Relevant Theory

Relevant Theory

Looking into, Film and Stereotype: A challenge for cinema and theory, I found a few examples that link to stereotypes and stereotypical female portrayals in film and media. 
“Nevertheless, when they do make it onto the silver or small screen, their portrayals can undermine their presence by being “hyper-attractive”
“the need for a shift: away from creating females as adornment, enticement, or with inclination to romance as the main or exclusive personality trait or motivator” (Dr, Stacy L Smith Conference 2008)

Talking about women in films, this states that women rarely make it onto the "silver screen" and that when they do they have no personality. They are just an object of romance and lust. Something to fight over. Although women have progressed in recent years, becoming strong lead characters and battling difficult story lines, they are still stereotyped into specific groups.  

“Within these theoretical contexts, this approach suggests itself to a certain extent. Understood as simply structured and stable mental images of individuals belonging to certain groups – ideas rooted in everyday cultural consciousness and therefore conditionalised – stereotypes obviously serve as important reference points for the creation of fictional characters.” (Schweinitz, J. (2011). Page 43)

We have to look at stereotypes to create our characters. For them to fit into a stereotype or to break one, we still find ourselves researching the relevant stereotypical traits that a character should or shouldn't possess. We should no longer have to do this. A character should just come naturally, giving them specific clothing shouldn't matter in contrast to how that character speaks. They could just wear posh clothes because they want to. It shouldn't be defined by their personality, class, gender, upbringing or anything else. 

I have decided to look into stereotype theory in film and media as this is the re-occurring theme running throughout both projects. It was through researching stereotypes that we came up with our original idea of erasing them through burning them away. 
As a group of girls, looking at gender stereotypes in particular was useful to us. As we are in a word where gender equality is becoming more and more accepted it is only right for it to be more recognised within film and media. Looking into this we found that more film makers are aware of this shift, such as creating a female Dr Who. However; stereotypes do still exist within the media, especially 'teen' movies and TV shows such as Riverdale. This seems a little backwards as we are trying to bring up the next generation with no expectations. "As balance and portrayals improve, children now and the next generations of children will be the winners. They will be exposed to entertainment in which females take up half the space and both females and males are active, diverse, and complex."(Dr, Stacy L Smith Conference 2008)

We are trying to battle feminism, so creating a film kind of like Ruby Rose's "Break Free" we are hoping to help defy these stereotypical views we all hold. Using physical elements such as fire to suggest ridding the world of stereotypes especially ones regarding gender. 
"Maybe the answer is that for change to occur even more women are needed in the creative process (i.e., producers, writers), where key decision making occurs at the pitch and story development level. In fact, research on television reveals that the participation of women writers and producers increases the percentage of females on screen.1 Accordingly, another suggestion may be that more women also are needed to join the ranks of casting directors, cinematographers, and show runners so that gender sensitive decisions can be made in the hiring and presentation of female actors in television and film." (Dr, Stacy L Smith Conference 2008)



Bibliography
Schweinitz, J. (2011). Film and stereotype a challenge for cinema and theory (Film and culture). New York: Columbia University Press.

https://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/GDIGM_Gender_Stereotypes.pdf Dr, Stacy L Smith 

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