32) FEMINISM AND MY PRODUCT

FEMINISM

Below are the notes typed up from the topic 'Feminism' in more detail and my actual notes from the session...

FEMINIST CRITICISM

Gender and Ideology

The words male or female can be defined biologically, but masculinity and femininity are socially constructed. 

The word feminism is a label that refers to a broad range of views containing one shared assumption and that is there are profound gender inequalities in society, and that historically, patriarchy has been exercised at the expense of women’s interests and rights. This power may be expressed physically, but is more generally reproduced ideologically. The terms masculine and feminine carry very strong connotations of what is natural for each sex , whether that refers to personal traits such as rationality or emotionalism, or to social roles like businessman or housewife.

This movement has always been concerned with texts, recognising the significance of the images of women being disseminated by the media.The representation of women in media texts is an important means of socialisation, a way of spreading ideas about suitable roles and goals for women, acceptable versions of femininity. Feminists see it as vital to question and combat these.

Below are the notes I took in class and I have put images that fit with my notes...

To start off Feminism we listed feminine and masculine words and the words that represent them to start the initial understanding of feminist representations. 

Below are another set of notes with attached pictures that link with my notes.

More notes below on my learning...

Below are my final notes on feminism...

After learning about feminism and the representations involved, I started to think about it in relation to my own product. One thing that stands out for my product in relation to feminism is that my product does not include any females at all. All of the characters are male. But I did this intentionally. Female actors were weary and held back by the fact the hotel was apparently genuinely haunted. Ironic as feminism promotes the fact that women want to have more power. It also made more sense to me, to use a story involving two male characters creating a relationship instead of the usual couple where love is involved and its that love that drives the male character to 'look after her'. For example in the film 'Vacancy'. This is because I wanted to take an original approach on the relationships between characters. Even two male characters can have the same drive to keep each other safe when the relationship is developed enough and that is what I wanted to achieve in my story. When this relationship is finally broken by death of the characters it creates an emotional impact on the audience, they will be shocked, and disappointed which is what adds the thrilling aspect! Male characters act differently in front of the same sex than when there is a male and a female. Males tend to be more comedic, lively and boisterous in front of the same sex, adding a dominant attitude for certain characters, in my case, Rick will be dominant. I wanted to capture these qualities to add an element of realism.