Catwomen role of women superheroes becoming common

essay plan 2

2007-05-11T01:40:00.000-07:00

"The audience may know what to expect but are still exited by genre text" to what extent is this true?

Introduction: It can be argued that the audience know what to expect in different genre text although some codes and conventions have to change to reflect the zeitgeist so the audience can have many pleasures. Steve Neale 1980 states that "the difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre."

Theory to mention:
Cultivation theory , what the audience expect i.e. slasher films need to be more graffic due to the audience being desensitized. Some changes need to occur for them to get different sorts of pleasure e.g. sadistic, massacistic, and viceral pleasures.

Uses and gratifications theory, the audience choose what type of text they want to watch.

Reception theory: They create their own reading and response when they watch a genre text.

quote:
james monaco 1979"increasingly we are going to watch the same 10 movies"
It's true because all slasher films have similar narative structure/template, phalic symbols, teenage group, final girl, inaficient authority figures.
It isn't true because: Post modern text make intertextual references , audience are desensitized, final girl more resourceful,variations in remake films, and censorships in socienty.

Essay plan 1

2007-05-09T06:15:00.000-07:00

Recent developments in genre have included the emergence of parody pastiche and hybrid forms. Show how such developments have influenced the nature of media text. Jan 06 B

In introduction - difine genre

Genre is a form of categorising different media text, using codes and conventions which a expected of a specific audience. Although audiences expect similarities in a specific genre, Richard Maltby 1955 states that "genres are flexible" and that they can "change and adapt" through out timeto reflect the zeitgeist. They can change by becoming a hybrid, or use different elements of parody and pastiche and they must change so the audience get a new viceral pleasure i.e. laughing in a slasher film.

Text to mention: post modern text which shows how slasher films have changed.
*Scary Movie because it is a hybrid which is a parody/spoof as it uses many other slasher text and mocks them to make the audience laugh.
*Scream because it mentions its self as a slasher film it is aware of it self being a slasher film
it also mention other slasher films. It is also a pastiche because it uses the stypical slasher narative template.
*The grand daddy of slasher films which is Alfred Hitchcocks famous slasherfilm Pyscho.
*other text such as halloweenand texas chainsaw massacre.

Codes and convetions seen in slasher films:
*teenagers (if they have sex they die) ideology promoted to films.
*Killer with with a mask
*final girl Carol Clovers theory.
*isolated location
*screams

Say how codes and conventions have changed:
*Final girl in scream has sex but doesn't die
*In friday 13th the killer deosn't have a mask and is a woman
*when slasher films began final girl wasn't resourceful but now she is seen fighting back.

Genre thoery
talks about a pattern of different repetoire of elements, it also talks about how genres are not fixed although they have identifiable similarities. Genres are dynamic.

Audience and their expectations
Audience are desensitized to watching blood a guts the films made nowadays have to be more grafic. Cultivation theory so films can be enjoyable.

final draft of essay

2007-05-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

I was everything they wanted me to be. I was never more beautiful. Never more powerful.” How and why are female (super) heroes becoming more ubiquitous in film and having more active roles with particular reference to "Catwoman (2004) Pitof.”

In the contemporary media woman are starting to have more active roles rather than passive roles; they are not being represented the way they used to (such as being stereotyped as a motherly figure and the housewife, usually known as the ‘Madonna’.) After the Second World War feminism began to make inroads in the west giving women equal rights to men, although it can be argued that we may still live in a patriarchal society. During the war DC Comics created super heroic characters such as Superman, Batman, and the Hulk etc, but women superheroes were not created until shortly after the war. Famke Janssen states that ‘we’ve always been ready for female superheroes. Because women want to be them and men want to do them.’ Catwoman, which was created by DC and Marvell Comics, was one of the first characters who opposed the traditional stereotype of women. She made her first appearance in the Batman series in 1966 and ‘was known as the femme fatale’ due to her character being rather ambiguous. Warner Brothers, now known as Time Warner are involved in the production and distribution of action films and TV programmes such as Wonder woman (1976) William M. Marston and Catwomen (2004) Pitof which portrayed women to be ‘beautiful, active, sexy and dangerous.’

Woman (super) heroes are becoming much more common in the media today; films such as Kill Bill (2003) Quentin Tarantino , Tomb Raider (2001) Simon West, Charlie’s Angels (2000) McG, Elektra (2005) Rob Bowman and Catwoman feature staring well known actresses having active roles and effecting role reversals with men in the narrative. Propp’s theory states that men are meant to be the ‘hero who is on the quest’ to save the day, whilst women take on the role of the ‘princess who is the reward for the hero’. However in the 21st century, audiences have different expectations and as a result, female roles have been subverted: women are represented to be ‘kicking ass.’

Changes in society had started to occur during WWII: many women had to work as most of the men had to go and fight. From there on the women’s movement and feminism was reborn. “A woman could be a breadwinner, be skillful, and be proud of her skill”. The civil rights movement had become so big “it only took a few of us to get together and ignite a spark and spread like a nuclear chain reaction.” This meant that the more women stuck together the better chance they had of being treated equally to men because the rise of ‘girl power’ as said by David Gauntlett. Before the war women were oppressed, they were expected to do things such as ‘domestic labour’ and being a ‘motherly person’ that looked after her children at home but during the war they were given the opportunity to work in factories and take up the expected role of men. Although women have more roles in the media today feminist would say ‘we still have a long way to go in terms of politics, philosophy, and economics before we live in a society where men and women can be considered as equal’.

Wonder woman, which was also a character created for DC and Marvell comics had appeared on television during the 1970’s near to the time when the women’s movement had taken place. Wonder woman’s character was based on the women of the Amazon. ‘Amazon’s were a society of female warriors.’ This could be known as a matriarchal society. ‘They were honourable, courageous, brave and represented rebellion against sexism.’ But the fact that the woman of the Amazon was only a Greek myth suggests that women are not seen to be as important as men in our society to this day, although women are starting to have more equal rights.
Her character represented America and its allies through the way she was dressed. She wore red, blue, and white, which are used on the Union jack and the American flag, ‘she basically wore the American Flag’, which connoted and represented patriotic forces of World War 2. Her outfit was also very skimpy but never seen as being sexual. The weapons she carried were her tiara, which she used as a Frisbee and her lasso, which made people tell the truth. Marston was the creator of wonder woman, he said that he decided to give wonder woman a weapon that made people tell the truth as he believes ‘women were more honest and reliable than men and could work faster and more accurately.’ This represents another stereotype of women, which is positive and not negative. During the seventies it was very popular not because she was an subject to the ‘male gaze’ but because of what she was representing and therefore gaining a larger audience.

