Friday, 4 April 2014

Representation of sexuality

Sexuality and sexual orientation - A pattern of emotional, romantic and/or  sexual attraction to men women, both genders, neither genders, a different gender or multiple genders.
This could include homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual, etc.

Homosexuality has a lot of media coverage, involving legality of homosexual marriage and the LGBT community. In the dominant stereotypes, homosexual males are portrayed to be very feminine, camp and are shown to be attracted to any other male. They are often shown to be strange or "not normal" and are there as a comedic presence. These stereotypes are supported by some men such as Louis Spence, who is very 'flamboyant'. More recently the media contains more emergent ideology, is no longer portraying them as the previous, and make them seem less unusual. There is less of the dominant stereotypes shown and they are often much more varied in character than previously.
Homosexual females are often shown to be very 'butch' and 'manly', often wearing clothes that are typical or stereotypical to males. They are also often shown as unusual or unnatural, and get a lot of media coverage for similar reasons.
Heterosexual men have multiple stereotypes. One is that they are very sexual or obsessed with sex, and that their only reason for doing things is to 'get laid'. Another might be the opposite of the previous, where he is unpopular and desperate.
Heterosexual women have multiple typical stereotypes. One is that they are 'slutty' and sleep around. This kind of character is typically looked down on and thought to be inferior. Another is the 'naive' kind of stereotype, where she is made out to be naive about her sexuality.
More recently, many emergent ideology is portrayed in the media for different sexuality's. It is becoming increasingly acceptable and normal not to be heterosexual, and it is often frowned upon to bully or harass others for their sexuality.

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

representation of gender


At the beginning of the clip, the camera is at a high angle when Martha is in shot. Along with The master's shots always being low-angle, It implies that The Master is the character who is in power. This is followed by him ordering her to "kneel" which also shows that he is the one in power. This follows typical gender stereotypes as the female is the character who is being ordered around and controlled by the male character. The camera shows multiple men dressed in black and holding weapons, which gives the sense that they are violent and forceful, which is a common stereotype for males. In comparison, all of the female characters are shown to be weak as they are all unarmed and some are hostages. Both The Master and Martha have around the same amount of screentime close to the beginning of the clip, which shows that both are important characters and also challenges the stereotype of males being more powerful than females, as both characters are shown as equal in importance. The Master has considerably more dialogue than Martha, and at the point after he tells her to kneel he is mostly giving commands and not giving others much chance to talk at all. This gives him the position of power over all of the other characters in the scene. As he is doing this, the camera repeatedly cuts to Martha's face to show her expressions. She is shown to be quite emotional in response to this, which is a stereotypical trait of females.