Historical Texts

Shaft Trailer

Shaft is a 1971 American blaxploitation film directed by Gordon Parks and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. An action film with elements of film noir, Shaft tells the story of a black private detective, John Shaft, who travels through Harlem and to the Italian mob in order to find the missing daughter of a black mobster. The movie was adapted by Ernest Tidyman and John D. F. Black from Tidyman's 1971 novel of the same name.

• Shaft is shown as a ‘man on a mission’ throughout the movie. He is trying to complete the task of finding Marcy (daughter of Bumpy - mob) and goes to different lengths to ensure she is found.

This relates to Freedom Writers, because ‘Erin Gruwell’ (teacher) also goes all out for the students. She makes them learn that they need an education, even though they don’t want it.

• Blaxploitation Genre came forward in 1971 in the United States, in this very same movie. This genre targets the Urban Black audience. The movies within this genre are set in ‘the ghetto’ of where they the characters are involved with gun/gang crime, violent behaviour as well as being part of or related to a mob.

This genre fits into Freedom Writers, as that is also set in ‘the ghetto.’ The characters are all represented to be involved with crime as they have this hatred towards one another. They have this ethnic disgrace towards one another, where they are seen as being racist towards one another by the way they live their lives.

• The movie does not contain specific indication to racism yet some of the characters behaviour involves them being prejudice. A seen where Shaft puts his hand out for the taxi, and the driver stops ahead of him where the other passenger is a white man. This portrays how there is a ‘fear of the black man.’

In one scene, Erin makes the students swap their seats, so she can divide them from the tribes they sit in. She asks Ben (the only white boy in the class) to go to the back (where all the black people are seated) and he instantly says ‘I can’t go back there.’ This shows the strong stereotype black people hold of being involved in violence.

• The film uses Strauss’s Binary Opposition. We see the:
  Black vs. White
  Harlem Mob vs. Mafia

Freedom writers also contains this very same use of binary oppositions. It is seen more as, Hood vs. Hood. This shows the way the different people from the different multi-cultural backgrounds have been segregated.

Books I will Use:
*FERGUSON, ROBERT Representing ‘Race’: Ideology, Identity and The Media
*MALIK, SARITA Representing Black Britain: Black And Asian Images On Television
*STRINATI, DOMINIC Introduction to Studying Popular Culture, An
*O’SULLIVAN AND JEWKES Media Studies Reader, The

Essay Plan

5 female Directors/reasons/rare sight

Gurinder Chadha
- Bhaji On the Beach (1993)
- Bride and Prejudice (2004)
- The Mistress of Spices (2005)

Amy Heckerling
- Clueless (1995)
- Look who's talking (1989)
- I could never Be your Woman (2007)

Amma Asante
-A way Of Life (2004)

Lynne Ramsey
-Morvan Caller

Sally Field
- Mrs Doubtfire (1993)
- Legally Blonde 2 (2001)
-The little Mermaid (2008)

5 Ways females are a rare sight

- 9/10 will be high positioned males
-Due to objectification they do not get to play these parts
-The directors have given up totaly
-They have children and have to play the motherly figure

Reasons to improve
-More women need to subit ideas rather than being scared of rejection
-Men should contribute in household activities
-More females should step forward with fresh ideas

Pic Bite

Male Gaze

Objectified

Jeans

HomeWork!! - Contempary/Historical

Contempary ads

Parozone Ad

This advert shows the protagonist is concerned about taking a lead role through cleaning up. He is represented as authorative and the clothing he is wearing connotes a police officer type uniform, supporting him as a dominant male figure. This ad changes the way females have been represented in society, because the 12st century is showing an ad containing a lead male carying out a womens job. This new role of men taking on womens roles is shown how this is becoming accepted in society today so more males are taking on roles like these.

Diet Coke Hunk

This advert shows the change in todays society. The three owmen are shown as independant females working in an office. With these females given this role in the office setting alone ngoes to show the second wave of feminism definately hit. The three females are watching 'the hunk' as he comes down. This can introduce the new 'female gaze theory' which suggests that women look at men as well as men look at women.

Jadore Ad

This ad shwos a women who is an object of the male gaze. She is beautiful which supports Scheibe (1979) theory. The fact that she is supposed to be advertising perfume is understandable,but the perfum comes in at the end with no link to the owmen taking her clothes and jewelery on in the development to the fragrance name. The new adverts of the 21st century clearly show females now have lead roles but they are chosen based on their looks and what they casn offer on screen.

Historical Ads

Bounty - 1970s

Women in television ads were found to be more concerned about 'beauty, cleanliness, family and pleasing others.' Says Scheibe in 1979. This advert proves how Scheibe was on the right track about his thoughts on ads. This women is concerned about 'cleanliness' and 'pleasing others' by selling this Bounty paper towel product. She is dressed in a way which would suggest a housewife/motherly figure which go to connote the way women were represented in the 70's at that time.

Cadbury Caramilk - 1976

This advert shows a women who is eating the chocolate in a sexual manner. It could be said that by eating it slowly she is creating pleasure for others. This ad shows how women would not get much time on screen, and when they did they were always using their beauty to enhance their role.This women is an object of theMale Gaze because the viewers willbe watching her rather than the product in her hands she is trying to sell.

Big Mac - 1970s

This advert ranges and shows many different females giving their view on the Big Mac.The ad instantly opens up with two pretty females sitting on the table which shows they are being on screen to attract attention from the males. Another women is shown as just describing Big Mac, using her smile and beauty to interact withj the audience watching. The third female shown is shown in a motherly figure whilst holding a baby. This reflects on Scheibe's nwords of how women areshown on screen.

