Women in the British Cinema

Today in class, we looked at the ways in which women are represented in British cinema over time. In Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 films 'Vertigo', he places his female characters with a very desirable aspect. (See Male Gaze Theory)

In contemporary british cinema, films construct, reinforce or challange notions of identity. We were looking at the 'burden of representation' (p59-66, fire book) and the conflict between successful commercial films and cultural UK films. We watched the railers for 'Notting Hill' (1999), 'Bend it like Beckham' (2002) which were commercially successful films but also challenged the representation of women through a humorous look on stereotypes.

We also considered the representation of women in comtemporary british films such as 'Fast Girls' (2012),'The Kings Speech' (2010), 'The Angels Share' (2012), 'Its A Wonderful Afterlife' (2010) and 'Made in Dagenham' (2010).

We were also considering the dilemmas that film makers have between making films that are comercially sucessful and might attract an american audience (which the brings in a very large amount of wonga), and then social realist films by directors such as Ken Loack and Mike Leigh which are critically acclaimed but give a much bleaker representation of society in general which are not as attractive to a wide spread, international audience and therefore might not make as much revenue.

Representation of Women in Adverts - Fairy Liquid

Advertising is an interesting area to look at when studying the representation of a group of people.

• Firstly; advertisements tend to represent the status quo of society at the time and any hegemonies that may exist. For example, that football is our countries national sport however the country plays a wide variety of sports. 
• Secondly; advertisements represent an ideal that people must aspire too.

In a series of Fairy Liquid advertisements from the 1960s up until the present day, we discovered that women are represented in a traditionally idealistic way. For example, in the 1960s adverts were almost exactly the same having a mother and a little girl who she is helping to learn (ie, books or building blocks) while washing up the dishes at the kitchen sink. The mother is teaching the little girl about the fairy liquid and how it is still strong enough to clean but soft enough to keep hand 'pretty', as if this is a priority for women of the time. The actors in the advert are 'well spoken', using received pronunciation. This emphasises the idea in the consumer that the people who use Fairy Liquid are of a high class, and therefore the product is of good quality. 

The modern advertisements are a bit more complex. Firstly, the little, innocent girls who is a reoccurring theme has been replaced with a slightly older (8-10) boy, and in the first (2012), we saw both a mother and father featuring, appearing to a wider demographic. There also featured a male voiceover however the emphasis is still on the mother bringing up an olympic athlete 'For mum to build an athlete', creating an equal tone. 

In the second (2009), the advert has a humorous tone with the little boy trying to fit his bike into the washing machine, and compared with the ones from the 60s, shows more informality and also an example of how adverts have changed behaviour with washing up (existence of washing machine).

Nowadays, this has become such an established product that in 2013, the company produced an advertisement showing a montage of the classic advertisements from the 1960s to the present day, over emphasising how little product you use every time to wash your dishes, it takes a decade to finish a bottle. 

All these Fairy Liquid advertisements are seen to be romanticising the past ideals of a woman in the kitchen and presenting a 'golden age' of which we can all aspire to. *sigh*

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory

Laura Mulvey is as British film theorist. She developed a theory that in film, females are deliberatley sexualised in all areas of context. The concept of the gaze is one that deals with how an audience  views the people presented:

• How men look at women
• How women look at themselves
• How women look at other women

Features of the male gaze are the camera lingering on the curves of the female body, un-equal sexualisation of a man and a woman in the same context and event which occur to women rare preened largely in the context of a man's reaction to these events.

Eg. I counted how many male to female people got undressed in the music video for 5 Seconds of Summers single 'She Looks So Perfect'. My results came out to be M:F, 19:23. Although this is a gap of only 4, it still supports the theory. I also noticed that many of the men who appeared half naked where sharing the shot with one or two half naked women as well. 

The Male Gaze is used in everyday life in advertising. Some theorists have noted the sexualising of the female body eve non intuitions where the female body even in intuitions where female sexiness has nothing to do with the product being advertised: sex sells. 

