype that youth do not particularly enjoy education, I have done this by showing my brothers interest and passion for his subjects within Oxford. This therefore means that my interview suggests a reactionary view, as the stereotype is being opposed.
- The kind of company of magazines that would publish my article would be an education or school-based company, this is because my article is based around the life at Oxford university and the opinions of an insider.
- In my article I think I did the presentation well because I feel that it does look like a magazine article. I also think I chose an interesting topic to write about. The things I would improve about my interview would probably be to write in more detail to give the audience a clearer understanding and I think I should have included more graphical features to encourage the audience to read it and have more of an interest.
MEDIA FORMS
| number | media form | characteristics | example |
| 1 | magazines | public, intimate, non linear | vogue, gardeners world |
| 2 | radio | linear, auditory, intimate | 103, radio 1 |
| 3 | television | visual, screen based, less expensive | love island, eastenders |
| 4 | newspaper | public, informative, non linear | daily mail, jep |
| 5 | online, social and participatory media | visual, online, public production, private consumption | snapchat, instagram |
| 6 | film | visual, screen based, generally more expensive, linear | titanic, maze runner |
| 7 | advertising and marketing | public, | dolce&gabana, playdoh |
| 8 | video games | visual, interactive, auditory | call of duty, fortnite |
| 9 | music video | visual, auditory, linear | one direction drag me down, justin bieber sorry |