Vertigo Trailer 1957 (Historical films)

This historical text links to Sex and the city in many ways however also differs. Similarly to the Sex and the city girls the women in Vertigo are represented as glam, sophisticated and sexy however they are also represented as always needing the male figure to rescue them and be the hero. At the start of the film we see a painting of a women and the real women sitting in front of it suggesting that women were idealized and important in that century and were not just seen as housewives.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT VERTIGO MOVIE (from wikipeadia)

Vertigo (1958) is a psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring James Stewart and Kim Novak and featuring Barbara Bel Geddes and Tom Helmore. The film, which was written by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor, based on a novel by Boileau-Narcejac, tells the story of a retired policeman who falls in love with a mysterious woman he has been hired to follow. Although it received mixed reviews on its first release, the film has since gained in esteem and is frequently ranked among the best films ever made.

SOME LIKE IT HOT TRAILER 1959

HiStoRiCAl TeXtS LinKeD tO mY StUdY!!!

The main historical text that i will be focusing on linking it to my study is ' Some like it hot' 1959.

In the film the main protagonist is a women who is played by Marilyn Munroe, which in them times could be seen as quite surprising as Sex and the City the movie has a main protagonist of a women and this is recent. Marilyn Munro is known to be a successful sex symbol that has millions of women who idealise her as a person and also her image. Even though Marilyn Munro is not alive now her name is still around and women still try to have the same appearance as her. In 'Some like it hot' she is wearing reviling cloths all the time, her voice can be described as sexy and seductive at all times. We see that she uses her appearance and body to get men for money and for her own pleasure. This film follows Mulvey's theory of the male gaze as this film is quite male dominated. However we can see that the female gaze is appearing in films around this time of year as the main protagonist Marylin Munroe is gazing at the man that she is attracted to. At the beginning of the movie the audience did not see know women showing that the men have to be the first people that are visible, they are shown with weapons representing their masculinity and power. In films now it is normal to see a women holding a gun and acting in a role viewers expect men to be in. 'Some like it hot' 1959, can link to Sex and the city in many ways. Sex and the city girls are always shown to get what they want from men through their appearance and sexual acts towards them. However sex and the city girls are completely dependant on their work and careers and for example Samantha in the movie does not want to get married as she does not believe in such as thing this shows the difference between films in the past and in the present because films in the past such as "Some like it hot" represent marriage as such an important thing and it will be seen as abnormal if a women does not get married when she is quite young.



"Some like it hot film" information from Wikipeada!



Some Like It Hot (1959) is a comedy film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon. The supporting cast includes George Raft, Joe E. Brown, Pat O'Brien, and Nehemiah Persoff. The film was adapted by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond from the story by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan. Logan had already written the story (but without the gangsters) for a German film, Fanfaren der Liebe (directed by Kurt Hoffmann, 1951), so that Wilder's film is seen by some as a remake.
After the worldwide success of the French comedy La Cage aux Folles, United Artists re-released Some Like It Hot in cinemas in 1981. In 2000, the American Film Institute listed Some Like It Hot as the greatest American comedy film of all time.

key words in my title.

How are females represented in Sex and the City: The Movie, are these stereotypical representations? Do these representation’s differ from representations of women in previous media texts.

THREE examples of historical adverts that feature women either as housewives or sex objects and modern representation of women

Shake and Vac advert

This advert is showing the typical stereotype of an housewife from the olden days. The housewife is represented to be proud and happy of what she is doing. She is singing a song of how cleaning should be done suggesting that this is her profession and this is the thing that she prefers doing. Her dress code is quite professional suggesting that she dresses how she is sup post to dress when going to work therefore this suggests that being a housewife is her profession.

Flash advert spring cleaning

This is another stereotypical advert suggesting that the women's role is just to be a housewife to clean the house and look after the children and also her appearance. Unlike the representation of women today representation of women in the past differ largely due to women in the past just being housewives however now most women are interested in their carers however they do not think about having children now. This advert is extremely sexist as it just shows one sex stereotypes to do this certain thing. It objectifies women in a negative way as it shows that they are not good for nothing apart from cleaning.

This advert is extremely sexist and can be seen as controversies. The two men are dressed as women suggesting that cleaning is a women's job and even though a man wants to represent it he has to dress up like a women. This can either be seen as humorous or offencive. The advert shows men who are sup post to be women on their knees scrubbing the floor suggesting that they are proud of doing this in front of people that are observing them.

Women represented as sexy and seductive in the 1980's

In this advert their is a women eating chocolate however due to it being in the 1950's when the freedom of women being able to be shown in the media just started the lady is not wearing reveling cloths and not exposing her body in any way. The representation of this particular women shows that she is innocent and can be seen as the Madonna instead of the whore.

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT ADVERTISEMENTS.

1. Advertisement has increased from 20 billion to 180 billion



2. People are exposed to 3000 ads everyday



3. three years is spent watching advertisements from a persons life.



4. Advertisement is the foundation of the mass media



5. Advertisements not only sell the product but they sell the image for example of an exposed women, romance, sexuality and freedom



6. Advertisements tell people who they are or who they should be



7. Women and advertising the most important thing that advertisements tell women is their image



8. advertisements are full with ideal women beauty that women aspire to be like.



9. women learn from a young age that they should be spending vast amounts of money time and effort to look their best and if they don't then they feel like they should be guilty.



10. The advertisements show that the women never has any lines wrinkles her skin is always perfect and flawless showing the rest of the women that this is how they must be.



11. 1 in 5 women have an eating disorder



12. Advertisement has very critical roles between femininity and masculinity.

Modern women advertisements today.

