Sunday 30 September 2007

Cut off


In this scene Carmela Tony's wife is edited/cut off the screen, this subverts from the theory of the male gaze, however as she is not on the screen but is giving Tony oral sex, it suggests that she is represented and portrayed as a inferior character/women as she is pleasuring the phallic the symbol power and male dominance. Morover as she is cut off the screen it is implicated to the ausience that she is inferior, is of no importance and does notdrive the narrative.
Media Representations

In “The Sopranos” men and women are being represented however not as equals but males as dominant and females as inferior beings subjected to the ideologies of “white trailer park trash” and whores. In a Sopranos scene a stripper “Tracee” is represented and treated in a derogative manor as she wants love and affection but is not taken seriously by her boyfriend as she’s wearing a tight dress and is asked “how many cocks you sucked tonight”. This implies that the phallic is a symbol of male dominance over women and are treated as sexual object only in the drama for the male gaze and pleasure and not to drive the narrative. I think that the representation of women is inaccurate as women who are strippers are stereotyped as sex objects and whores and not taken as professional exotic dancers.

Media Languages and Forms

Tracee is wearing a tight revealing red dress in one scene, the dress connotes that impure as she’s not a virgin, easy girl, a prostitute and inferior to men as she’s not fully clothed or appropriately clothed. Additionally Tracee asks Ralphie her boyfriend if he wants a drink and gets slapped on her behind. This connotes that she’s treated in a derogative manor and is idealised as Ralphie’s object or possession. Moreover, when Tracee is outside “the Bing” she gets beaten up by Ralphie, the high angle shot on the stripper portrays her as vulnerable and inferior to the male gender. The theme of inferiority lies beneath these connotations and representations of the Tracee and the other stripper. Additionally the scene is set in “The Bada Bing” a “strip joint” this let alone as the setting amplifies the theme of women as sexual objects.

Narrative

The women strippers and housewives in “The Sopranos” are represented as sexual objects inferior to Tony Sopranos and his Capo’s, they are there to provide them with their sexual desires and promote the male gaze. The women do not drive or push the narrative but only to fulfil the male audience’s fantasies. The Tony Sopranos and his men push the narrative cycle to a conclusion or a cliff hanger; they are the ones that make the decisions. Women’s heads are edited or cut out of scenes and focus only on the men.

Genre

“The Sopranos is a gangster/drama hybrid, not only focusing on crimes and killing but also family life. The generic conventions that is displays are male superiority, the men as the breadwinners; “bringing home the bacon” by committing crimes and felonies. Additionally men are carrying guns also seen as a phallic symbol portraying their male dominance. The Actor James Gondalfini has become infamous for gangster roles and working within this certain genre, which displays his/Tony’s male dominance and his love for sex with women.

Media Institutions

HBO has produced “The Sopranos”, most of the institutions shows are rated TV-MA, and often feature suggestive themes and high amounts of
profanity, something that would be much more difficult to get on other network channels.

Media Audiences

The media text is addressed to mostly males from a c1’c2 socio economic group. The show attracts males from the middle class for its intricate and interesting storyline and issues within the family, and men from the working class because of its action killing and sexual scenes which to them enforces most of the working class men’s ideologies of male superiority. The show is scheduled at 10:00 on E4 this implicates that it will contain sex and nudity as it is broadcasted after watershed, attracted mostly males aged within 18-45 or more. I evaluate the text as not only as show that excites the male’s fantasies and action but also for its interesting storylines and dilemmas and issues of everyday life. Yet I acknowledge the fact that half the storyline enforces the male gaze, this is why I think teens my age watch the show.
The blogs i commented on that relate to my comment are

tanya's https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2011388675289093128&postID=2636301860188828971

kabir's https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6908837553612179474&postID=6112581836904863859

naziya's https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4862720983698072372&postID=1988306743696121442

saz's https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3744817234900190432&postID=7030152179953998602

dip'shttps://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=7017445002521195616&postID=8217961470735921244

Sunday 23 September 2007

The Clips

If you dont know what "The Sopranos"is about you should be ashamed of yourself but watch this brief outline of all the 6 seasons.



The women that work in the club are stereotypically represented as whores and the men see them as worthless whores who are expendable. The Sopranos portrays the women as either whores the fulfil the gang members sexual needs as well as the male audiences fantasy/sexual pleasures.