Contemporary films like Tomb raider were successful due to the fact that before it was even a film it had been a game. People who played the game which were mostly men had control over Lara Croft, to a certain extent they felt like they were in control of her in the film leading to it being very successful as it was liked by the majority of it audience. Other films such as Kill Bill, Alien and Linda Hamilton in the Terminator movies had done well due to the characters playing conventional masculine roles which are expected to be played by men but are played by women. This was known as ‘masculinity,’ and made these films unique.

Radical feminist believed that the way ‘women are portrayed in the media encourages the expectation of women’ in reality. This is why women are challenging stereotypes so that they can show that they are just as inferior to men and should not be treated differently.

On the other hand Catwoman was a big failure at the box office and ‘had lost its producers more money that it had earned because it had not used intertextuality to its advantage. The film was heavily criticized by both film critics and fans of the comic book character’ as it had nothing to do with the original comic book story and didn’t even mention Gotham city or Batman where her character had appeared originally and made her famous. It was rated ‘3 out of 10’ by its audiences. Although capital radio had said it was “very slick all around entertainment” and the Sunday mirror rating it four stars.

‘Another film that failed to impress its audience and failed to hit the box office was Super
girl (1984)’, her character was a stereotypical hero, and it did not really do well because it did not have anything unique or different about it. It did not have any scenes which would attract the male gaze and as a result it lost its audience’s approval. It was not distributed by Warner Brothers like Superman 3, it was distributed by TriStar Pictures, an institution that is not as high budget as Warner Brother’s pictures. Although Catwoman was not distributed by TriStar Pictures, but had been distributed by Warner Brothers, emphasises that not all highly budget films can make it to the top as it had still managed to fail in the box office.

One film that was not a failure but did not take up the importance of a woman was Fantastic four. Out of the four superheroes only one is a female, although she has shown that she is independent and can look after herself her love interest is seen saving her. This emphasises that women can be shown in the media but is only there to make females who watch the film feel equal but in reality are not always equally.

Although women were getting treated equally, people who were of a different race were not completely treated equally to white people and therefore suffered from racism. The majority of woman who have played Catwoman are white. These women were Julie Newmar, Lee Merriwether, Adrianne Barbeua who played the voice of Catwoman in the Batman cartoon, Michelle Pfiffer, although other ethnicities have been taken into account as the first black Catwoman was played by Eartha Kitt in 1967, this suggests that more equality was taking place in society and people were not easily being racially discriminated against. Halle Berry was the second black woman to play Catwoman. The reason they had made Catwoman black was because they wanted to appeal to wider audience of other ethnicities rather than just trying to get Halle Berry fans, comic books readers and film critics to watch the film.

In Catwoman there are high and low angled shots of characters in the film. The high angled shot is of Catwoman and then it cuts to a low angled shot of the villain of the film. The high angled shot signifies she is important and she is the hero and the low angled shot represents the villain’s vulnerability. There is also a shot like this of a police lying on the floor, and Catwoman goes to rescue him. Low key lighting is used as the scene is set at night, the setting is in a building storage place with big windows where you can see the city and there is a lot of space to move around especially as the fight is taking place there. Non diegetic sound of rock music is used when a fight begins in the scene this suggests the genre of the film which is action, these types of film are usually linked to Warner Brother films.

The heroes and villains in films are usually male but in this case both of them are female this reverse of roles in a film suggests that today women are not typically stereotyped like they use to be. The stereotype is being challenged. Men are shown to be the damsel in distress in this film as Catwoman has to rescue them. The structure of the scene is based on Todorov's theory, the equilibrium is of the cop having a conversation with a woman who is the villain, the disequilibrium is of the woman shooting the cop and the resolution is of Catwoman saving the man and killing the villain. Thomas Sobchack says that ‘ in this foundational mode a protagonist with special skills confronts, human, natural or supernatural powers which have brought disorder to the world of the narrative and overcomes them to achieve a specific goal, usually the resolution of order’.

The audience can be determined by the institution of the film, Warner Brothers produce many action films which are aimed at young 15+ male and female middle classed people. Catwoman aims to please both male and female audience due to the characters roles; this was meant to make the film a hit but failed to do so.

In the film Catwoman, women are stereotyped as being the ‘Whore’, they are into their looks just so they can impress men especially as they are working in cosmetic company owned by a man. The fact that the media portrays women to be slim and beautiful ‘eye candy’ ‘puts immense pressure on women to look good, leading to high demands of plastic surgery and beauty products.’

Patience Philips (Halle Berry) is the lead character and seems to be a ‘helpless career orientated woman’ who doesn’t care about her appearance and is shown to be very nerdy and geeky person. She follows the ‘damsel in distress’ stereotype at the beginning of the film as she needs saving from falling off her apartment by Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt), this puts her in a passive role. Throughout the film we see Patience turn into a more independent and dominant character which ends up saving Tom Lone giving her an active role and making her the heroine (hero) of the film. To reflect her change she dressed in skin tight costumes that emphasise her curves so that she looks sexy and appeals to men. ‘The heroine’s beauty makeover becomes part of her seductive armoury as a female avenger.’ The villain in the film is Laurel Hedare (Sharon Stone); she challenges stereotypes as she kills her husband in order to take over his cosmetic company so she can keep all the profits of money for herself. This suggests that women today are seen as being more independent rather than dependant on the man. This also reflects the zeitgeist of the society we live in today.

Similarly in Kill Bill most characters are females although in the film the women are fighting against Uma Thurman the protagonist who is out to get revenge by killing Bill, but the only way she could do this is to kill the people who work for Bill which are mainly women who are protecting him. This could suggest that women can be more powerful but the man is still in control and implies the dominance of a male. In Charlie’s Angels it is also the same as all three girls take orders from Charlie so they can protect him.

The one thing that nearly all the films have in common is that they star women as being protagonist, and all the women are objectified to a certain extent. They would all be dressed in tight fitted clothes that show off their curvaceous bodies. They are represented this way in order to meet the expectations of the ‘male gaze’. Laura Mulvey’s theory states that women are ‘the desire for the pleasurable gaze of the spectator’ .

