Gender Representation in Media - Case Study Example

Running Head: GENDER REPRESENTATION IN MEDIA Gender Representation in Media of the of the Gender Representation in Media Gender roles, have always been parts of our media from the early times of this industry and even if a lot has transformed from the time when the media industry had its beginning, much has stayed the similar. The Television brings different types of sought following merits in individuals and elevates them and put in the glamour that becomes a focus for others. Television is just one of the mediums of media that are an element of the social environment in which teenagers grow, and then they be able to participate in the scenery of the social norms amongst their age group.To discuss gender representation in media Fox studios action-drama "24" is considered to be an exceptional text that covers present-day representation of gender issues in present industry of television. "24" being conventional to a few earlier socially accepted demonstration of gender, at the same time as it also endeavor to reconstruct, redefine and face up to many others. In several ways gender representation can be explained, but only two of them are being used that that appear appropriate according to the issues. Representation; 1: the work of representing; standing in for somebody or some crowd and communication with power on their behalf. 2: a concern that is a visual or substantial representation of something or someone To examine the founding principles of representation we need to look at the unbounded history of different cultures intimate creation of reality. A reality created by and based upon their cultures individually shared conventions for understanding and representing the world they physically see around them. This idea of expressing the meaning of images that inhabit the physical world around us lends itself to the notion that "perspective is an actual cultural convention" that has led to mankind creating a representation of matter since the beginning of time. (Fekete, 2001) It is representations ever-progressing journey through historical and social periods that has allowed many different perceptive and ideologies of gender to be defined. For example Biologists would claim that the genetic makeup of the sexes define their different characteristics. They justify this theory by expressing the fact that there are definite, if not minute, differences within the genetics of our DNA structures. This is not a theory shared by most sociologists and social philosophers who believe that human gender differences originate from "male patriarchal dominance over society throughout history". (Leman and Duveen, 2003) It is this history of male patriarchies in society along with the scientific idea that it is simply natural to place limitations upon females in regards to their involvement in society that has helped to define a stereotypical gender framework. (Molly, 2003) This gender framework has led to the formation of gender assessments based on a limited number of expected or acceptable traits for each gender: for example men must appear strong and self-assured whilst women should be caring, dependent and maternal. In modern society these previously established ideas of gender are constantly being opposed and redefined, recent and current debates around gender have place a burden upon media to become a "powerful agent in the construction of stable notions of gender, mainly through its involvement with stereotyping and generic conventions" . (Miell and Pike, 2003) This is a concept that most of the people believe the program "24" attempts to address as I think it could be argued that "24" is a modern action-drama that has the diversity and popularity to manifest itself into a stage were paradoxical and contradictory versions of representation can be exhibited and discussed. To build on this argument we can look at the shows main characters and in particular its main protagonist, Jack Bauer, a male figure that addresses a variety of issues around the representation of men, the discourse of masculinity and masculine sexuality. The directors and script writers of "24" have evolved and developed Jack Bauers character so that he is by no means a man whose representation stays within the boundaries of televisions overwhelmingly regulated margins. In the presentation a series of different clips was created showing Jacks contradictory character; it was intended to demonstrate an array of different scenarios in which Jack would conform to a rebel against televisions generic representations of men and masculinity. To highlight this clip was showed where Jack was informed that his daughter had been killed, a lie used by a cunning manipulative woman to try and find a crack in Jacks seemingly implacable exterior. As the clip progresses we see Jack contemplating the loss of his daughter and we quickly witness his character deteriorate from the strong, controlled emotionless caricature of male authority into a tearfully weak and vulnerable man. Jack is framed in a completely solitary position; he falls to his knees willing to concede everything, even his life, to escape his inconsolable feelings of loss and suffering. His actions and reactions are being completely controlled and dictated by his emotions, his judgement becomes impaired and his behaviour becomes irrational, he has become entirely emasculated. This alternate representation of Jack does not and perhaps inevitably could not last long, as soon he replaces his tearful misery with forceful armoury, and regains his ruthless manhood. In just one clip "24" shows that it can address a number of gender-related issues whilst also revealing that its supposed paradoxical contradictory nature could potentially be a fallacy. In this clip we can see that "24" conform to a number of generic stereotypes, firstly its portrayal of the female character as a deviant and manipulative liar, creating the implication that what women may lack in strength they can make up in trickery and cunning. This is a common stereotype that has been intrinsic in female representation throughout time; for example we can look the biblical allegory of "original sin" for after all it was Eve that convinced Adam to bite from the forbidden apple of Eden. Secondly the sequence implies that the most effective means of breaking down a males masculinity is to take away the suggested essence of his existence- his family. This clip promotes the idea that a man who cannot care for or protect his family becomes less of a man; this has been a generic stereotype of masculinity throughout our visual age. An optimisation of this can be examined in the importance of family orientated motifs threaded throughout the history Hollywood films, such as Frank Capras classic; "Its a wonderful life." Jack is defeated by a female lie and cannot control his emotions; it is not