Ideology & Representation/Stereotypes of Gender

Representation – How it Works Part One

You already know about representation. Break down the word and you see it clearly. The Media re-presents (i.e. changes or  re-interprets) or constructs meanings about the world we live in.

There are dominant images – shared recognitions or familiar ideas and alternative images – different or unexpected recognitions or ideas.
In order to make sense of this, you need to think about some fairly difficult concepts about how society (the world and the way we live in it) actually works. We will look at two different theories of the way society functions. We call them 'models' and you should remember that they are theories and that not every society works exactly the way the theories suggest it should.
The first model is called a Hegemonic Model. Theoretically this works as follows:

1. The HEGEMONIC MODEL

A hegemony is a system where one group is dominated by another. The dominating group achieves its domination by ‘winning’ popular consent through everyday cultural life.
In media studies terms, this model works by achieving dominance through media representations of the world. The media  ‘tell us’ what to think, what to believe and how our world ‘should be’.
This works through ideology – a set of ideas which gives a partial or selective view of reality. For example, the ‘powerful’ rule over the ‘poor’ by promoting the idea (the ideology) of privilege and wealth belonging exclusively to a select group of people.
There is an argument that all belief systems or world views are ideological. Beliefs become ‘truthful’ or ‘natural’ and this leads to power inequalities.The media can circulate or reinforce ideologies OR it can undermine and challenge them 

Ideologies are MYTHIC, i.e. they seem to be ‘natural’ or ‘common sense’ but they aren’t! 

but just think of the opposite of hegemony and you'll se how it works.

2 The PLURALIST MODEL 

Predictably enough, the pluralist idea is the exact opposite of a hegemonic one. A pluralist model argues that there is diversity in society (everyone is different) and therefore there is also choice (we can choose what to believe and what not to believe.)

 So in media terms, because the audience (society) is diverse, with different points of view, the media is influenced by society. Because the media need to please the audience they will try to reflect the values and beliefs that are predominant in society. In other words, they give us what we say we want rather than telling us what to think and believe, in order to make us stay ‘in our place’. 

epresentation and stereotypes

 In simple terms, a stereotype is the application of one (usually negative) characteristic to a whole group. In the North, for example, the stereotypical representation of the native male is one who wears a flat caps and grows leeks, or keeps a greyhound. (If he is aged over sixty) Alternatively, young Northern men stereotypically wear baseball caps, large luridly coloured trainers and black and white Newcastle United sports wear to drive around in their souped-up Fords, with the music playing full blast and all the windows open. (Exaggeration, there, but you see the idea) I just applied several stereotypical ideas to a whole group of people. 

The stereotype is an easy concept to understand, but there are some points you need to consider when looking at media representations with regard to stereotyping. 

For a stereotype to ‘work’ it needs to be recognisable to the audience and when so recognised, then judgements are made about the subject. If the stereotype is negative, then the judgements will also tend to be the same. 

The predictable thing about stereotypes is that they are predictable! They create a sense of order and also provide a sense of identity (even if it is a negative one!)  

Stereotypical judgements and stereotypical media representations can (and often do) lead to different treatments of groups by other groups, (sadly, often quite discriminatory). 

But you need to remember some points: 

• stereotypes are not always negative. (e.g. nurses are compassionate and caring)

• they are not always applied to lower classes of society

• they can be held about a group you belong to

• they change according to time and fashion

• they are not always untrue

Media representation can do one or more of three things: 

• it can reinforce stereotypes
• it can challenge them
• it can inform them

Representation and Gender 

If we define ‘male’ and ‘female’ all we are doing is a biological classification, but if we think about the terms ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ we have to think about social constructs.Put simply, the words have very specific connotations of what is ‘natural behaviour’ for each sex. In other words, society has constructed (made) a set of ‘truths’ about what is the ‘right’ way for a man or a woman to behave.
The media, of course, have had a hand in this construction, because of representation, which is an integral part of the encoding of any media text.
Take, for example, the idea that a woman is judged by her appearance more so than a man. If you doubt that this is ‘true’, then look at any text made for women and see how many feature fat women, old wrinkled women or women with greasy hair. You are unlikely to find many and those you do, will probably be featured as ‘sad’, ‘old’ or ‘disadvantaged’ in some way.

‘The Gaze’ 

In the 1970s, Laura Mulvey began some very interesting research on the way in which women are represented in film. She theorised that the cinema is largely ‘masculine’ and that women are controlled by the male ‘gaze’. The idea is that a woman’s body displayed on screen, makes the (male) viewer a kind of voyeur, who experiences intense erotic pleasure from looking at her. This ‘controls’ the woman and makes her an ‘object’ of the gaze (the man). You need to remember that the cinema was (and still is) is largely a male-dominated industry, so it follows that men are in control of the making of the cinematic texts – for men!
Before you dismiss Mulvey’s ideas as feminist ranting, think about the pornography industry, where the sole reason for the texts is to look (to ‘gaze’) for erotic pleasure; or the tabloid newspapers with their topless page three models. Who reads them? Who looks? Why? 

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=noel+gallagher+what+a+life&aq=3&oq=noel+

The Gaze reversed?

Until fairly recently, men were not portrayed in the same erotic, overtly sexual way, in order to be looked at and ‘controlled’ by women. On the contrary, ‘masculine’ portrayal was quite ‘respectable’ and usually in the contexts that would not threaten  ‘traditional’ masculinity.In gay culture the male body was openly displayed for erotic pleasure, but it is only fairly recently that the media has begun to represent men as ‘sex objects’ for women to look at. 

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rock+dj+robbie+williams+official+video&aq=0&oq=rock+dj

Gender Roles 

In many media texts you will see specific and very recognisable ‘gender roles’. In other words, men and women behaving, or being portrayed in a predictable or stereotypical way.

In the cinema, for instance, the male hero traditionally makes things happen, while the female is a kind of ‘reward’ for the task being completed. Alternatively, the male hero ‘targets’ the female in some way. This is predictable, and audiences often expect it to be the case.

The female role or a female narrative is often confined to domesticity – she searches for a man or cares in some way for others.