Here is an advert which relates to Mulveys theory however not the male gaze the female gaze. Here the man can be seen as the one being exploited but the women is taking pleasure in what he is doing and saying. The whole advert is focused on the male most of the time it his on his very well toned body showing that this advert is mainly linked to women as women are seen to like chocolate after a bad day and due to a male advertising it more 'it will make the pleasure more intense'

MAN ABOUT THE HOUSE 1950-60's Mr. Clean 60 second Promo

This advert emphasises the fact of conjugal roles showing that the man is not ashamed to do the housework around the house. This advertisement shows that the man is doing the same as his wife and also singing along to the sound of cleaning suggesting that he is doing the women's stereotypical role.

Dolce and Gabana The one Man

This is another example of a female gaze on the man. The man is positioned as the main icon. Even though this is a male advertisement it still will engage the women's audience through the semi nudity of the man.

Reasons why women directors are such a rare sight.

FIVE reasons why women directors are such a rare sight; research FIVE women directors and put brief summaries of them and their films on your blogs; suggest THREE ways the number of female directors could be improved.

Men directors are more likely to make more successful films than women directors.

women may be discouraged by the lack of women being film directors.

Men are more likely to be preferred over women in a directors job.

Women are not as interested as men are in the film industry

Women may be seen as unreliable relating to men.

BEBAN KIDRON

Beedan Kidron was born in 1961 and is a successful British television and film director. Her work includes (USED PEOPLE, ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT, SWEPT FROM THE SEA, TO WONF FOO, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING AND BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON.She will next be directing an adaptation of the 60's memoir Hippie Hippie shake (2008) adapted by her husband Lee Hall.

SARAH RADCLIFFE

Sarah Radcliffe was born on the 14th of November 1950 sometimes credited as Sarah Radcliffe is a British Film Producer. She began working as Associative producer in the late 1970's on movies like The tempest by Derek Jermain. In 1984 she worked on the series The Comic Strip Presented and in the same year she founded the proucstion company working title films together with her partner Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. The first major production for that company was the Stephna Frears film My Beautiful Laundrette in 1985

DOROTHY ANZLER

Was the only women film maker to survive in this unfriendly environment. She did so by producing well made but formally rather conventional films. Nevertheless, she succeeded in smuggling in feminist elements into her films.

GILLIAN lYNNE

Gillian Lynne was born on the 20th of February 1926 and is a British ballerina, dancer, actor, Theatre director. television director and choreographer. In 2005 she choreographed the Sherman Brothers' film musical, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for the stage. It played in London, and later on Broadway, both times successfully. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang brought Lynne back to the London Palladium after 50 years and she has also rehearsed Cast Changes for the shows National UK Tour

SARAH JACOBSON

Born in August 25th 1971, Norwalk, February 13th 2004 New York City. Sarah Jacobson was an independent filmmaker, writing, producing, and filming her own movies. After studying with George Kuchar, Jacobson began making her first film while in her early twenties. Jacobson's two major releases were I Was a Teenage Serial Killer and Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore. Both were well-received at film festivals across North America, such as the New York Underground Film Festival

Women directors can be improved in three different ways.

1. Get to know more about the film industry



2. Be interested in the films they do.



3. Be more reliable
   

Stereotypical women in advertisements.

The above image is representing the women as a sex symbol with all the men around her and holding her down suggesting that they are in controll of her. This women will be known as a whore instead of a Madonna as she is dressed as in sexy tight revealing clothing, not only that but she has men all around her holding her down suggesting that she needs the male for support. The red lipstick suggests that the women is a 'femme fatal sexy lady and gets things her way through her looks.

Historical housewife

However comparing this image to the Dolce and Gabana advert their has been a huge turn over. This women is wearing a pretty dress and her hair done up suggesting that she has to look pretty at all times for her husband. Her cleaning gloves connotes that she is wearing them proudly and is happy that her role in the house is just to do the housework and be their for her husband.

Another modern advertisement.

This advertisement is of a very well known celebrity Britney Spears. Due to her being alone in the advert it suggests that she is independent and free. Unlike the Dolce and Gabana advert Britney Spears is not positioned in the middle of many guys. She is wearing quite reveling cloths however it is all neutral and white colours suggesting that she is neutral and innocent.

Bibliography for book reaserch so far............

• David Gauntlet- media gender and identity. This book was published in 2002

This will be relevant to my study as it shows me many different examples of women in modern society in comparison with women in the olden days. This links to my study very well due to me being able to see the major differences with Sex and the City girls how they are presented in modern day society and linking it to the women of the olden days.

• Faludi's 1991 book backlash: The undeclared war against Against American Women. Argued that the 1980s saw a backlash against feminism especially due to the spread of negative stereotypes against career-minded women.

This book will help with my study because it will make me understand the stereotypes that have been labelled upon successful women due to them working and not staying at home. Sex and the City girls are the same they are independent and hardly man related therefore this is why this book will link to my study.

• Laura Mulvey. Mulvey is best known for her essay, visual pleasure and narrative cinema written in 1973 and published in 1975 in the influential British film theory journal screen

The male gaze is quite a big part in my study. The male audience may watch Sex and the City girls to get pleasure from the girls in the movie. Their dress code and how they act attracts the male audience majorly and this is something i will be looking at through out my study.

• Gunter Television and representation (1995)

• Linda Williams (1984) Talks about the women's gaze in films.

Linda William's book will relate to my study because in Sex and the City we can see that now their is something called the women's gaze instead of the male gaze. This is when a women looks at a man in a sexual way. We only see this happening in modern day films such as sex and the city however not in olden day films.

• The cinema book published in 1981

The cinema book is useful to me in many ways. It has many different views on gender today and in the past. It has many different views on many feminsits such as the liberal feminism.

Film history from the 1990's to the 1950's

Representation of gender today (chapter 4)

Gender in contemporary TV programmes

• During the 1990's and into the new century, gender roles on television became increasingly equal and non stereotyped within some limits. Although the majority of lead characters were still male.
• A key study of portrayal of women shows during the 1990's by ELASAMER, HASEGAWA and BRIAN was not published until six years after.
• In prime TV shows that men took 61% of the total number of speaking main roles with women having the other 37%
• However the 1992-1993 study found that only 3% of women were still represented as housewives as their main occupation, this was a massive decrease since the 1970's.