Laura Mulveys theory towards both women and men is relevant to my independent study on “The Sopranos”, I am focusing whether or not the media industry has subverted from the stereotypical sexual representation of women. Luara Mulvey refers to the male gaze, in which women are viewed as mere sexual objects fulfilling the males’ sexual desires and fantasies. This applies to the media text I am studying as there are many scenes such as when Ralph Cifaretto beats his “gumar” outside “the bing”. The girl is beaten to the ground; the high angle shot on the female highlights the dominant representation of men, and enforces patriarchal views/society. Moreover women in The Sopranos are referenced as “whores/gumar” words such as just etcs emphasise the nothingness and worthlessness of women.
The Sopranos season 6 review

Mother of mercy, is this the end of Tony? Or Christopher? Or Bobby ''Bacala'' or Phil Leotardo or — shocking thought — Carmela? Dunno. What we do know is that this is the end of The Sopranos. So somebody's end is probably near (I'm guessing more than one somebody) in the next nine weeks of the final season of one of modern television's greatest achievements in dramatic storytelling. And yet for now, of course...we wait. Show creator David Chase wouldn't have it any other way. Convulsions of exhilarating, violent, plot-powering action — otherwise known as whackings — have been the moments that have made headlines over the years. But really, at its sad, wise heart, The Sopranos illuminates the millions of moments of no action that make up the kind of life millions more of us know. It's Tony's dreams, free associations, and gut-gnawing existential agita that give the series its emotional greatness, while Adriana or Big Pussy gets the buzz. And it's because we can feel the weight of Tony's unwhackable anxieties, even when he's just slumped in a lawn chair staring at water as ducks go by (ducks! Like doves of peace, they quack in the end as they did in the beginning!), that we're so enthralled when something less regularly suburban does go down.

There's a fair amount of sitting around in the first episode — and yet every minute is alive, loaded with middle-aged melancholy (Tony's) and dread (ours). Offering a tableau of almost hilarious mellowness and serenity — Tony and Carmela, Janice and Bobby, sharing a pastoral family weekend of food, drink, and rule-bending Monopoly-playing at a woodsy, lakeside vacation house to celebrate T's 47th birthday — Chase and his writers turn the fantasy of country living on its head. They manage to hint at enough distrust, disappointments, and simmering resentments for a reasonable viewer to break out in a sweat of worry about the fate of everyone at the table. And even those not present. Just a word, a phrase, vibrates with import: ''I'm old, Carm,'' from Tony, or ''What did I say?'' from Janice to her annoyed sister-in-law, spoken in the exact same tones of sadistic innocence once heard from her mother.

In an opening scene, the early-morning sound of someone — feds? cops? disgruntled business associates? — pounding at the front door awakens Carmela, who bolts up in the Soprano marriage bed and asks her sleeping husband, ''Is this it?'' She means the punishment, the endgame, the losing roll of the dice she always knew came with Mr. S. This is not it, yet, but it's coming. The wait is agonizing, and worth it.


by www.ew.com
Research Proposal
· Title-Has the media industry subverted from the stereotypical sexual representation of women, with particular reference to “The Sopranos” by David Chase (2006)?

Hypothesis-Women undertake the sexually objectified character role, reinforcing the representations of women as “eye candy”.

Migrain
· Mise en Scene-This is mob life, there are strippers, the “bada bing”, women ar either treated like whores or glamorous houswives. Females are perceived as passive characters as they are only seen by the audience in the “bada bing” dancing, committing sexual orientations or at home cooking food and carrying out the nurture role.
· Ideologies-Alters the views of women in America and women dependant on men, they are idealised as sexually motivated.
· Genre-Gangster drama, portrayal not of gangsters as such but their way of life and how their actions affect other people.
· Representations- Females are represented as sexual objects that can be bought off by jewellery and other material goods.
· Audience-Targeted at mostly males I would say however the family side that is depicted in the show would attract female audiences. The Sopranos would appeal to audiences from a c1/c2 socio economic group.
· Narrative-Follow Todorov’s theory the opening begins with a normal routine day, then a disruption occurs and is sorted it out however some storylines are finished with unresolved issues and ended with cliff-hangers to create enigma.

Wider Context
· The women in “The Sopranos” are all beautiful however are portrayed as either housewives or “gumars” the show depicts societies deceit and unfaithfulness.
· The Sopranos is presented to the audience as a patriarchal society as women either seen at home, shopping or working in the club and men such as Tony Soprano are seen as the breadwinners.
· Women are treated as possessions and are seen as something for men’s pleasures.

Theorists
· Laura Mulvey-Suggests that there were two distinct modes of the male gaze of this era: “voyeuristic” (i.e. seeing women as ‘Madonna’s’) and “fetishist” (i.e. seeing women as ‘whores’). Mulvey believed that classical Hollywood cinema reflected and shaped the “patriarchal order”, the perspective of her writing actually remained within that very heterosexual order.

Other Texts-
The Sopranos (all seasons) by David Chase (1999-2007)
Goodfellas by Martin Scorsese (1990)
New Blog, Basically i was happy with my question but not with the media text i was using so i changed it from American Pie to an episode from the sopranos. I think this drama works better with my question and i know the text better and basically i go bored of the film and wanted to study a media text I'm truly interested in.