Catwoman’s costume is not a conventional superhero suit but it is still is an extreme costume that represents her power amongst average people. Her costume is really revealing even though she is covered from head to toe, because her costume is so promiscuous she uses that to her advantage to manipulate a man to get what she want. She is dressed in a seductive way providing voyeuristic pleasure for the male spectator. The colour of her clothes are black and the connotation of black are evil dark and mysterious which basically somes up her character as she is a jewel thief when she first becomes Catwoman and then prowls the street at night, this is why she is known as the ‘Feline Fatale’. The weapon she uses is a lasso /whip, this is meant to be seen as her tail as she is a cat but can be viewed as a phallic and fetish object. According to Sigmund Freud’s theory when women are seen as giving different pleasures to men it could cause the man to have anxiety and unless a phallic or a fetish object is put in the scene with a women the man would feel fear of himself being castrated. This also leads to misogyny as men would get jealous of the female hero. The whip is also related to sadism as it can be used for offering pain in a sexual way that is why it can been seen as a fetish object. Other texts also use objects to emphasize the power of the female such as Wonder Woman with her lasso, Electra (2005) Rob Bowman with her swords, and Lara Croft with her guns. Film get sold because ‘sex sells’.

Some super heroic women are also known as the “"ULTIMATE SUPERVIXENS" as they are being regarded as quarrelsome, shrewish, malicious and sly. Some famous super vixen’s are Catwoman, Lara Croft, Xenia, The Bond Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charlie's Angels, Wonder Woman, Princess Leila Organza, Ripley, Storm, The Bionic Woman, Barb Wire, Red Sonja, Barcarolle , Breathless Mahoney, The Women of Austin Powers, Mrs. Peel, Elektra, Mystique and the Bride. They are characterised like this especially when they are the protagonist of the film. This is done to engage its audience and make them enjoy the film that they are watching.

Films that have men as the super hero tend to always be successful because the male is the protagonist, this means that males who go to watch films such as Spiderman (2002) Sam Riami, Batman Returns (1992) Tim Burton, and Superman (2006) Bryan Singer aspire to be like the male superhero especially because they get the girl in the end and gets ‘erotic pleasure’ from her as a reward. People who watch these sorts of films would be watching the film from a ‘mans world’, which is seeing things from a man’s point of view.

Women who go to watch films with male superheroes tend go for voyeuristic pleasure and also view things in a ‘female gaze’. They would watch the men like the men would watch the women, especially when the hero is good looking and is dressed in tight fitted clothes that his muscle definition can be seen, these men are seen or called macho. From this perspective not only do the women get objectified but the men do too. Richard Dyer argues that men in action films ‘puts his body on show’, ‘to-be- looked-at-ness’. A good example of this is Spiderman, were Peter Parker is standing in front of a mirror topless, and his Spiderman suit also emphasises his muscles.

Spiderman can also be compared to Catwoman as Peter is at first a geeky but then becomes the hero just as Catwoman does, this can also be interpreting the change on our contemporary society, and the male can also be gazed upon.

In conclusion, women (super) heroes are becoming more frequent because we live in a post-modern and feminist society in which both sexes are treated equally. People are not conforming to stereotypes in society as much as they use too, seeing see things differently leading to the media drastically changing. Catwoman shows how women are usually stereotyped but challenges it too; her representation changes through the film also showing the big changes that society has gone through in order to be fair to both sexes. Films such as X-Men (2000) Bryan Singer prove this as it has both male and female superheroes which also staring Halle Berry in which they are fighting together not with each other. It emphasises the equality between men and women in society today resulting to the film being very popular as it does not portray one sex being weaker than the other but the fact that the title of the film is X-MEN can be argued against that the male dominance still exist, unlike catwoman which makes woman look very inferior to men as both the hero and villain are female.

Milla J Joe a member of the audiences criticises the film by saying “I really like females in major action roles. In fact, I love it when a female is in a big action role. And I was really looking forward to liking Catwoman. And while I did like Catwoman, I liked it for all of the wrong reasons, and it is safe to say that Catwoman is one of my guilty pleasures.” This clearly illustrates that woman placed in films to have active roles are there just to be objectified even though it is demonstrating the equality between men and women in today’s society.

3174 words

self evaluation

2007-03-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

• Attainment 3 my work is average
• Effort 3 I could put a bit more effort in
• Punctuality 1 im always on time
• Submission and quality of homework 3 its usually on time but is normally rushed
• Ability to work independently 2 I can work on my own
• Quality of writing 3 I could do better
• Organisation of Media folder 1 it is very neat and has sub heading making it easier to go through
• Oral contributions in class 2 I do contribute more than I use to
• Quality of coursework 2 I spent a lot of time on it
• Standard of Module 5 blog (Year 13s only) 2 I’v got a lot of information on it that is useful for my course work and exam work.
• Standard of Module 6 blog (Year 13s only) 3 I could put more stuff of the blog
Targets:
*To spend more time on work/homework
*put more work into the med 6 blog
*revise more

2007-02-06T02:16:00.000-08:00

“I was everything they wanted me to be. I was never more beautiful. Never more powerful.”[1] How and why women (super) heroes are becoming more frequent and having active roles in film with reference to "Catwoman."

In the contemporary media woman are starting to have more active roles rather than passive roles, they are not being represented the way they use to such as being stereotyped as a motherly figure and the housewife usually known as the ‘Madonna’. After the war feminism had exploded across the country giving women equal rights to men although we may still live in a patriarchal society. During the war DC comics created super heroic character such as Superman, Batman, the Hulk etc but women superheroes were created shortly after the war. Catwoman which was created by DC and Marvell comics was one of the first characters who opposed the stereotype of women. She made her first appearance in the Batman series in 1966 and ‘was known as the femme fatale’[2] due to her character being ambiguous. Warner brothers now known as Time Warner help produce and publish action films and TV programmes such as Wonder women and Catwomen which portrayed women to be ‘beautiful, active, sexy and dangerous.’[3]

Woman (super) heroes are becoming very common in the media today, films such as Kill Bill, Tomb Raider, Charlie’s Angels, Alien, Electra and Catwoman which are staring well known actresses to having active roles and role reversals with men in films. Propps theory mentions that men are meant to be the ‘hero who is on the quest’ to save the day whilst woman are the ‘princess who is the reward for the hero’,[4] but in 21st century people viewed things very differently and as a result character roles were subverted and challenged in the media, women were shown to be ‘kicking ass.’[5]

Changes had started to occur during the WWII, many women had to work as most of the men had to go and fight in the war. From there on the women’s movement and feminism had started. “A woman could be a breadwinner, be skillful, and be proud of her skill”.[6] The civil rights movement had become so big “it only took a few of us to get together and ignite a spark and spread like a nuclear chain reaction.”[7] This meant that the more women stuck together the better chance they had of bring treated equally to men because the rise of ‘girl power’[8] as said by David Gauntlett.
Before the war women were oppressed, they were expected to do things such as ‘domestic labour’ and being a ‘motherly person’ that looks after her children at home but during the war they were given the opportunity to work in factories and take up the expected role of the man. Although woman have more roles in the media today feminist would say ‘we still have a long way to go in terms of politics, philosophy, and economics before we live in a society were men and women can be considered as equal’.[9]

Wonder woman which was also a character created for DC and Marvell comics had appeared on television during the 1970’s near to the time when the women’s movement had taken place. Wonder woman’s character was based on the women of the Amazon. ‘Amazon’s were a society of female warriors.’[10] This could be known as a matriarchal society. ‘They were honourable, courageous, brave and represented rebellion against sexism.’[11] But the fact that the woman of the Amazon was only a Greek myth suggests that women aren’t seen to be as important as men in our society to this day, although women are starting to have more equal rights.