Representation and gender linked to sex and the city

• The women in sex and the city are represented as week even though they have a good working position in society such as being a very good lawyer such as Ally Mcbeal. However she is represented as being quite desperate to find a husband. Ally's colleagues both have been out with men from the law firm who are typically geeky and lacking confidence showing that women now are often making fun out of the man and it is not always the women that is lacking confidence.
• Women in sex and the city are also represented as promiscuous they are portrayed as not caring how they get their sex but as long as they get pleasure from it it is seen as normal.

Representation of gender linked to Buffy

• Buffy is seen as a role model to young girls as it encourages them to use physical strength to get the things they want.
• Buffy has won 'Best television sow' in SFX magazines annual readers poll over and over again. The 1990s Superman was relaunched (Louis and Clark, a.k.a The new adventure of Superman, 1993-1999) he was sweet & insecure and always consulting his small town parents.

Gender in contemporary movies

• quote from Feminism and film " film... often and anxiously envisions women stereotypically as good mother and bad hysterical careerists. in the past and today, every Hollywood women is some eles's other.
• It is seen as impossible to provide a meaningful analysis of representations of gender on the Internet because there is no mainstream that a majority of people are looking at.
• There are many other hit films where the male action hero works along side a more or less equally powerful female action hero

Charlie's Angels (2000)

• Barrymore, Diaz and Liu represent redhead, blond and brunet respectively are all representing them selves in a negative way by using their body's for things they are looking for. However they are also seen as role models through them being represented as Strong as a man and even stronger.

Does girl power lead to girl violence

• A study shows that young women may also be known as the "laddetts" instead of the lads" due to linking the fact that when women fight, drink, swear speed are all usually associated with the man however this study by Muncer Campbell shows that it can be associated with women as well as men.

Gender in some recent films.

• Lara Croft 2002 The girl power icon dreamt up by video game boys is 100% tough, resourceful and successful.
• The Matrix (1999) Carrie Anne is a powerful women who is equal or superior to any man.

David Gaunlet text of representation in the past

SUMMERY!

Gunter (1995) This theory by Gunter suggests that women are represented as being weak, victimised showing that they are always represented as needing a man to help protect and support them.

In the 1950's 60's and 70's their was only a tiny proportion of female characters it was between 2o to 35%

When the late 1980's came their was more women acting in main roles however their was still the double amount of men.

Dyer (1987)

quotes that game shows did no bother to change their degrading and trivialising views of women. New programmes are accused of window dressing by including some women in key positions whilst retaining a male dominated culture

Sharon Smith (1970)

The role of women in a film always resolves around her physical attraction and mating games she plays with the male characters. however males are not shown purely in relation to the female characters but in servile different roles.

Sharon Smith- 'Women and film' (early 1970's):
The role of women in a film almost always resolves around her physical attraction and the mating games she plays with the male characters. On the other hand males are not purely shown in relation to the female characters, but in several different roles.

McNeil (1975) concluded that women's movement was largely ignored by television with married housewives being the main female role of the film.

Kathi Maio, 1990s:“Women are not only given less screen time when they are up there on the screen they are likely to be portrayed as powerless and ineffectual...Where are the triumphant woman heroes to match the winner roles men play constantly.

In action-adventure shows, only 15% of the leading characters were woman

Homework migraine analysis on a scene from sex and rthe city

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GLdQS1-X-s&feature=related



The opening scene starts of with the main Character and her boyfriend automatically suggesting to the viewer that this women is man dependant. Her appearances suggests that she is a very stylish and classy lady as well ad her boyfriend Mr big, wearing a classy suit suggesting he maybe has a good gob and being well financially stable. Carry Bradshaw is represented as In Sex and the City Sarah Jessica Parker plays Carrie Bradshaw. The character of Carrie Bradshaw is shown as an image obsessed woman who must buy herself all the latest designer handbags and shoes to feel complete. Her three friends mean the world to her, they are always there for each other and always willing to help each other out. She is also a writer for a living, This representation of her shows her in an extremely positive feminist view, the fact that she has a career and is able to buy the things she wants for herself shows a very independent side to her, however Carrie is man-dependant as she came to New York in search for and her love Mr Big, we see in this scene Mr big offers to buy her the house and she is extremely grateful this shows that even though she has her own job she still needs to depend on the man to be the one who buys the important things for the women. In this scene sex and the city girls are extremely laid back they talk about everything and anything they want we see them as being totally free with no pressure the only pressure is looking good and stylish also buying the latest fashion labels and keeping the man happy reinforcing the fact that most women still go out of their will to please the man any way they can do. Near the end of the clip we see the main character cooking for her boyfriend this reinforces the stereotype of a women how ever big she is will still have to do the traditional female roles. Feminists try and challenge this stereotype as they believe it is wrong. In this particular clip the man Mr big is represented as a powerful man he has the last word and is in control of everything. Their are still some traditional values in this certain clip such as the man always having the last word and he does what he wants however the women has to take it in and also be understanding. Although this is an extremely modern film it still shows that the traditional morels and values of a women still exist in society today and are reinforced in these modern films. Their are certain camera angles that can be interpreted having power and being powerless. we see that the main man is always on a high angle however the women is most of the time either level or low angle shot looking down at her which reinforces that the man has much more power than the women even in modern society today. The genre of the movie can be comedy and romance as it's a hybrid genre. The audiences that it is aimed at are middle class 16 to 25 year old's. this scene can be seen as extremely male dominated as we can see that the man has most of the power. Even though this movie is mainly supposed to be aimed at women Mulvey's theoryof women are just their for the male gaze may come in to practise as women may just be their to attract the male audiences however the main focus is really on the man and his actions.

The hegemonic mode and the Pluralisitc model

Hegemonic model

The basic assumption of the hegemonic model is that the rilling classes are able to rule by ideas and cultural influence's rather than force.

