REPRESENTATION THEORY

LAURA MULVEY 

Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist. She suggests that the 'male gaze' is where women are portrayed through the eyes of heterosexual men and presented as passive objects of male desire. Women are objectified and seen as sex objects. She also stated that women are either shown as virginal, innocent characters or in a promiscuous way. This is called the virgin/whore dichotomy. Mulvey also created the Bechdel test. It tests if in a media product two named female characters have a conversation about something other than a man for two minutes.


ANGELA MCROBBIE

McRobbie is a British cultural theorist who looks at the way in which gender roles are represented in the media. She believes the media socialise us into our gender roles. The media portray men and women in a very stereotypical manner. Men being aggressive, masculine and powerful. Women being weak, victims and mothers.

STANLEY COHEN 

Cohen suggests that groups are demonised by negative representation in the media. Moral panic is spread about the group when 'a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests'. An example of this is how recently immigrants have been portrayed in the news negatively. As a result more people are demonising immigrants.

BELL HOOKS 

Hooks is an American author and social activist. She talks about how the convergence of sexism and racism during slavery has contributed to black women having the lowest status and worst conditions of any group in American society. She talks about stereotypes refusing to die through the devaluation of black femininity and rape of black women.

LIESBET VAN ZOONEN 

Van Zoonen looks at the difference between the representation of women's bodies and men. She says gender is performative meaning we construct our ideas about masculinity and femininity from what we do rather than what we are. She also says the internet is not a feminist utopia, this view is too simple as it ignores the rich diversity of how gender is articulated on the internet.