often in television that we see such an emotionally charged breakdown in the iconic male caricature and although "24" does concentrate on a genuine expression of masculinity in a state of emotional collapse, it is perhaps more interesting to note that Jack almost immediately regains his emotional stability and again becomes the epitome of masculine strength. This speedy re-conformation to generic stereotypes raises significant doubts over "24"s uniqueness in regards to its ability to challenge established gender representations as Jacks character only seems to be able to bend this rigid stereotypical framework, not completely break it. Perhaps this inability to completely oppose generic frameworks is down to the fact that audiences have been exposed to these gender stereotypes for so long that they have now become prominently ingrained into their psyche. Feeding the notion that the mass television audiences no longer have the ability to appreciate or relate to a character that steps too far outside this expected and predetermined gender framework. One element has been believed to be essential to television being a positive medium for this is its continuous nature. This comment is not specific to all television broadcasts moreover it is more in reference to several modern television serials, like the X-files, The West Wing, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and my chosen text "24". I believe this continuous nature is particularly important because previous stages for the production and distribution of gender representation, like film and advertising, only had a definite open-closed linear narrative structure. Continuous television serials like "24" have open and progressive narrative structures ergo they are able to create increased character depth by developing their characters personalities across a number of years of broadcasting. The "serialisation of programming" allows for characters to be placed in different situations were they can be challenged by many contemporary issues prevalent in society; it is through encountering and dealing with these issues that characters are encouraged to learn and grow as individuals. A positive effect of this continual development is that the characters begin to become more complex. As television serials characters become increasingly complicated their representations must also start evolve and become more dimensional and multifarious, this gives directors like Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire slayer) the ability to become more creative with how they can represent their actors. A perfect example of this character development through serialisation can be seen in "24s" involvement with Jacks daughter Kim Bauer. Although Kim actually opposes the stereotypes that forged her original purpose and involvement in the show, one aspect that has never left her is the cameras exposeacute; of her sexual nature. Whether she is cast helplessly running away from villains or in a tight yet professional business suit the camera always accentuates her curves, pays extra attention to her voluptuous lips and strolls around her seductive figure. In the nineteenth century Feminist theorists like Molly Haskell and Laura Mulvey levelled a powerful critique at the film and television industry, arguing that it constantly presented an active iconic male hero who the audience was expected to aspire and adhere to whilst women were simply cast aside as passive objects, "with no purpose but for the gaze of the male characters eyes or the male audiences visual attention." (Pramaggiore, 2005) In Mulveys (2001) perspective "womens sexuality threatens men, thus men have to take action to eliminate this threat." Male characters and male members of the audience must exercise the power of the "male gaze". Mulveys notion of the "male gaze" deems that in order for men to control women they need to turn them into objects. Object are inanimate and passive, they can no longer cause a threat so they completely lose the power of opposition, Kim is given a certain amount of credibility and power but in many ways she is still restricted and controlled by this process of objectification. Not only are feminist writers like Laura Mulvey aware of the potential dangers of the restrictive and oppressive nature gender representations promoted by our media industry. The media and television industry could be linked to contemporary problems such as the dramatic increase in the numbers of eating disorders within women in the Western world and the revelation that homosexual teenagers are "three folds more expected to do suicide than their heterosexual upper class". (Bernadette, 2005)Perhaps then it could be argued that the television industry simply exploits these social concerns in society in order for it to keep up to date with its audiences cultural views and perspectives. With this augment in communal awareness towards gender associated issues brings a rise in the understanding that "media can provide not only "mindless" flight" but also take part in a large character in the support of optimistic representations to the rising number of gender diversities in the society. Using "24" one can disagree that modern television is not simply a "monolithic body, as its gender representations are not straightforward and not stereotypical all the time". (Leman and Duveen, 2003) This has been believed 24 does all it could in order to present a larger variety of socially tolerable gender identities by performing as a channel in order to evaluate the distinct nature of gender issues, at the same time it still keeps its fame with up to date audiences and their leisure. 24s terrific popularity proves the reality that existing audiences are more vigorous in their use of telly supported stereotypes, This has been believed that programmes like 24 lend a hand in order to pursue audiences to visualize that the gender representation are at all times growing and are no more single-dimensional. References Andrew and Goodwin (2004) Perceptive small screen. London : Routledge. Bernadette. C (2005) Media studies: The major concepts. London : Routledge. Dorothy Miell and Graham Pike (2003) Social Sciences, ASIN B000Z5R72Y The Open University, 2-12 Fekete et al., 2001 S. Fekete, A. Schmidtke, Y. Takahashi, E. Etzersdorfer, M. Upanne and P. Osvath, Mass media, cultural attitudes, and suicide. Results of an international comparative study, Crisis 22 (2001), pp. 170–172. Laura, Mulvey (2001) Visual pleasure. Hampshire: Palgrave. Leman, J and Duveen, G (2003) Gender identity, social influence and children’s conversations. ISSN 1421-0185, Swiss Journal of Psychology, pp. 118-250. Molly, Haskell (2003) from astonishment to rape: the behavior of women in the movies. London Wallis, Tom and Pramaggiore Maria (2006) Film: A critical Preface. London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd. Read More