Disability Representation

Disability is the consequence of an impairment that may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental, or some combination of these. A disability may be present from birth, or occur during a person's lifetime.

Branston and Stafford (2001) - soaps rely on archetypal characters and stereotypes - ensure ready accessibility because stories have universal appeal about families and communities. 

Paul Hunt (1966) expressed the views of many when he wrote "we are tired of being statistics, cases, wonderfully courageous examples to the world, pitiable objects to stimulate funding."

5 roles in films/dramas/the news:

The Undateable's

A Touch of Frost - Billy 

Soaps (Eastenders - Donna)

Glee - Artie

Paralympics

The disabled are mediated through programmes such as Children in Need and other Charities. They are always conveyed as having a smile on their face, being fighters, no matter what their condition is. This relates to Paul Hunt's theory of "we are tired of being wonderfully courageous examples to the world" - as this isn't always a reality. Being disabled can be mentally draining and tiring and you can often feel inferior to everyone around you that has the ability to walk when you're in a wheelchair. An example of this situation would be Will Traynor's condition in the book Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. Children In Need rarely portray these feelings, as the young people are seen to be "wonderfully courageous examples"- influencing an audience to send in money to keep these children courageous. Whereas in Me Before You, Will wanted to end his life. 

James Bond movies (where disability is portayed as sinister/evil)

Bond series producer Michael:  The idea that physical deformity and personality deformity go hand in hand in some of these villains. Sometimes it’s a motivating factor in their life and what makes them who they are. 

The Disabled Person as Atmosphere or Curio 

The atmosphere created through 300 with disabled people is that they are portrayed as being vulnerable  and inferior to an able bodied person such as the master in the Xerxes Meets Ephialtes scene. He orders women to flaunt their near to naked bodies in front of this disabled man to get him to say "I Want It All".

Life's Too Short
The disabled people are viewed as being an object of ridicule in the series Life's Too Short which features a dwarf, who is the size of a 5 year old, yet tries to achieve the things that the normal sized adult can. For example, getting something off of a high shelf, doing their shopping in a supermarket, and buying condoms. They are presented as being sexually abnormal, a burden, and their own worst enemy. 

Exam Question

"Explain what is meant by 'Collective Identity' and the role of media in its construction."

Use this question in the representation of gender.
Two page essay.
Set up a theory page of media representation.

Source Guardian (2011) - "The average percentage of female reporters was 22.6% compared to 77.4% of males."

Patriarchy is a social system in which males hold primary power, predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property; in the domain of the family, fathers or father-figures hold authority over women and children.

Hegemony - Gramsci 

Gender roles in Fairy Liquid Advert (1966) - Stereotypical mother figure, woman's placed in the kitchen (housewife), and the daughter is learning about it as the next generation will be doing the same things when she's older. In 1966 the use of maternal, domestic women - in an advert complies with patriarchal representations of a female as either the sex object or the domesticated woman. 

Lynx Advert - "Lynx Shower Gel - Get Dirty" - Woman in a bikini with the words "wash me" on  her stomach. This is an example of objectifying women as sexual objects. Her face is also not included in this piece, it is cropped from chest down to her thighs as these are suggested as being the only elements of a woman's body that attract a male's gaze (Laura Mulvey) . 

Cinematic text conforms to Schopophila - To be voyeuristic is to be sexually excited by watching others. Peeping Toms are voyeuristic. A voyeur is a word for a Peeping Tom, someone who likes to watch people who are engaging in private activities. Anything voyeuristic therefore has to do with watching or spying on someone. 

The female gaze Hanson (1984) 

Antony Giddins - Structuration - changing social structure

"Explain what is meant by 'Collective Identity' and the role of media in its construction."

~

Collective Identity is the individuals sense of belonging to a group, which forms part of their personal identity, and the idea is that through participating in social activities, in this case watching films and TV, that individuals can gain a sense of belonging and in essence an 'identity' that transcends the individual.

This is not just representations from main stream media, but all media including self-representation by individuals and groups.

