An example of a case study for MEST 3 Representation

Some of you are still struggling to make comprehensive notes on your case study. Having a range of examples is great but you must also bring in current debates and theories so that you can have a discussion about your study.

Lottie has kindly sent me her notes to share with you so that you can see how you might link theories and debates to your studies. Although you have all looked at different groups, you should still be able to see the difference between describing products and linking those products to what is currently happening in the media. You must know what is going on in the world to influence the choices made in the construction and consumption of media texts.

Have a read of Lottie's notes. Notice how she has plenty of examples but has also linked this to theory later on. Lottie needs to now include all three media platforms and find other current debates which might develop her knowledge and enable her to answer any question successfully.

Gay Men in the Media

Javier Bardem in Skyfall (2012) – comes onto Bond while he is strapped to a chair, very creepy and caressing him, portrays gay men as pushy and throwing their sexuality in your face making you uncomfortable. Sexualised as easier to deal with whereas not entirely thought of as serious sexual persuasion, just a sexual physical attraction. Suggests gay people are villains and evil as the bond mastermind that tries to blow up headquarters and kills Judy Dench’s character is gay, shows gay people as malicious. Moral panic over gay people so demonises them.

Derren Brown – not stereotypically gay. Realise once told he is gay. Trimmed beard etc. but only really there to coincide with hypnotist job as stereotypical look of them. He is clever and articulate so not usually how the media portray gay men. Dresses in suits, speaks very formally, is not very openly emotional so not conceived as being gay.

Ian McKellan – accepted as being gay by many for his acting abilities, not usually prejudiced against. Isn’t flouncy or feminine so not following stereotypes. Posh, articulate, deep-voiced and an older gentleman so never really ‘suspected’ of being gay. Came out later in life at age 49 on BBC radio interview but says homosexuality is still very sensitive in Hollywood. Because he came out later he was already respected for his work as a Royal Shakespeare Company actor so there was already a good rep. around him, not penalised for it.

New show Vicious on ITV starring McKellan – plays an older man living in an apartment with other gay friend. McKellan is bitchy and full of himself and also comes onto the presumably straight new man that moved in upstairs (shows him to be sexually inappropriate). He was an actor in many plays (feminine profession) and is very confident. Boyfriend is shrill and overly dramatic and bitchy and when he has visitors he makes sandwiches which he cuts into ‘16ths’ in order for them to be small and fancy. Gets angry when his friends don’t bring their own food over to share.

Alan Carr – rectangular glasses, high voice, artificially whitened teeth, wears cardigans and chinos, very open about his sexuality. Unknown when he ‘came out’ but dad was football coach and he used to sit on the side-lines of when he trained professional football team and read books. Narrated new television series called ‘Playing It Straight’ which included a lot of innuendos, reinforcing the pushy sexual nature and inappropriate ways of homosexuals presented in the media.

Gok Wan – hosts a variety of fashion shows for women called ‘How to Look Good Naked’ and ‘Gok’s Fashion Fix’, recently undergone advertising campaign with Activia yoghurts who promote luxury but feeling good on the inside. Is camp but isn’t overly focussed on what you wear, more focussed on inner beauty and confidence hence the relevant advertising campaign. Challenges gay stereotype as being all about make-overs and shopping (although some of programme is about fashion it is also about boosting self-esteem through how they view themselves). Relevant because Gok used to be incredibly overweight so is trying to help others be comfortable with their body and change what they want to.

 

“Another real sadness about Gately's death is that it strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships. Gay activists are always calling for tolerance and understanding about same-sex relationships, arguing that they are just the same as heterosexual marriages. Not everyone, they say, is like George Michael. Of course, in many cases this may be true. Yet the recent death of Kevin McGee, the former husband of Little Britain star Matt Lucas, and now the dubious events of Gately's last night raise troubling questions about what happened. It is important that the truth comes out.” By Jan Moir, Daily Mail columnist. 16th November 2009.

Moir insinuates that most gay men are becoming a part of a ‘drug culture’ by drawing on the example of celebrities who have recognisable drug problems or drug-related deaths and calling them ‘dubious’. Also, she suggests that there is a ‘myth’ surrounding ‘the happy-ever-after’ image of civil partnership, suggesting that no civil partnerships are healthy and happy.

 

New values of Jan Moir:

Conflict – Jan Moir shows controversial opinions and insinuates that gay men are getting sucked into a drug culture as their deaths are becoming more drug-related and dubious. Potential ploy to get more readers and spark popularity/reading figures for Daily Mail but they usually take such a controversial and traditionalist stance on news stories like homosexuality, immigration etc.

Bizarre – unexplained death of popular celebrity while partying who reportedly died of natural causes when so young. Alleged heart disease that ran in family but found out that he had smoked cannabis on the same night and there was fluid build up in his lungs. Another man also present at the apartment, not just Stephen and his boyfriend. Bizarre circumstances make for a bigger readership.

Prominence – ties in with bizarre. Man of high status/popularity/fame and was once a pin-up from a boy band dies reportedly naturally in strange circumstances that might be related to drugs. Audience interested in demise of well-known figures, ties in with voyeurism as we want to know everything about his death and what happens afterwards, no privacy for family.

