Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Analysis Of Lgbtq+ Representation In Television And Film, Katelyn Thomson

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

As LGBTQ+ representation in television and film increases, viewers must continue to question if this representation is accurate and enough to represent a whole spectrum of individuals. TV and film hold a powerful role in shaping societies perceptions, biases and stereotypes of a community and individuals. This essay analyzes TV and film representations to provide the reader with a better understanding of the power and impact that accurate representations of LGBTQ+ can have on the community and society as a whole. By looking at the issue through the lenses of queer theories, scripting theory, in addition to Stuart Hall and …

Disney's Portrayal Of Women: An Analysis Of Female Villains And Princesses, Natalie S. Wellman

Concordia Journal of Communication Research

Abstract

This study was conducted to understand how our views of women are shaped by Disney films. Specifically, this paper looks at how female villains and princesses are portrayed in nine Disney movies. These films were studied and coded for similarities and differences within specific themes. Ultimately, this study concluded there were a number of similar themes in regard to appearance, nonverbals, interactions, and common female stereotypes. The study also noted a shift between older (four movies before 1990) and newer (five movies after 1990) Disney movies; however, many of the changes do not occur until the most recent Disney …

The Evolution Of Revenge: Genre, Feminist Theory And Jennifer’S Body, Sophia Birks

Capstone Showcase

The representation and proliferation of violence against women in media, when applying genre theory, reflects the social climate of rape culture and the social response to sexual violence. Looking at the Rape-Revenge genre through the scope of Feminist Theory, the only way to reintroduce female agency into a trauma led narrative is to reclaim the tropes used to perpetuation female exploitation and a popular culture ambivalent to male on female violence. Within this subversion and deconstruction, a genre benefiting from female trauma finally includes an honest artistic retelling of that female experience. With the intention of the creator in line …

The Marginalization And Stereotyping Of Asians In American Film, Isabel Paner

Honors Theses

Asians in Hollywood films and the industry have been subjected to unfair stereotyping and under-representation since the twentieth century and up to the present. This thesis analyzes and dissects this marginalization and stereotyping of Asians in American films through text and film analysis and critical theory. Historically, if Asians are not portrayed in a stereotypical role, then they are given no role at all, rendered invisible by Hollywood and mass audiences. Their marginalization in the film industry has damaging effects on the perception of Asians in society. This study will explain what stereotypes have endured over the course of history, …

The Wounded Man: Foxcatcher And The Incoherence Of White Masculine Victimhood, Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

American cinema has recently favored representations of white men as victims of socioeconomic and political change. Recent scholarship on white masculinity suggests that representations of male victimhood enable white men to disavow that hegemonic white masculinity still fundamentally structures society. This essay argues that Hollywood’s wounded man similarly provides white masculinity with stable footing. I illustrate how the unintelligibility of screen masculinity evades criticism and, further, how melancholic male dramas nurture a traumatic attachment to victimhood. Examining the film Foxcatcher (2014), I show how unmasked portraits of white male victimhood function as counterparts to the hard-bodied action hero. The filmmaker’s …

#Representationmatters: A Study Of Masculinity In The Avengers Movies, Lauren F. Cooke

Senior Projects Spring 2018

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

Uncovering The Lost Knowledge Of The Imagination In Films, Seda, Daniel A.

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Films have forever changed the way in which humans perceive reality and have provided significant opportunities to spread knowledge in ways that are both entertaining and deceptive. Uncovering the lost knowledge of the imagination shifts an individual’s perceptions of a shared experience and exposes film’s persuasive power to penetrate the psyche. This paper explores the constitutions of reality and how humans are able to tap into other realms of consciousness through mediums of creative expression. Topics such as the origins of life, the hidden knowledge of secret societies, and the burgeoning full disclosure movement for truth are discussed as a …

The Underrepresentation Of African Americans And The Role Of Casting Directors, Chantal Suhling

