"Media representations rarely challenge the dominant values of society nor do they give a voice to those with little power". To what extent is this true for the group of place you have studied? Why?
When looking at historical representations of women and familes, they are very much fixed by shows like Father Knows Best and films like Double Indemnity. These ideologies were created by the dominant in society- powerful males. Now, in a post feminist era with very active audiences, you'd think that texts gave all goups that were subordinated in the past, a voice to represent themselves, but this is not true in all cases. Some text are still ideologically fixed to the past, usually for comic entertainment. This essay looks at how women and families have been represented over the years, and how and why these representations have been created so.
Media representations favour dominant values of society and this is seen with historical representations where men used their power of the media to subordinate women. During the war, men had to go and join the force, and women had to leave their homes to experience work and jobs to esure the economy and business still existed when the war ended. When the war did end, men returend to see that women enjoyed the power and freedom they'd been given and demanded more. In a bid to gain control of society, men used the media to perpeturate negative representations of women to subordinate them again. This was in the form of the femme fatale; a deadly and dangerous woman who was seen in film noirs from the 1940s. A particular example of one is Phyllis from Double Indemity; her innocence and charm made her more deadly as the man she seduced did not notice her manipulative and deceptive nature, like the audience would have seen. This made men lose trust in women as they all belived women evil and deceptive like the ones shown in films reinforcing the hypodermic needle theory. This shows that the elite with their hegemonic values- the “idea of domination of one group over another" (Gramsci, A.)- is able to inject their values making them dominant and unchallnged by subordinated groups.
This power struggle wasnt over for women as the feminist era rose, where women were set to gain equality within society. As a result, more modern texts give women a voice which they didnt have before, making the statement not entirely true. Doghouse is a example where female zombies are a metaphor for deadly women who are out to get men who treat women badly- the kind of men that create dominant ideologies to favour the powerful and elite in society. Some of the zombies are seeminly the typical, helpless female like the bride who never got married, but the twist is she has the knife, the phallic symbol of power and contol. She stabbs the most mysogynistc character in the hand, which could be signifed as defiance against the powerful and elite in society. This shows that not all represenations favour those in power but aim to reflect the anger of the subordinated.
However, it could be argued that these women only pose a tempoary threat to the men in the film as they escape. This could be mocking of the femninst movement as to men it only posed a tempoary threat as women still haven't gained equality. Therefore this would suggest that men are still using the media to perpetuate negative representations of women being angry, annoying zombies, that don't succeed in attacking men.
Hip hop and rap videos have also played a part in rarely challenging dominant values of society as the men have the money and the power and control, while the women have no power and are just objectified. In 50 CENT's P.I.M.P video, men are glorified, as they are all dressed in white, living in beautiful houses with nice cars and "magic sticks" to represent their status and manhood. This contrasts with the women, who are only sexually objectified, they never talk except saying "We love you Snoop Dogg" again focusing the attention to the men. A particular shot is an extreme low angle of a scantity clad woman dancing and you can seen up her skirt. The shot is slowed down providing a voyeristic view. This is Laura Mulvey's male gaze and the text forces all audiences to identify a male view point. This focus drawn to men in the text and also when viewing the text suggest men perpetuate the dominant ideology of men being in power, and give little voice to women who are just there to be vouyered.
This contrasts with the Black Eyed Peas' "Where Is The Love?" gender is no concern, but they are attempting to challenge dominant values by questiong "where is the love" and literlly giving voices to those without power. The narrative of the text is the group, like an actvist group or mini force, go around the city, sticking up "?" like anti- status quo propaganda. They are trying to challenge what's dominant in society through their song and video. They also give voices to those without power, by making a range of people, different ages, gender and ethnicity lipsync the song, to be apart of this society- challenging group. This shows that not all instituions allow the dominant values to always be reflected and ignore the powerless.
Historically families were represented to fit what males wanted, it didn't challenge the norms nor did it give power to those without. Father Knows Best, an American TV show which showed a family; a housewife, loving mother that was expected of women during the 50's, a doting daughter that wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps, signified by them both dressing the same. The father was the man of the house and when he came home for work, the rest of the family were ready to greet him. The son wanted to follow his father's footsteps too as he dressed in a suit like his father. And they had a little daughter, who was happy being the innocent loving daddy's girl. These representations of each family member, was in some way created to benefit men in society, suggesting they had control of the media and made it a dominant value that everyone should abide by. This was a role model for families across America.
