Historical context

The main historical film that i will be concentrating on throughout this study is 'Alien' which was released in 1979 and directed by Ridly Scott. It relates with my main text Domino as it also has a female protagonist in fact, Alien is the first film in history to give the role of the main protagonist to a female and in this case it is Sigourney Weaver. As Ellen Ripley in Alien, Weaver has become the first female action hero. This shows that even though Ripley is tender with a cat or a child, she is still capable of being aggerresive and tough while destroying monsters and alien.

There are lots of similarities between Domino and Alien as both the characters of Domino Harvey and Elen Ripley share similar charactersitcs. Both protagonists share the same powerful, manly, violent characterstics as they fight their way through life however, we can still see a sensitive side in them. we can also see in the mese en scene of both films the fact that they are constantly being surrounded by men which implies the male dominant society that we live in. Furthermore, both Knightly and Weaver are very attractive which implies that even though they are breaking lots of female steorotypes, they are still part of a male gaze which Laura Mulvie talks about. However even though we are living in a male patriarchal society, we can see the improvments made in gender equalities as for the first time ever, we see a female protagonist in Alien which suggests that the second wave of feminism which took place in the 1970s made a great impact on peoples lives. Since Alien, there has been lots of films that feature female protagonists for instance Erin Brokavich where the lives of a small town were put on Julia Roberts shoulders. This emphasises the fact that women are becoming slowly, yet effeciently more equal to men in society and most importantly in the media.

However, even though Knightly n Weaver are both very similar at times, their charters are also quite different as in Domino, Domino Harvey is seen as a psychologically disturbed girl with 'daddy issues' where as on the otherhand, Riply is seen to be agrresive towards the aliens yet very tender and nurturing at times. we can also see that

Extract from Alien 1979

GENDER IN ADVERTISING

Gunter (1995)is a theorist who talks about women and how rare they are in paid work during the 1970s. Even when they were they were still portrayed in a very traditional stereotypical manner in female roles for instance as a secetary or a hairdresser. He also highlights the fact that even though women's portrayal as 'housewives' was declineing since the 1950s, this stereotype was still very common during the 1960s and 1970s. This argument by Gunter was once proven right from strong eveidence found in the early 1970 which argued that these stereotypes were still around. Findings from a research highlighted that of all adverts featuring women, 3/4 of them were for domestic products such as for the kitchen or the bathroom.

Cumberbatch (1995) is also another theorist who instead of focusing on the typical stereotypes of women being shown in adverts, he done a study on 500 prime-time tv adverts in the UK and found out that nowadays advertisers are becoming more wary of representing women as housewives and doing housework (which was seen in 7 per cent of the adverts). He also implies that men are now seen more often than ever cooking which also suggests that the 'new man' is taking over. However, Cumberbatch argues that even though there is some equality shown between men and women in society, not much has changed as men were twice as likely to be in a paid employment than women.

Scheibe (1979) is another theorist who similarly talks about how different genders are illistrated in advertisements. Scheibe emphasises the difference between the representaions of men and women in television advertisments as women are always being represented as clean and obsessed with beauty family and pleasing others. On the other hand, men are more intrested in achievemtns and having fun.

Macdonald (1995) notes that 'Advertisers generally lagged begind womens magazines in the cultivation of new modes of adress, even when the evidence suggested that commercial advantages could be gained from modernising their approach'. Macdonald underlines the fact that advertisers did not want to potray the new modern idea of women in the adverts instead advertisers followed womens stereotypes.

Greer (1999) reveals in his study that unlike in the 1960s when it was ok for women to be only beautiful however, in todays society, women are expected to be skinny, with a nice body, 'tight, toned body, including her buttocks and thighs,'. Greer implied that women are now 'inficted' with the need to conform the certain imges of beauty. It also highlights laura Mulveys male gaze where women are treated as sex objects to please the male target audience.

Walter (1998) is a feminist who refuses to see fashion and beauty advertising as a conspiracy to keep women down. Walter also argues thatmore attractive people do better and earn more than their plain collegues from a study found in 1993 but the difference was larger and more significant for men than for women.

Cortese (1999) asserts that 'Ad deconstruction reveals a pattern of symbolic and institutionalised sexism'. Cortese argues that women have no place in the media as it is dominated by males and that they would always be seen as sex objects in advertisments. one the less, Cortese still argues that women are being portrayed as more sexy than they actually are from editing etc.

Fresh Up advert

This advert also emphasise the female gaze as we see that the man's main role is to attract the appeal of the female target audience with his body. This could highlight the change in society as now men are doing the job of the women as the new man is becoming more and more normal in society. These three adevrts and espechially this one underline this as the man in this advert is portrayed as a sex object and we can see that from his promescious actions.

Sexy Coke advert

this advert also portrays the female gaze just like the other Diet Coke advert as it shows the man half naked with a 'sexy' in order to appeal to the female target audience which subverts typical conventions as traditionaly, the women is doin the appealing and the man is supose to enjoys. On the other hand unlike the previous advert which showed old ugly women in the mese en scene, this advert had a very attractive women who was acting very promesquisly which can imply that the typical stereotypes and representaions of women still occur in society.

