Lisbet Van Zoonen on Humans (Leo Representation)

• Lisbet Van Zoonen - Male Gaze Theory (main theory)

• "There is a depressing stability in the articulation of women's politics and communication. The underlying frame of reference is that women belong to the family and domestic life and men to the social world of politics and work; that femininity is about care, nurturance and compassion, and that masculinity is about efficiency, rationality and individuality."

• Van Zoonen also argues that gender is constructed and that its meaning varies dependant on cultural and historical context.

• She suggests that masculinity as well as femininity is constructed - and that the codes used to construct men 'as a spectacle' are different.

• in medias res (in the middle of a story)

• John Berger (bonus theory)

• Men act, Women appear. 

• Within a narrative, males drive it forward, women are there to be looked at.

• Humans

• Ensemble cast - there are lots of characters.

• A lot of character arcs - 20 named characters in first episode of Humans.

• Story Arc's in Episode 1
• Hawkins Family
• Leo trying to find Anita
• Flashback - Leo and Anita
• Niska in the brothel
• Fred in the plantation
• Matilda's struggle with synths
• Synths in the warehouse being produced
• Detective to see wife with synth
• Anita kidnapping Sophie

• Humans linked to Van Zoonen - Leo's Confrontation

• Shot reverse shot - Shows how confident Leo is and how uncomfortable Sadiq is as he is not keeping eye contact.

• Close up - of two heads in same shot shows that they're discussing something. But Leo is threatening Sadiq. 

• Gestures are aggressive and purposeful as he's unshaven which demonstrates a stereotype that he doesn't care what he looks like.

• He is stern and blunt in his vocal delivery, its not as easy to understand what he is saying compared to other synths.

• He is using physical force

• He is approaching Sadiq when he is vulnerable showing Leo is tactical and smart. 

• He is showing that he really wants to see Anita so it is obvious that he really wants to find her and that is his motive to be so aggressive. 

• The photo of Anita is a binary opposition to where they are now as Anita is pure and in nature whereas Leo and Sadiq are in a rough and rundown backstreet. 

• Van Zoonen on Leo

• Males constructed through movement (active)
• Leo is the active protagonist

• Silence and impassivity
• Rarely smiles or shows emotion

• Strength, muscularity and aggression
• Often running, fighting etc.

Vance Joy - Riptide (Music Video Analysis) 1

Vance Joy - Riptide (Music Video Analysis)

• Music Videos as a postmodern medium 
• By combining two previously separate industries, using an often excessive variety of textual elements just for the hell of it, and by deemphasising the importance of traditional narrative.

• Postmodernism
• Impossible to define.

• Aspects of Postmodernism
• Distrust of form, convention and established conventions
• Style over Substance
• Emphasises surface readings over deeper analysis.

• Example of Postmodernism
• Breaking the Fourth Wall

Vance Joy - Riptide - Indie Pop Genre

• Directly connected with the lyrics

• Non-Continuity Editing

• Beat Matched

• General theme and narrative - montage of shots suggests themes of drowning, dying and death.

• Alternative theme and narrative - an unpredictable and deliberately misleading montage of shots.

• Deliberately invites polysemic interpretations.

• Montage consistently matches the themes of the lyrics, eg 'cowboy running' is matched with the long shot, symbolic of dual personalities, afraid of what he has become.

• Intertextuality - the mise-en-scene suggests the conventions of a Western film, and therefore functions as a referential code.

• Referential codes create audience appeal, as only certain audiences will understand the reference.

• Additionally, the mid shot of the seance and the mise-en-scene in the ouija board is referential of horror cinema, in particular 70's horror films. 

• We see reference to the 70's in the mid shot of the letter dated 'August 1974' anchors the audience into a particular time period, because it is seen as 'cool'.

• By seeing the mid/ls of feet being dragged under a bed, slightly low angled shot, low key lighting and blue/purple lighting which connotes darkness, misery and threat.

• It denies the audience a definite response and definite conclusion.

• Voyeuristic M/S high angled POV shot of young blonde woman removing the one piece yellow swimsuit, the mustard yellow is very 70's along with the slow zoom. Intertextual reference to early Bond films.

• Heavily manicured female hand pushes red leather bound book into frame in a manor which seems rehearsed, robotic and non-consensual.

• Positions the audience in a voyeuristic, even perverted perspective, forcing the audience to consider Van Zoonen's notion of a predatory male gaze.

Context

• Vance Joy was born in Australia.
• He is signed to Atlantic Records (a subsidiary of major-label warner).
• Its an indie-folk-pop genre.
• Riptide was Vance Joy's first single to be released in the UK.
• It went platinum as over 1 million copies got sold.

Key Terms

• Objectification
• The process in which the producer dehumanises a person, and make them appear on the same level as an object, this is done through the use of mise-en-scene, media language and shot types etc.

• Male Gaze
• The assumption that every media product is made for heterosexual male audience, which means that the function of every women we see, is there for the pleasure of the male. - Lisbet Van Zoonen.

• Sexualisation
• The process of valuing someone only for their sexual appeal.

• Voyeurism
• 'Peeping Tom' - taking pleasure from watching someone whilst you're undetected.

• Scopophillia
• The love of watching, another word for Voyeurism.

Textual Analysis of Shot in Riptide

• High Angle/Mid Shot - voyeuristic connotations, and we are positioned as the voyeur.

• Mise-en-scene of the ty-dye looking top looks almost like she is bleeding, so it has the intentions that theres something bad in the 'riptide'.

