Category: Year 1 Page 1 of 2

My 1st Year of University Research Diaries.

Marvel: Avengers

On 16 March 2022

In Assignments, Essays, Film Analysis, Media, Culture and the Creative Industries, Year 1

183MAPA CW1 Essay - 1000words

The Marvel franchise has been around for over 80 years, the franchise started out with comics which lead to it becoming one of the biggest most well know franchises of our generation. Due to Marvel having such a big industry that makes films, tv shows, animations and a range of other media products I wanted to just focus on one of the most well-known part of the franchise which is the Avengers films.

The Avengers films started out originally in 2012 which in turn lead to the making of one of the most popular movie series with the Marvel franchise. The whole series is one of the most successful films series of this generation, as Marvel has evolved overtime and has become increasingly more developed and has technology keeps advancing so does the motion of the cinematic universe that has created Marvel. (Technical thrill)

Marvel Entertainment. (2011, October 11). Marvel’s The Avengers- Trailer (OFFICIAL). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOrNdBpGMv8

Marvel overtime has started to break barriers and stereotypes that have been placed within superhero style movies an example of this is that they have made women strong and added more diversity within their films, even though there is still a long way to go Marvel is starting to add more cultures within their films and therefore allowing the targeted audience to witness more of a range of different people. As the meaning of culture has changed overtime showing a more modern take on culture. This links into Raymond Williams theories of culture and how culture has been redefined within modern times. Williams talked about how culture can be split into three categories and the Marvel industry touches on more social section of culture and this is mainly done within the more later avengers films as it shows of the culture of different countries but twisted in a way to fit the action. An example of this is when they show people of different class and races, they do this with through using superheroes such as Iron-man who is in the higher class and this compared to other characters such as Antman who does have as much wealth or education as the character of Tony Stark. Williams analysis culture plays into this construct as Williams describes culture as ‘a description of a particular way of life’ (Williams,1998, pg48).

This however could both support and oppose the cultural theory of Adorno, Frankfurt school talks about as this can show that people are just using films as a way to distract themselves and therefore would consume there time instead of using their time for something more valuable. However, Marvel can be shown to educate people about different cultures and therefore this would go against that theory and shows that people can both enjoy these media products and learn something from them. (Frankfurt school, Adorno)Even though through the Frankfurt school critical thinking could be classed as out dated it still can hold a lot of relevance to today’s society as people rely so much on technology and social media as an escapism however, this could be viewed as something that has been constructed to distract and therefore can take over people’s lives. (Adorno, video|)

As Marvel has developed and grown overtime so has the industries overall funding and therefore the quality of the films, they produce have become better and more intriguing. This also means that due to the development of the cinema industry and the overall how people get to see films. As cinema has been popularised over time it allowed Marvels industry to grow and in this allowing Marvel to branch out into different media productions and products. Cinema has been a way to fund the film industry for generations and this has allowed the film industry to get more creative with the types of films that have been produced and therefore has created genres and overtime adaptations of books and comics started to become popularised. Marvels Avengers is an adaption from the comics written by Stan Lee and other writers which were popular before the films came out which helps brings more of an audience to see each of films produced based of these comics. Marvel mainly relies on the typical way to fund films when it comes to the making of the films and are given a budget which they work with this is often around $350 million to make which is often funded by the owners of Marvel which is currently Disney.

Avengers has been a growing film series for the past 8 years and this allowed the industry to find new ways to get the audience interested in the films. The Marvel often do this by advertising new products through multiple ways however this is mainly done through social networking and due to the on-going growing fanbase of Marvel this allows particular films to gain more attraction and therefore will gain more people wanting to see the film and this brings in more money. This also allows people to connect with one another and create friendships through social media and their shared love for this franchise. This fits in with the concept of social networking and being able to use the social media platforms to bring people together that would not normally interact with one another. (Boyd, Ellison, (2008) pg1-2)

In conclusion the Marvel industry is one of the fastest and most popularised industries in the media right now and has continued to use their fanbase to gain more influence within different media. Marvel has used the growing cinema to its advantage by incorporating more unique shots, camera angles and playing on the genre that is superheroes and action to be able to draw more of the intended audience in. (Altman (1999)).