Pluralistic Model

The pluralistic model instead it sees the media as diverse and full of the consumer choices. Very different to the Hegemonic model. the media it is suggested reflects and plurality of society. which consists of a number of competing interests and different viewpoints.

WHICH MODEL DO I FOLLOW??????

I believe in both models because they both have certain points that i believe in. I believe that i am part of the active audience more than passive because i feel that i have the power to read the magazines that i want and believe the story's that i think is true however sometimes i feel pressured by the media to believe certain views even though i personally don't agree to them therefore this is why i believe in both models!

HOMEWORK representation of women in men's Magazines!

POINTS

1. Throughout the late nineties a shift culture saw a change in what society was willing to accept from the media and accompanying decrease in censorship.

2. Men's lifestyle magazines such as loaded and FHM are targeted at the media audience stereotyped as lads. a term certainly constructed and nurtured throughout the media.

3. The uses and gratification theory would suggest that men's lifestyle magazines make men view women as sexual objects, for their own gratification

4. The imagery of the traditional beautiful female who is attractive thin and well groomed also explicitly puts pressure on women to conform to what the make population finds attractive.

5. Feminists use the fact that their are men's magazines around which exploits women majorly when campaigning against media magazines such as Playboy.

HOMEWORK representation of women in men's Magazines!

Kill Bill analysis COVER WORK!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4lrUR1bdRI

I choose to analysis this scene due to it relating to my text in a different type of way. These representations of women in Kill Bill is totally different to how women in Sex and the City are represented which makes Kill Bill text a good text to analysis due to being able to see major differences and small similarities between the texts.

MEDIA LANGUAGE

The opening scene is a medium shot of the main protagonist from the back to create suspense towards the audience. Due to her wearing orange it's a strong clash against her golden blonde hair maybe for the purpose to make the audience think that this women is not a typically stereotyped bimbo that just cares about her image however she is shown as a women who is on a important mission and all she cares about is to solve this mission. As the main actor opens the doors to a suspiciously looking environment she automatically steps forward to see what is going on showing her courage Independence and her being strong. Until this point we still do not see the women's face so the audience can still focus with what is going on instead of gazing at the blond women (stereotypically speaking). Whilst the two enemies are having a conversation we see the main protagonist a blond women cove rd in blood which is not a way a women is represented normally. Their is a discussion between the two women about weapons which protrayes them in the masculine light rather than the feminine. In this scene the snow is their to connote purity however when blood falls on it it totally twists it to a feircefull and masculine situation. The background music is a mixture of classical and upbeat this creates much more tension for the scene and ingages the audience to focus on what is going on.

INSTITUTION

Kill Bill's institution is Mira max films. Films is a film production and distribution brand that was a leading independent film motion picture distribution and production company headquartered in New York City before it was acquired by The Walt Disney Company. Mira max was considered an important quasi-independent studio for many years after the Disney purchase.

GENRE

Their are many genre types that can be classified with Kill Bill the movie. The categories that it can fall in to is Crime, Action and also Thriller.

REPRESENTATION

The representation of the main protagonist of kill Bill and other women characters we can see that it is not a typical representation of women. The women in Kill Bill are portrayed as fighters and do not need the protection of the man as they show that they can protect themselves due to being able to fight their own battles. This differs with sex and the city however some may be smilier such as Samantha leaving her long term boyfriend so she can be in dependant however the characters of kill Bill actually show that they can do the stereotypically man job and fight their own battles however in Sex and the City their is no violence between the women.

AUDIENCE

The certificate rate of the movie is 18 this movie can relate to both males and females aged 18 to 25. The movie can relate to women as maybe some women aspire to be like the characters shown in Kill Bill.

IDEOLOGY

This film tries to carry out the message that not all blonde's have to be portrayed and are Bimbos however this is just a stereotype created by the media. This film goes against that stereotype by showing this blond women in a whole new light showing her to be strong, in dependant and a fighter.

NARRATIVE

The scene that i decided to choose creates suspense for the audience and makes them think what will be happening next. Due to the main protagonist being a women the audience may identify with her more as we are not expecting the things that she is doing due to the audience automatically stereotyping this women to be a bimbo and only their for the male gaze due to the media.

Desperate housewifes compared to Sex and the City article from Christopher Tocker

Looking down on her friends and family isn't a way of life for Mary Alice Young … it's a way of death. One day, in her perfect house, in the loveliest of suburbs, Mary Alice ended it all. Now she's taking us into the lives of her family, friends and neighbors

It's often compared to "Sex and the City", but that's not really true. Just because there are four female main characters doesn't make it like "Sex and the City". It's far more evil, subversive, but also more subtle. Overall just pretty different, but well worth checking out, despite the "unusual" title.

Bibliography so far!!!

Bibliography

· www.sex-journey.org.uk
· Griselda Pollock
· www.google.co.uk
· www.ask.co.uk
· Sex and the city the movie
· Previous summer blogs
· www.thegardian.co.uk
· www.thetimes.co.uk
The A2 media book

Gender and Representation (reaserch)

Role Models
It is undeniable that the media shapes our conceptions of what it means to be male or female. We encounter many different male and female role models in the course of a day's media consumption. The issue is, that although these different role models may at first glance appear to be very varied, do they actually represent enough of a range of men/women? Are we simply given variations on a stereotype that become sub-stereotypes in themselves? By adopting role models and parading them through the media as people it is desirable to 'be', are we stunting individual growth?

Representations of Femininity
Representations of women across all media tend to highlight the following:
beauty (within narrow conventions)
size/physique (again, within narrow conventions)
sexuality (as expressed by the above)
emotional (as opposed to intellectual) dealings
relationships (as opposed to independence/freedom)
Women are often represented as being part of a context (family, friends, colleagues) and working/thinking as part of a team. In drama, they tend to take the role of helper (Propp) or object, passive rather than active. Often their passivity extends to victimhood (see the discussion of the misogynistic PantyRaider below). Men are still represented as TV drama characters up to 3 times more frequently than women, and tend to be the predominant focus of news stories.