Some modern texts still have historial values such as the Simpsons where a negotiated reading might be that family are still nuclear, and have very typical roles within the family making the text fit dominant ideologies about perfect families. Like Father Knows Best, The Simpsons has a housewife mum, a breadwinner father and 3 children. However a dominat reading is that The Simpsons satirises the so called "perfect nuclear family" as they are far from perfect, more dysfuctional through their comic nature. Though the Homer Simpson is the breadwinner at a dangerous powerplant, he is lazy, childish and rather ignorant of social issues such as homosexuality seen in a particular episode. Lisa is a young daughter that reflects the feminist era, as she smart, mature and one day wants to become president of the USA. These alterntive representations not only provide comedy, but give voices to those without power (through Lisa) and mock the ones with power (Homer). This shows that not all texts reinforce dominat values, and if they do they might use them though satire.
Finally, it could be said that Everybody Hates Chris only perpetuates one stereotype of black familes, and rather than giving them a voice, a voice of dominant values is metaphorically talking for them. Though the show represents a ethic minority family, it does nothing to challenge black stereotypes, but only reinforces them to create humour. The family are loud, embarrasing to the children and comical. Though some audiences might respond to in in terms of uses and gratifcations- they might see it only as entertainement- some might repond to it in terms of the hypodermic needle theory- audiences might see this as what all ethic minority famlies act this way. Therefore some modern representaions still favour the powerful as subordinate groups are sterotyped through comdey. This however, like the hypodermic needle theory relies on audiences being passive.
To conclude I think in historical representations were never challenged as the elite had full control of the media; they could manipulate groups and represent them in whatever way they wanted to benefit themselves. More modern texts uses these representations and use humour/comedy to satirise how society use to work. As audiences are becoming more active, they are able to take different readings of texts to distinguish what they feel is a accurate representation, or at least in some way that representations are constructed.
When looking at historical representations of women and familes, they are very much fixed by shows like Father Knows Best and films like Double Indemnity. These ideologies were created by the dominant in society- powerful males. Now, in a post feminist era with very active audiences, you'd think that texts gave all goups that were subordinated in the past, a voice to represent themselves, but this is not true in all cases. Some text are still ideologically fixed to the past, usually for comic entertainment. This essay looks at how women and families have been represented over the years, and how and why these representations have been created so.
Media representations favour dominant values of society and this is seen with historical representations where men used their power of the media to subordinate women. During the war, men had to go and join the force, and women had to leave their homes to experience work and jobs to esure the economy and business still existed when the war ended. When the war did end, men returend to see that women enjoyed the power and freedom they'd been given and demanded more. In a bid to gain control of society, men used the media to perpeturate negative representations of women to subordinate them again. This was in the form of the femme fatale; a deadly and dangerous woman who was seen in film noirs from the 1940s. A particular example of one is Phyllis from Double Indemity; her innocence and charm made her more deadly as the man she seduced did not notice her manipulative and deceptive nature, like the audience would have seen. This made men lose trust in women as they all belived women evil and deceptive like the ones shown in films reinforcing the hypodermic needle theory. This shows that the elite with their hegemonic values- the “idea of domination of one group over another" (Gramsci, A.)- is able to inject their values making them dominant and unchallnged by subordinated groups.
This power struggle wasnt over for women as the feminist era rose, where women were set to gain equality within society. As a result, more modern texts give women a voice which they didnt have before, making the statement not entirely true. Doghouse is a example where female zombies are a metaphor for deadly women who are out to get men who treat women badly- the kind of men that create dominant ideologies to favour the powerful and elite in society. Some of the zombies are seeminly the typical, helpless female like the bride who never got married, but the twist is she has the knife, the phallic symbol of power and contol. She stabbs the most mysogynistc character in the hand, which could be signifed as defiance against the powerful and elite in society. This shows that not all represenations favour those in power but aim to reflect the anger of the subordinated.
