Representation structure:
What is representation?
Representation is a re-presentation. By who?
For what purpose?
For what function?
For what ideal?
Who does this impact upon?
Both the target audience and the group being represented
Most female roles throughout the first episode are where the female is the giver/server. For example, there are roles of the mother, caregiver, prostitute, made, butler, friend, slave, rebel. This means that there are quite narrow representations of women.
Madonna/Whore complex - Sigmund Freud
Freud developed a theory to explain men's anxiety towards women's sexuality, suggesting that men define women into on of two categories: the Madonna (Women he admires and respects) and the whore (women he is attracted to and therefore disrespects).
The Madonna is typically virtuous, nurturing, saintly and sexually repressed.
The whore is sensual, sexualised and desirable without purity.
This can be used in Humans - the mother is clearly the Madonna figure as she is not sexualised at all and is seen as nurturing and maternal.
Characters such as Anita are clearly the whore figure as she is used and sexualised as well as being objectified.
Humans Brothel scene/closing montage
What representations of gender are encoded into these scenes?
Fairly typical representation of women as she is being heavily sexualised. Additionally, she is being objectified as her purpose is purely for sex. This links to Freud's theory that women fall into one of to categories according to men. In this scene she is clearly the whore figure as she is being sexualised and shown to have no emotion. Males seem to view the robots as machines rather than people but females see them more humanly. Binary oppositions between how the older man treats the male robot and how the female robots are treated.
How are they emphasised through montage, diegetic sound, establishing shots?
This representation of females is emphasised with diegetic sound because you don't hear the woman speak so she is not able to consent. Shows she has no choice in what is going on and i there purely for sex.
What function do the male and female bodies serve? How do you know?
In the scenes it is shown that the female body's function is to serve the male body. Male bodies are not sexualised at all.
What audience responses are possible from this scene?
Audience would question what the people are doing in the scenes.
How are binary oppositions used to create meaning in the closing montage of Humans?
Claude Lévi-Strauss' theory of structuralism suggests that binary oppositions in a media text help develop our perception of the world. Binary oppositions are two concepts, messages of values that are presented in direct opposition to one another. The closing montage of the first episode of humans uses binary oppositions with multiple different groups such as men and women as well as robots and humans.
To begin, I would say that there is consistent opposition between men and women throughout the episode particularly during the final montage and the brothel scene. This is because in this scene the man is seen with all of the power as he is ordering her around and making her do things whereas the woman doesn't say anything so there is no consenting from her and she just obeys the mans desire. This scene is based from stereotypes and previous representations of women in media but the binary oppositions still apply. Furthermore, we can employ Sigmund Freud's theory in this scene because he states that men define women in two categories, the Madonna meaning women that men respect and don't view sexually and women who are desirable and sexualised.
What is representation?
Representation is a re-presentation. By who?
For what purpose?
For what function?
For what ideal?
Who does this impact upon?
Both the target audience and the group being represented
Most female roles throughout the first episode are where the female is the giver/server. For example, there are roles of the mother, caregiver, prostitute, made, butler, friend, slave, rebel. This means that there are quite narrow representations of women.
Madonna/Whore complex - Sigmund Freud
Freud developed a theory to explain men's anxiety towards women's sexuality, suggesting that men define women into on of two categories: the Madonna (Women he admires and respects) and the whore (women he is attracted to and therefore disrespects).
The Madonna is typically virtuous, nurturing, saintly and sexually repressed.
The whore is sensual, sexualised and desirable without purity.
This can be used in Humans - the mother is clearly the Madonna figure as she is not sexualised at all and is seen as nurturing and maternal.
Characters such as Anita are clearly the whore figure as she is used and sexualised as well as being objectified.
Humans Brothel scene/closing montage
What representations of gender are encoded into these scenes?
Fairly typical representation of women as she is being heavily sexualised. Additionally, she is being objectified as her purpose is purely for sex. This links to Freud's theory that women fall into one of to categories according to men. In this scene she is clearly the whore figure as she is being sexualised and shown to have no emotion. Males seem to view the robots as machines rather than people but females see them more humanly. Binary oppositions between how the older man treats the male robot and how the female robots are treated.
How are they emphasised through montage, diegetic sound, establishing shots?
This representation of females is emphasised with diegetic sound because you don't hear the woman speak so she is not able to consent. Shows she has no choice in what is going on and i there purely for sex.
What function do the male and female bodies serve? How do you know?
In the scenes it is shown that the female body's function is to serve the male body. Male bodies are not sexualised at all.
What audience responses are possible from this scene?
Audience would question what the people are doing in the scenes.
How are binary oppositions used to create meaning in the closing montage of Humans?
Claude Lévi-Strauss' theory of structuralism suggests that binary oppositions in a media text help develop our perception of the world. Binary oppositions are two concepts, messages of values that are presented in direct opposition to one another. The closing montage of the first episode of humans uses binary oppositions with multiple different groups such as men and women as well as robots and humans.
To begin, I would say that there is consistent opposition between men and women throughout the episode particularly during the final montage and the brothel scene. This is because in this scene the man is seen with all of the power as he is ordering her around and making her do things whereas the woman doesn't say anything so there is no consenting from her and she just obeys the mans desire. This scene is based from stereotypes and previous representations of women in media but the binary oppositions still apply. Furthermore, we can employ Sigmund Freud's theory in this scene because he states that men define women in two categories, the Madonna meaning women that men respect and don't view sexually and women who are desirable and sexualised.
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