Her character represented America and its allies through the way she was dressed. She wore red, blue, and white which are used on the Union jack and the American flag, ‘she basically wore the American Flag’[12], which connoted and represented patriotic forces of World War 2, her outfit was also very skimpy but never seen as being sexual. The weapons she carried were her tiara which she used as a Frisbee and her lasso which made people tell the truth. Marston was the creator of wonder woman he said that he decided to give wonder woman a weapon that made people tell the truth as he believes ‘women were more honest and reliable than men and could work faster and more accurately.’[13] This represents another stereotype of women which is positive and not negative. During the seventies it was very popular not because she was an object of the ‘male gaze’ but because of what she was representing and therefore gaining a larger audience.

Contemporary films like Tomb raider were successful due to the fact that before it was even a film it had been a game. People who played the game which were mostly men had control over Lara Croft, to a certain extent they felt like they were in control of her in the film leading to it being very successful as it was liked by the majority of it audience. Other films such as Kill Bill, Alien and Linda Hamilton in the Terminator movies had done well due to the characters playing conventional masculine roles which are expected to be played by men but are played by women. This was known as ‘masculinity,’[14] and made these films unique.

Radical feminist believed that the way ‘women are portrayed in the media encourages the expectation of women’[15] in reality. This is why women are challenging stereotypes so that they can show that they are just as inferior to men and shouldn’t be treated differently.

On the other hand Catwoman was a big failure in the box office and ‘had lost its producers more money that it had earned because it had not used intertextuality to its advantage. The film was heavily criticized by both film critics and fans of the comic book character’ [16] as it had nothing to do with the original comic book story and didn’t even mention Gotham city or Batman where her character had appeared originally and made her famous. It was rated ‘3 out of 10’[17] by its audiences. Although capital radio had said it was “very slick all around entertainment”[18] and the Sunday mirror rating it four stars.[19]

Another film that failed to impress it audience and failed to hit the box office was Super girl 1984[20], her character was a stereotypical hero, and it didn’t really do well because it did not have anything unique or different about it. It did not have any scenes which would attract the male gaze and as a result it lost its audiences approval. It was not distributed by Warner Brothers like Superman 3 was it was distributed by TriStar Pictures, an institution that isn’t as high budgeted as Warner brother’s pictures. Although Super girl was distributed by Warner brothers Catwoman was and it had failed, this emphasizes that not all highly budgeted films can make it to the top.

One film that was not a failure but did not take up the importance of a woman was Fantastic four. Out of the four superheroes only one is a female, although she has shown that she is independent and can look after herself her love interest is seen saving her. This emphasizes that women can be shown in the media but is only there to make females who watch the film feel equal but in reality are not always equally.

The majority of woman who have played Catwoman are white. These women were Julie Newmar, Lee Merriwether, Adrianne Barbeua who played the voice of Catwoman in the batman cartoon, Michelle Pfiffer ,although other ethnicities have been taken into account as the first black Catwoman was played by Eartha Kitt in 1967, this suggest that more equality was taking place in society and people weren't easily being racially discriminated against. Halle berry was the second black woman to play Catwoman. The reason they had made Catwoman black was because they wanted to appeal to wider audience of other ethnicities rather than just trying to get Halle Berry fans, comic books readers and film critics to watch the film.

In Catwoman 2004 there are high and low angled shots of characters in the film. The high angled shot is of Catwoman and then it cuts to a low angled shot of the villain of the film. The high angled shot signify's she is important and she is the hero and the low angled shot represents the villains vulnerability, there is also a shot like this of a police better known as cop as it is an American film on the floor, and Catwoman goes to rescue him. Low key lighting is used as the scene is set at night, the setting is in a building storage place with big windows where you can see the city and there is a lot of space to move around especially as the fight is taking place there. Non diegetic sound of rock music is used when a fight begins in the scene this suggests the genre of the film which is action, these types of film are usually linked to Warner brother films this also suggests the audience which could be young 15+ male and female middle classed people. The heroes and villains in films are usually male but in this case both of them are female this reverse of roles in a film suggests that today women are not typically stereotyped like they use to be. The stereotype is being challenged. Men are shown to be the damsel in distress in this film as Catwoman has to rescue them. The structure if the scene is based on Todorov's theory, the equilibrium is of cop having conversation with a woman who is the villain, the disequilibrium is of woman shooting cop and the resolution is of Catwoman saving man and killing the villain.

In the film ‘Catwoman’ women are stereotyped as being the ‘Whore’, they are into there looks just so they can impress men especially as they are working in cosmetic company owned by a man. The fact that the media portrays women to be slim and beautiful ‘eye candy’[21] ‘puts immense pressure on women to look like good, leading to high demands of plastic surgery and beauty products.’[22] Patience Philips (Halle Berry) is the lead character and seems to be a ‘helpless career orientated woman’ [23] who doesn’t care about her appearance and is shown to be very nerdy and geeky person. She follows the ‘damsel in distress’ stereotype at the beginning of the film as she needs saving from falling of her apartment by Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt), this put her in a passive role. Through out the film we see Patience turn into a more independent and dominant character which ends up saving Tom Lone giving her an active role and making her the heroine (hero) of the film. To reflect her change she dressed in skin tight costumes that emphasize her curves so that she looks sexy and appeals to men. The villain in the film is Laurel Hedare (Sharon Stone), she challenges stereotypes as she kills her husband in order to take over his cosmetic company so she can keep all the profits of money for herself. This suggests that women today are seen as being gold diggers.

Similarly in Kill Bill most characters are females although in the film the women are fighting against Uma Thurman the protagonist who is out to get revenge by killing Bill, but the only way she could do this is to kill the people who work for Bill which are mainly women and are protecting him. This could suggest that women can be more powerful but the man is still in control and implies the dominance of a male. In Charlie’s Angels it is also the same as all three girls take orders from Charlie so they can protect him.

The one thing that nearly all the films have in common that star women as being protagonist is that the women are all objectified to a certain extent. They would all be dressed in tight fitted clothes that shows off there curvaceous bodies. They are represented this way in order to meet the expectations of the ‘male gaze’. Laura Mulvey theory mentions that women are ‘the desire for the pleasurable gaze of the spectator’[24] .