References, APA list style:

Adorno, Frankfurt school and capitalism, video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YGnPgtWhsw

Frankfurt School, Claudio Corradetti, The Frankfurt School and Critical Theory, pg1-3 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/80179124.pdf

Boyd, Ellison, (2008) Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship, pg210-211 https://files.coventry.aula.education/802fe8ac9397fa775d91730ccb5506c42008___boyd_and_ellison___social_networking_sites.pdf

Williams, (1998), Cultural theory and popular culture, the analysis of culture, pg. 48-49: https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/88660/original/Williams+-+The+Analysis+of+Culture.pdf

The history of cinema references(apa):

Altman, (1999), Cinema and Genre:

https://files.coventry.aula.education/8b8aa9f45bef60ca23fe376ae8454fd9the_oxford_history_of_world_cinema_______cinema_and_genre_.pdf

Technical thrill, (1895–1903):

https://files.coventry.aula.education/47b21bac95e90e0d3e36371b2e2d095athe_story_of_film_______1_technical_thrill__1895_1903__the_sensations_of_the_first_movies_.pdf

Adobe Game Cover Presentation & Reflection

By Freya Glenton

On 11 March 2022

In Adobe Illustration, Assignments, Designing a video game cover, Reflection pieces, Year 1

My Presentation:

Presentation – Freya.pptx

Reflection on My Video Game Cover Design:

Adobe 500word evaluation analysis:

Within my product I decided on creating a game cover and I experimented with different genres I could create along with different games I could take inspiration from. So, I ended up choosing to create a game within the horror sci-fi genre. Aspects that I want to focus on is the visual conventions that are within the genres that I could include within my cover. Some examples conventions I could investigate are colours, blood, planets, robots, etc. Along with using these conventions I’ve researched vector artists that create art in illustrator that inspired my design.

After researching different artists and finding out design elements that I find eye-catching I decided to implement them into my design. Elements that I found interesting was the limited colours schemes and the glowing effects. So, to do this I will use horror convention colours and create these effects the best I can.

As I only have limited skills so far within illustrator I wanted to try and include a lot of the skills that I have learnt such as using opacity, shapes and vector anchors using the pen tool. When designing the cover I used a lot of reds and darker shades to create this dark atmospheric look to the cover and I designed a lot of villainous monster designs to fit the horror genre which will appease the target audience and as well as that I made the cover include cryptic designs for the artificial intelligence parts making a glowing effect using blurs and gradients making different transparency’s and shades within the design to give off a robotic feel to the piece this would catch the target audiences attention due to the fact that I am targeting teens and consumers of the sci-fi and horror genre. Along with this within the design I decided to reference other main horror character designs through making my character wear a yellow jack which is a slight intertext reference to games such as Little Nightmares I/II or films like ITchaper1.

After designing the character and backgrounds to include elements such as planets, robots and other elements I made sure to add game conventions such as the company who made the game, PlayStation, along with a game developer, naughtydoggames, along with that I included a barcode, rating and scenes within the game.

Once I did this I made sure to add a title that I stylised to fit the sci-fi genre by making the title have a slight glitch effect to it using reds and blues on the front cover but using red on the spine. I made it still readable so the audience can easily see what the name of the game would be. I made the title give some mystery to the game.

One of the main improvements or changes I could have done would’ve been to include more horror conventions as I didn’t make it really clear as to which game genre it would be. I could’ve made the genre slightly clearer for the audience.

Protected: Hong Kong – China – Representation

By Freya Glenton

On 6 March 2022

In Assignments, Presentation, Understanding Media Configurations, Year 1

Power and hegemony Analysis for ‘On the basis of Sex’

By Freya Glenton

On 6 March 2022

In Assignments, Essays, Film Analysis, Understanding Media Configurations, Year 1

105mapa cw1 – Essay - 1500 words Limit

Society throughout time has had built up this idea that men, more specifically cis straight white men, have the most power within society and this became a dominant ideology or hegemony when it came to people in everyday life and this includes within the media. However, even though this is still mainly true to this day people of minorities and different backgrounds have begun to challenge these ideals. This is heavily shown within the film ‘On the basis of sex’ which shows a woman breaking these dominant ideology’s and power dynamics.