Undergraduate Research

Films are cultural products, which reflect the existing ideologies in a culture. In the American culture the two dominant ideologies are white normativity and patriarchy. With the Oscars right around the corner, the world is anticipating this year's nominees and winners. Hopes are high that this year the Academy Award for best actor will go to someone who is diverse. If films are reconstructions of culture, then can we really expect to see change at the Oscars? Through thorough qualitative research and interviews with industry professionals, a detailed picture of the role of casting directors in the casting process for …

El Paseo By Harold Trompetero: Approaching Popular Film From Colombia In A North American Classroom, Matias Martinez Abeijon Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

This article explores the manner in which popular films from Colombia—

specifically comedies, such as the movie El paseo, directed by Harold Trompetero in 2010, which has been the highest grossing movie to date in the history of movies produced in Colombia–may be used in the classroom in the context of a World Language, Literature, and Culture department in the United States. It is the contention of this study that such a choice is far from common due to diverse issues, which include the limited access to international distribution of the majority of the so-called “national film” or, in …

Understanding Arab Culture Through Cinema, Abed El-Rahman Tayyara Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

The article examines the use of cinema as a tool for teaching about Arab culture and assesses the process in which learners acquire a higher level of intercultural communicative competence. The essay draws primarily on multilayered class activities and students’ responses to pre- and post- screening surveys related to eight Arab films. The article reveals that the evaluation of the learners’ intercultural competence and their familiarity with Arab culture in particular is a long process that filled with misunderstandings, gaps, inconsistencies, and contradictions on the part of the learners. To successfully conduct this type of teaching, the article also points …

Once Upon A Midnight Stalker: A Content Analysis Of Stalking In Films, Amy Sides Schultz, Julia Moore, Brian H. Spitzberg

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Media portrayals of crime have been linked to biased information processing and beliefs about society and personal risks of victimization. Much of this research has either focused on relatively holistic analyses of media consumption, or on the analysis of elements of only a few types of crime (e.g., murder, rape, assault). Research to date has overlooked how media portray stalking in interpersonal relationships. This study content analyzed 51 mainstream movies with prominent stalking themes to compare and contrast such depictions with the actual scientific data about stalking. By considering victim variables, stalker variables, relational variables, stalking behavior variables, victim response …

Representations Of The African Diaspora In Three Films, Monica C. Melton

Global Honors Theses

This thesis will examine how the African diaspora has been depicted in filmic text, from directors representing distinctly different loci of the diaspora, in Brazil, Nigeria and the United States. Film is one of many modes of expression for a culture that is based on representations. “For many people, media representations maybe their first and often only source of information about, or reference for people outside of their social and cultural circles, “(James, etc., 354) The scope of this thesis will specifically examine diasporic representation in The Journey by Chineze Anyaene, a Nigerian director of ‘Nollywood’, Walter Salles’ “City of …

The Effects Of Commercialization On The Perception Of Hip Hop Culture And Black Culture In Mainstream Culture In The United States, Chris A. Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is examines how the perception of a sub-culture can be altered by a dominant culture. Specifically this project addresses the effects resulting from the assimilation of Hip Hop Culture by mainstream culture in the United States, and its subsequent use as a marketing tool. Because Hip Hop Culture originated in Black Culture, the perception of Black Culture as reflected by hip hop music is also discussed. All of these themes are addressed creatively through a narrative script project.

The Post-Nuclear Family And The Depoliticization Of Unplanned Pregnancy In Knocked Up, Juno, And Waitress, Kristen Hoerl, Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay explores three films from 2007, Knocked Up, Juno, and Waitress, which foreground young women’s unplanned pregnancies. These movies depoliticize women’s reproduction and motherhood through narratives that rearticulate the meaning of choice. Bypassing the subject of abortion, the women’s decisions revolve around their choice of heterosexual partners and investment in romantic relationships. Although they question the viability of the nuclear family for single pregnant women, these films represent new iterations of post-feminism that ultimately restore conservative ideas that valorize pregnancy and motherhood as women’s imperatives. We conclude by addressing how these movies present a distorted and …

