It has been said that “media representations often reflect the social and political concerns of the age in which they are created”. Discuss.

Media representations very much reflect social and political concern, current affairs and cultural traditions. They are often created to subordinate or maintain a stereotyped group such as women, reinforcing the idea of hegemony. On the other hand, some institutions use representations to challenge existing ideas and stereotypes to make changes or reflect our diverse society. There are a range of representations of women since the 1940, as in society, they’ve constantly battled with men for equality or power. To keep them subordinated, the media- usually male- use their representations to “symbolically annihilate” (Tuchman, G.) them. These representations of women are also seen in American family sitcoms from Father Knows Best to recent shows like “Everybody Hates Chris” where family roles and ultimately women’s roles in the home are constantly changing.

The 1940’s representations of women were created by the elite to subordinate them, as their rising power was a concern in society. During the war, all the men were fighting so women left their housewife role to do jobs to keep society running for when the men came back. When they did come back, the women had higher expectation and wanted more control and power over what they wanted. This led to the know representation of women “femme fatale”. This representation was first seen in film noirs and now known as one of its conventions. The word translates to “deadly woman” as she was manipulative, seductive and money or power driven. An example of this is Phyllis from “Double Indemnity” (1944). To the male protagonist, she is beautiful and innocent, which leads him to help her achieve what she wants, which involves killing another man. But to the audience, it is clear her intentions are sinister through how effectively she is manipulating the protagonist. Especially to a male audience, this would make them not trust women and ultimately subordinate them. A Marxist and a Feminist would argue that this also shows that hegemony – the “idea of domination of one group over another" (Gramsci, A.) - does exist in society as in fear, the men dominated and ultimately subordinated the women. Therefore, it can be said representations reflect the social and political concerns of society, as the 1904’s poorly represented women, as they were feared of taking control.

The 1950’s had a representation of women as house wives, but also a complete family that only functioned in one way, which could suggest this representation, was model a “perfect family”.The 1950’s sitcom “Father Knows best” showed how a perfect family should be; the mother was the housewife, the doting daughter that aspired to be like her, signified by the fact they were dressed similar. The father is the breadwinner, who comes home from work to see a loving family, and the son, who again is dressed the same, aspires to be like him. A Marxist would argue that these representations would have been constructed in order to maintain order in society where the men were in control of the family, and the women would adhere to his rules. Even the title has hegemonic vales as “Father Knows Best” almost dictates power to the male figure.

More recent representations of women have reflected their aspirations of equality within society. For example “Doghouse” (2009) follows a group of guys, who badly treat their women, to a remote area where female zombies attack. This film uses the horror form to create a powerful message, as these zombie women are out to get these men for treating women badly. One of the first zombies seen is a corpse bride attempting to attack with a knife. The corpse bride instantly signifies a spinster, who possibly didn’t get married or was left at the altar by a man, highlighting her reasons for revenge. This dominant representation of bitter but sad and lonely women has been subverted and challenged as she is now actively trying to gain equality. It could be said by killing these men they are removing men who subordinate and therefore restoring gender equality. This corpse bride has a knife and stabs Danny Dyer’s character, who out of all the men is the most misogynistic. This phallic symbol could foreshadow women’s aspirations of equality and acts as a painful warning to men - as he screams when his hand gets stabbed. There are plural readings in this text as some may argue it’s a feminist text, as like the theory, these women are attempting to gain gender equality. Some might argue it’s a post feminist text, as where these men are misogynistic, the women attempt to destroy these men in order to regain equality. However, As the genre is a satirical horror, some may argue it’s another way of subordinating women, as they are “zombies”, feared monsters who are mindlessly attacking men with little purpose or result. Therefore, this does suggest representations are constructed to reflect social issues as the text is focused on gender equality for women.

Like Doghouse, The Simpson's takes its family stereotypes and adds a contemporary twist, which aims to break these traditions and reflect our diverse society. The set up of the family is simple and similar to Father Knows Best from the 1950's; the father is the breadwinner, the mother is a housewife, and they have three children, 2 girls and a boy. However, some of these representations are subverted, such as the father is lazy, as we often see him sleeping over a box of doughnuts at work in a dangerous power plant. Maggie is the baby who can't talk or walk, but often is seen doing things like fighting other babies with a broken baby bottle. Though these representations are exaggerated and clearly constructed, they do have a purpose. They aim to breakdown any sort of historical stereotype to release groups from expectations. However, some may argue that as the show has be running for so long in many countries, these representations are becoming fixed and are creating newer dominant representations of gender, especially towards men.

Though The Simpson is a sitcom and full of comedy, it sometimes uses characters to reflect contemporary issues and concerns. For example, in the episode 'Homer’ phobia, Homer is forced to deal with homosexuality, and his responses or lack of them at first, reflect peoples attitudes to it in society. At first homer is unaware of the new shop owner John's sexuality. He suggests inviting him and his wife to their home, but Marge says "I don't think John has a wife". This lack of understanding or awareness of John's sexuality could be a metaphor for how society ignores or rejects that people are gay. When Marge tells Homer John is gay, his first response is to scream and say "Oh my god! Oh my god". The institution cleverly reflects some people's negative attitudes towards it. In society "it seems that gender is determined and fixed as it was under the biology-is-destiny formulation" (Butler, J.), or gender is “a costume, a mask, a straight jacket” (Lerner, G.) that the media create and society adhere to. However, this episode attempts to challenge this dominant reading about gender and sex.

Though many of these shows appear to reflect the current issues within society, it could be argued that they are only there for entertainment. In particular, Doghouse and The Simpsons latch onto what’s current in society and rather than take a viewpoint, they mock the weaker or subordinated group. For example, Doghouse could be seen as mocking women who are the subordinated group within the film, pushing them down further. Similarly in The Simpsons, it could be argued that the show has strong American comedic values that involve explicitly targeting groups and mocking them through the ignorant and sometimes shocking represented characters like Homer and d Bart.

To conclude, I think that media representations do reflect social and political concerns. In the past, they were unfortunately used to subordinate or create fixed ideologies about how groups should be. This reflects the ridge structure of society in the past, where men were in control and in terms of the hypodermic needle theory; they injected their ideologies and passed it onto everyone else. Now due to the democracy of the internet and other aspects of society, the media uses representations to reflect the diverse nature of society. They are sometimes used to highlight current issues and make us open our eyes to our own ignorance and taboo subjects. Other times they are used just to create humour, to make us understand each other in a relaxed and informal way.