Focus Features. (2018, July 16). ON THE BASIS OF SEX | Official Trailer | Focus Features. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28dHbIR_NB4

The main studies of power and hegemony tend to have overlapping elements. However, with these the basic explanation of hegemony is a way to describe a process of people or ideas that become dominant in everyday society, this is shown in the study of media keywords: ‘Hegemony is a way to describe people or ideas that become—and seek to remain—dominant in society.’ (Lewis,2017, pg88). However, power is slightly different as it mainly involves the ideas and people that the entire media thinks is important. With this being at least the basic understanding of power according to the study done by Nick Couldry, ‘Whatever “media power” means, almost everyone thinks it is important.’ (Couldry, 2017, pg49). However, power and hegemony can be more complicated and in-depth than the basic understanding of the topics as there has many theorists that have studied different aspects of power and hegemony throughout time.

One of the main theorists that worked with different parts of power was Michel Foucault who demonstrates that there is a range of different layers to power and that there are different types of power than just one. He presented the concept that power requires knowledge as knowledge holds a lot of power which can change how people think and that power is not just about the hierarchy or the government. Foucault links his concepts heavily to connect with the study of discourses. Foucault shows human beings have attachments and that due to how rapidly society is evolving power dynamics are changing with it. Foucault talks about how power can change depending on the relationship the people have the perspective that you follow, ‘While the human subject is placed in relations of production and of signification, he is equally placed in power relations which are very complex.’ ((based from the works) Foucault, 2014, pg3). This study shows that due to the power being complex so are the relationships that go with them.

Theorists such as Edward Said’s and his concept of Orientalism were largely link to Foucault as within his book he explains that there is a dominant way of studying an culture and that there is a power dynamic in the fact that people approach minorities at the “other” or the orient, in this cast the western style is more dominating and is the dominant way of studying the east even though they are completely separate. This links to Foucault as he talks a lot about how knowledge and language is power which is touch upon in Said’s concept. ‘Orientalism as a Western style for dominating restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.’ (Said, 1978, pg11).

As Foucault would have contrasting views on the power dynamics of today, he would both see the benefit of social media giving minorities a voice. However, he would also make the point that people are being absorbed by social media and that social media can trap people in echo chambers and that we have trapped ourselves in this concept of consent surveillance. Foucault within his concepts talks about truth, power and knowledge and how they can be used in different ways and to take apart different aspects of society, ‘‘Everything I do, I do in order that it may be of us’’ (Foucault, 2018), this shows that he believes that your actions that you do hold power and consequence. This could link to the film as we are shown different perspectives of how people are fighting for change, along with different ways that people view equality an example of this is the scene where we are shown a rally/ movement or protest of women trying to gain equality and power within a system that is purely run by men.

So the when the audience sees a film such as ‘On the basis of sex’ some of the older generation or people who have the morals that men should be in power would see this film as having a women shot down and the men having the power instead or the overall power struggle that is actually happening within the film.

Since the main power struggle within this film is the hegemony of men being the dominant and smart sex proving this dominant ideology wrong. The audience is shown at the start of the film that this production was based on the main points of the career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was known as one of the first women to fight for gender equality within the Supreme Court of Justice. So, when looking at this film we (the audience) is shown the perspective of sexism, along with how women, mainly the main character: Ruth Bader Ginsburg played by Felicity Rose Hadley Jones, react to sexist remarks that was present during that time period and is partly still around to this day. This will mainly cover hegemonic feminism and the power dynamics within the film.

https://images.app.goo.gl/zayeXUPA3ua7JWu16

Hegemony is more of a process to make dominant ideology’s seem normal with society or social groups. Due to this film showing women as intelligent and brave this shows the film trying to break the common hegemony that has been built into society. This is theorised a lot when it comes to what hegemony is and what it often involves, within the film the audience is shown the woman’s struggle to gain respect and gain power throughout her career, this shows off the research of Justin Lewis who spoke about hegemony reinforcing forms of inequality this film does this with most of the men in this as they are stereotypically sexist which makes the character of Ruth Ginsburg fight hard for equality in her field and within the law. ‘Hegemony often involves masking or solidifying various forms of inequality so that they seem part of everyday life, making customs and contrivances that favour some people over others appear to be common sense.’ (Lewis, 2017, pg.88). This suggests that due to the hegemony over time the dominant ideology of men having all the power is starting to shift and this is shown more at the end of the movie when the character of Ruth Ginsburg breaks the typical dynamic and takes the power and a step for gender equality.