H/work

1950's

These are two movies form the 1950's. We see the camera angles shots are constantly making the male roles look dominat through the low angled shots. They are seen as role model figures which means they must of been highly influential in that period of time. The males would have more screen time and it was clear that women had no main roles as yet other than accompanying the lead male.

High Noon

DOA (film noir)

1960's

Alfred Hitchcock's Physco was a huge hit. Statisticly, this was also a big time for women as they were now getting more screentime which meantthat theyw ould have some type of leading roles. 'The final girl' was a phrse used to describe the lead character who survives in the end. This was a classic and showed how women were starting to take on lead roles. another hit fom the 1960's which also show women with leading roles was the movie Hypnotic Eye, we see a character who is shown as strong reflecting on how the woemn were geting lead roles.

Phsyco

Hypnotic Eye

1970's

This time also show how women are noe with many leading roles. The famous star wars movie, the women is a highly admired figure. In 1972 Sharon Smith also said how ''The role of a woman in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction and the mating games she plays with the male characters''.

Star wars

1980's

The femma fatale female was introduced. The backlash had also come along. Women were hsown as superior roles and dominated leading roles which men woiuld take on. The femme fatal which originated in the 1940's shows women as sexy and classy yet wuith the power to almost do anything in their will so that they can destroy the lead male.

Fatal Attraction

1990's

men had a percentage of prime time tv roles whilst women were in many leading roles as well. The new generation of women were gainin identity and also had the role of new and challenging roles. This would show them as powerfull and their vioew changed in society. The women were all free and independant yet their sexuality was used a moajrity of the time aswell.

Three men and a Baby

Contemapry Texts

Movies in todays society have the females with leading roles. A lot of the females are young and independat and can be put on screen just as men are. The new women are shown as storng as the males and not only their for sexual pleasures or the token. They can play lead roles. such as charlies angles and lara croft in tomb raider.

Charlies Angels
Tomb Raider

Books

Media Studies AS + A2 by Jacquie Bennett, Published in 2005
Stereotypes - Pg 94
This page covers what the term stereotypes actually means; I found it important to understand the terms and its meanings better as my independant study can relate to stereotypes of people from ethnic backgrounds. I learnt that there are many different characteristics of stereotypes.Stereotypes are and have usually been used as terms to describe certain groups of people (black, white etc) Stereotypes can be anything from people to actual things. Groups which can be stereotyped are:Age, Sex, Race, Religion, Vocation, Nationality, Places and things.
Theorists to Consider - Pg 92/93
Propp = His attitudes and beliefs towards the usage of characters and certain character roles. Levi Strauss = Binary oppositions - Whites vs Blacks (racism) Rolande Barthes = Enigma codes, the way they are created and how they help the audience resolve the story. Todorov's Narrative structures.
Ferguson, Robert (1998): Representing 'Race', U.K, Arnold Publications.
The way these males are shown and represented in foilms. This will be used because of the way the negative stereotypes are shown of males in the media. This will relate to my text because the way all of the students are categorised apart creating a split between each other. Jahmal is black he doesnt Andre who is a cambodian race.
“The Impact of Race on Policing, Arrest Patterns, and Crime” (1998)
This article talks about the way the view in society on issues such as racial profiling has chnaged over time. I can use this in my essay because i can say how the stereotypes given to the certain students can be changed over time because they do.
Agression and violence, (1982): Basil Blackwell Publisher LTD.
There is an interesting section which can relate to my study becausae a part in this chapter is about the way a character is judged on his anger and the consequnces it leads to. This can be seen how in the movie the character Eva is aggresive towards everyone which makes her role in the film. This is because o what has happened to her in the past that has made her that specific person.
DESEGREGATION IN THE BALTIMORE CITY SCHOOLS (1954 pg 32)
This book contains information abotu the way students were catergorised and felt the racial profiling and racism attatched to their lives. It is important to make reference to because in Freedom writers the studnets are contstantly targeted by different races and know that at school they are just there becaus ethey have to be rather than wan to have an education.
Micheal Banton (1987) Racial Theories. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press pg 3
'To identify the groups as races was to imply that the biological differences were the key ones.' This qoute hspws how people themselvs have created the difference amongst racial profiling today. We ourselves have continuously used race to replace the persons idenctity because they are not the same as us. This shows how in the movie they are all against one another tryiong to make their own kind survive.
Nelmes, Jill (1999) pg292, "An Introduction to Film Studies", Routledge, U.K.
This page contains a theorist Dyer speaking about hw black stereotypes are not always negative. This can be used to supporth the fact that ok, they are not always negative which is reflected in Freedom writers, Bceuase in the first half of the movie, the studnets are ll really bad and mishaving meeting the stereotypes given to them but when they turn around and chnage everything, they no longer meet those stereotypes.

Representation of Gender today

Prime time tv shows from 1992-1993, 61% of men had the total number of speaking roles, whilst women had the remaining 39%.

From 1995-1996 studies found 63% of men now had the speaking roles, (increased by 2%) with women only having the 37%Studies found that in 1992-1993, 3% of woman were represented as housewives.

This was a major fall from the 1970’s which shows how women were started to get recognised. Women and Men became equally seen on screens, shows study.

‘Bunting’ later complained how men would be the sole object of any sensible womens life, showing them as strong, dominant figures.

Buffys creator and driving force, joss whedon adds that buffy is a good role model for a wide target audience.