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Are mainstream media representations of women overwhelmingly negative? In the contemporary periods, women always had narrow set of representation in the media, whom they are often linked to the domestic situations of women as housewives and mothers. Women are usually sexualized and objectified to titillate the male audience. Back in Ancient Greece women were not allowed to act or take part in the media. The patriarchal society were socially conditioned to believe that women should do what it was expected from them. From feminist critics, this highlights the inequality to the female gender that influences todays representation of women in the media because males believed that they could do anything that women could possibly do, therefore emphasizing their masculinity in terms of restricting certain aspects from women and having the stereotypical expectations reflects on our societies thoughts on females. As years progressed, women had more opportunities to take part in the media, which was an aspect of improvement and change. However, due to patriarchal nature of our society, women are less likely to be the source of leading news stories or be the state of authority in the media. In ‘ Desperate Housewives’ women is stereotyped, as the maternal, domestic woman but sometimes there is an unexpected representation of women. Recently, the cover of the TV show presented a lot of references to religious beliefs, stereotypes and representation. The mise- en –scene used on the characters portrayed them being sexually objective. Also, the color red stereotypically portrays evilness, deceitfulness and seductiveness, therefore their color-coded dresses presents their personality. One of the characters is holding a bright red apple, which could be symbolic of Garden of Eden, which adds on the societies preconception of female’s evilness and manipulation. For a long time, our society had judgmental thoughts and approaches to women caused by their religious beliefs, which has a huge impact in our media now. This TV show clearly outlines the success of Bechtel test, which gives more power to the male audience and fails to improve the representation of women in our society. Another aspect I picked up on throughout the media is the cliché and repeated camera angles/shots used on female characters to portray their insignificance, vulnerability and inferiority. In most of the movies I watched, I realized that they use a lot of long shot on female’s figures to show that the lower part of their body is relevant and is required to be seen, which could be the necessity for the male audience. The long shot gives a better visionary and understanding of the female’s body figure which could be interpreted as the ideal and admired body shape for the female audience, it could also have been produced for the male audiences pleasure. The camera angles used on female characters are usually high angles and low angle. The reason why the director would probably use a high angle is to portray

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her as a powerless, insignificant and a small character. Also, from a high angle, the audience will see everything in a smaller spectrum and reduced expansion, which could be interpreted that all women are same and they are at the same social position and level. As a feminist, I would disagree with this and I have my own interpretation on this angle because from a high angle, it could portray her significance within her role because she is even remembered and known from a higher position. This could show that she is respected and admired by other people. The reason why I thought they used low angle on female characters was to portray their power over sexual interaction. A low angle would be positioned below the characters body, which could be indicating to the characters inappropriate areas to show their sexual power. Usually, when a low angle is used on a female character, the director would slowly zoom in and then immediately cut off when the audience gets aware of them coming closer to female’s area just like the car scene in Transformers. This could foreshadow the characters further role in the film, this will create a different imaginary and perception on the female character compared to the beginning of the film. The Bechtel test, which was popularized by Alison Bechdels comic ‘Dykes to Watch Out For’ claims that in most of the mainstream movies there is at least two women characters that has names and who talks to each other about something besides a man. Unfortunately in present time, the majority of the women characters do achieve to fit into these rules. As an audience I feel ashamed to be generalized into the Bechtel Test because it ruins the representation of women and social communication between the female genders. For example, in Friends with Benefits there are two women characters that constantly talk about a man, which shows their desperation and ruining self-reputation over the opposite sex. Laura Mulvey’s ‘The Male Gaze’ claims that the commonality of female nudity displays implications of subordinations and internalization of the gaze changes women’s perceptions of themselves, which makes them, think of themselves as objects. This theory portrayed that men is the dominant group and women as the powerless. In most of the mainstream movies we watch, there is a lot of phallocentrism and symbolic order, which outlines the dominancy of male audience and portrays the exact perception about women’s role in our society. Women in our society may be falsely conscious over their own reputation because they haven’t been treated any better other than these stereotypical and repeated representations therefore, it seems like they become accepting of these claims and portrayals of their gender specification. Marxist theory would argue that women are marginalized by men’s prevision and dominancy through the media. Media plays a big role in our society in terms of portraying people in certain way, which will remain with the audience for a long time.