This whole film shows that women can be rational, smart and handle any job that a man can. This alone starts to break down the stereotypical aspect that women are stay at home mothers or housewives as this film shows off a powerful woman who is a mother and is still striving for gender equality in a supreme court. This shows her struggle to get there and how people treat women during this time period that is still relevant to this day.

In conclusion to this the film demonstrates Lewis’ example of what hegemony is and how it can be used to effect and form a dominant society that relies on these ideals to form an opinion. The film shows off a progression of breaking a stereotypical power dynamic and changing it through knowledge and reasoning, which links into Foucault’s concept.

The Gifs Link: https://images.app.goo.gl/pcpwS3JF6DGKYke56

References – APA List style:

Couldry, Ouellette & Gray. (2017). Keywords for Media Studie,Power, pg.145- 148. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/coventry/reader.action?docID=4717750&ppg=152

Foucault. (2014). Source: Critical Inquiry, (778), Michel Foucault, The Subject and Power. Pg3

http://www2.kobe-u.ac.jp/~alexroni/IPD2018%20readings/IPD1%202018%20No.8/Foucault%20Subject%20and%20Power.pdf

Foucault. (2018). Video. What would Foucault say about fake news?(0.20,1.22-2.07, 2.40) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JG_O0Iav18&feature=youtu.be

Lewis, Ouellette & Gray. (2017). Keywords for Media Studies, Hegemony, pg.88-89. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/coventry/reader.action?docID=4717750&ppg=95

Said. (1978). Orientalism, pg11.

https://sites.evergreen.edu/politicalshakespeares/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2014/12/Said_full.pdf

On the Basis of Sex Essay Proposal

By Freya Glenton

On 6 March 2022

In Assignments, Understanding Media Configurations, Year 1

105mapa Essay Proposal - 200 words

The key theme that I have chosen to write my essay about is power and hegemony. Within this I will reference the academic article of Couldry ‘power’ as well as the reading of Lewis ‘Hegemony’, and Althusser’s ‘Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses’, I will also reference the philosopher Foucault. I have chosen this as my theme as power and hegemony interlinks with the other themes as well as giving me an opportunity to challenge myself. The main case study that I would like to write about is: the works of Felicity Jones, specifically one of the films she stared in called ‘On the basis of sex’ as it links the most with the theme that I have chosen to write this essay about (however I will also reference other films that she has worked in as well). This film shows the struggles of power and also plays of the dominant ideology or hegemony of women being overemotional and stupid and then presents it in a way that eventually shows the main character changing the power dynamics within the film, I will also talk about different types of power and hegemony as well as what they are/include, along with other keywords.

On The Basis Of Sex – Official International Trailer (HD) Felicity Jones & Armie Hammer – YouTube

Protected: Space and Place Presentation

By Freya Glenton

On 6 March 2022

In Assignments, Postdigital Regions: Space and Place, Presentation, Year 1

Protected: Visual Analysis – Presentation

By Freya Glenton

On 6 March 2022

In Assignments, Critical Media Methods, Presentation, Year 1

Convergence Culture Within Society and Film

By Freya Glenton

On 6 March 2022

In Assignments, Essays, Film Analysis, Postdigital Regions: Space and Place, Year 1

Case study: Ghost In The Shell

180mapa CW1 Essay - 1500 Words

Paramount Pictures. (2017, February 13). Ghost In The Shell (2017) – Official Trailer – Paramount Pictures. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRkb1X9ovI4

Within most modern day countries we rely heavily on technology, such as phones and the internet, so much so that we don’t consider it as much of a luxury or privilege anymore but we see all of these as more of an essential thing within our everyday life. As technology has been expanding and developing more rapidly within the last 25 year, especially communicative aspects of technology, so has media platforms and the type of people who consume media. Henry Jenkins defines ‘Convergence culture’ as a merging between new and traditional varieties of media and describes the term as a consent shift between the media and its audience.

