EVALUATION QUESTION 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our production uses and challenges conventions from real media products…

Aspects of our Narratives Aspects of Real Media Narratives

Challenges of This Representation

Conveys a gender stereotype of women. The female character takes on an emotional and needy role, that conforms to a societal expectation of women. This can appeal to a mainstream audience that seek comfort and normality in a accepted representation of women. The lyrics adapt the narrative to convey this, ‘one moment I was tearing off your blouse, now your living in my house’ gives evidence of a fast moving relationship and suggest a physical relationship with sexual nature. The reference to sex is common in indie pop genre songs, despite the target audience being mainstream accepted young adults. However this could be appealing and relatable to young adults, as an often typically described struggle is separating physical from emotional responses. Prop would be surprised by these character roles however as he would of described a main female role being a ‘Princess’ the connotations of this would be a innocent (non-sexualised) picture, it suggest a much more fairy tale Narrative then the one more commonly represented in more modern mainstream media. Modern indie genres do suggest a much more sexualised representation of media, however both representations seem to promote naivety of women, with an emotional response. Todrov described emotions to be something that often caused the most interesting narrative conflict and engages the audience.

Gender stereotypes of women.The little mix music video to ‘Black Magic’ portrays females as needy and desperate for attention. They sing about how they intend to manipulate magic in order to make males fall in love with them. This conveys a very similar stereotype to the women in our video. Laura Maulvey would say this is because of the ‘Male Gaze’ she suggest media is created through the eyes of males. Even for a band such a little mix who heavily relay on a female audience, their video is clearly giving the male superiority as they attempt to make them fall in love. Maulvey would suggest that media just openly accept the superiority of males even when targeting females.

Gender stereotypes of women.The challenge of representation of women to be both naïve and needy is in Taylors Swifts ‘Blank Space’ music video. She is fliting and attempting to attract the polished male. She is further describing males as ‘players’ in a similar way to which the male character in our video is represented. However she describes herself to ‘find out what you want and be that girl for a month’ the time limit put on her attempt to seduce the male is similar to that described by the males in the 1975. It promotes an suggestion of a physical relationship with an expiration date. This again creates a narrative bases around the difference between sexualisation and physical interaction to emotional relationships. The repetition of further ongoing sexual relations, is where the difference lies from our media text. Swift however challenges this by evidencing the female ability to manipulate men within this video by promoting short term sexual relationships, however within our 1975 video, the female appears to be the victim. This could be because of the difference in target audience. Taylor swift has a mostly typical female following and therefore would appeal more to an audience by promoting a positive influence of females. However the indie genre of which the 1975 belong tend to be more realistic and harsh regarding the treatment of genders and promote male sexual power of females.

Our male lead protagonist

A male lead protagonist in real media

Challenges of this representation

Our presentation of the male protagonistOur male protagonist is represented to be slightly rebellious against the expected norms of society. It is common within the indie genre of music as they often appear to want to be different and stand out from mainstream society. However the otherwise polished look of the character suggest that is still attrative, which is an important aspect of the narrative. However the slightly rebellious attitude is stereotypically what attracts the females. However Props character theory challenges this by suggesting that a typical attrative ‘hero’ is not relebellious. However in an updated pop culture this is now the new norm. The switch of gender roles here –from the male chasing the female to the other way round. Shows an evolotion of gender and attitudes to women. Despite women now commanding more respect in many other ways, within the media it is clear that male sueriroity is still common.

Real media representation of a male protagonist A similar representation of a rebellious male is evident in the music video for Mr Brightside by The Killers. He describes the female being corrupted and influenced by a male. The lyrics suggest ‘He’s having a smoke and she’s taken his drag’ whilst the girls are painted pale much like Georgian ladies, the image of them to be ladies is juxtaposed with his description of her corruption, as she is taken away from him by what appears to be a much more exciting and ‘rebellious’ male. This conforms to the societal expectation that women are attracted to ‘bad boys’ and are expected to give up genuine lovers for them. The representation of women as naïve and easy influenced is again echoed in our music video as the lead protagonist initiated his relationship with her before changing his mind. The Killers video Prop would say conforms to a character theory of the Princess being corrupted by the Villain, whilst our video goes further by combining the two lead roles and creating a complex character that has aspects of both hero and villain.

A Different male representationIn the music video for ‘One Less Lonely Girl’ Justin Bieber is presented in a much more sensitive and understanding role to the typical persona of males in music videos. This is reflected in the mise-en-scene colours such as bright green and orange create a bright colourful scene common in a pop genre music video. Bieber alters his image to appeal to a female target audience and conveys innocence by challenging the typical rebellious and authoritative representation of males. However his clean cut looks still applies to our music video as it is clear that a dirty personae does not sell the pop genre of music. If we where to look beyond the pop genre of music into artist such as ‘JME’ or ‘Kano’ who do not dress smartly but instead offer a much more untidy and less mainstream look to their music. This opens a completely different target audience and creates a new genre of music. There is also evidence of female corruption in the song ‘Sing’ by Ed Sheran he describes the female to give him ‘a bottle of water filled with tequila’. He then describes himself as getting drunk. This is evidence of how females can again be presented as manipulating by media as well.

The Sexualisation of females in our video

The continued sexualisation in real media texts

The Challenging of this

Sexualisation of females We use a medium close up camera angle on the female character walking away. The shot displays the bottom half of the female body and objectifies and sexualises the female character. This conforms to gender expectations as the male continues to focus on the sexualisation of the female while she clearly is emotionally involved with him. The objectification of females is common in popular culture especially within mainstream music. We felt including features such as this would appeal to the same target audiences.

Sexualisation of females The manipulation and corruption of females is evidenced in Justin Biebers music video ‘What do you mean’. He conveys himself in a somewhat gangster context by handing over lots of cash to a male on the street, he then asks that ‘the girl is not hurt’. This is clear evidence of how the involvement of a rebellious male can corrupt and manipulate a female. The show the female to be on a bed and continue to sexualise her with camera angles such as a medium long shot displaying her body spread on the bed whilst he sits in front of her displaying his authority and promoting male power of genders.

A non sexualised representation of femalesArtist such as Adele are famous for taken a much more conservative role to their music and videos. In her video to ‘Hello’ Adele is wearing a scarf and jeans and a large jacket. This is contrasting to Justin Beibers music video where the female is wearing a small t-shirt. There are influences on this such as the age and body type of the women involved however it suggest an ideology that only women with a certain body shape are desirable within the music industry. We took this into consideration with our music video and decided to stick to the norms of the pop genre.