Catwoman’s costume is not a conventional superhero suit but it is still is an extreme costume that represents her power amongst average people. Her costume is really revealing even though she is covered from head to toe, because her costume is so revealing she uses that to her advantage to manipulate a man to get what she want. She is dressed in a seductive way letting the viewer get pleasure. The colour of her clothes are black and the connotation a black are evil dark and mysterious which basically somes up her character as she is a jewel thief when she first becomes Catwoman and then prowls the street at night this is why she is known as the ‘Feline Fatale’[25]. The weapon she uses is a lasso /whip, this is meant to be seen as her tail as she is a cat but can be viewed as a phallic and fetish object. According to Sigmund Freud’s Theory when women are seen as giving different pleasures to men it could cause the man to have anxiety if a phallic or a fetish object is put it the scene with a women as the man would feel castrated and make the women seem like they have power. This also leads to misogyny as men would get jealous of the female hero. The whip is also related to sadism as it can be used for offering pain in a sexual way that is why it can been seen as a fetish object. Other text also use objects to emphasize the power of the female such as wonder woman with her lasso, Electra with her swords, and Lara Croft with her guns. Film get sold because ‘sex sells’.

Some super heroic women are also known as the “"ULTIMATE SUPERVIXENS"[26] as they being regarded as quarrelsome, shrewish, malicious and sly. Some famous supervixen’s are
Catwoman, Lara Croft, Xena, The Bond Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charlie's Angels, Wonder Woman, Princess Leia Organa, Ripley, Storm, The Bionic Woman, Barb Wire, Red Sonja, Barbarella , Breathless Mahoney, The Women of Austin Powers, Mrs. Peel, Elektra, Mystique and the Bride. They are characterized like this especially when they are the protagonist of the film.
Films that have men as the super hero tend to always be successful because the male is the protagonist, this means that males who go to watch films such as Spiderman, Batman, and superman aspire to be like the male superhero especially because they get the girl in the end and the gets ‘erotic pleasure’[27] from her as a reward. People who watch these sorts of films would be watching the film from a ‘mans world’[28] which is seeing things from a man’s point of view.

Women who go to watch films with male superheroes tend go for voyeuristic pleasure and also view things in a ‘female gaze’. They would watch the men like the men would watch the women, especially when the hero good looking and is dressed in tight fitted clothes that his muscle definition can be seen, these men are seen or called macho. From this perspective not only do the women get objectified but the men do to. Richard Dyer argues that men in action films ‘puts his body on show’, ‘to-be- looked-at-ness’.[29] A good example of this is Spiderman, were Peter Parker is standing in front of a mirror topless, and his Spiderman suit also emphasizes his muscles.

Spiderman can also be compared to Catwoman as Peter is at first a geeky but then becomes the hero just as Catwoman does, this can also be interpreting the change on our contemporary society, and the male can also be gazed upon.

In conclusion women (super) heroes are becoming more frequent because we live in a post-modern and feminist society in which both sexes are treated equally. People are not conforming to stereotypes in society as much as they use too, seeing see things differently leading to the media drastically changing. Catwoman shows how women are usually stereotyped but challenges it too; her representation changes through the film also showing the big changes that society has gone through in order to be fair to both sexes. Films such as X-Men prove this as it has both male and female superheroes which also staring Halle Berry in which they are fighting together not with each other. It emphasizes the equality between men and women in society today resulting to the film being very popular as it does not portray one sex being weaker than the other but the fact that the title of the film is X-MEN can be argued against that the male dominance still exist, unlike catwoman which makes woman look very inferior to men as both the hero and villain are female.
2866 words
[1] Catwoman 2004 quote by Laurel Hedare
[2] Documentary ‘The many faces of Catwoman’2004
[3] E Ann Kaplan , Woman and film noir, 1998 pg 164-182
[4] Bennett Jacquie, Media studies AS & A2, 2005 pg 92.
[5]Tasker, Yvonne (2004): Action and Adventure cinema. USA. Routledge pg201

[6] Delamont, Sara (2001): changing women, unchanged men? Pg 85
[7] Nelmes Jill (1996): An introduction to film studies 3rd edition. Pg248
[8]Bennett, Jacquie (2005): Media studies AS & A2 Pg 109
[9] Nelmes Jill (1996): An introduction to film studies 3rd edition pg 249.
[10] Wikipedia site on Amazons = definition on Amazon women.
[11] http://www.whoosh.org/issue12/ruffel3.html =BRAVE WOMEN WARRIORS OF GREEK MYTH:
[12] Documentary “beauty brawn and bulletproof bracelets: A Wonder Woman Retrospective.” 2004
[13] http://www.wonderwoman-online.com/marston.html
[14] Tasker, Yvonne (1993): Spectacular Bodies: Gender Genre and the Action cinema. London. Routledge pg 3
[15] Nelmes Jill (1996): An introduction to film studies 3rd edition. London. Routledge pg 248.
[16] wikipedia site on Catwoman
[17] imdb ratings on Catwoman.
[18] Quote from Capital Radio.
[19] Quote from the Sunday Mirror.
[20]Wikipedia. Supergirl
[21] Tasker, Yvonne (2004): Action and Adventure cinema pg 201
[22] Bennett, Jacquie (2005): Media studies AS & A2 pg 147
[23] http://www.comicsetc.com/art.php?cont=Female%20Cmic%20Book%20Superheroes
[24] Mulvey Laura(1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ volume 16 no3 pg6-18
[25] Quote by Eartha Kitt in the documentary ‘The many faces of Catwoman’2004

[26] http://www.superherohype.com/news.php?id=2887
[27] MacDonald Myra (1995) ‘Representing Women’ pg 46
[28] Carter, Cynthia and Branston, Gill, Allan, Stuart (1998): News, Gender and power pg 8
[29] Tasker, Yvonne (2004): Action and Adventure cinema pg 203

white board

2007-01-31T05:00:00.000-08:00

my white board:
http://123.writeboard.com/78202f3740ad47a6f/

kiran's white board:
http://123.writeboard.com/aab1851301fa300be

Blog feedback for Kalpan

2007-01-11T12:47:00.000-08:00

Her blog is very detailed and has a good analysis of each text . she makes reference to how each concept can be related to a thoery and links most of her text to feminism.
Aswell as mentioning text that were historical she mention text that were contemporary as most 3d animated film only recently had started to come out.
she could've mentioned films such as monsters inc which is a disney 3d animated film that has the hero being monsters she can compare the film to her main text, and the incredibles a family of superheroes.