Within society convergence culture is highly relevant as there is a major development within media and there has been a massive growth in different media platforms especially on the digital era such as streaming services, social medias and films.

This theory or the term ‘Convergence culture’ was created by Henry Jenkins and this will link to the case study or film called Ghost In The Shell which demonstrates the there is a blurred line between the consumer and the company of technology as this shows how technology and the media can consume a person and brings in to question of how far you can push technology before you’re not human anymore. This links into how Jenkins explains that ‘convergence culture, where old and new media collide, where grassroots and corporate media intersect, where the power of the media producer and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways.’(Jenkins, 2006, p2)This part of the topic connects to the film as it shows that new media can develop to the point where the consumer can become the product.

As interactive media is constantly developing and has changed drastically Jenkins observed this and how other theorists he describes the consistent progress and blurring of content creator and consumer as part of ‘convergence culture’ and Jenkin describes this as ‘the flow of content across multiple media platforms’ (Jenkins, 2006, p2-3) which shows us that the media is consistently progressing whether it’s a new piece of technology or a brand new content being released.

Jenkins is making his audience aware that media has developed and that as it increases the line separating the consumer and the creator starts too get smaller. As according to Jenkins convergence is demonstrating a two-way street between the media company and the active consumer.

The convergence culture nearly goes completely against the Frankfurt school as the Frankfurt school as Theodor Adorno states that the media and the ideologies within the media is corrupting us whereas ‘…produced mass culture that habituated individuals to conform to the dominant patterns of thought and behaviour.’ (Adorno,1991 , p2). This shows that due to the different time periods and different morals these two theorists see media in a different way to one another.

Due to the constant shift in the media and technology advances there are more developments that are constantly happening within shift between creator and consumer for example the robotics industry is growing rapidly so therefore there will be more opportunities for media to develop even further than people could participate and will society will become so dependant on these advances, especially as we as a society already consume so much media as it is today. People become so absorbed with social media and their devices, whether that’s due to boredom or work, this need for having social media has become so normalised and natural for our society. Theorists have stated that ‘there are a variety of different arguments have been put forward in an attempt to define what exactly is coming together’(Grant and Wilkinson,2009).

Jenkins describes these rapid enhancements in communicative technology as leading to an effortless way to interact across the entire globe and he defines this development in technological advances a positive change, ‘Understanding these changes and participating in the debates that will shape the future of media.’ (Jenkins,H.2004), Which shows that accepting these changes can lead to improvements for a greater and constant consumption of media platforms.

Other people embrace the idea that the media has good development as people are consuming it more everyday within society. ‘rather than serving as an equalizing force, media diffusion could reinforce and potentially even increase inequalities by leading to higher status individuals digesting additional information faster’ (Zillien,N & Hargittai,E. 2009).

The media could develop to the point that it become one of the most essential things in or everyday life as we become more and more dependent on media products and media/technology will become more ingrained into every day society as well as cities and culture. As society goes on and develops so will how we see technology developments especially within humanity as media cold develop to the point where we see it everywhere.

The particular case that I think could demonstrate this topic would be the film ‘Ghost in the shell’ which centres around a women who still has the brain of a human but got experimented on by having her brain transplanted into a robots body. This shows a more futuristic society where technology and media has developed to the point where it has over run cities, however we are still shown the more run down elements of a city and the more corrupt parts of humanity has in everyday cities. This brings in the aspect that old parts of humanity can still be shown in this more futuristic society. This relates to Jenkins convergence culture as it has shown how a continuous progression of media as well as showing how far a media company will go to sell a product to a consumer.

In this case the company owner wanted to experiment with how far they could go with turning a human into a robot without completely destroying their humanity ad in order to do this they got homeless civilians that were against or outcasted by society to experiment with transplanting their brain into a robot version of their body. As the main idea of convergence culture is a constant progression and as we are so consumed and fascinated with the media and the content that created within the media it is interesting to see how media could develop so much and go so far the it would be so embedded into society.

