The representation of women in the media

The Tale of TWO Real Women: 

Jade Goody: 

• Jade was vilified by the tabloid press and despised for being  fat’, ‘ugly’ and ‘thick’. Despite not winning Big Brother, she went on to be the most successful ex-housemate in terms of her public profile and earnings. She became a regular fixture in magazines such as heat, OK! and Now! and was the subject of fly-on-the-wall documentaries which consolidated her fame.

• At the height of this time of positive representations she followed the lead of other celebrity ‘brands’ and a perfume was released under her name

Susan Boyle:

• the impact of the sudden fame on a ‘simple woman from Scotland’ was discussed and her physical appearance and its changes became a story in itself. The story built to the climax that was the TV programme’s final.

• that the most common positive representations of women, in today’s media are as being thin, young and attractive. Despite the recent ‘Size 0’ debates, the idealised physical image of women is still very narrow and often a woman’s accomplishments are secondary to her physical appearance.

The Female Gaze:

• The representation of false and unattainable images of the idealised female body is clearly linked to the idea of the gaze and to spectatorship theory.

• In analysing female representation, you will invariably encounter theorist Laura Mulvey and her pioneering 1970s work on ‘The Male Gaze’. However her work has now been challenged, and you need to analyse how women themselves consume and decode images. Mulvey’s theory is now seen as very limited in its approach; it assumes there is only one kind of spectator (male) and one kind of masculinity (heterosexual).

• The apparent crisis in female body image that Dove/Unilever seized upon back in 2007 suggests that the female gaze is crucial for media and Film students.

The Representation of Women:

• Although there has been change in the way women are represented, since the 1960s, it appears that the difference may be merely cosmetic. This suspicion is not new:

• In 1990, many women sense that women’s progress has stalled; there is a dispiriting climate of confusion, division, cynicism and, above all, exhaustion. Older women are burnt out; younger women are showing little interest in seizing the torch. (Wolf 1990:1)

Critical Investigation

To what extent do the female characters in 'The Dark Knight Rises' and 'Salt' challenge traditional female stereotypes?

The traditional female stereotypes consist of women being house wives and serving men and they are also seen as sex symbols in media, this relates to Mulveys theory of the male gaze, however in contrast to this in modern times, woman are now also being portrayed as leaders and heroes as well as males.The female characters in these two movies are almost the opposite of traditional female stereotypes but not completely as they still have feminine traits to them, such as how they dress.  This can again be linked to Mulvey's male gaze theory, this is because even though they are in a position of power they are still portrayed as sexy and feminine to engage a male audience and make it seem as though the stereotypes are being phased out of traditional film.
In SALT the female character is the main protagonist in the film which means that she has the most control or power in the movie. Also in The Dark Knight Rises the female is almost in competition with the protagonist  who is Batman by almost killing him at the end of the movie and she is also the villain in the movie but at the same time their is a sexual attraction between her and batman relating to Propp's character types.