Detailed essay plan for coursework

2007-01-07T16:18:00.000-08:00

Introduction
Should mention:
*women now having active roles rather than passive
*stereotypes of women being reinforced and challenged
*since world war two changes for women
*Dc comics creating women super hero characters
*Warner brothers now known as time Warner worlds largest film and TV producers for entertainment help produce films for dc comics , it first created wonder woman series.

Comparison of catwoman and wonder woman:
Catwoman:
*First appeared on the batman series in 1966
* her character is a stereotype of a helpless (damsel in distress) career orientated woman. First seen as Madonna then the whore. Media studies as and a2 book on women and film.
* stereotype challenged when she becomes catwoman. She save a man. Information on stereotypes and representation of women in the book an introduction to film studies.
*her costume is tight fitting and reveals a lot of flesh
*she uses her sexuality to empower men (femmefatal)
*her weapon which is seen as a phallic object and fetish object. Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis. Mention other text such as tomb raider with guns and kill bill Uma Thurman with sword.
* she is being objectified to a certain extent due to the way she is dressed. Should mention Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze. Andrea dworkin theory and disagreeing with it because women don’t get raped just because men watch porn or because women dress tarty.
*character roles subverted and challenged. Hero and villain females. Going against Propp’s character roles theory.
*2 black women have played catwomen, it reflects changes of racial discrimination in society, women can be just as subordinate with men get info from books such as changing women unchanged men. Mention book about action adventure and cinema as it talk about the action babe. Talk about Halle berry playing a super hero in x-men aswell.

Wonder woman:
*she also dresses in tight fitted clothes skimpy clothes.
*she represents patriotic values as she’s literally wearing the American flag.
*as it is produced after the war the villains are Nazi’s.
*they were both produced from the help of Warner brothers.
*her character based on woman of the Amazon, ( a society run by women) but this is seen as a greek myth. This can be linked with patriarchal societies being reinforced.
*she also career a weapon which is her lasso seen as a phallic object.

How war made changes for women in the 20th century in detail.
Women in action films talk about alien, kill bill, Charlie’s angels and Catwomen.
Summarise everything that is said answering how and why they have become more frequent and whether it is successful or not.

First paragraph

2007-01-07T15:46:00.000-08:00

How and why woman (super) heroes are becoming more frequent and having active roles in film with refernce to Catwoman.

Nowadays woman are starting to have more active roles in films rather than passive roles, they're not being represented the way they use such as being stereotyped as a motherly figure and the housewife especially after the war when feminism had exploded across the country giving women equal rights to men even though we may still live in a patriachal society. Since the war DC comics created superheroic character such as superman, batman, the Hulk etc but women superheroes were created shortly after the war to such as wonderwoman who represented patriotic values through the clothes she wore, and Catwoman who made her first appearnce in batman in 1966. Warner brothers now known as Time warner help produce and publish action films and Tv programmes such as wonder women and catwomen which portrayed women in a totally different way.

Historical text

2007-01-02T05:56:00.000-08:00

Primary research through watching episodes and documentaries about Wonder Woman.

Wonder woman started shortly after Batman and Superman in the 1970's, her character was based around the woman of the amazon.

She in dressed in red blue and white with stars on the blue, she's basically wearing the american flag and this represents patriotic forces of world war two, althought she wears a skimpy outfit she is not a sexual character, she is a symbol to woman as she is not being defiled by exposure of her body. Catwoman wears tight black leather outfits which could be seen as sexual especially for the male gaze, but on the other hand she uses her sexuality to empower men and take advantage of them.

The weapons she carries are her tiarra and a lasso, the rope can be seen as a phallic object as with catwoman she has a whip and that is also seen as a phallic object.

Wonder woman started in the 1970's near to the time where the womens movement had taken place and when femenism was exploding across the country, the programme convey woman being heard in society today. As it's was being shown on tv after the war it made sense to make the villain Nazi's. Wonder woman represents America and its allies and blue red and white are also the colours used on the union jack also know as the British flag, making there enemies the nazi's as this is who they fought during World War Two. When she isn't Wonder woman she works as the secretary in the war department in Washington DC hiding her identity. This challenges the stereotype of women being expected to be housewives and taking on a motherly role. During the war many woman had to work as most of the men had to go and fight.

Both superheroines originate from the DC (Detective Comics) comic books and instituted by Warner Brothers.

Secondary research from the internet and books about Wonder Woman and other text I will mention.

Links:
*An encyclopedia page about wonder woman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Woman

*Articles on wonder woman.
http://www.wonderwoman-online.com/articles.html

*Amazons of Greek mythology. Amazons were warriors women who lived in a materiachal society. They had a role reversal with men and were the more dominant ones in their society. Wonder Woman is Princess Diana of the amazon warrior tribe. We now live in a patrichal world over ruled by men but how come a materiachal world is a myth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazons

*Marston was the creator of the systolic blood-pressure test, which lead to the creation of the polygraph(lie detector). Because of his discovery, Marston was convinced that women were more honest and reliable than men and could work faster and more accurately. During his life time, Marston championed the causes of women. This is how wonder woman and her lasso which made people tell the truth was created.
http://www.wonderwoman-online.com/marston.html

*Women's movement, were women campaigned to have equality with men.
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0018450.html

Supergirl 1984
girl is also a superheroine from the DC comics, she is also known as supermans cousin.
The film had failed hugely in the boxoffice as it couldn't impress critics or audiences. It was'nt distributed by Warner Brothers as Superman 3was a big failure it was distributed by TriStar Pictures. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supergirl_(film)#Plot .

Alien 1979
ripley ( Sigourney weaver) kills alien and all men die she's the only surviver. not a streotypical woman.

Catwoman

2007-01-02T05:46:00.000-08:00

She first appeared on the Batman series in 1966.
She was a femmefatal.
She's an ambigous character as she has the role of being a good and bad person.
The majority of woman who have played catwoman are white.
These women were :
* Julie Newmar
*Lee Merriwether
*Adrianne Barbeua who played the voice of catwoman in the batman cartoon.
*Michelle Pfiffer
althought other ethnicities have been taken into account as the first black catwoman was played by Eartha Kitt in 1967, this suggest that more equality was taking place in society and people weren't easily being racially discriminated against. Halle berry was the second black woman to play catwoman.

How Laura Mulvey's theory is linked to my independent study.

2006-11-26T12:07:00.000-08:00

Laura Mulvey's theory is linked to my independent study as she talks about the male gaze. Catwomen (Halle Berry) in the film is a protaganist and the hero and the audience are forced to identify with her. She is being sexually objectified because of the ways she's dressed like the tight fitting outfits which reveal most of her flesh and the weapons she carries like the whip which can be seen as a phallic object but also a fetish object, the whip is also related to sadism as it can be used for offering pain in a sexual way.