Mediation, is the process where you take something that is real, record it in some way, and then represent it back to an audience. 

Gender is a form of collective identity which is portrayed differently when it comes to the representation of men and women. The above GQ magazine is a males sports and fashion magazine, that uses sexually provocative photographs of women as their front covers. The majority of the women on these front covers are naked with one item of clothing on, however when they have clothes on, there is still an element of their body exposed for the viewer's pleasure. The viewer is most likely going to be a male, as it is a men's magazine. The women are usually naked with an item of clothing on that covers their private areas along with their pose, for example, Rihanna above. The Male Gaze Theory is evident here as women have been presented as sexual objects for male entertainment (Mulvey, 1991). Jonathan Schroeder (1998) also quoted "to gaze implies more than to look at - it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze". In this case, men are most certainly superior to women here as it's said that "sex sells" - and a male is more likely to pick up this magazine with a woman on the front than they are to pick up a magazine with a picture of a smartly dressed male on the front. 

In women's magazines, you would expect there to be an equal amount of men on the front covers, just like the amount of women on men's magazines. However, just women are the front covers of female magazines - conveying the separation in genders. Men are not used as sexual objects on the front covers of women's magazines to entice a customer. The women are also less exposed in the female magazines as they do not need to strip naked in order to attract an audience unlike they do in men's magazines. The women are dressed in stylish outfits or in clothes that expose their fit figure for the health magazines - completely appropriate for the content. Jonathan Schroeder (1998) also quoted "to gaze implies more than to look at - it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze"

In the Marie Claire magazine, Mila Kunis has been used as the front cover, where her face has been evidently touched up by Photoshop in order to make her look "beautiful". Society present women on the front covers as gorgeous, which makes the consumers believe that this idea of beauty is exactly what they should look like aswell. However, when Mila Kunis is being photographed in her natural state without any make up, the reality of her appearance is exposed. This presents the issues within the representation of women in the media. Their faces are edited until they look flawless, their hair is volumized until it's as big as it can get, and their clothes come from extremely expensive wardrobes.

Like the male-gaze theory, the female-gaze theory also exists. Gaylyn Studlar stated that "in masochism as in the infantile state of dependance, pleasure does not involve mastery of the female but submission to her body and her gaze." In the Coca Cola advert below, I have taken screenshoots of when a group of women are gawping at a man who has sprayed Diet Coke all over his shirt. One of the women purposely rolled the can down the hill towards the man in order for him to get it over him, and result in him stripping topless. At this moment in time, the man is submissive to the group of women, conforming to the female gaze theory. 

Gender roles in Fairy Liquid Advert (1966) - Stereotypical mother figure, woman's placed in the kitchen (housewife), and the daughter is learning about it as the next generation will be doing the same things when she's older. In 1966 the use of maternal, domestic women - in an advert complies with patriarchal representations of a female as either the sex object or the domesticated woman. Patriarchy is a social system in which males hold primary power, predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property. 

Years ago, it would be seen as the social norm for women to act as the housewife at home with their children, preparing food for their husband's dinner when he returns home from a long day at work. This ideology has changed over time, as women have grown to become more independent and men have become more domesticated. In one of the most recent Fairy Liquid adverts, a man acts as the person who has just done the washing, conveying how easy it is to wash clothes by just 'chucking it in and pressing a button'. This is sarcastic humour, as it demonstrates how men take washing as a joke, whilst Ariel are advertising their product as being something that makes the washing easy, specifically for the men. Giddens talks about identity being a conscious activity. He says how traditionally we have found ourselves in clearly defined roles based on age, gender, sexuality. Nowadays, we have to work out these roles for ourselves.

Lynx Advert - "Lynx Shower Gel - Get Dirty" - Woman in a bikini with the words "wash me" on  her stomach. This is an example of objectifying women as sexual objects. Her face is also not included in this piece, it is cropped from chest down to her thighs as these are suggested as being the only elements of a woman's body that attract a male's gaze (Laura Mulvey). 