• Looking out into the ocean which is symbolic of adventure, and exploring the world.

• Costume is quite exotic and exciting.

• Framed in the centre of the shot so she is centre of attention and emphasising her importance to her heterosexual male audience according to Lisbet van zoonen.

• Shallow depth of field, she is the only thing in focus so a zoom lense would be used, it positions the audience in a scopophilliac way.

• By her having her back turn't it connotes that she is unaware that someone is watching her again positioning the audience as a voyeurist.

• The setting of the beach makes it seem luxurious.

• Seems like natural lighting.

Magazine 1 - Lesson 3

Woman Magazine - Kitchen Article

• The audience may completely ignore the article and flick the page as it may be something that is not very interesting to them, whereas others may find it interesting and read it in depth and even try out the methods that are explained and portrayed in the article.

• The instructions make women seem very weak, young and silly, through the language of saying 'it slots in so any girl can assemble it quickly.' showing that they are quite young and not very good at doing anything DIY related as they're young girls.

• It seems to be an important article as not many photos are in colour in the magazine and the majority of these photo's are pretty appealing which is done through the use of colour, making it seem as its a more major article compared to the others, they are mixing in the two stereotypes of women in the kitchen and men doing the DIY.

• It also states that you need to be wise with your money but the money the woman will be using is the man's and if the women spends too much money on the kitchen then it will be the man who will get angry.

• One response could be that it could cultivate the view that we only see women in the kitchen which gives us the view of women belong in the kitchen.

Lisbet Van Zoonen - Feminist Theory (Male Gaze)

• Gender is constructed through codes and conventions of media products, and the idea of what is male and what is female changes over time.

• Women's bodies are used in media products as a spectacle for heterosexual male audiences, which reinforces patriarchal hegemony.

Woman Magazine - Alfred Hitchcock Article

• Says women's meaning in life is to make men's life's easier.

• Says british women are exotic, but british women to Hitchcock they should be normal, but by saying exotic it sounds like they're a bit mysterious which kind of says they're different to men, they're not people they're animals or something else along those lines, it objectifies women, 'snow-capped volcanoes' is an example of objectification.

• Hitchcock is saying it is completely okay to objectify women, as he says its okay to stare at a women if you're married as it means nothing.

• Hitchcock regularly used women for sex and he was a bit of a creep. (we know this now)

• Hitchcock looks very confident and certain in the photo's that are used of him, the vast majority of the world will not see him as sexually attractive, but the reason why they used them 4 images of him on his article shows that he is important and we respect him for being such a successful film maker.

• Proairetic Code - in the images selected it shows Hitchcock having an important talk so its the idea that he is talking and we don't know what he is saying and also he can look quite inspirational and also makes the article more personal as it looks like he is saying those words which are written.

• This is Hitchcock's monologue as he is the only one talking, showing his power and importance.

• Hitchcock is saying that Latin Americans are like prostitutes whereas the English women with a sex appeal are classy and elegant and thats what makes his films so successful and thats why heterosexual males appeal to his films due to this elegance of sex appeal that English women have.

Quiz Pt.2

Mini Quiz Pt2

1. Name 3 keys differences between a broadsheet and a tabloid newspaper?

• Broadsheet is bigger than a tabloid.
• Broadsheet is 'actual news' whereas a tabloid is more gossip.
• Broadsheet is aimed at more higher class.
• Tabloids tend to have a red masthead.
• Tabloid's tend to have more images than 

2.  Define Polysemy

• Multiple meanings, there are different ways in which we can read them.

3. Define Bias

• Bias is the way that a certain media text is presented unfairly to one side due to the producers ideologies and beliefs. Favours one group over another.

4. What are two ways newspapers can be biased?

• Selection
• The photos used.
• The language used.
• Admission
• Leaving important stuff out.
• Positioning
• Front page news is more important to the producer.

5. Define agenda

• The aim of the newspaper
• Newspaper producers potentially try to manipulate the audiences ideologies.

6. What is ideology?

• The beliefs and ideas that the producer believes in.

7. What are the four steps of representation?

1. The group, place or issue on which a media text is focusing on.
2. The way that the producer presents these people through the use of media language.
3. The message behind this presented group.
4. The impact this presentation has on us as the audience.

8. Define Hegemony

• Where one group has power over another through consent.

9. What is the difference between sexualisation and objectification.

• 'astion' is a process, sexualised is a process of making something sexual, objectification is where you dehumanise something and make it into an object. 

10. What does Liesbet Van Zoonen theorise about gender?

• The idea that women's bodies are in the media to be looked at in the media by males to seem attractive.

11. What, arguably, is the difference between sex and gender?

• Sex is what you're born as however gender is what you view yourself as, people argue it is a performance and an act.

12. What is the biggest selling newspaper in the UK?

• The Sun

Hegemony - The 'A Grade Concept'

Hegemony

• Dominant Ideology
• the unwritten rules that we follow as they're generally agreed norms.
• Hegemony
• the power that is exerted over us through consent and not through force.

Judith Butler - The Gender Theory

• Sex
• what your born as

• Gender
• a performance

Key Theory 8 - Feminist Theory - Lisbet Van Zoonen

• The idea that gender is constructed through discourse, and that its meaning varies according to cultural and historical context.

• The idea that the display of women's bodies as objects to be looked at is a core element of western patriarchal culture.

• The idea that in mainstream culture the visual and narrative codes that are the used to construct the male body as spectacle differ from those used to objectify the female body.