Representations of Masculinity
'Masculinity' is a concept that is made up of more rigid stereotypes than femininity. Representations of men across all media tend to focus on the following:
Strength - physical and intellectual
Power
Sexual attractiveness (which may be based on the above)
Physique
Independence (of thought, action)

Increasingly, men are finding it as difficult to live up to their media representations as women are to theirs. This is partly because of the increased media focus on masculinity - think of the burgeoning market in men's magazines, both lifestyle and health - and the increasing emphasis on even ordinary white collar male workers (who used to sport their beergut with pride) having the muscle definition of a professional swimmer. Anorexia in teenage males has increased alarmingly in recent years, and recent high school shootings have been the result of extreme bodyconsciousness among the same demographic group.

Analysis of Sex and the City main Characters from http://www.city-journal.org/html/9_4_a4.html

And yet, she isn't. Despite the hype, Sex and the City is not about girls who just want to have fun, flaunting their sexual appetites. While promoters offer the show as one more brave step in the sexual liberation of women, leading to ever greater fulfillment, in fact it is a lament for all the things of inestimable value that the sexual revolution has wrecked, in this city and beyond. If Candace Bushnell were a practicing Catholic, she couldn't have produced a more effective proselytizing tool for continence and modesty.
The TV show follows the life of New York sex-columnist Carrie, as she tries to find Mr. Right. Until he shows up, Carrie dates Mr. Big (Chris Noth), a fickle 42-year-old who sleeps with her regularly but won't let her leave any of her clothes in his apartment. Her single, mid-thirties friends, PR executive Samantha (Kim Cattrall), art dealer Charlotte (Kristin Davis), and corporate lawyer Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), are all equally unsuccessful in searching for a lifelong mate.
This season's opening episode finds Carrie dating the newest Yankee ballplayer. She recently broke up with Mr. Big for not being able to "commit" to her, and she is hoping to make him jealous. All she accomplishes, though, is to burst into a flood of tears when the new Yankee tries to kiss her. "I'm sorry; this is really embarrassing," Carrie stammers. "I just cried in your mouth. I'm not ready!" Then she commiserates with her friends: "I saw Big, and I completely fell apart!" Everyone is sympathetic.
When she is among her girlfriends, Carrie sarcastically dismisses the possibility of love ("Yeah, love, whooo!"), but when left alone she broods over her miserable romantic history: "Ten years play in New York, countless dates, five real relationships, one serious, all ending in breakups. If I were a ballplayer, I'd be batting, uh . . . whatever really bad is." Catching a fly ball, she concludes bitterly, seems more likely than catching a relationship that endures.
After dating a bunch of men who turn out to be "freaks," including "the man with no soul" and "the man with two faces," Carrie begins to wonder whether all men are freaks. "Apparently," she observes, "the men in the dating world had devolved since the last time I visited." She finally summons up the courage to ask a man directly, but conversationally, "So, when did you guys all become freaks?"
"Us?" he replies, confused. It's the women who are "bizarre."
Though we are meant to conclude that the sexual free-for-all is bringing out the worst in both men and women, Carrie still hopes for more. She wistfully muses that Manhattan was once, "for millions of our forefathers, the gateway to hope, opportunity, and happiness beyond their wildest dreams. Today that hope is still alive: it's called the first date. On Saturday night every restaurant in lower Manhattan resembles its own little Ellis Island: hordes of single women crowded into a hot, cramped space, and hoping to make it to their final destination, matrimony."
In the next episode, Carrie reunites with Big, and he magnanimously allows her to leave a toothbrush at his apartment. Actually, it's not a whole toothbrush—merely a second toothbrush attachment head for his electric toothbrush, but to Carrie this concession signals victory. Big must be getting ready to marry her very soon.
As the season develops, Carrie experiences some setbacks: a friend asks her to write a poem about love for her wedding, but, since Carrie only knows about sex, she has a tough time summoning enough poetic inspiration. At last she produces something she is proud of, only to see Big walk out of the ballroom and take a cell phone call during her recitation. As if that weren't bad enough, he even refuses to sign a card for the wedding present Carrie has bought (that would require too much commitment on his part). Hurt, but endlessly accommodating, Carrie goes home with him anyway.
Encouraged by Big's awarding her that toothbrush head, Carrie strategically tries to leave some of her personal belongings at his apartment. She has little success—he returns all the items the next day—and by the season's end, Big moves to Paris, without bothering to tell her of his plans until just before he leaves. Carrie offers to follow him, but when he explains that he is no more likely to marry her in Paris than in New York, she furiously resolves never to see him again. Not long after, she starts sleeping with other men again.
She pauses only occasionally to wonder whether she is being true to herself, if she is faking more than just her hair color and bra size: "And then I had a frightening thought. Maybe I was the one who was faking it . . . all these years faking to myself that I was happy being single."
Carrie is the most monogamous of the four women. It's hard to say which of her friends takes the prize for promiscuity, all of them having for the most part given up on the idea of having one boyfriend. Charlotte, the brunette art dealer, sleeps with men she doesn't particularly like, just to get things done around the house. As for the men she does care for, she gives them presents they usually reject: "Whoa, too fast," one exclaims to Charlotte: "Next you move in, and then you hate my music!"
Perhaps this is why, in the second episode of the season, Charlotte gets a puppy as a man replacement: "Charlotte came home to the new male in her life," Carrie's voice-over explains. "Fed up with lonely mornings, cuddle-free nights, and the lack of uncondition-al love she so longed for, Charlotte decided to take matters in her own hands. She combed the city for the perfect specimen of breeding, style, and trendiness . . . Henry, the perfect dog."
While Carrie is reciting her wedding poem, Charlotte is "hooking up" with a man she just met at the wedding. When he behaves boorishly after sleeping with her, Charlotte is astonished: "Did the last four and a half hours mean nothing to you?" she screams at him across the floor.
Consistently, Sex and the City derides women who impulsively jump into bed and then complain about men's bad character. The women in the show, it is clear, have given up the opportunity to get to know these men better. When they don't like what they end up with, you'd think they'd become more discriminating. But they never do.
Pushing 40, blonde PR executive Samantha is the most cynical of the four girlfriends. She instructs the other women that "we're all alone, even when we're with men. My advice to you is to embrace that fact, slap on some armor, and go through life like I do, enjoying men!" Yet later on, even sophisticated Samantha gets duped by a club owner, who misleads her about their future together. William promises Sam he'll invite her to East Hampton for the summer, only to stand her up at their second date. Samantha waits for him "without a book, or a project, or any of her dining-alone armor." William, we are told bitterly, was "one of those men who faked a future to get what he wanted in the present." She bursts into tears and flees the restaurant. "I can't believe I fell for some guy's line," she cries to her buddies. "But sometimes you need to hear a ‘we.’ "
Still, this epiphany doesn't stop Samantha from sleeping with yet another man she just met. But she stops in mid-embrace and declares, "Wait, I've slept with you before!" "Sure," her partner agrees, "15 years ago." "Well, why didn't you say anything?"
Oh, no, Samantha thinks to herself-now she's slept with all the men in Manhattan. Her solution is to hatch a big revenge plan. [See "How We Mate," Summer 1999.] Her plan, aimed not only at one particular ex but at men in general, is to seduce a man who dumped her, have him fall in love with her again, and then she will dump him before they sleep together.
Unfortunately, Samantha is so distracted by her own feelings for him that she ends up going to bed with him anyway. Her plan completely falls apart when, before she can dump her ex, he dumps her for the second time. In this game, emotions put one at a competitive disadvantage. As the narrator of Sex and the City explains, "Samantha hadn't evolved past having feelings."
Miranda is the most feminist of the four, a redheaded corporate lawyer who often flounces off, disgusted with her girlfriends for talking about guys all the time. "How does it happen that four such women have nothing to talk about, other than boyfriends?" She goes for a walk, only to overhear women crying: "And I really thought he liked me, so why didn't he call me?" All the women around her seem to be falling apart. But when Miranda sees her ex-boyfriend on the street, she, too, loses all composure and hides from him. "After two years, . . . I had forgotten how hard it is."