However, it could be argued that these women only pose a tempoary threat to the men in the film as they escape. This could be mocking of the femninst movement as to men it only posed a tempoary threat as women still haven't gained equality. Therefore this would suggest that men are still using the media to perpetuate negative representations of women being angry, annoying zombies, that don't succeed in attacking men.
Hip hop and rap videos have also played a part in rarely challenging dominant values of society as the men have the money and the power and control, while the women have no power and are just objectified. In 50 CENT's P.I.M.P video, men are glorified, as they are all dressed in white, living in beautiful houses with nice cars and "magic sticks" to represent their status and manhood. This contrasts with the women, who are only sexually objectified, they never talk except saying "We love you Snoop Dogg" again focusing the attention to the men. A particular shot is an extreme low angle of a scantity clad woman dancing and you can seen up her skirt. The shot is slowed down providing a voyeristic view. This is Laura Mulvey's male gaze and the text forces all audiences to identify a male view point. This focus drawn to men in the text and also when viewing the text suggest men perpetuate the dominant ideology of men being in power, and give little voice to women who are just there to be vouyered.
This contrasts with the Black Eyed Peas' "Where Is The Love?" gender is no concern, but they are attempting to challenge dominant values by questiong "where is the love" and literlly giving voices to those without power. The narrative of the text is the group, like an actvist group or mini force, go around the city, sticking up "?" like anti- status quo propaganda. They are trying to challenge what's dominant in society through their song and video. They also give voices to those without power, by making a range of people, different ages, gender and ethnicity lipsync the song, to be apart of this society- challenging group. This shows that not all instituions allow the dominant values to always be reflected and ignore the powerless.
Historically families were represented to fit what males wanted, it didn't challenge the norms nor did it give power to those without. Father Knows Best, an American TV show which showed a family; a housewife, loving mother that was expected of women during the 50's, a doting daughter that wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps, signified by them both dressing the same. The father was the man of the house and when he came home for work, the rest of the family were ready to greet him. The son wanted to follow his father's footsteps too as he dressed in a suit like his father. And they had a little daughter, who was happy being the innocent loving daddy's girl. These representations of each family member, was in some way created to benefit men in society, suggesting they had control of the media and made it a dominant value that everyone should abide by. This was a role model for families across America.
Some modern texts still have historial values such as the Simpsons where a negotiated reading might be that family are still nuclear, and have very typical roles within the family making the text fit dominant ideologies about perfect families. Like Father Knows Best, The Simpsons has a housewife mum, a breadwinner father and 3 children. However a dominat reading is that The Simpsons satirises the so called "perfect nuclear family" as they are far from perfect, more dysfuctional through their comic nature. Though the Homer Simpson is the breadwinner at a dangerous powerplant, he is lazy, childish and rather ignorant of social issues such as homosexuality seen in a particular episode. Lisa is a young daughter that reflects the feminist era, as she smart, mature and one day wants to become president of the USA. These alterntive representations not only provide comedy, but give voices to those without power (through Lisa) and mock the ones with power (Homer). This shows that not all texts reinforce dominat values, and if they do they might use them though satire.
Finally, it could be said that Everybody Hates Chris only perpetuates one stereotype of black familes, and rather than giving them a voice, a voice of dominant values is metaphorically talking for them. Though the show represents a ethic minority family, it does nothing to challenge black stereotypes, but only reinforces them to create humour. The family are loud, embarrasing to the children and comical. Though some audiences might respond to in in terms of uses and gratifcations- they might see it only as entertainement- some might repond to it in terms of the hypodermic needle theory- audiences might see this as what all ethic minority famlies act this way. Therefore some modern representaions still favour the powerful as subordinate groups are sterotyped through comdey. This however, like the hypodermic needle theory relies on audiences being passive.
To conclude I think in historical representations were never challenged as the elite had full control of the media; they could manipulate groups and represent them in whatever way they wanted to benefit themselves. More modern texts uses these representations and use humour/comedy to satirise how society use to work. As audiences are becoming more active, they are able to take different readings of texts to distinguish what they feel is a accurate representation, or at least in some way that representations are constructed.
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