Jenkins stated ‘Fandom, after all, is born of a balance between fascination and frustration: if media content didn’t fascinate us, there would be no desire to engage with it’ (Jenkins, 2006) which demonstrates to us that if media was not as fascinating as it was and if it was not worth consuming and engaging with then society would not have developed media as much and there would not be as much content and different aspects of the media to be seen. This would link into Ghost in the Shell as this film clearly shows that it relies on society developing enough with technology and media to create massive developments with technology. This film demonstrates that as it shows that technology and media is no longer a luxury but is an everyday requirement and is almost seen as unnatural if you didn’t have some form of technology on you.

Jenkins convergence culture would have been more relevant for this film as well as within the society it is set in it shows off a large development of a media system as well as robotics as most of the characters that are within this have some sort of adjustment that has been done to their body. This brings to the question of how far humanity can be pushed and whether immortality is a possibility, this would also bring to light of how much has media developed to get it to the point to where society wouldn’t need it anymore or here it’s just a natural aspect of society.

To conclude and sum up this Convergence Culture shows off that there is going to be a constant development of media with society and the line between creator and consumer could gradually get slimmer as time develops. Jenkins theory might even become more developed and relevant as time goes on and media and technology evolves. Along with this the idea that society cold become so dependant on media is a high possibility as we continue to engage with media platforms as it will continue to fascinate the human mind and keep our interests going.

References:

Jenkins, H.(2006), Convergence Culture Where Old and New Media Collide, New York University Press (P2-4). Henry Jenkins Convergence culture where old and new media collide 2006.pdf (hse.ru)

Zillien,N & Hargittai,E. (2009), Digital Distinction: Status-Specific Types of Internet Usage, University of Trier & Northwestern University. Digital Distinction: Status-Specific Types of Internet Usage* (aula.education)

Jenkins,H. (2004), The cultural logic of media convergence, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, (p35-36). Jenkins,+Henry++-+The+Cultural+Logic+of+Media+Convergence.pdf (pbworks.com)

Mascheroni,G & Ólafsson, K. (2015), The mobile Internet: Access, use, opportunities and divides among European children, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Italy University of Akureyri, Iceland; Masaryk University, Czech Republic. (p22) 13255dd12a1e436207cff6c5ca527309mascheroni_and__lafsson___the_mobile_internet.pdf (aula.education)

Grant and Wilkinson, (2009),understanding media convergence, (p1) BR1-DEC17.pdf (caluniv.ac.in)

Adorno,T.( 1991), Frankfurt school, The Culture Industry, frankfurtschool.pdf (ucla.edu)

Queerness and Sexuality Presentation

By Freya Glenton

On 6 March 2022

In Assignments, Placing Popular Culture, Presentation, Year 1

Other Group involves: 
Yujin Lee 
Emilija Metlovaite

My Groups Presentation on Sexuality and Queerness

This is my part of the Presentation:

sexuality & queer final.pptx

The case study that I did w

mnsj

Evaluating the other groups:

Freya Glenton – 1000mapa cw1 feedbacksheets.docx

A study into gender and feminism Essay

By Freya Glenton

On 6 March 2022

In Assignments, Essays, Film Analysis, Placing Popular Culture, Year 1

Case study: Mulan (2020 version):

1000mapa Cw2 Essay - 1000words

Walt Disney Studios. (2019, December 5). Disney’s Mulan | Official Trailer. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK8FHdFluOQ

Gender within todays society can be split between being an established old societal construct that is a system that is embedded so heavily in everyday life that mainly benefits cis-people more specifically cis-men. Gender is ‘not something we are born with, and not something we have, but something we do’ (Eckert, P & McConnell Ginet, S. (2006)p1) However, gender can also involve identity which helps break down these constructs and shows that gender is scientifically classed as a completely different thing to sex, such as people identifying as transgender, nonbinary, genderfluid or gender non-conforming.

