AS Media: Introduction to the Representation of Women

REPRESENTATION:

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TODAY5 minutes

• The aim of todays lesson is to explore the representation

of women in mainstream media, and how this hhas

changed over time.

• By the end of the lesson you will:

• have textually analysed different types of mainstream media.

• be familiar with theorists relating to the representation of women.

• Have discussed how representations differ depending on text type

and target audience.

What different types of representation are there?

Are representations always clear-cut?

Do audiences all respond to representations in the same way?

STARTER: MIND MAP

Representation of

Women

• Individually mind map some things you associate with the

representation of women in mainstream media.

• Images/Where they appear/Products/Associations

5 minutes

What is Representation?

“The process by which the media present

the ‘real world”

(Rayner)

RE - PRESENT

The housewife or mother

• Traditional ideological female roles such as the

housewife or the mother are reinforced in mainstream

media

• Media companies owned by men

• Women represented as inferior to men

• Men are seen as the dominant and superior gender

• Men are ‘experts’ in ads.

• Women support the men, never a voice of their own.

10 minutes

Fairy Liquid

• Who is the target audience for this

advertisement?

• Why are women depicted in this way?

• How might different audiences respond to

it?

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4rXDK

U_m-w

Sexual Objectification

• Alluring to attract sections of the audience

• Defining women as sex objects has become the leading

representation in the media

15 minutes

Laura Mulvey (1992)

• Male gaze

• ‘To-be-looked-at-ness’

• Men are bearers of ‘the look’

• “In their traditional exhibitionist role women are

simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their

appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so

that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness”

(Mulvey, 1992: 27)

Elizabeth Spelman (1982)

• Women as body

• Objectified

• Women there to be looked at & lusted over by men

• “woman has been portrayed as essentially a bodily being,

and this image has been used to deny her full status as

a human being wherever and whenever mental activity as

over against bodily activity has been thought to be the

most human activity of all” (Spelman 1982: 123)

Blurred Lines

• How might different audiences respond to these

representations?

• What effect do you think these representations have on

our ideology?

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyDUC1LUXSU

Feminism and Post-feminism

• Subversion/parody of the stereotype

• Women are sexualised because they choose to.

• More recently, femininity has also become associated with

stronger, more independent and confident women.

• Have roles/jobs traditionally associated with men

• Downplay the domestic goddess

• Idea that women can ‘have it all’ – family AND career

• Women become active characters

10 minutes

Sheilas Wheels

• Who is the target audience for this advertisement?

• Does it play on any established stereotypes of women?

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrKaQRIXPNw

Oven Pride

• Who is the target audience for this advertisement?

• Does it play on any established stereotypes of women?

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ1ZRjw425o

WRITING TASK

• Using your textual analysis notes on one of the texts

we’ve discussed, answer the following questions:

1. How are women represented in your image?

2. Why do you think women are depicted in this way?

3. Is the representation typical?

4. How might different audiences respond to the

representation depicted in the image?

Please write on a new piece of paper as you will be

handing this in!

10 minutes