Women in film - the Bechdel test

Sometimes also known as the Bechdel-Wallace test, the Bechdel test asks whether a work of fiction features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. (The requirement that the two women must be named is sometimes added.)

This Wikipedia link has links and references to many other useful variants of this and other tests, and is well worth checking out if you are writing any essays concerning the representation of women, gender, or the codes and conventions of certain genres (e.g. Romance).

The following site http://bechdeltest.com/ contains a user-maintained list of films that meet the Bechdel test minimum requirements, in case you are interested in finding some in a hurry.

Men act and women appear - John Berger

When talking about representation (and especially the representation of men and women) John Berger is a useful voice to include in your discussions and essays.

Berger made four 30-minute films for the BBC in 1972 which later became the core of his book Ways of Seeing. In it Berger writes:

"One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves." (Ways of Seeing, p.47)

In your MS3 research investigations or your MS1 discussions of representation, you will find Berger's position here has been absorbed into most cultural and feminist criticism to the point where it is assumed or taken for granted (see for example, The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf for an example of this).

You should be aware though, of the limitations of Berger's perspective. Although wide-ranging in its references and survey of the visual arts, and a really useful starting point, Berger's work is perhaps not as useful as Laura Mulvey's multi-layered and more comprehensive 1975 essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema".

We'll examine Mulvey in more depth in another lesson and blog post, but there's nothing stopping you from reading her work and making up your own mind.



Further References:

John Berger

https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/09/28/ways-of-seeing-john-berger/


John Berger and Laura Mulvey

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cjas/dominguez1.html


This Is Not Sex: A Web Essay on the Male Gaze, Fashion Advertising, and the Pose

http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/powerpose/index.html


Bibliography

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1972.

Mulvey, Laura. Visual and Other Pleasures. New York: Macmillan, 1989.

Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women. New York: Harper Perennial, 2002.

MS1 RESIT- Example Texts

I know that you are finishing off your little revision booklets and I thought I would share some interesting print texts as most people seemed to be lacking print examples. I would like to see the booklets again but fully complete on Monday along with your mock answers (see post on MOCK EXAM).

The texts below have been selected for a variety of reasons from interesting representations, target audiences or audience responses and some for all of the above. 

I would like to highlight a few...

• GQ received HUGE amounts of backlash via Twitter from the 1 Directioners as a fan base regarding their representation of the band on their special editions covers (there was one for each member) particularly Harry's as they felt he was misrepresented- it is worth noting that they (fans) are not actually the target audience for GQ!

• Pain and Gain could be used for  National and Regional Identities (as the DVD cover is very much americanised), Issues for representation of Crime as this was based on true events and gender. Also the victim has written an article explaining his version and complaining about the misrepresentation of the events and his character in the film.

• TIME, The Guardian and Rolling Stone all feature very different representations of the Boston bombing (event). Rolling Stone were heavily criticised for their cover of one of the bombers as it was claimed that they had glamourised and glorified him. 

• I particularly like the representation of Prince Charles on the Daily Mail, a lovely one to use for both events and age!

• The Impossible (2004 Tsunami) and Zero Dark Thirty (Hunt for Osama Bin Laden) are both based on true stories of real life events and could be used in an interesting way to discuss events. Their marketing also uses this to specifically target their audience

I also like the rest but feel they quite self explanatory. Hope this helps! 

MS1 Representation

Hi all,

Hope you had a brilliant Christmas! I will be posting quite a few things this week, particularly in preparation for the MS1 Resit next week! I will post a mock on here to be completed FULLY and handed in on the Monday so that I can mark it for you and return it on the Tuesday. 

Anyway... I watched a very challenging, interesting and thought provoking video that summed up the representation of women in the Media in 2013. This was made by an American group called The  Representation  Project, their website is below, have a nose at their posts and resources etc. 

http://therepresentationproject.org/

Year 12 MS1 Representation Task

Using the aspects of representation (Gender, Age, Events, Issues, Ethnicity, National & Regional Identity), you must select a text for each area that highlights an interesting type of representation. Ensure you use a variety of media forms for your examples and provide a detailed and thorough explanation as to what kind of representation the text provides .

RESPOND ON YOUR BLOGS, YOU MAY USE IMAGES TO SUPPORT YOUR POINTS. YOU SHOULD PRINT A COPY ALSO TO HAND IN, DEADLINE IS TOMORROW LESSON 7 AND YOU MAY USE LESSON TIME.

Representation Theories

Support for Representation of Videogames

Reflective, Intentional, and Constructive Theories of Representation

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The Reflective theory of representation is that language mirrors true meaning as it exists in the world.

The Intentional theory of representation is that words mean what the author intends them to mean.   The Constructive theory of representation is that neither things in themselves nor the individual users of language can fix meaning in language. Instead meanings are contextual - it is the particular symbolic code that fixes a meaning at a particular time.   Source: Hall, S. (1997b, pp.24-26) "The Work of Representation"

MS4 Representation in VideogamesTask

Textual Analysis

• By NEXT Lesson:

Game of your choice!

(You will need access to it and must be able to play it.)

Analyse the representations of the following in terms of

mediation: stereotypes and the theories of intentional,

constructionist and/or reflective.

&

• By Tuesday 17th June

Create a timeline of the evolution of the female role in video games .