Miranda sleeps around just as much as the rest of the girls, but her most inspired act this season is buying her own apartment. She is reluctant to check the single-woman box on the mortgage documents, though, and she is troubled by the fact that the previous owner, a single woman, had died in the apartment. Her body was not found for a week, and a horrible rumor has it that her cat ate half her face.
Miranda frets all the more when she learns that she has a "lazy" ovary and might never have a baby, but when she does come across men who are genuinely nice-maybe nice enough to be a husband and father-it turns out that she has become too cynical to love them. After Miranda has a one-night stand with a bartender, she is puzzled to hear him say afterward, "That was really special."
"Sure," she replies.
"Can I get your phone number?" he inexplicably continues.
"Why?" she asks.
"So I can ask you for a date," he explains.
Miranda's voice is thick with sarcasm as she tells him, "You don't have to make believe you're going to call."
He finally leaves and encourages her to "stop by at the bar sometime."
"Yeah, great sex. Whatever." She waves him away.
A few days later, the bartender shows up at her apartment and tells her, "I like you."
Still suspicious, Miranda replies, "Translation: ‘I think you're an easy lay and I'd like to have sex again.’ "
He protests that he doesn't mean that at all and wants to take her to dinner.
Miranda explains her philosophy: "I can't have dinner with you; I don't even know you!"
"But you slept with me!"
"That's a different thing."
"Can you maybe think for a second that the other night was special?"
"No. Maybe I slept with too many bartenders."
So during half of the Sex and the City episodes, the women complain about insensitive men; for the other half, they coach themselves to imitate such men. The result is that by the time the sensitive men appear on the scene, the women have become insensitive, too, and incapable of appreciating them.
This portrayal couldn't be more timely. Susan Faludi, the popular feminist who penned Backlash in 1991, has just released Stiffed, a book about the "betrayal of American men." In this almost conservative and almost honest critique of the culture, Faludi decries our current mores, which encourage men to "score" with many women instead of providing for one. Our notions of manhood were much healthier, she argues, before World War II.
As for why our masculine ideal has changed for the worse, Faludi offers no compelling explanation. The missing piece of her otherwise accurate assessment is precisely what she is not permitted to say, or her feminist sisters would burn her in effigy: in an era of free sexual favors, women no longer demand that men commit to them, and our no-fault-divorce society doesn't back them up when they do.
One of the reasons the critics have misunderstood Sex and the City is that it features frank sexual banter and women who swear just as much, and are just as crude as, the men. On the surface, this seems like a nod to equality, but not when you appreciate what these girls are all swearing at. To be sure, the girls bitterly deconstruct their ex- and current boyfriends' sexual techniques and bodies, but only after their hearts have been broken. Miranda, for instance, refers to her ex-boyfriend as "that asshole I dated a couple of years ago," but then Carrie's voice-over explains, "Miranda used to call Eric the love of her life, until he left her for another woman."
The constant hostility the men and women feel for one another is palpable. The women say, "I can't believe the prick hasn't called." The men announce that they're "just getting over the bitch who broke my heart." Women who aren't pretty are of no use whatever to these men and receive scarcely human treatment. "Do you ever shut the f—k up?" one male character asks such a woman, with typical brutality. For all the frantic coupling, no one seems to be having any fun.
Welcome to the Age of Un-Innocence, as Candace Bushnell put it in her original Sex and the City column. "The glittering lights of Manhattan that served as backdrops for Edith Wharton's bodice-heaving trysts are still glowing—but the stage is empty. No one has breakfast at Tiffany's, and no one has affairs to remember—instead, we have breakfast at 7 am and affairs we try to forget as quickly as possible. How did we get into this mess?"
What went wrong, plainly, is that women confused sexual sameness with equality and imagined that competing with men in debauchery was part of their social emancipation. The early feminists never wanted to give up their moral power, and that's why they argued strongly against promiscuity.
In her column, Candace Bushnell presents Samantha as a "New York inspiration," a model of the kind of woman who could survive in such a ferocious sexual landscape. And what does life offer Samantha? "If you're a successful single woman in this city," Bushnell writes, "you have two choices: You can beat your head against the wall trying to find a relationship, or you can say ‘screw it’ and just go out and have sex like a man." Samantha opts to have sex "like a man," and Bushnell's other women emulate her. But the results aren't much better than beating your head against the wall. "I think I'm turning into a man," says Carrie, describing how, after a recent sexual tryst, she didn't feel anything.
"Well, why the hell should you feel anything?" someone else asks. "Men don't. I don't feel anything after I have sex. Oh sure, I'd like to, but what's the point?"
"We all sat back smugly, sipping tea, like we were members of some special club," Bushnell writes of her unfeeling foursome. "We were hard and proud of it, and it hadn't been easy to get to this point—this place of complete independence where we had the luxury of treating men like sex objects. It had taken hard work, loneliness, and the realization that, since there might never be anyone there for you, you had to take care of yourself."
The publicists and pundits may not get it, but Candace Bushnell and producer Darren Star of the Sex and the City TV show understand in their heart of hearts the failure of sexual liberation. That's why all the story lines keep returning to the unhappiness of the players involved. The characters of Sex and the City accurately represent what the sexual revolution expects of women, and what the woman who looks for liberation through the bedroom can expect. The writers know that their four protagonists, for all their cool urbanity, experience feelings of loss and sadness and loneliness that are real and typical for women in the age of liberation.
For every incident in Sex and the City that may seem like a caricature, you can find a real-life woman in America with an even more extreme story. Take Grace Quek, flatteringly profiled in Allure magazine recently, because she had had sex with 251 men in a single day and had immortalized her feat in an X-rated "documentary," World's Biggest Gang Bang, shown at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. "Actually," writes Allure, Quek's film "satirizes masculinity while expressing the enormity of her own desire. To challenge our gender assumptions, Quek put her body (and psyche) on the line."
Allure also reports that Quek had survived a gang rape years before, "which raises a troubling question: Is her adult-film work a way of punishing herself for that victimization, or of reclaiming her body?" Troubling indeed: for this woman, who takes our culture's standard of liberated womanhood to such lengths, suggests that what our culture expects of all women—to remain indifferent to what is to them most naturally sacred—is really a pathology.
And what our culture considers a pathology is really quite normal. Writing of Sex and the City and Ally McBeal, Stacey D'Erasmo recently wondered in the New York Times Magazine: "Why do the sexy, savvy new heroines want nothing so much as rings on their fingers?" Taking for granted that it is weird to want to get married, D'Erasmo answers the question: "The new single-girl pathos seems more like a plea to be unliberated, and fast. These characters really do just want to get married; they just don't want to look quite so naive about it. . . . The new single girl, tottering on her Manolo Blahniks from misadventure to misadventure, embodies in her very slender form the argument that not only is feminism over. It also failed: look how unhappy the ‘liberated’ woman is! Men don't want to marry her!" And why do women continue to pursue this life of "misadventure"? According to D'Erasmo, "Perhaps, it's because they know . . . that marriage doesn't solve all your problems. It never did."
Sure, the new way of doing things is a mess, goes this line of reasoning, but the old way didn't solve all our problems either. Well, no kidding. But that's like saying that because asprin doesn't always cure a headache, you are better off banging your head against the wall.
In the second episode of Sex and the City's second season, one woman says sweetly, "I'm a single, 38-year-old woman, still hoping to get married. I don't want to know the truth." But the next generation, for whom it's not too late, does—and perhaps that's why they enjoy watching Sex and the City.