Seeing Lesbian Queerly: Visibility, Community, And Audience In 1980s Northampton, Massachusetts, Susan E. Mckenna

Open Access Dissertations

This study investigates the transitioning terms of lesbian visibility and identity in the distinctive spatio-temporal context of Northampton, Massachusetts in the 1980s. Drawing on interviews with a diversified sampling of lesbian-, bisexual-, and queeridentified participants, I consider the coalescing of two lesbian communal formations – a social community and a social audience – as mediating sites for the interrelations between subculture and dominant culture. Informed by the literatures and methods of queer theory, cultural studies, and feminist film criticism, I examine the 1980s queer crossover from lesbian subcultural separatism to mitigated assimilation by the end of the decade. The 1980s …

A Comparative Study Of African American Representations In Film From Original To Remake As Influenced By The Civil Rights Movement, Erica F. Berry

Honors College

Racial stereotypes in American films have reflected our society’s dominant ideologies and have influenced our belief systems since the film industry began. As social constructs shift and cultural norms change, so do the representations present in cinematic productions. This study is looking closely at the African American Civil Rights movement in the United States and how, and if, it correlates with changing representations and stereotypes of African Americans in film from the late 1960s to today. I begin by recognizing traditional representations of African Americans and identifying their use in two films in particular, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) …

Is Disney Surfing The Third Wave? A Study Of The Pervasiveness Of The Third Wave Of Feminism In Disney's Female Protagonists, Emily S. Ellington

Senior Honors Theses

It is important to understand factors that have influenced Generation Y’s view of womanhood. One way to do this is to analyze third wave feminist messages portrayed by Disney, the media powerhouse. In order to determine if Disney reflects feminist values, the third wave themes portrayed in The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Pocahontas (1995), and Mulan (1999) are examined. It is concluded that Disney portrays the feminist values of independence and multiculturalism; however, the films are set within patriarchal societies and portray women to be domestic. Ultimately, Disney portrays four messages about womanhood: Women are equal …

Mario Van Peebles’S Panther And Popular Memories Of The Black Panther Party, Kristen Hoerl

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The 1995 movie Panther depicted the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense as a vibrant but ultimately doomed social movement for racial and economic justice during the late 1960s. Panther’s narrative indicted the white-operated police for perpetuating violence against African Americans and for undermining movements for black empowerment. As such, this film represented a rare source of filmic counter-memory that challenged hegemonic memories of U.S. race relations. Newspaper reports and reviews of Panther, however, questioned the film’s veracity as a source of historical information. An analysis of these reviews and reports indicates the challenges counter-memories confront in popular culture.

Scolding John Q.: Articulating A Normative Relationship Between Politics And Entertainment, Emily West

Emily E. West

The 2002 hostage drama John Q. triggered a discussion among journalists, the public, and the policy community about the proper relationship between politics and entertainment. In this debate the criteria for good journalism and good political discourse were frequently invoked to evaluate this Hollywood film. This discussion, which spilled out of the film criticism pages into news and commentary pages, shows how public sphere models of political discourse are privileged even though they may not be a good fit for fictional media. John Q.’s success in triggering public discussion and awareness about health policy issues seems to illustrate DeLuca & …

Tainted Glory: Truth And Fiction In Contemporary Hollywood, Patricia A. Turner

Trotter Review

In the earliest days of cinema, the image of the African American on screen matched the off-screen image. When a 12-minute version of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1903) was filmed, "Tom" shows were the most popular stage shows, the Stowe novel was still a top-seller, and the notion that white southerners were the real victims of the peculiar institution was gaining increasing acceptance in academic circles. When D.W. Griffith's epic and revolutionary Birth of a Nation (1915) depicted a set of stock African-American movie characters — the subservient overweight domestic servant; the indifferent, coquettish mulatto; the savage, sexually driven buck; and …