Feminism can come in different forms and people can be feminists in different ways, for example it is said that there are four different types of feminist: ‘radical, Marxist, liberal and what Sylvia Walby (1990) calls dual-systems theory’(Storey, J. (2018)P1) which demonstrates that people take feminism in different ways and face feminism in whatever way that they practice/are taught it. to one another. However, feminism is to form an equality so that everyone can be equal. Feminism is still an on-going movement to get equality between all sexes, this involves equal pay to taking down misogyny. These two can link heavily to one another as feminism is to create equality and that could include between any gender.

Films show off feminism in subtle and interesting ways. A film that shows a unique representation if Mulan, more specifically 2020 live action version of Disney’s Mulan, as it shows a lot of older Asian cultured traditions that involve a lot of specific gender roles that have been placed upon people by their sex an example of this how straight at the start the audience is made aware that women can not be warriors which is a gender role that is clearly going to be broken within the film.

Mulan fights gender roles in subtle ways and one of the ways that they have done this is having a main protagonist and having one of the main antagonists to be powerful and intellectual women, however they still show a hierarchy where a man is leading warriors which could suggest at the start that women cannot be leaders.

Even though this film has high representation of Asian culture and race as well as the traditional parts of their culture, for example women serving their husbands, within this film if they break this tradition its classed as an humiliation which shows that Mulan is aware of this and starts to take the first step to breaking down these gender roles. With Mulan being the protagonist I think there are very good moments where her character is brave for breaking these gender roles set by this cultural society and due to this bravery it shows the audience that there shouldn’t be these gendered issues within society.

Mulan also shows a slight representation of the trans community and a lot of transgender/gender nonconforming people grew up with Mulan being one of the only slight representation that they have. As it shows a woman that is born at birth can pass as male and this giving hope and representation to young trans people who fighting for their rights. But it also shows the some of the fear of getting caught and how people could treat you very different to what your gender identity is. Sex is biological; it is physiologically what prompts us to be assigned as male or female. As transgender people are trying to break these stereotypes and be themselves, ‘Gender is socially constructed; it consists of the ideas we have about masculinity and femininity’ (Trier-Bieniek, A & Leavy.(2014) p2) which shows that society has constructed this idea that one gender has to more masculine than others. This is highly demonstrated through toxic masculinity and men needing to be stronger than another gender as a lot of the men within the film are very traditional and controlling which hold a lot of what in our society still has. ‘The concern with differences includes the socially constructed categories sex and gender, as well as sexuality and social class’ (Radtke,H,L.(2017).p1) this quote suggests due to gender being an imbedded system from birth that people have build up these stereotypes that need to be broken.

Mulan shows that women are powerful and when given the same treatment as men can do anything they can if not even better. That strength can come from perseverance and practice and skill not gender/sex. This is done a lot throughout the film but one of the times it is prevalent would be when Mulan rides into battle with her hair down and shows people her strength. Not only that but she shows that she has wit and intelligence with her motives breaks the stereotype of women being fragile, weak and only here to serve men as well as only being shown as objects. Mulan’s journey within the film beats the concept that only men can do successful and therefore she begins the movement that women can be warriors.

Walt Disney Studios. (2019a). Disney’s Mulan – Official Teaser. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ON04GCwKs

Even though Mulan does feminism and gender representation some justice, media in general still has a long way to go to break the more damaging stereotypes and gender roles that they are still placing on people to this day.

References (APA List):

Eckert, P & McConnell Ginet, S. (2006). Language and Gender, Second Edition; Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Pg1-3. Chap1 (stanford.edu)

Storey, J. (2018). Gender and sexuality, Women at the cinema; Routledge. P1-2. someTitle (aula.education)

Trier-Bieniek, A & Leavy.(2014). P. Gender & Pop Culture; Sense Publishers. P2-3. someTitle (aula.education)

Munro, E. (2013) Feminism: A Fourth Wave? ; Centre for Cultural Policy Research at Glasgow University. P1. Feminism: A Fourth Wave? (aula.education)

Radtke,H,L.(2017). Feminist theory in Feminism & Psychology [Part I]: Dealing with differences and negotiating the biological; University of Calgary, Canada. P1. Feminist theory in Feminism & Psychology [Part I]: Dealing with differences and negotiating the biological (sagepub.com)