Griselda Pollock

Griselda Pollock

Biographical Information
Griselda Pollock is a feminist art historian and Professor of Social and Critical Histories of Art in the Department of Fine Art at the University of Leeds, England. She is director of the Center for Cultural Studies, the Center for Jewish Studies, and Graduate Studies and Research in Feminist Theory, History and Art at the University of Leeds. Pollock has written extensively on the problematic of the feminine in the fields of social history of art, cultural and psychoanalytic theory, and analysed with historical interests different artistic practices since the mid-19th century, culminating in contemporary art.

Pollock does not write out of a love for art. Works of art for her are not pleasurable ends but forms of evidence, signs and symptoms of (or, sometimes vehicles of resistance to) a sexist, racist and imperialist culture. As a self-described cultural analyst, she works to expose the masculinist ideology that she thinks canonical art and art history embody.

Evaluation

SELF EVALUATION

1. Attainment= For attainment i give my self a 3 due to me being able to work much harder which will push my attainment grade higher


2. Punctuality= i would give myself a 2 for punctuality as i am always punctual to all of my lessons with Mr bush.


3. Effort= For effort i would give my self a 2. I try hard and always try to push myself. However i must get on top of things with my coursework so it does not result to me falling behind.


4. Submission and quality of homework= The quality of my homework is good i would give my self a 2 for it.


5. ability to work independently= I'm capable to work independently as i have many ideas about the topics that we discuss in media such as the representation of women and due to my coursework being about it i find it much easier.



6. quality of writing= My quality of writing is average due to us not doing much written work in class. we mostly discuss what is going on in the media issues that are relevant to the role of women in society more than written work. However if we are not doing that then we are discussing our coursework.



7. organisation of media folder= the organisation of my media folder is excellent as i keep everything in to place and always tidy. However i need to remember to bring it to every lesson that i have.



8. oral contributions in class= My oral contributions are getting better as time goes along because i feel more confidant speaking allowed. i would rate myself a 3.



