5 key points of the essay

The introduction is very clear and precise, it doesn’t waffle on about any irrelevant points and shows clearly what the essay is about.

Women are rising in status throughout the media down to the use of naked and explicit photos spread and images.

Good textual analysis and includes critical analysing the text using key concepts.

Media Theory is used throughout such as - Mulvey

"Modern magazine follow the conventions of Playboy, in which women are depicted as objects for men's contemplation and enjoyment".-use Sophisticated language and makes it flow.

Pluralists or Marxists?

The hegemonic model developed by Gramsci suggests the audience is passive and controlled by the dominant ideologies fed to them by the ruling class, who own mass media i.e. Rupert Murdock. Marxist theorists such as Marcuse suggest the audience is in a “false consciousness”, meaning we the audience believe were making our own choices, but in actual fact we’re conforming to expectations of what the ruling class wants us to be like. The Marxist theory was developed around the 1920’s which is clearly seen by it’s old fashioned views, although it does relate to contemporary media, it doesn’t take into account how much the media and it’s audience has developed.

Furthermore there is a much wider range in what we want to view, and the Pluralist model acknowledges the audience as active. There are theories to back this up such as Kat and Blumer’s Uses & Gratification theory, which suggests the audience, uses the media, moreover the Reception theory states the audience have different readings of the media. This theory argues the media reflects the societies shared beliefs and ideologies, and if it doesn’t, because the media has become polyvalent the audience will choose a different text to watch.

Analysis of clip
-One major symbol in the clip is Fox’s gun which symbolises the phallic symbol. In other words it makes up for what she hasn’t therefore giving her power. This connotes in order to be powerful you need to have a penis or something that can replace it, in her case it’s a gun.
-In the first couple of seconds there is a long shot of Wesley crouching with his hand on top of his head whilst a truck id driving straight for him, this connotes he is scared and to terrified to move, then the fact Fox comes out of nowhere with her fast car and saves him shows how much more braver she is than him. This it self connotes women are becoming more powerful and independent, which reflects the way women are in this day and age.
-Also the fact she is driving shows she is in control, which is further emphasised when he begs her to “please drive faster”, this shows she is more dominant in the situation which connotes women are more powerful in situations between themselves and men, it also connotes men are beginning to loose control ie “crisis of masculinity”.
-However at one point Fox is exposed to “male-gaze” as she went over the sun screen to shoot, her legs were in Wesley’s face as he makes the remark “woohoo” the music becomes more light hearted which connotes only one real purpose for a woman
-It’s a Hollywood movie, distributed by Universal Pictures mainly in multiplex cinema.
-It is an Action-Fantasy. It follows conventions of both as the fast cars, explosions, and guns clearly connote Action, where as an ordinary guy turning into the number one assassin clearly convoys fantasy.
-Women are represented as powerful in this clip, but also as sex objects due to her revealing clothes and camera angles directly looking at her legs.
-Men are represented as the sex which is loosing control and also the more dumber sex, also the fact the people after them are men and in the end of the clip she wins also shows women are becoming much more powerful in society today.
-This appeals to both a male and female audience aged 17-30.
-The narrative roles are interesting as Propps theory of the male being the hero and women being rescued is reversed as Fox is rescuing him.
-Todrovs theory can also be applied as they are a disequilibrium phase and need to get out of it.

Bibliography so far

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/03/99/tom_brook/387291.stm -women getting under paid

http://community.channel4.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8606038721/m/1980067829 -representation of women

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=how+much+does+a+male+actor+make&meta= male actors income in Hollywood and female

http://www.funadvice.com/q/who_is_the_highest_paid_female_actress female actors in come
http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=14586&s=Reviews

http://living.scotsman.com/movies?articleid=4208635

http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/movies/27want.html

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493464/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452608/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146316/


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475394/

10 WEBSITES AND HOW IT CAN BE USED IN MY STUDY

http://www.killbill-volumetwo.blogspot.com/ - Looks at female representation in kill bill, I haven’t actually looked into this text yet so this will help me have a better under standing

http://www.c-angels.blogspot.com/ - same with this text, I haven’t yet analysed this movie yet so this will help me have a better understanding

http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources/GenderMedia/femmedia.html looks at feminist take on the media representations which is what I need to look at a lot more

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze09.html has detail notes of Laura Mulvey’s “male gaze” which really helps me get a better understanding of it.

http://www.uk.rottentomatoes.com/ - help me research more film reviews and gather more quotes.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/article-23400606-details/Mother+Angelina/article.do about Angelina Jolie and her life in show biz and being a mother.

http://virtual.clemson.edu/caah/women/flc436/mulvey.html note on the gaze and links to other notes which I can use to further my knowledge on her.

http://www.keltawebconcepts.com.au/ewommed1.htm detail of womens representaion in media in the past and opresent, looks at a feminist perspective.

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/raim0007/gwss3307_summer2008/2008/06/angelina_jolie_is_a_feminist_i.htmlmn feminist perspective of Angelina Jolie which looks into the way she is represented ie passive and as a sex object. I can use this when analysing her in movies

http://www.wifp.org/radicalfeministanalysis.html radical feminist approach on women in media which can be applied to my study

10 KEY WORDS

ACTION CODE- Term used to describe a dramatic sequence of events often leading to a violent resolution; I can use this in my independent study to see whether or not the film follows typical conventions of this

PATRIARCHY- Male dominance of political, cultural and economical system, I can use this in my study as it relates to males always going to dominant and female not truly being empowered role models

RADICAL FEMINISM- See men as the enemy-acts of sexual intercourse is seen as rape and violence-female nudity is “rape fantasies” for men. They are the most extreme feminists in the world. I can use them in y study as I can look at their take of how women are represented in media and action movies

FEMINISM- Achievements of women are taken for granted, which relates to my study as I can look into whether the action of women in action movies are praised or not. I can also use a less radical perspective of female representation in action movies.

