Representation Theory

Laura Mulveys - Male Gaze Theory
This theory is how the audience view women who are presented in the media. She states that women are there to be seen and that the use of camera portrays them as sexual objects through shot types and movements.
Her focus is on:

• How women look at themselves from there images
• How men look at women from those images
• How women look at other women from those images

The male gaze focuses on:

• Emphasising curves of the female body
• Referring to women as objects rather then people
• The display of women
• Female viewer view the content through the eyes of a man

The male gaze describes how the audience or viewer is put into the perspective of a hetrosexual male e.g. the camera lingers over the curves of a womens body.

Mulvey states that women are typically the objects, rather then the possessers and men emerges dominant power. This is proven in the music video; Nicki Minaj - Anaconda.

This emphasises the curves of the female body, shows women as objects rather then people, displays women in a way to please men. Would the female viewers, view the contents through the eyes of a man? Women sexualised and seen as object and viewed based on sexual desire and the way they look.

Richard Dyer - Star Theory
This theory is the idea that icons and celebrities are constructed by institutions for financial reasons and are built to target a specific audience or group of people. Dyers theory can be broken down into three sections:

• Audience and institutions
• Constructions
• Hegemony (cultural beliefs)

He states, "Stars are commodites that are produced by institutions."

"A star is a constructed image, represented across a range of media and medium."

"Stars represent and embody certain ideologies."

Stars are made to make money. They make a star based on what they think the audience want.

Constructions: the start is built for an audience and is not an actual person, a persona is created for the audience to identify with and no star can differentiate between different stars and why they like them or not. differentiates them from other stars e.g. Lady Gaga outrageous fashion.

Hegemony: (leadership or dominance) we relate to the star because they have a feature that we admire or share with them.

Tessa Perkins - Stereotypes
Stereotyping is attaching a label/name to either an individual or groups of people which then they further get labelled. People judge on their looks e.g. if you wear black you may be seen as instantly a emo/goth. Stereotypes are based upon the media. Stereotyping is not a simple process and contains a number of assumptions that can be challenged.

Stereotypes are not always negative for example "the french are good cooks".

Perkins identifies such assumptions:

• They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful upper class
• They can be held about ones own group
• They are not rigid or unchanging
• They are not always false

The less powerful but this is not always the case when targeted for aiming stereotypes. They has to be some truth in the stereotype or they wouldn't have the representation in the first place. Stereotypes are always erroneous in context (usually wrong). They are about groups with whom we have little or no social contact.