9. Standerd of module 5 blog= I would grade by blog a 2 because i always try and put as much detailed information and analysis on to it as i feel that it is important for me to always keep a record to make it easier for me when i write my essay.



10. Standard of module 6 blog= I would rate my module 6 a 3 because much more work can be done on it for it to be better.

Action Plan

1. Watch my film again. i have to watch my text again in order for me to get a better understanding. also if i watch it more then this will make answering my question much more easier. i will be aiming to do this by 24th October

2. Conduct more research I am aiming to conduct more research about my topic due to benefiting more and getting better ideas. this will help me due to making to much more easier later on. I will be aiming to do this on the 22nd of October.

3. Start writing up a bibliography if i think about writing my bibliography now then it will make it much more easier for me to remember all the sours es that i have used and the Internet sites. however if i leave this until latter on then this will make it much more difficult for me due to forgetting some of my sources. I will start to do this by 22nd of October.

4. Comparing my texts to more texts. I have compared my texts to James Bond films and and also Kill Bill however i must compare it to more texts because this is what it said in the grade A criteria. I have a good idea of how to do this because i done it in my presentation therefore it shouldn't be hard. i will be doing this by24th October.

5. summarise my reviews. i have many reviews however i want to summarise them to make it more simpler to understand and read. therefore i will be doing this by the end of 21/10/08

6. Talk more about the representation and women. I must research the role of women more include major theorists such as Mulvey and Kaplan. This is vital for me due to my topic is representation of women. I must include SHEP because i must make reference to the historical idea of women in the past, this will help me get a better grade and a better understanding of my topic.

7. Do more research on my audience In my presentation i did not talk about the audience in much detail as i could have therefore i must research my audience in detail to understand it more. i will be doing this in the half term

8. Reasech my institution more one of my main weaknesses is not looking into my institution in great detail like i should have i must do this because it's a vital migrane point. Also it is important and relevant to my study. I will be doing this in the half term.

9. include important media terminology In my research useing terminology that links to it is important therefore i must do this to make it sound professional and more media based. i Will be doing this in the half term holidays.

10. blog more posts. I must also remember to keep blogging my posts and do it all up to date so i am up to date. i must also post up the sources that i have used to keep on track.

My Self Assisment of presentation

WHAT WENT WELL.....

• Sound track
• good research
• I engaged the audience
• Kaplan
• linked the theories to my study
• short slides
• well structured

EVEN BETTER IF......

• Migrane analysis of trailer
• Social context
• talk more about audience pleasures

SELF EVALUATION OF MY BLOG!

Overall so far i feel that my blog is good. I have found good reviews about my topic and different kind of research that i have posted up.



A01- key concepts



Being a media student last year i have practised Migrane many times through the analysis of different texts and moving images. Therefore i did not find it difficult analysing film trailers and images for my independent study. I have used Migrane analysis as many times as possible as i find it very useful to use. However my blog could be much better if i add more detail and extra information to the different subjects that i have talked about. This way i would have much more information to help me and make my research much more meaningful.



AO2

The main sections that i have looked at through SHEP is social and economical factors in some aspects. To improve what i will be doing is looking at more sections of SHEP in much more detail. Also the main thing that i must do is look in to books for detail and more explanations about my independent study as this will help me get higher grades.

A05

This AO applied allot to my project because the main thing that i had to do was to research. I found researching quite simple as i had a reliable source such as the Internet. However my targets will be to look in websites that i don't usually use. Also as i said before get plenty of research from different books and articles.

Synoptic Ability= I will be using theorists and theory's such as feminists as they relate to my topic. however i will also try and use theory's that are new to me and i have not come across them before


Critical autonomy-


I believe that my work needs a little more effort and detail to make it better.
However i have tyred to link everything to the main point which is my film that
i am studying.

Quality of written communication: I feel quite confident in putting the point of my argument across to people, however i still have to spell check my work make my sentences all make sense without rushing them and having silly mistakes.

how can i imporove on my AO'S

AO1= KEY CONCEPTS
To improve on key concepts i will be analysing more texts, doing a migrane analysis and also SHEP. Regular reminders of how to do it will help me to do it well and accurately and not face any problems.

AO2 = WIDER CONTEXT

Wider context is my difficulty, i will have to do plenty of practise. i must always be analysing so i can be strong with it and stop struggling. I will be using the Internet and other sources to help me understand it.

AO3.1 ISSUES/DEBATES AND THEORIES.

I do not have a major difficulty with A03 as i know how to solve it if i did. I must always read articles from the media guardian and listen to news reporters. i have used theorists in my independent study, i have found relevant ones be researching them on the Internet.

AO3.2 COMPARE AND ACCOUNT FOR SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN TEXTS

Also in my independent study i have compared different texts to analise and prove the point of my independent study

AO5 RESEARCH TECHNIQUES.

Research techiques is one of my strengths as i enjoy doing it, to help me i use the Internet however for my independent study i must start to use books to get better research.

Migrane analysis

Media Language

The purple colour contrasts with the black to

make the title stand out showing that this is the

main focus. The main character is on the front

cover suggesting that she is the main subject in

the film therefore she is the one on the front cover

and not the rest of the characters. Sarah Jessica Parker

is portrayed as a fashion obsessed women she is wearing a purple

frock the same colour as the title suggesting that they are linked

together.

Institution

Season one of Sex and the City aired on HBO from June to August 1998. Season two was broadcast from June until October,1999. Season three aired from June until October 2000. Season four was broadcast in two parts: from June until August 2001, and then in January and February 2002.

Genre

the genre of the film can be classified as a romantic comedy.

Representation

The main representation of the film is women putting their career before there love life however it's not always the case. Each character has a different specific representation to them. The representation also shows the modern women who is obsessed with her career and not getting married and also the traditional housewife who just wants children and wants to please her husband.

Audience

Primary audience is aged 16 to 30.

Ideology

Feminism

Patriarchy

Narrative

may be seen as binary oppositions with the traditional housewife and the new career obsessed women.