Representations - Women in 28 days later

Horror films have been criticised for their traditional representations. Usually, in horror films, women are seen as either the helpless victim, or as the damsel in distress who runs into the arms of the nearest strong, capable male character. Women are also seen as an object of beauty for the 'male gaze' (Mulvey), who are owned and controlled by men. Women must be pure, virginial and 'proper', at least if they want to survive in a horror movie.

An example of a more traditional perception of females in horror:

• Cabin in the woods (The whore vs the virgin) - Virgin was the only survivor at the end of the film, and she refrained from sex and drugs throughout.
• Orphan (The mother character) - Typical female victim and was victimized throuought the film.

However, through the years, horror films have become more equal in terms of representation of men and women. In the film 28 days later, we become familiar with 2 female characters, who at first could not be more opposite.
Selena is a strong, decisive, emotionless forward-planning leader who has short hair and carries a wepon. These are all qualities that are associated with masculinity. Whereas Hannah, is a young, passive, quiet and innocent daddy's girl, who cooks, cleans and looks after her dad; traditional aspects of femininity. 

In this shot, and for the first half of the film, Selena is seen leading Jim, taking up most of the frame and always pictured in the centre. She is the one in charge.

 
                                                          Selena is again taller and in the centre in this shot.

As the film progresses, Selena and Jim almost experience a form of role-reversal, but back to a more tradtional state. As Selena begins to develop feelings for Jim, thus letting down her guard, she becomes more emotional and therefore more vunerable. Whereas she was the one to be saving Jim and protecting him from the infected, Jim now must save her from the controlling soldiors that plan to rape both her and Hannah. They both become defenceless and the film ends with the two women nursing Jim after the traumatic experiences throughout the movie. 

Camera work helps us understand the change in Selena's character, in addition to showing a large difference between the power between the men and women. 

Representation - disability in the media

CEEBEEBIES PRESENTER SACKED FOR HAVING ONE ARM.

Cerrie Burnell, former Ceebeebies presenter was fired from her job in 2009 for having one arm. The beloved children show recieved many complaints about their presenter, from parents, explaining that due to her disability she was 'scaring children'. 

Cerrie Burnell was born with her right arm not fully-developed, and the BBC argued that the sooner children came to recognise disability, the sooner they would learn to understand and accept it...

I chose to use this news story because it shows a split in audiences in terms of the acceptance of portraying minorities such as the disabled, on television. 

As people have different life experiences, opinions are more than likely to vary quite widely when it comes to something people are not yet use to.

While there are more and more people in contemporary society that are becoming more accepting of showing physical and mental disabilities in a more equal and positive light in the media, there are also many that are less accepting. Perhaps if there was more exposer for this social group in the media,  the innoculation theory would be put into practice. 

Traditionally, the disabled were shown in the media as:

• Pitiful
• Helpless/ vunerable
• Pathetic
• Can't fend for/ look after themselves
• Vunerable
• Not normal
• Outcast

Currently, the way we view the disabled is changing:

• "Superhumans" (The London Olympics)
• Perfectly capable
• Accepted

However, there are still many people who view this group in a more traditional way - as the previous article shows - and because of this, we still see them in a pitiful light.

Representations of the Elderly in the Media

How are the elderly depicted in the media today?
Misunderstanding
Harvey and Eddie
Smart phones

• Generally viewed in a stereotypical way:
  Slow, not up to date with technology, ill, friendly, outspoken, vulnerable and a burden, hard of hearing
• Depiction in the media is mainly limited to advertisements or programs attempting to appeal to all generations of a family - it's as if the elderly are portrayed in the media as non-existent, as if they do not matter.
• "Uncool" in the media's eyes

Why do we believe these representations?