Media representations of Youth

Discuss your views on "media representations of youth reflect societies concerns and fears"

Representation is the portrayal of someone or something in a particular way. When this is performed in media products, it can often be mediated, which conveys a false representation to the consumer. The age range for people who are grouped in the category 'youth' are typically aged between 12-21 years old. The youth are often being presented as reckless and troublesome in contemporary media texts, with a rise in the creation of urban and underclass crime genre products being created to focus on those who live more of an unfortunate lifestyle in the poorer areas of the UK e.g. London. Not all youths out there mirror the image that is portrayed in films such as Bullet Boy, This is England and Quadrophenia as these are media products that resemble a dangerous and violent stereotype of young people. The youth aren't in control of the production of these movies, adults are, which supports the fact that representations of the youth have been altered to suit the fears and concerns that society has towards this group of people.

Firstly, Bullet Boy is an example of the negative representation of the youth featured in this drama/thriller focused around two street-smart boys; 18 year old Ricky and his 12 year old brother Curtis. Already there is a 6 year difference between these two boys, however they are both presented in a harsh light. Ricky wears tracksuits and is only just released from prison at the beginning of the film, portraying how he doesn't obey by the rules and is therefore a bad reflection of society. Curtis is just a school child, who doesn't turn up to class because he wants to see his older brother be released from prison. This suggests that his rebellious brother is more of a priority than his education.
 He does this by hiding himself in the boot of Ricky's friends car so that he'll take him to see Ricky. This hints to the audience that the two brothers are close and that Curtis looks up to Ricky. The plot of this film focuses around the fact a minor street crash of two cars escalates into a neighbourhood war, where guns are a fact of everyday life. Ricky and Curtis were both involved with guns, which demonstrates how the 6 year age difference between them doesn't matter when it comes to the youth living in poor parts of London; they're all represented the same. This is supported by George Gerbner's Cultivation Theory, where he looked into people who watched a lot of TV specifically and said that these people over estimate the amount of crime in the real world, beginning to assume that our world is something they need protecting from. It's an audience effect that any one text has minimal impact on the audience, but watching the same thing again and again will change their opinion.

Furthermore, This is England is another media product that casts a negative shine over youth. It is a 2007 movie that comes under the crime genre, with young people acting as the main characters. Skinhead culture, like any other subculture, is still ultimately about being in the company of like minded people. Their outer appearance was just one way of expressing to the others that there was a group in existence. The traditional skinheads were working-class. Their outer appearance was visibly masculine, hard and also aggressive. The young skinheads in This is England liked to party all the time. Those who weren't in school were also unemployed and hanging around in their gangs, conveying how they were avoiding the responsibility that comes with unemployment. When Shaun got accepted into Woody's gang, they all went out and began smashing up an abandoned home; which reinforces the idea of their personality being extremely aggressive and violent. This also signifies how the youth are unable to behave in a mature manner as they entertain themselves by being rebellious, and also by constantly drinking and smoking.

There has been an increases in this type of representation of the youth, perhaps supported by the devastating London Riots involving young people in 2011. Cohen's 'Deviancy Amplification Spiral' theory supports this, as he suggests that new media texts about troubled youths are being created due to a 'media hype phenomenon' as a cycle of increasing numbers of reports occur concerning youths, leading to moral panic. Anyone who consumes these type of news reports and movies will eventually begin to believe everything they're watching, convinced that the youth are nothing but a rebellious and out of control group in society. However, it is evident in these movies that the youth represented in a negative light are those who live in the unfortunate states of London. All of the characters vary from school drop outs and being unemployed, with no responsibilities or ambition to succeed in life. They are portrayed to be violent people where a fight or a shooting is the answer to a problem. They are drama's for a reason - to create drama. It isn't reality. Find a group of young people from a more wealthy area and they'll most likely be in education, having fun and enjoying life. Not all youth are the same, it is extremely dependent on their upbringing. But creating a film on the reckless youth is a lot more exciting for an audience because a lot of action and plot twists are involved, so the producers are able to exaggerate their worries and fears towards young people by making them even more criminal than they believe.