Health check - discuss the way that women are represented in the media

Women have always been represented through media as maternal, seeking marriage or judged on for their looks. 

To begin i will use the music video Blurred Lines to show how women are represented. In this video we see attractive half naked women dancing around men, instantly they are being represented as attractive and sexualised. This conforms to Laura Mulvey 1975 theory of the male gaze, this says that women are objectified in the media, this media text is largely about the men being statisfied by the girls, this futher supports her theory that the media is made by men for men. 

The women are shown to be very "sexy". This is portrayed through they're make-up of red lipstick and they're clothing. The lip stick can be read into further, as this colour can infer love, passion and attractiveness, this all conforms to the stereotypes of women. This whole media product is based on the women's looks, which is Richard Dyers theory, who says that we treat others on how they are represented, therefore from this mediation we would treat women with less respect and treat them in regard to their looks.

Secondally I will look into the historic film of a Brief Encounter. This representation is very different to the previous one. The character of Lauren conforms to the maternal stereotypes of women as she has a family, two children and a husband. She cooks, cleans, looks after the children and this is shown when the welfare of one of her children is at risk and she shows lots of concern. She is also shown to do her make-up and look at her own refelction to make sure she looks alright. 

Lauren is shown to listen to the men and her husband in particular. This represents women as very passive and that women accept that they should do what they're told by men, and this tells other women in the audience how they should be and tells men they can tell women what the can do. The theory of John Berger 1972 focuses on the "Ways Of Seeing" this is how men look at women, and women see themselves being looked at by men and they are aware that they are being seen from a males point of view. Also compared to the men in the film there is a clear distinction between men and women, the men are employed and the woman isn't.  

Thirdly I will look at the film Sket and the slightly different representations of women. This film challenges the stereotypes of women being attractive, reserved, and polite. The women here are shown to be in a gang and are spiting and swearing, here they are shown as violent and agressive which are stereotypes of men. The theory of Michel Faucoult is the theory that our identity isn't fixed on factors such as gender, age, race or sexuality and this does not define who we are, because he says there is no fixed boundaries to categories such as with the idea of collective identity. He also says that identity is used to exercise power over people in order to prevent them from going outside the fixed boundaries. Alothough the women in this film do not comply with the stereotypes of women, when it comes to their relationship with men they are still dominate.