CULTIVATION THEORY

• Cultivation theory is a social theory that examines the long term effects of television.
• When we are unsure about something, we often just take in the information given to us by mass media without questioning it. This information is then internalized by us as consumers of media and then used as social guidance to categorize social roles. Therefore, it leaves people with a mis-perception of what is true in our world.
• Cultivation theory in its most basic form suggests that exposure to television, overtime, subtly "cultivates" viewers' perceptions of reality.

Sometimes these misperceptions can be really off. Just because someone is older, doesn't mean they are all of these things.

Got Milk?

MY TOP 3 SCARES...

Teaser

This is a documentary I recently watched, making me realise that I am in some way, afraid of what people, including myself, could be capable of. In this programme, Britain was faced with a cyber-attack on the national grid, forcing everyone to live without power for days. It wasn't so much the programme that scared me, but more the concept of what happens to all of us when everything goes wrong. No one had access to money, food was going off, people were looting the streets, everyone was forced into survival mode to look after themselfs and their children.

Trailer 2008

Mirrors came out in 2008, and I don't completely remember the plot, or what happens. However, there are certain scenes that stuck with me after this movie. I remember there being some sort of parallell universe that could be seen through mirrors or reflective surfaces. People were being murdered by their own reflections. It was around 5 years ago that I watched this, and I still don't really like looking in mirrors to this day.

MANNEQUINS. They freak me out, full stop.
They are far too human - like for me, and some of them even have eyelashes. I swear I saw one move once.
Any films that have mannequins freak me out.

Horror film sub-genres

HORROR, is a genre of film, whereby playing on common fears and emotional instabilities allows  the director to frighten and scare his/her audience demographic.
You'd be surprised how many horror sub-genres there are out there...

Supernatural - Usually includes some kind of force that is beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature. Most common themes in supernatural horror movies include ghosts, monsters and dark forces.

Dark fantasy - Dark fantasy adds a horror feel to a fantasy film. By this, I mean fantasy that have more of a gloomy atmosphere to them.

Sci-fi Horror - Elements of sci-fi, usually aliens/ robots/ etc. mixed with horror. To do this, the movies usually have some kind of theme where there is going to be a takeover, like in the movie Alien.

Psychological Horror - Relies on character fears and instabilities and uses various tricks to lure the audience in such as including every day objects to make the audience feel as though they can relate to the film. This sub-genre aims to create a sense of discomfort in it's audiences psychologically and emotionally.

Gothic Horror - Psychological terror in historically romantic settings. They typically include mysteries, castles, vampires decay and death. 

Splatter film - Graphic use of gore and violence through special effects and excessive blood/ blood loss. 

Satanic/ Religious/ Occult - Horror that's come from the belief of the evil that religion fights against. Usually there is inclusion of some sort of possession or exorcism etc. 

Erotic Horror/ Paranormal romance - also known as Dark Erotica describes films which include sexual imagery blended with horror overtones.

Suspense/ Thriller - A film that doesn't necessarily scare you, but definately can make you jump. It has an exciting plot and can involve crime or spies.

Speculative - Usually a term used to describe a film that doesn't really fit into just one genre. It is more of an umbrella term than a subgenre, and includes a blend of science fiction, fantasy, horror, superhero fiction, apocalyptic fiction and alternative history literature. 

Body Horror - Horror generated from the degeneration or deconstruction of the human body. Usually involve scenes of a very graphic nature.

Comedy Horror - Simply a combination of the comedy genere, and horror. Well known of this genre are the Scary Movie films.

Natural Horror - Films that feature nature running amok in the form of usually mutalated beasts, carnivorous insects or harmless animals or plants turned into cold-blooded killers. 

Slasher film - Normally a slasher film would involve a lot of violence associated with a psychopathic killer that chooses one 'signature wepon' to kill all of his victims.

Zombie film - Live corpses that feed of the living. Most of the time realted to some sort of disease, illness, or infection spreading worldwide.

Action Horror - Combines the intrusion of evil, an event or the supernatural in other horror films, with the guns, explosions, and high-speed chases in action films.