Representation of Gender in TV, YouTube and Film

In the 2014 film 'Divergent' from birth, you are stripped of gender prejudices in a way because you were born into a world where once you turn 16, you categorize yourself into a sector of society based on your personality: Abnegation (selfless), Dauntless (bravery), Erudite (intelligent), Amity (pacifists) and Candor (honest). The protagonist (Tris) does not conform to one of these factions and has to perform an identity to 'fit in' as she has certain aspects of all factions. This links to Judith Butler's idea that anyone can be essentially, whatever they want to be. These people living in these mini societies, cannot conform to any 'faction' because it is all an 'act' we had chosen for us at birth. When this protagonist is put in danger, she switches gender roles and 'acts' in a masculine way in order to protect herself and the secondary character. Very contradictory for modern society, but in Judith Butler's eyes, appropriate.

Queer Theory - Judith Butler and David Gauntlet

Following our study of the Hunger Games, we looked into Judith Butler's theory of gender performance which she addresses in her book 'Gender Trouble' (1990) through David Gauntlett's book 'Media, Gender, Identity and Introduction' (2002. chapter 7). Todays modern explanation of gender and sex is as follows: You have a fixed sex (male or female) … upon witch culture builds a stable gender (masculinity or femininity)… which determines your desire sexually. Judith Butler argues three unrelated points which effect none of the others; You have a body, You may perform an identity, You may have desires. This theory allows for transvestites, pansexuals, gay and bisexuals and the gender behaviours seem more 'natural' and therefore, equal in still his homophobic society.

In the Hunger Games, applies to Butler's their of Gender as a Performance as Katniss must act very differently when in the public eye as to when she isn't being shown on TV. Suzanne Collins creates a world which is completely governed by the media by using the Hunger Games as a way to distract the members of the public from creating an uprising and war.

Other satirical looks at gender performances:
Ja'mie: Life of a Private School Girl
Conchita Wurst - Eurovision Song Contest Winner

Research: Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) - Women

Release Date: November 11th, 2013 (London)

Worldwide Box Office Success: $864,912,963

UK Box Office Success: £12.19m

Director: Francis Laurence; has directed all Hunger Games films, as well as many music videos from 1993 to 2014, winning a Grammy for Lady Gaga's Bad Romance, 'Best Music Video'. 

Film Summary:

After winning the 74th Hunger Games in the previous novel, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark return home to District 12, the poorest sector in the country of Panem. But on the day that Katniss and Peeta are to start a "Victory Tour" of the country, President Snow visits unexpectedly and tells Katniss that he is angry with her for breaking the rules at the end of the last Hunger Games, which permitted both Peeta and Katniss to win. Snow tells Katniss that when she defied the Capitol, she inspired rebellion in the districts.

The first stop on the Victory Tour is District 11, the home of Katniss' deceased friend and ally in the Hunger Games, Rue. During the ceremony, Katniss delivers a speech thanking the people of District 11 for their participants in the Games. When she finishes, an old man whistles the tune that Katniss used in the arena to tell Rue that she was safe. The song acts as a signal and everyone salutes Katniss, using the same gesture that she used to say farewell to Rue. To the horror of Katniss, the old man and two others are killed.

Katniss and Peeta travel to the rest of the twelve districts and the Capitol. Hoping to placate the growing rebellion and settle the dispute between Katniss and President Snow, Peeta proposes to Katniss during an interview. Despite this, Katniss learns that their attempt to avert revolt in the districts has failed.

Shortly after returning to District 12, Katniss discovers on the mayor's television that District 8 has had an uprising, and she fears that what she has done to placate the crowds is not enough as there may be uprisings in other districts as well. She then meets two runaways from District 8, Bonnie and Twill. They explain their theory which contradicts what the other districts have been led to believe: District 13 was not completely wiped out by the Capitol, and that its residents survive in underground shelters.

Later, it is announced that, for the 75th Hunger Games, twenty-four victors from previous years will be forced to compete once again. This is the third occurrence of the "Quarter Quell": an event that occurs every 25th year of the Games and allows the Capitol to introduce a twist. Knowing that she and Peeta will both be competing in the Games a second time, Katniss decides that she will devote herself to ensuring that Peeta becomes the Quarter Quell's victor and convinces her mentor to try and help her. Likewise, Peeta is devoted to protecting her, but both Katniss and her mentor are determined that only Peeta reaches back home safely.

