DRAFT ESSAY 2

IDEOLOGY/GENDER

An ideology is a set of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class or culture. Where as, gender ideology refers to the attitudes regarding the roles and responsibilities of women and men in society. In the ever-modernizing society, men and women should have equal rights. However women still have the cliché of being a housewife who should spend their time in the kitchen or cleaning and ‘catering’ to their partners needs and wants.

The FHM website I feel follows this stereotype as all the woman are sexualized and are featured because of the way they look, which is to satisfy the mans male gaze. Laura Mulvey is a theorist who introduced the Male Gaze theory in her essay called ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.’ It states that women are used as objects in film as the camera is controlled as if it were the eyes of a heterosexual man. I believe this is present in all media texts today. FHM prove this again as all images are women looking sexy or improper, and they do this to attract their target audience of Men in their 20’s as they associate that age with sexual exploration and a change of lifestyle. This gives females the ideology that they should all look and pose seductively like the women on the website in order to interest men.

Vogue follows the ideology of women being their own person and not owned or controlled by a man. It is full of articles and pictures supporting the strength of independence in women and not being sexualized. Instead the Vogue website follows another stereotype of women being shoppers and spending all their money on looking good. It gives information on the latest fashion trends and where you can buy certain ‘must need’ items of the season etc. This gives the ideology to the audience that all women should follow the latest fashions and be wearing them in order to look good and therefore attract a man.

Both websites, Vogue and FHM portray similar ideas of the ‘perfect woman’. All the models are slim and do not represent a normal woman. The average size of a westernized woman is a size 14, where as Vogue and FHM have models who are a size 4, 6 or 8 which are in the minority of the population. 

DRAFT ESSAY- basically notes.

·      Ideology/gender

·      Laura mulvey’s male gaze

·      Photoshop- hyper-reality

·      Active and passive audience

PHOTOSHOP

Photoshop is a tool used in every day media to change the way something or someone looks. It has been used greatly in advertising and gives a false portrayal to the audience of how a person looks and how they should look.  Both Vogue and FHM use Photoshop to edit the pictures they put up on their website however they do it in a very different way.

FHM and other glamour photography organisations have been accused of promoting an unrealistic image of females through the use of Photoshop. They make women have perfect, flawless skin with bright eyes, skinny waist but large breasts. FHM will do this because it attracts the audience the company most desires.

Vogue has a different target audience of young to middle-aged females and the website tends to just include very thin models or celebrities. A large issue recently showing the use of Photoshop in vogue is when Lady Gaga did the front cover of the magazine that was also put on the official website along with a video of the shoot. The real images on the video are extremely different to the published front cover, where Lady Gaga appears taller and thinner with an extremely tiny waist where in reality this isn’t the case.

            Hyper-reality is a part of the Post modernism theory that circles around society today. This states that nothing is original; we are copying copes and viewing a fake reality. The use of Photoshop backs this theory as when we are looking at these manipulated images, they are fake, the females in the image do not look like this so the pure reality has been lost as a passive audience would just assume that is actually what the women look like and aspire to be like them.

Audience Theory- Hypodermic needle

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http://asanda2mediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/audience-theories-including-passive-and.html


Passive Audience theory.

This relates to Vogue and FHM as the both inject the way a female should look, act and think into the audiences.

Post Modernism - Hyperreality

Reality is defined in reflections of the mirror to the world.
- Now we are copying copies and representing hyperreality as reality which makes us view a fake reality where real reality has been lost.

-'Pure' reality is replaced by the hyperreal where any boundary between the real and imaginary is eroded.

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze

photoshopping

Use in glamour photography

The photo manipulation industry has often been accused of promoting or inciting a distorted and unrealistic image of self; most specifically in younger people. The world of glamour photography is one specific industry which has been heavily involved with the use of photo manipulation (an obviously concerning element as many people look up to celebrities in search of embodying the 'ideal figure').

