Task: Produce a written exploration of gender in TV drama and post this to your blog.
Your written piece should include, but is not limited to, discussion of:
- Gender stereotypes and their countertypes
- How gender is presented in TV drama through the 4 areas of textual analysis
- How gender links to the other 6 areas of representation (positively and negatively)
- Examples from TV dramas to support your points (including pictures)
Task
Embed this Slideshare into your own blog.
Trevor Millum (1975) identified male facial expressions:
- Carefree: nymph-like, active, healthy, gay, vibrant, outdoor guy, often smiling or grinning
- Practical: concentrating, engaged on the business in hand, mouth closed, eyes object-directed, sometimes a slight frown, hair often short
- Seductive: similar to the cool/level look (indifferent, self-sufficient, aloof, confident, lips slightly parted, usually looking the reader in the eye), eyes shaded, confident, self-sufficient, may include a slight smile
- Comic: deliberately ridiculous, exaggerated, acting the fool, pulling faces for the benefit of a real or imaginary audience, sometimes close to archness
- Catalogue: neutral look, artificial, waxlike, eyes open wide, smile, look remains vacant, personality removed
Task:
- Analyse the music video to look at how gender / sexuality is represented - use the four areas of textual analysis to explain your ideas.
- Use what you have learnt in lesson about the gaze theory (Mulvey and Ferguson) and apply those theories to your analysis.
- Embed this video and your analysis to your blog.
Marjorie Ferguson (1980) identified four types of facial expression in the cover photos of British women’s magazines:
- Chocolate Box: half or full-smile, lips together or slightly parted, teeth barely visible, full or three-quarter face to camera. Projected mood: blandly pleasing, warm bath warmth, where uniformity of features in their smooth perfection is devoid of uniqueness or of individuality.
- Invitational: emphasis on the eyes, mouth shut or with only a hint of a smile, head to one side or looking back to camera. Projected mood: suggestive of mischief or mystery, the hint of contact potential rather than sexual promise, the cover equivalent of advertising’s soft sell.
- Super-smiler: full face, wide open toothy smile, head thrust forward or chin thrown back, hair often wind-blown. Projected mood: aggressive, ‘look-at-me’ demanding, the hard sell, ‘big come-on’ approach.
- Romantic or Sexual: a fourth and more general classification devised to include male and female ‘two-somes’; or the dreamy, heavy-lidded, unsmiling big-heads, or the overtly sensual or sexual. Projected moods: possible ‘available’ and definitely ‘available’.
