June 2010: With reference to any one group of people you have studied, discuss how their identity has been 'mediated'.

With reference to any one group of people you have studied, discuss how their identity has been 'mediated'. 

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• Judith Butler – ‘gender is performance’ _ Giddens
• Laura Mulvey – ‘male gaze’ (connect that to Vertigo and Hitchcock briefly)
• David Gauntlett – ‘Identity is complicated – everybody thinks they’ve got one’ Marx
• David Buckingham – “Identity is an ambiguous and slippery term”, "identity is fluid and changeable" Giddens
• Marxism – Many films have elements of class struggle and issues surrounding capitalist society. Films like ‘The Hunger Games’can be seen from a Marxist perspective because they depict characters struggling with monetary or class constraints

• What the question means
• Emma Watson on feminism – photoshopping in magazines, etc
• TV advertising – fairy liquid examples, creating idealistic image of housewife
• Magazines – ‘Cosmopolitan’, ‘Men’s Health’ – mention sterotypes, ‘Women’s Health’
• Film – ‘The Hunger Games’2012,2013,2014, ‘Frozen’ 2013 D:Jennifer Lee, ‘Wasp’2003, Vertigo 1958 (hitchcock), Les Miserabled Tom Hooper 2012, Skyfall 2012
• Facts: 12% camerawomen, 10% film makers

Whilst studying media, it has only become more apparent how television and film have reflected the mediation of women over time. Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' plays a key part in pre-modern days television and film. In the 1958 film 'Vertigo', directed by Hitchcock, the key plot line is the infatuation of one beautiful woman, which contrasts heavily with modern days media. His filming style deliberately portrayed a very desirable woman of the time, applying then, modern day hegemonies such as the behaviour of the woman, and a superiority of the male character, acting as if he was entitled to 'own' her. 

An example of stereotyping would be Fairy Liquid adverts dating back to the 1960s. Especially in these adverts, they tend to represent the status quo of the time and any hegemonies that may exist. A running theme in all the adverts, even the modern day ones, would be romanticising the past ideals of a woman in the kitchen and presenting a 'golden age' of which we can all aspire to: with every episode including the theme of a woman washing the dishes, being the perfect housewife and how she could still look pretty whilst using the product because it had moisturising qualities, also empowering the stereotype on a national scale that all women think about is how they can look good.

The 2011 film 'Made in Dagenham', set in 1968, expresses the needs for equal pay for women, completely going against he hegemonies of the time. the film explaining how backward and contradictory their movement was, against the control of a men run society. The whole movement concentrates on the rebelling of the mediation of women of the time. Women were trying to create for themselves, an identity amongst men. This follows the belief of  Buckingham, stating that the individual can change their identity because it is 'fluid and changeable'. In the film, Ford decides to control both genders, creating the ideas of Giddens who says that the powers at be shape society but so do the people, so individuals can create and change themselves. 

The ideas of Karl Marx also link to actions of Ford, a large power force controlling multiple people, much like the 2013 film 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" in which the capitol and President Snow, using media to control the people, through the fear of the hunger games, but also its false sense of glamour, creating celebrities out it's victims. Katniss Everdeen, the main female character is especially controlled through this form of false media as being in favour with the population, makes your time in the pit easier. Snow is able to use this form of control through his communist actions of murdering any opposing threats and blackmailing Katniss into false personas whilst in front of the media. However, Katniss also uses her positive presence in the media to win over favour of the people, creating uprising and riots, portraying the ideas of women creating a fair and equal society.

Jumping forward to 2015, the term identity is put well by David Buckingham: ".. is an ambiguous and slippery term".  With a huge rise in the idea of feminism being portrayed positively heavily in the media with examples of Emma Watson's speech to the UN in 2014 and multiple celebrities such as Beyonce writing songs and performing with strong ideas of feminism, the term has gained a new meaning. Previously, the word had negative connotations, leaving anyone who labeled themselves a feminist, a sexist, whereas, today, with media leading the forefront of educating the world on the terms simple belief of equality between men and women, it has become a popular and now widely believed idea.

Today, the role of the female character is becoming more powerful and independent in recent years, following this recent increase in women power. For example, in Frozen (2013), both protagonists are female and strong. In Skyfall (2012), the female character M is the strong, head of MI6, who although was murdered and succeeded by a man, she stays strong and dies with dignity. This key idea of a 'female win' in the end is slowing creeping into modern cinema and breaking pre-modern conventions. However, astonishing facts such as 12% of camera operators and 10% of film makers are female, proves that society still has some change to do.

In conclusion, slowly over the past 60 years, women have taken great strides in movements of equality, breaking and creating new hegemonies of the same rights and opportunities of our male counterparts, both professionally and socially strongly through the use of media, no longer being mediated. Looking to the future, I think we can see a world where there is a completely fair world, where gender is no longer, an identity.