Laura Mulvey and Sigmond Freud

2006-11-16T04:44:00.000-08:00

Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film critic, she is well known for writing her essay on visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Her theory is about spectatorship of film and the male gaze.
The audience are positioned to veiw a film from a males perspective and this leads to women being looked at as objects, they get objectified. Because women are objectified the stereotype of a patriachal society is reinforced and men are seen to be more dominant and powerful then women. as we view things from a males perspective women are seen as giving erotic and voyeristic pleasure to men. She mentions Freud in her theory as his theory is about psychoanalysis which was looked at the human mind and tried to interpret human behaviour, when women are seen as giving different pleasures to men it could cause the man to have anxiety if a phalic or a fetish object is put it the scene with a women as the man would feel castrated and make the women seem like they have power. this also leads to misogyny.

women in adverts

2006-11-13T05:07:00.000-08:00

traditional advert: Kerry the singer playing the role of a mum doing her shopping in iceland
http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=37812

woman being objectified: lynx advert of women in waiting room and their clothes coming off every time the man moves his clothes.
http://www.ephinx.com/tvadverts/53/lynx-touch-waiting-room-advert.html

challenge stereotypes: dove advert of women with big curvacious bodies not stick thin
http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=23268

2006-11-10T02:48:00.000-08:00

SELF EVALUATION
Attainment I give my self 3 I could achieve more if I made more of an effort
Effort 2
Punctuality 1 because I always come to lessons
Submission and quality of homework 2 I give it in but sometimes I rush it so it isn’t that good
Ability to work independently 2 I can work to the best of my ability on my on
Quality of writing I give myself 3 because the quality of my writing could be improved.
Organisation of Media folder 3 it is organised but it could be organised a bit better
Oral contributions in class 3 I could contribute a bit more
Standard of Module 5 blog (Year 13s only) 3
Standard of Module 6 blog (Year 13s only) 3 they both could have a bit more research on them and could be better presented
3 targets:
* spend more time on homework
* could contribute a bit more in lessons
*try and improve the quality of my work.

COURSE EVALUATION
I GIVE IT 1 FOR ORAGNISATIONB
IT IS VERY INTERESTING 2
1 HAND OUTS ARE VERY USEFUL FOR MY INDEPENDENT STUDY
3 IT’S COULD BE IMPROVED BECAUSE WE STICK ON ONE TOPIC FOR WEEKS
1 FOR the standard of the teachers’ presentation/subject knowledge How well has the course has met my expectations

Book references

2006-10-30T10:32:00.000-08:00

Tasker, Yvonne (2004): Action and Adventure cinema. USA. Routledge.

Carter, Cynthia and Branston, Gill, Allan, Stuart (1998): News, Gender and power. London. Routledge.

Delamont, Sara (2001): changing women, unchanged men?. Buckingham, UK: Open university press.

Pitkin, Hanna Fenichel (1967): The concept of representation. publisher: University of Calafornia.

Branston, Gill and Strafford, Ray (2003): The media students book-third edition. Madison Ave, NY,USA: Routledge.

Gauntlett, David (2002): Media, Gender and identity. West 35th Street, NY: Routledge

Blandford, Steve, Grant, Barry Keith, Hillier, Jim (2001):The film studies dictionary. Madison Avenue, NY: Arnold

Bennett, Jacquie (2005): Media studies AS & A2. Gosport, Hants: Longman.

Cook, Pam and Bernink, Mieke (1999): The cinema book 2nd edition. Stephen St, London: British film institute.

Kaplan Ann. E (1998): Women in Film Noir. London. British Film Institute.

Nelmes Jill (1996): An introduction to film studies 3rd edition. London. Routledge.

Blog buddies!!!

2006-10-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

My other blog buddy in 13D is Sawan

His independent study title is "How has the representation and genre of superheroes changed over time with close reference to Batman Begins"

his independent study overlaps with mine because he uses similar key words to me such as binary opporsitions, gender, hero and patriachy.

The film batman is also similar to the main text im using which is catwoman. They are both action and adventure and fantasy.

The distributor of both films is warner bros which links together.

BLOG BUDDIES

2006-10-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

Kalpan's study focuses on gender roles within films and how woman are having stronger roles in films rather than just playing the stereotypical roles of a damsel in distress. it's also similar because its do to with heroes and villains which is what im mostly focusing on about my text.
Another study that is similar to mine is Kirans as our text are almost the same the only difference is that my text has the hero being a woman, the genre is exactly the same.

2006-10-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

key words:
marxist feminism- i can talk about gender inequility and how it is changing in nowadays society.
narrative- im going to mention the structure of Catwoman, it isn't the structure that todorov describes it has a circular narrative.
protagonist- the main character in the film is usually a man but it cat woman its halle berry.
sexism- how women are objectified there bodies are displayed for men to look at.
A- list - Halle Berry a well known actress she helps the film appeal to a wider audience.
femme fatale- the vilian follows this theory in catwoman.

2006-10-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

Catwoman chapter 27-28 analysis

There are high and low angled shots of characters in the film. The high angled shot is of catwoman and then it cuts to a low angled shot of the vilian of the film. The high angled shot signify's she is important and shes the hero and the low angled shot represents the vilians vunerability, there is also a shot like this of a cop on the floor and catwoman goes to rescue him.
low key lighting is used as the scene is set at night, the setting is in a building storage place with big windows where you can see the city and theres alot of space to move around especially as the fight is taking place there. Non diegetic sound of rock music is used when a fight begins in the scene this suggests the genre of the film which is action, these types of film are usualy linked to warner brother films this also suggests the audience which could be young 15+ male and female middle classed people. The heroes and villians in films are usually male but in this case both of them are female this reverse of roles in a film suggests that today women aren't typically stereotyped like they use to be. The stereotype in being challenged. Men are shown to be the damsel in distress in this film as catwoman is having to rescue them. The structure if the scene is based on Todorov's theory, the equilibrium is of cop having conversation with a woman who is the villain, the disequilibrium is of woman shootng cop and the resolution is of catwoman saving man and killing the villain.