SCOPOPHILLIA- Used by psychologist Sigmund Freud- it means 2the pleasure of looking”, which relates to the way females in action movies are viewed.

FEMME FATALE- French film noir theory – female characters who uses her sexuality in a devious, disreputable, secretive way to get what she desires. It can be a dangerous character who’s sex appeal often disarms the male protagonist and allows her to manipulate the action. I can use this term in my study when describing other texts as some of this happens in “Smokin’ Aces”.

ICONOGRAPHY- Distinguishing elements , in terms of props an d visual details which characterises a genre. In my study I can talk about guns and how it represents the action genre .

IDEOLOGY- set of attitudes, beliefs and values commonly held in a certain culture. I can use this for my study and talk about the western values and beliefs of what women should be like and how it’s shown in my text.

LIBERAL FEMINISTS- Sees gender inequalities as being a result the result of the dominant patriarchal family model and prejudice. I can look at their take on income of female and male actors

MALE GAZE- Term used by Laura Mulvey in her essay “visual pleasures and narrative cinema (1975), camera adopts the male point of view to benefit the male audience. This term will be coming up a lot in my study as its shown through every text I have looked at so far.

WIDER CONTEXT

SOCIAL-
Most women have the idea in their heads that if they aren’t physically attractive, they won’t be accepted in society especially in western culture. This is down to the media showing attractive females being the ones who are successful in life. All the movies I have looked at so far promote this idea, for example in Death race the less attractive female dies and the more attractive female live. More over in the movie industry females have to keep up their physical appearance to be casted, I mean have you ever seen the female being unattractive in an action movie, no, now ask yourself if you’ve seen an unattractive male casted as lead in an Action movie, yes. I can name several, for example Nicholas Cage in Gone in 60 seconds, Slyvester Stallone in Rambo, Bruce Willis in Die Hard, ect….

HISTORICAL-
In the past female lead roles in action movies were pretty much non-existence, females were seen as the weaker sex therefore impossible for them to be looked at as empowered role models. It wasn’t until films like Alien when female began to lay lead role and being represented as stronger. It’s been argued that the zeitgeist Alien came out in effected and influenced the text, as during the 1970’s women were starting to become more equal and won the Wright to vote, therefore the text reflects what was going on in society at that time as there is a female protagonist, showing the strength of females beginning to rise, and the independency.


ECONOMICAL-
A contemporary debate is; are female actors getting the same amount as money as male actors. In the past male actors would paid a lot more then female actors, however now days get paid the same. The top female actors make around £16-17 million.

OTHER TEXTS




LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER- 2001 Action, adventure, fantasy Directed by Simon west

From the start Lara (Angelina Jolie) is represented as a strong and powerful female. In the opening there’s a medium shot of guns strapped around her thighs which represents the phallic symbol and makes up for what she hasn’t got in terms of what truly represents being masculine ie, the penis. Further more she also sleeps with a knife which also represents the phallic symbol. Through out the movie she is represented as an empowered female role model, but a some points she is presented as a sex object, for example shortly after the beginning there’s a shower scene which really has no impact on the narrative of the movie, but is there for male gaze. Lara’s enemy in the film is a man called Manfed Powell (Ian Glen), Lara’s costume through out is quite revealing where as his is nearly always covered up. There is also a contrast of Black and White, Lara’s cosume mostly being white, connoting good and Manfred’s costume being nearly always black connoting evil. In the end good triumphs evil and the women wins where as the man dies, showing strength in females.

SMOKIN’ ACES- 2006 Action thriller Directed by JoeCarnahan

There are many females in this text all represented in many ways. Near the start were presented with two females Georgia Sykes (Alicia Keys) & Sharice Watters (Taraji Henson) who are contract killers, which basically means when someone (usually leader of a gang or mafia) has put someone else on contract, it means they want that person dead in exchange of money, and who ever killed them will get a large amount of money from the person who put out the contract. In this movie it was a man called Buddy Israel (Jeremy Priven). The fact there is female contract killers they are playing masculine roles as men are normally associated as the sex doing the gritty dirty work. Men playing roles such as contract killers often show a lack of respect for women, well it’s exactly the same for female contract killers. Both Georgia and Sharice refer to women as “bitches” and “pussy”, this raises issues, that if women them selves can’t respect and degrade themselves, how are men going to. However they do use the way men degrade women to their advantage to create a plan to kill Israel as he’s a womanizer, but it doesn’t see through to be successful.

DEATH RACE- 2008 sci-fi action Directed by Paul W.S Anderson

The main women role is played by actress Joan Allan who’s name is Hennessey, which is ironic as it’s the name of the famous French cognac (brandy) spelt Hennessy, which is seen as a man’s drink, this immediately connotes she will be a very masculine female character, which further more connotes strength and dominance. Moreover she is the warden of a men’s prison full of rapists, murders, thieves ect…There’s a medium shot of her walking trough the court yard of the prison, then a shot of a prisoner addressing her as “mam”, which connotes the respect the men must have for her, after when she walks off he says “there goes the baddest ass on the court”. This connotes she is the most superior person in prison, which represents her as an empowered female role model, how ever it still presents her as a sex object as when say’s “ass” he directly looks at her buttocks, then makes references of having sex with her to his fiend. Furthermore other female characters in the movie are represented as sex objects to the men in prison