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.