Diet Coke advert

This Diet Coke advert portrays the change in the roles of men and women in todays society as normally, we come acroos the male gaze (Laura Mulvey)where women are dressed promescuisly to attract and appeal top the male target audience. However, in this advert, it is the man who is taking his clothes and showing his promescious characteristics and this introduces the female gaze where men have the job of appeal to a female target audience in a sexual manner. We can also see from this advert that men in todays society are becoming more feminine as they worry about their appearance and this implied from the product because Diet Coke is sugar free therefore they will not get fat.

Flake advert

Unlike the other two adverts, this Flake chocolate bar advert portrays a different women as she is not seen inside a house like the women in the Flash advert, instead she is outside in the country independant and confident. This portrayal of women has only come around after the second wave of feminsm where women are becoming more and more equal to men in society. This advert proves David Gauntlett's argument that womens's expectations and their roles in society will continue to change.

Flash advert

This advert is very similar to the Shake and Vac advert as it underlines the roles of women being domestic. We can see from this advert that women will never be equal to men as they are trapped in the house cleaning and trying to make the house as perfect as possible for the hardworking bread winner to come back. We can also see that women are the 'second sex' from this advert as the number of high angle shots shown in the mese en scene emphasise the fact that women are inferior to men and that they are at the bottom half of the heirachy. This could link with women's lack of self-belief which 'polly leys' talks about in the 'why are women directors such a rare sight' handout.

Shake and Vac advert

the representation of women in this advert are very typical and traditional as they are portrayed as housewives. We see the women taking care of the house and cleaning it wearing an apron, which shows women's place in society is domestic and in the home. This advert highlights life in the 20th century where a womens role was to take care of the children, clean the house and please her husband. However, today women's roles have completly changed as they are more likely to have careers and be educated. This links with David Gauntlett's theory as he argues that gender roles today are more complex as reflected in the media.

5 reasons why women directors are such a rare sight.

- Film is male dominant. the whole business is constructed so there are jsut men at every level.

- Work is hard for women as they have children to take care of.

- Female psyche: women have no self-belief

- women are not as creative as men

- because of gender issues about control and autherity

1990s

Junior is a film by Ivan Reitman which was mad ein 1994 and it underlines the 'new man'. This film expresses the fact that men today have changed as they have similar charactistics as women as Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a pregnant man.

1980s

This is a clip from Scarface and it portrayes the return of male dominance in the media after the second wave of feminism as it conveys typical conventions of a patriarchal film as it highlights the power of men and the control they have over women.

1970s

This is a clip from the famous 'Alien'. This film was released in the late 1970s which was right in the middle of the second wave of feminism. Alien was the first action film where the leading role is taken by a female. this also links with my study as my texts has Keira Knightly as the leading proagonist.

1960s

This film which was made in the 1960s (1962) shows that despite the fact that the 1960s was the era of sexual revoloutions, women are stilled represented as the second sex and playing the passive role. They are still less assertive and intelligent than men even after their moving up the ranks in gender equality.

1950s

High Moon is a film that was released during the 1950s and it portrays men as the dominant and confident sex as they play the main lead roles where as the women are just there to be rescued

Representation of women today

Between 1992-93 men took over speaking roles in television as the statistics show that 61% of speaking roles were dominated by men where as women only had 37% of speaking roles. Instead of reversing, in 1995-1996 the statistics increase for the men as they had 63% of speaking roles.

In the 1970s, women's main occupation was seen to be housewives however, in 1992-1993 only 3 percent of women were represented as housewives which shows the difference in society and how it changed over the years. This could also link to the fact that womens priorities have changed from the past as they are more into their careers andeducation.

Maggie humm talk about films and how they either have women represented as 'good mothers' or 'bad hystorical careerists' which links to the fact that women can either be 'moddonas' or 'whores', they can't be both. These stereotypes degrade women as they cannot be modest yet sexual but men can which shows inequalities in gender.

Summary of the representation of gender in the past!

Gunter and Elasmer et al both talk about the prevelance of women and men in significant speaking roles in tv shows. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s only 20 to 53 per cent of characters were females wich highlights the segregation in the media and how patriarchal society use to be. However, by the 1080s, much more women were in tv but the majority were still men which underlines the glass ceiling wich indicates the fact that no matter how much women achieve, they will never be equal to men even if they can see what they can achieve.

Miles found that even though in the 1970s men and womens roles were nearly the equal in comedies, the potrayal of the women were very traditionaly sexist. Nonetheless in 1987, women were found to be the most common sex in comedies however men took over dramas as the statistics show women being outnumbered two to one. Gunter emphasises that in the 1970s shows about parenthood, marriage and domesticity are more important to women more than men.

Women and mens roles in movies were very similar to the roles they had in tv shows where men make most of the descisions, this is shown in the 1950s in the 'high noon' where men were asertive, confident and dominant. Women were most likely to be shown as frightened in films and the male charachters are the ones protecting them, offering love and support.