               

 

‘That’s What I Am’ (2011) film set in 1965, mini-plot that a rumour circulates about protagonist’s favourite teacher Mr Simons that he is gay. Parents start to get angry and insist they don’t want one of ‘his kind’ teaching their kids as he is a role model to them. Mr Simons is not actually gay but he refuses to deny the rumour for the sake of the kids to teach them to be tolerant. His wife died young and he has not married since through ‘loving her too much’. The audience is able to guess that he is not gay as he is not portrayed as such. He dresses smartly but he is not camp, inappropriate or particularly feminine. The students perceive him as gay because he is enthusiastic about his job, optimistic, well-dressed and likes poetry and hasn’t been seen with a woman around town. He is sacked because of the rumours. Set in 1965 when being homosexual was illegal but made in 2011 highlighting that there are still prejudice surviving about gay men and that appearances do not dictate character.

 

GLOBALISATION

America – American Dad! Fox TV and BBC3 – episode where Stan enjoys the company of two gay men who just moved in across the street assuming they’re just roommates. Francine his wife then reveals they’re gay, he refuses to believe it and then insists they are horrible people.  Moral panic in America as very biblical and homosexuals seen as disgracing God so presents them as exactly the same as everyone else in order to combat this panic.

America – Family Guy. Fox TV and BBC3 – Peter’s house is haunted by a gay ghost who swans into a room and says ‘Boo! … To that outfit’ before swaggering out. Geoffrey is a character who appears everywhere in white trousers, a waistcoast and a gold hoop in his ear with a very high voice, he is presented as gay and slightly perverted/flirty to portray the image of gay people the audience is comfortable with in order to keep balance between challenge and accustomed representations.

America – Gay Rights Campaign goes viral – red equals sign goes viral on photo sharing sites like Tumblr during America’s gay rights campaign for marriage equality. Media not just constructing this representation of gay rights but audience is now active in this representation and displaying their opinions.

Asia/Indonesia – Lady Gaga’s tour – people protested Lady Gaga’s tour date in Indonesia as she is a symbol for homosexual culture and being ‘born this way’ which clashed with their religious views. She could not perform in the country. Shows homosexuality represented in Western world as being tokenised and a vehicle for comedy but this does not stretch to Eastern world where it still crosses religious boundaries. Desensitised to religion in Western world mostly so easily accepted or comfortable with representations and inclusion in the media.

It could be argued that the portrayal of gay men in the media is only dominant in Western countries that are dependent upon their media in the modern world (Functionalist theory). However, in less developed and more religious countries like Indonesia different values are at play and, if gay men are against these religious values, then they will not be portrayed in their media at all. Furthermore, this lack of religious and traditional values in the Western media may be caused by desensitisation because of the media (horror films, new ‘cutting edge’ documentaries, dramas etc.) so we are not offended or shocked by those that are against the dominant norm in the media as they are replicated in normal society.

 

THEORIES

 “Mass media plays a significant role in the transmission and maintenance of cultural identity through a repetitive display of cultural norms and values which eventually become seen as simple ‘truths’” www.newsinfluencer.com

This is applicable to gay men in the media as the dominant representation has been accepted by society as being the truth which leads to stigmatising or exploiting gay men through the media. They are stigmatised as being bad or inappropriate by representing them as bad (Skyfall) or exploited for comedy as being annoying (Rylan – X-Factor). These dominant representations have led to the gay audience of such media products mimicking what they consume (Snog, Marry, Avoid – Nottingham episode, gay man Luke).

There is still a moral-panic-type stigma around gay people in the media as they are not currently widely accepted by all. This leads to them being represented as negative through “intergroup discrimination” (social identity theory – Tajfel and Turner) so the audience can see themselves as better than the representations within the media in order to feel assured in their own social standing or sexual hierarchy. The moral panic surrounding gay men in the media as being sexually inappropriate and negative is magnified by the media as it is them who have created the panic. Gay people are usually stigmatised because they are different and not in concurrence with ‘traditional’ values so the media plays upon this current moral panic in order to gain more consumers. This dominant representation is easily relatable and reassuring to audiences so the consuming continues, leading to more media of that nature being produced and the stigma against gay men being further embedded in culture.

Pluralist theory also links to the growing demand for relatable media and stigamtised media containing dominant representations for moral panics. Pluralists believe that the media only reflects what audiences want, otherwise they would lose consumers and go out of business. The negative representation of gay men in the media is repeated so many times because the audience demands this representation in order to be able to categorise the character portrayed and be at ease and familiar with their perception of the character. Also, this links to moral panics as audiences want to see gay men portrayed negatively in order to give them a scapegoat for why certain events occur (link Skyfall to gay men and terrorism) and to give them a minority group to stigmatise for their own prestige (Tajfel and Turner).

Judith Butler (www.theory.org.uk/ctr-butl.htm) argues that we all put on a gender performance and so it is not a question of whether to do a gender performance, but what form that performance will take. By choosing to be different about it, we might work to change gender norms and the binary understanding of masculinity and femininity. This idea of identity as free-floating, as not connected to an 'essence', but instead a performance, is one of the key ideas in queer theory. Seen in this way, our identities, gendered and otherwise, do not express some authentic inner "core" self but are the dramatic effect (rather than the cause) of our performances.  David Halperin has said, 'Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant.'

Butler said gender is something that you perform and do, not an identity, so we should not be defined by it. This is relative to homosexual men in the media – is it right to limit their representation as being gay by being squeaky and tanned? It isn’t something they are, they aren’t defined by their sexuality but the media makes this true. I agree with David Halperin as gay men in the media are against the traditional and the normal and the dominant in the media, enforcing their representation further and lessening their chances of challenging and changing this representation.

 

The bill for same sex marriage was presented to parliament on January 24^th 2013 and is currently working its way through the House of Commons to be passed on to the House of Lords. Protesting in order to change a ‘civil partnership’ to a ‘marriage’ as it is a mild form of discrimination as is not recognised as the same holy communion.