Wednesday 12 November 2008

MEDIA WRITE UP ON REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN

Plan
What I can include

Women- historically and today society and difference
Feminism- provocative clothing and their disagreement to the modern society of women. Mention Laura Mullvey as she talks about the" male gaze”.
Medias interpretation of women to sell there product. Linked to male gaze.
Magazine and there selling tactics to suit a particualr audience

The start of my write up

Women in today’s modern society due to the feminist movement strive foe equality and are on the right path to do so. As certain aspects still need to be on the same playing field, economical status is extremely powerful than before. I chose media print texts such as newspapers; sun and mirror and soap magazines for the comparison of how women are represented in the media.
The sun which is a local newspaper that is consumed by the public is much criticised for the way women are represented particularly due to page three. This is because society may feel that this is not the image which should be portrayed as strong independent women. This is strongly backed up by radical feminist who would disagree at the amount of flesh on show to the suns target audience. As there bosoms are out this is a typical marketing tactic which sells the sun as a product. As Marxist feminist would agree the image of the women is used for the capitalist society bettering the middle class, as the product maker Rupert Murdock is making profit which makes him a national billionaire. As the provocative image is a money seller this leads to the argument of the women being objectified to the male gaze linking to the theorist Laura Mullvey.
However due to the celebrity status which is glamorised through the media, women want the fame and economical status that comes with it. So there is a clash of ideologies and norms which has changed throughout time which is liked to the sociological theorist of Ann Oakley, as she explains that women expectations have historically changed over time. She suggests that the stereotypical view of the housewife is gone as women want a career, however is selling your body a career? Well as supported by magazines it suggests that it is so.
Is this ethical then as the participants consent is given for the images to get printed while they pick up a pay check.
Concluding on this weeks soap magazines has the coronation street character Rosie Webster is on the front cover. The close up of her facial features are leaning towards a marketing ploy as the wide eyes are portraying an innocence of the character. However the thick red lipstick on the lips has a connotation of danger and evil intentions. This is playing on the fantasies of the sexual power women have over men as this is a sense of tension because by looking at the picture, we don’t know what she is planning for another character in her soap land narrative. This is another way of the magazine selling its copies to the audience which is the same as print text such as the sun.

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