Links

2006-10-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

LINKS

This is a negative review on catwoman. It says that it was one of the worst films made, I can talk about the audience and there expectations about the film and whether it appealed to them or not .
http://www.empireonline.com/incinemas/ReviewComplete.asp?FID=9965

This site is relevant for my study because it talks about gender roles. Representations of Femininity and Masculinity .
http://mediaknowall.com/gender.html#Femininity

This site talks about womanism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Womanism

How woman in comic books are portrayed especially women superheroes.
http://www.viciousgrin.com/writings/womencomic.html

History of comic book woman superheroes
http://www.comicsetc.com/art.php?cont=Female%20Cmic%20Book%20Superheroes

Interview of Halley berry which talks about her opinion about the characters she play in X-men and Catwoman. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/21/1082530222449.html?from=storyrhs

2006-09-22T01:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.blackfilm.com/20040430/features/catwomantrailer.shtml#trailer
to veiw trailer click the link

2006-09-22T01:23:00.000-07:00

5 key word that are relevant to my course work are :

* Laura Mulvey, this is because im going to be talking about feminism and the male gaze theory, it links to my text because it is about a woman superhero and she is there to be gazed at by men but then again is there to be represented as independant person who deosn't need a man .
*Stereotype- cat woman challenges the typical stereotype of a woman.
*Patriarchy- in the film men aren't shown to be dominate it shows women to be dominant which emphasises a matriarchy society.
*Warner Brothers- it is the institution that promoted and marketed Catwoman it is also the instition that produces most of the comic book films,like X-men Batman etc.

people i've added comments to.

2006-09-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

Heena
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=31412118&postID=115831139759284131

Navdeep
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=34031519&postID=115841502304470508

Kalpan
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=31412049&postID=115796341558589826

Sonal
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=33534359&postID=115775756619306128

Sawan
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=34213109&postID=115801545554547141

2006-09-12T05:36:00.000-07:00

Catwoman. Created in the 1940s for DC Comics, she has progressed a very long way since her inception. She began wearing stylish black dresses of the forties and a black cowl much like Batman’s. She moved onto the small screen in the Batman television show in the 1960s, played first by Julie Newmar and wearing skintight cat suits, if you’ll pardon the pun. From there her look changed forever. Now she appears to wear almost nothing. Her breasts are exaggeratedly large, and her costume appears so tight that every muscle and indentation in her flawless physique is perfectly visible. For example, one can very easily locate her belly button and the curvature of her abdominal muscles. How many women do you know with perfectly spherical breasts? The only things that have stayed the same in her costume since the forties are the cowl with cat ears, high cheekbones and long wavy black hair. I noted the previous differences in Catwoman while reading Trina Robbins’s book, The Great Women Superheroes.

this is a brief paragraph from an essay about women super heroes explaining how they are dressed and what the point of them dressing like this is basically how they are represented and the history of women in comic books

http://www.viciousgrin.com/writings/womencomic.html

2006-09-11T07:22:00.000-07:00

im going to mention films like my super ex girlfriend, charlie's angels, and tomb raider which have women as there protagonist .

2006-09-11T05:31:00.000-07:00

i read through an interview of Halle Berry and it talks about the character she plays in the film and how successfull she is especially being the first black woman to win the Academy Award for best actress, this would help answer my question as it is focusing on success for women nowadays.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/21/1082530222449.html?from=storyrhs

2006-09-11T05:20:00.000-07:00

2006-09-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

i found information on theorist such as Andrea Dworkin and Laura Mulvey and i also found information on different sorts of feminism such as Misogyny Post-feminism Masculism Radical feminism Pro-feminism Cultural feminism Male gaze and Marxism.
http://www.mediaed.org.uk/posted_documents/womenrep.html

2006-09-09T04:23:00.000-07:00

Media language: a variety of shots are used throughout the film such as closeup medium shot big closeup etc , for example there is a high angled shot of catwoman ( halle berry) and this represents her importance as she is the protagonist in the film. There is also a low angled shot of her for a few seconds as this emphasises that he is vunerable. the edits used such as cuts zoom in and out n fades are really fast especially when there is a fight scene it. the types of sound used is mainly non diegetic, the type of music is rock to fit in with the fight, they also make use of her voice over to inform the audience about what is going on in the film this also lets them identify with her . The film is set in newyork, although there are sets mainly used through out the film of offices her home and the funfair. most of the film is set at night and the colours used are black and blue evil, mystery,and suspense.

Institution:the institution is warner brothers village road show, this means that the film is high budgeted . the film is also made to be a prequel to the batman movies to try and gain its audience. this institution is commercial and you would expect it to be distributed every where, especially as they seem to make alot of action films.

Genre: it is a hybrid because it is an action film with a hint of romance init . it fulfills the audiences expectation because it kind of has a pradictable story line but is also different due to the hero being a female.the director is Pitof and the film has Halle Berry as she is a well known actress in hollywood.

Representation:the films hero and villain are both female which makes the film unique to a certain extent. there are stereotypes e.g. a geeky person wanting to be successful, and a man helping a damsel in distress but these stereotypes are reinforced as the film goes on. it is showing women to be independant and is also giving them a better role in the film as they are usually seen as a sexual object there to satisfy men.

Audience: the targeted audience are males and females aged 15 and plus. maybe middle classed .

Ideology and values:the film is trying to show that women can be just as successfull as men.

Narrative: the film does follow todorov's theory although it seem like it is going to be a circular narrative in the begining. the main theme are life and death .

2006-08-07T09:26:00.000-07:00

How and why has the role of women being super heroes become more frequent with reference to “Cat woman”?

My independent study is going to be about how woman super heroes are becoming more frequent and not only men are having the roles of being super heroes. The films that are being released of comic book heroes are showing women to be more independent, they are not following the role of being damsels in distress and relying on men to protect them. This is probably to have a mass audience mainly targeting females as action genre films usually target men.

Media language: the types of shots that are used so the audience can identify with the character e.g. low angles shot of cat woman, which may represent her importance and superiority in the film.

Institution: Warner brothers produce most of the comic book films.

Genre: action

Representation: how women are taking more dominant roles in films e.g. cat women being the protagonist.

Audience: how more women are being targeted to watch actions films but also men being targeted.

Ideology and Values: active and passive role for men and women, feminism and patriarchal societies, male gaze and damsels in distress, stereotypes, hegemony, and misogyny.

Narrative: how comic book films always have an equilibrium, disequilibrium, and resolution.

Social context: there is less censorship in the media e.g. woman may be shown sexually so the film can be sold.

Historical context: roles of women are more frequent they are not just a sexual object in films they have more importance then they did in previous films.

Economical context: action films have a high budget to make there special effects look good and authentic.

Political context: the morals of the story what messages it send to the audience.

The texts I can mention are: Superman, Batman, The Hulk, Spiderman, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Electra, Lara Croft Tomb Rader and Wonder woman.

Theorist: Laura Mulvey for feminism, Propp for character roles, Todorov for narrative structure, and Andrea Dworkin for her theory about women being sexual objects to men and women being raped because men watch porn.