Celebrities against photo manipulation

Photo manipulation has triggered negative responses from both viewers and celebrities. This has led to celebrities refusing to have their photos retouched in support of The American Medical Association that has decided to “take a stand against rampant photo retouching, declaring the practice detrimental to your health.”^[15] These include: Keira Knightley, Brad Pitt, Andy Roddick, Kim Kardashian, and Jessica Simpson.

In April 2010, Britney Spears agreed to release "un-airbrushed images of herself next to the digitally altered ones".^[14] The fundamental motive behind her move was to "highlight the pressure exerted on women to look perfect".^[14] In addition, 42-year old Cate Blanchett also appeared on the cover of "Intelligent Life’s 2012 March/April" issue ; makeup free and without digital retouching for the first time.^[16]

[edit]Governments against excessive photo manipulation

Governments are exerting pressure on advertisers, and are starting to ban photos that are too airbrushed and edited. In the United Kingdom the Advertising Standards Authority has banned an advertisement by Lancôme featuring Julia Roberts for being misleading, stating that the flawless skin seen in the photo was too good to be true. ^[17] The US is also moving in the direction of banning excessive photo manipulation where a CoverGirl model's ad was banned because it had exaggerated effects, leading to a misleading representation of the product.^[18]

[edit]Social and cultural implications

The growing popularity of image manipulation has raised concern as to whether it allows for unrealistic images to be portrayed to the public. In her article "On Photography" (1977), Susan Sontag discusses the objectivity, or lack thereof, in photography, concluding that "photographs, which fiddle with the scale of the world, themselves get reduced, blown up, cropped, retouched, doctored and tricked out".^[19] A practice widely used in the magazine industry, the use of photo manipulation on an already subjective photograph, creates a constructed reality for the individual and it can become difficult to differentiate fact from fiction. With the potential to alter body image, debate continues as to whether manipulated images, particularly those in magazines, contribute to self-esteem issues in both men and women.

In today's world, photo manipulation has a positive impact by developing the creativity of one's mind or maybe a negative one by removing the art and beauty of capturing something so magnificent and natural or the way it should be. According to the Huffington Post, “Photoshopping and airbrushing, many believe, are now an inherent part of the beauty industry, as are makeup, lighting and styling”. In a way, these image alterations are “selling” actual people to the masses to affect responses, reactions, and emotions toward these cultural icons.^[20]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_manipulation

Ideology

Ideology definition: The body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture.

Both gender ideology and gender role ideology refer to attitudes regarding the appropriate roles, rights, and responsibilities of women and men in society. The concept can reflect these attitudes generally or in a specific domain, such as an economic, familial, legal, political, and/or social domain. Most gender ideology constructs are unidimensional and range from traditional, conservative, or anti-feminist to egalitarian, liberal, or feminist. Traditional gender ideologies emphasize the value of distinctive roles for women and men. According to a traditional gender ideology about the family, for example, men fulfill their family roles through instrumental, breadwinning activities and women fulfill their roles through nurturant, homemaker, and parenting activities. Egalitarian ideologies regarding the family, by contrast, endorse and value men's and women's equal and shared breadwinning and nurturant family roles. Gender ideology also sometimes refers to widespread societal beliefs that legitimate gender inequality.            

http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405124331_yr2012_chunk_g978140512433113_ss1-19

media and cultural studies book - representation

Male Gaze

In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at- ness. Woman displayed as sexual object is the leitmotif of erotic spectacle: from pin- ups to striptease, from Ziegfeld to Busby Berkeley, she holds the look, plays to and signifies male desire. Mainstream film neatly combined spectacle and narrative. (Note, however, how in the musical song-and-dance numbers break the flow of the diegesis.) The presence of woman is an indispensable element of spectacle in normal narrative film, yet her visual presence tends to work against the development of a story line, to freeze the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation.

