Analysis of Summertime Sadness

Media Essay:

John Berger analyses how men and women are culturally represented. In "Ways of Seeing" Berger claims that the representations of men and women in visual culture entice different 'gazes', different ways in which they are looked at. He states that 'men act women appear, men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at'. The woman is usually posed in a way to please the viewer and the audience, her gaze is meant to entice the viewer, and this notion is the same in modern day advertisements and photographs. Berger states that a woman unconsciously acts in a way knowing she is being viewed. Women are constantly surveyed, and not only by men, but other women too, and also by themselves.

Berger states that women were 'depicted in a different way to men - because the "ideal" spectator is always assumed to be male, and the image of the women is designed to flatter him'. This demonstrates that Berger feels that women are seen as objects for men to look at, desire and seek pleasure from as a voyeur. An example of this being used in modern day media is in various music videos of female artists. For example, the pictures below are of two very famous female singers/songwriters, Rihanna and Beyoncé, wearing quite revealing outfits that attract different gazes. If we look at Rihanna’s picture, she appears to be wearing devil horns, indicating that she has a ‘bad girl’ image which may gratify male viewers. The fact that she is simply covering her breasts with her arms denotes a sexual and erotic atmosphere. Her stance and her crossed arms also convey a careless and laidback attitude which adds to her ‘bad girl’ image which is also highlighted by the rough black background. However, Beyoncé is wearing a revealing white corset, which matches the background and the flower she is holding, which connotes innocence and purity. Overall whilst both Rihanna and Beyoncé are wearing provocative clothing that creates an air of vouyeurism,which appeals to the male gaze, Rihanna gives the impresion of being sexy whereas Beyoncé gives the impression of being beautiful.

Although the modern music scene is a prominent area of where voyeurism is seen, there are also other media platforms that do the same thing such as newspapers. One newspaper in particular has a certain page in which contains explicit pictures of women. The newspaper, The Sun, over the last 44 years have printed inappropriate photos of famous female celebrities(such as Katie Price) on page 3 of the newspaper.  As seen in the photos below, all three women are wearing near to nothing and have captions beside them. On the left the caption says ‘Bare she is at last’ and on the right the caption states ‘It’s Gem and Jen… in Babewatch’. The fact that the words ‘Bare’ and ‘Babewatch’ have been used suggest that these articles are directed towards males which supports Berger’s theory as The Sun’s predominant audience are young male adults who will be attracted to these stereotypically attractive women who have bodies that fit the standardisation of beauty .

Whilst Berger’s theory mostly applies to adults, we can also use it to highlight the negative portrayal of women in video games and how it can affect the perception of gender roles in young children who play video games. One game in particular that is known for its violence and sexist gender portrayal is Grand Theft Auto V. The series is known especially for its violence and sexist gender portrayal, as the protagonists are always active and dominant men who perform criminal activities while women appear only rarely and usually as sexualised characters. Additionally, one of the most common ways to describe the portrayal of women in the game series is that they are prostitutes with whom the playable male character can have sex and take their money back afterwards by killing the prostitute. This is linked to Berger’s theory as the male and female characters in the game seem to adhere to stereotypical representation of gender roles in the sense that the men appear to be strong and attractive and the women seem to have an ‘attractive’ figure and who happen to wear provocative clothing.

Overall, it is clear that John Berger’s theory on the ‘Ways of Women’ can be applied to many media platforms to this present day. From music videos, newspapers and video games it is clear to see that there is still a strong theme of traditional gender roles in which we tend to adhere to.