Representative Theory

Representation refers to the construction in any medium, in this case we are using media and more specifically print media as the medium. Representation isn't just people. It can also include places, object and actions. Gaze theory plays a big role in theory, it is how people are seen through the eyes of others, for example presenting a man through the eyes of a woman.

Representation however can be unfair, sexist and bias against something or someone, an example of this is seen very heavily in the genre I am creating (house music magazine). Woman are very over sexualized. I will explore and show this on a later slide.

I chose a selection of album artwork for house music tracks and compilations, I was bias when choosing the covers admittedly picking the ones where women are sexualized, however there are many covers like this and none that feature men being objectified. It is seen as acceptable as house is linked with summer party and dressing in less clothing. This is why you don’t see any other genres being so blatant.

A quick google search of “female DJs” and “male DJs” show another completely different contrast in the genre. The male DJ search returns a whole host of famous male DJs on the decks or with a profile picture linking to an article about there success. The Female DJ search does show a healthy host of female DJ’s working however thrown in the mix is over sexualized images of women who do not have anything to do with creating music and instead are being used as either advertising for a club/ album or something that has been created for the pure viewing pleasure for people who enjoy the genre or to pull people in.

Out of 18 images I screen shot 5 of them are in your face sexualizing women and presenting them in a suggestive manner. I have put a red line through them to show.Other images on the search show women “playing innocent” for example the picture shown in blue the girl is posing for a picture rather then actually producing. Like many of the other images on the search. While there is nothing wrong with posing for an image the search is not actually showing many of the talented female DJ’s because this is what people want when they search for female DJ’s. This makes the whole genre look like it is run by men which is a misrepresentation.

Google returns more images for male DJ which is not surprising as there are more male DJ’s in the profession. More images are of real DJ’s either posing for a picture of actually working. There are a few images that are generic shown with a blue line. Again nothing wrong with posing for an image.

The whole google comparison shows how the female DJ’s are represented by not actually really being shown because they are being over shadowed by contrived false images.

The story is one with opposite results searching male clubber and female clubber as the men are being shown trough the female gaze by being topless and have an unrealistic body image, the women on the other hand are shown to be dressed up and looking smiley and happy. Same goes for the actions in the images, the men are shown to be on substances and almost animalistic where the women have drinks but are remaining sensible looking. This is again a misrepresentation of men as in actual fact both parties enjoy a drink.

Night clubs are misrepresented as places where young people go and get blind drunk, full of drugs and fight openly. This is a misrepresentation created by the media to put fear in people and put people off clubbing. Media outlets such as BBC News and the Daily Mail pick up on loose treads and create a big story about something that didn't’ or doesn't happen. This is a shame because the music was created quite recently and so should not have any old prejudices linked with it. Movies also give false representation to house parties and clubs. The likes of project X show things vastly blown out of proportion even though it was loosely based on a true story things like this are not the norm.

My research on representative showed me that there is misrepresentation to both sides of gender and to the industry in general often created by parties that don’t really have an interest in the music. T