Vogue Lady Gaga Photoshop

View on Imaging

In a culture where images of younger, thinner, more beautiful looking women are constantly produced, I believe American women are facing an epidemic far from a cure: the never-ending effort to be perfect. The reason that such aspirations have no end in sight is in large part due to the magazine industry’s coverage of trends, which promise to enhance a woman’s physical appearance, that are continually changing. Magazines are not only at- home tutorials for women to learn how to be beautiful, but are filled with lists of products that will make them beautiful. Each instructive editorial piece is paired with images using some combination of cosmetics, airbrushing and Photoshop, likely not only selling a look, but a product as well. Portraying consumer products as catalysts for perfection, the women in the pages appear flawless rendering an illusion of “ideal” for female readers.

http://jennaantonelli.writersresidence.com/system/attachments/files/7880/original/Thesis.pdf?1284502292

Introduction Draft.

How is the female ideology and mindset represented differently through websites, focussing on Vogue and FHM.

Female Ideology varies due to the type of audience the text is targeted at. However audiences can often be passive and not notice the ideology that is being sold to them. In my research project I will be exploring this through various theories including Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze, hypodermic needle and the active and passive audience theories. One aim of this project is to find out about gender roles in the 21^st century, how they have changed and are portrayed through my chosen texts Vogue and FHM websites. They have contrasting audiences so the representation of woman will be very different and allow me to explore objectification and the mindset of the women in the pictures and of the targeted audience. I will also look into the use of photoshopping and manipulating the female form to give further ideologies to the audience.
 

Comparison-  On the same topic


Vogue:

FHM:









On the home screens of Vogue and FHM they both have an introduction to articles about a Mother and their style/looks etc. Vogue addresses Sienna Miller as a 'Model Mother' which is a very positive phrase, claiming she is perfect and a role model. FHM refer to Gwyneth Paltrow as 'FHM's MAM (middle-aged minx)' , this is a sexualised representation of her to appeal to the male target audience. Also the picture chosen is appropriate to the title of the article and Gwyneth is showing some breast and wearing very little that covers her skin. However Vogues pictures of Sienna Miller show her completely covered and fashionable.

Vogue

The Vogue website looks extremely professional and chic. There are no words that sexualise or degrade women. However, the picture is of a woman's genital area even though she is covered up, the focus of the picture is meant to be on the bag and accessories to the outfit but the bag is hidden by the models hand and the whole image has been cut. This shows that even a company like Vogue use woman and their sexuality/looks to promote and advertise.

Exam Question Mad Men

How do your chosen texts attract their audiences?

'The other woman' episode from Mad Men series 5, has a niche target audience. 

Exam Question Lost.

How do your chosen texts attract their audiences?

In the second episode of Lost, It reaches out to a wide target audience by having an ensemble cast. This means there is a multitude of representations (race, age, gender etc) where each diverse character gets equal amount of importance and screen time, so the audience can relate and personally identify to individual characters. 

       In the scene, where Sawyer shoots down the polar bear the audience understand that it is a hybrid of genres like sci-fi, fantasy and action.This scene is seen as action, not in the way it has been constructed but the way it has been structured with loud noises and quick camera angles. During the scene there are lots of loud noises used as enigma codes which the audience will be drawn into the scene by the sounds and camera angles and the question left unanswered at the end.This attracts a lager audience as people that enjoy each genre will watch this to receive entertainment from the Uses and Gratifications theory. For example, the gun shots are extremely loud and the camera angle has a shallow focus on the gun and Sawyer. Excluding the audience from looking into the background, giving the sense of importance to the plot. The structure of this Lost episode is non-linear as it includes flash backs into the characters past. This lets the audience personally identify further as they understand their back stories. Representations will make the audience feel more attached to certain characters as they have a labelled stereotypical portrayal. For example in the same scene, Sawyer is viewed as the villain from Vladimir Propp's theory as he is being cocky and arrogant at the start of the scene by the words and tone of his voice when he is arguing with Sayied. Also the fact he has a gun on him gives the audience a sense of evilness within his character. This will attract audiences as they will want to gain more information on his character, and be able to personally identify to aspects of Sawyer in the scene.