During the Games, set in a jungle with a saltwater lake, Katniss and Peeta join up with two other previous victors: Finnick Odair, a 24-year-old man who survived the Games at the age of 14, and Mags, Finnick's 80-year-old mentor, both from District 4. The party encounters poisonous fog in which Peeta comes into contact with the gas and cannot walk. Mags sacrifices herself in order to save Peeta and dies in the poisonous fog. After Mags's death, Katniss, Peeta and Finnick join forces with Johanna Mason, a sarcastic and often cruel victor from District 7, and Beetee and Wiress, an older couple from District 3 who are said to be "exceptionally smart". Wiress soon proves her genius by revealing to Katniss that the arena is arranged like a clock, with all of the arena's disasters occurring on a timed chart. After Wiress is killed in a battle with the Careers, Katniss learns of Beetee's plan to harness lightning in order to electrocute Brutus and Enobaria, the two remaining Careers Tributes from District 2. In the final chapters, Katniss instead directs the lightning at the force field that contains the arena, thereby destroying the arena and resulting in her temporary paralysis.

When Katniss wakes up, she is being transported to District 13, joined by Finnick, Beetee, and her mentor, Haymitch Abernathy. She learns that Peeta, Enobaria, and Johanna have been captured by the Capitol, and is informed that there had been a plan among half of the contestants to break out of the arena— Beetee had been attempting to destroy the force field in the same way that she did. The book ends when Katniss's best friend, Gale, comes to visit her and informs her that, though he got her family out in time, District 12 has been destroyed.

Female Cast: each female character represented a different stereotype we have in modern society.

Jennifer Laurence 

          as Katniss Everdeen represents a strong women who took charge of her household, is very athletic and portrays avery 'male' personality. 

Elizabeth Banks 

           as Effie Trinket is a motherly figure and guides Katniss and Peta through the Hunger Games although she works for the President, but at the end of the film, we see how she has been looking out for them all along.

Jena Malone 

           as Johanna Mason is an angry character, very violent and confident but in the end, it counteracted with her willingness to sacrifice herself for Katniss. 

Lynn Cohen

           as Mags volunteered herself as tribute for a young girl in her first Hunger Games and sacrifices herself for her team when in the arena again, acting as a caring and all loving woman.

The importance of the Mockingjay in Catching Fire: 

The pin becomes a symbol of the rebellion in Catching Fire after Katniss wins the Games by defying the Capitol. However, when she arrives in the Capitol on Victory Tour and later to participate in the 75th Hunger Games, she discovers that the pin has ironically spawned a new fad, being replicated as a fashion accessory and even used as the basis for tattoos, because "everyone wants to wear the winner's token". Yet this backfires on President Snow, as the mockingjay is the symbol for the rebels as well.[4] Cinna (Katniss' stylist) puts the mockingjay pin exactly where Johanna needs to cut it to take off to escape the arena.

     Define DYSTOPIA:

-an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.

The whole Hunger Games world is set in a dystopian state: Panem. And although not all 12 districts live hard working lives. they all have one thing in common: two from each district will battle to the death every year to, ironically, remember all those died in the rebellion 75 years ago. 

Define COLONIALISM:

-the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

Define POST-COLONIALISM:

-the effects left behind by a colonialism ruler which the colonised community have to adapt with and learn

The Capitol uses this annual event, 'The Hunger Games' to suppress and keep the 12 districts in line as this event commemorates the crushing of District 13: a district that tried to rebel against the Capitol 75 years ago. Because of this order, the Capitol can use the 12 Districts to supply them with materials (coal, food etc). 

Define MODERNISM

-modern character or quality of thought, expression, or technique

The Hunger Games is said to be a take on modern America and teaches that 'if we do not change, we may have to face the reality that this may be our future'. Collins took what she knows about society now and created a new take on our future and how that future can and will affect us if we do nothing about it. The Hunger Games introduces the future of our society where titles mean everything and those in power feed of the week.