REPRESENTATION in Humans

 REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN AND CYBORGS IN HUMAN

re-presentation of a group of people in a certain way and how it is done, and what are the impacts of those representations.

female synths in humans:

summissive, mother role (nurturing caring, homely person) sex objects, helper, housewife, prostitute, friend, slave, rebel, 

maddona/whore complex theory

sigman freud developped a theory to explain men's anxiety towards womens sexuality, suggesting that men define women into one of two cattegories: the maddona or the whore.

maddona-woman he admires and respects, typically virtous, nurtutinf saintly and sexually repressed

the whore- women he is attracted to and therfore disrespects. the whore is sensual, sexualised and desireable without purity.

KEY THEORY 12- lisbet van zoonen

argues that gender i constructed, and that its meaning varies based on cultural and historical culture. she suggests that masculinity as well as femininity is constructed through codes, which vary for each gender.

gender performance, heavy in humans as synths have to learn how to fit into their gender roles, further proving that gender is constructed and learnt over time.

Analysing scenes: buying anitta

joe- seen as an average guy, encoded by his kind of boring name, looks ordinary, is just tryuing to do what he sees best fit for his family. strong family type. 

sophie- innocent young girl, made to look stereotypically girly, encoded by her wearing a dress. excitable and bubbly also helps the audience like her more and see her as sweet. she is excited as anita is started up, she looks up to her as a friend figure. reaches out and holds her hand showing she is begining to form an attachment to an inanimate object.

anita- is not explicitly sexualised in her outward appearance, the clothes she wears is modest and conservative and arguably androgenous as she wears both a dress and trousers and colour is pretty gender neutral. she does however wear (light) makeup which has been seen as a feminine industry. she is attractive.

narrative: audiences empathise with joe as we see that he is on edge but wants to do whats best ans he needs help as laura is not always present. we see him as almost a victim, he struggles to work and manage home life simultaneously. 

media language- ominous suspense music as they weel anita in, element of mystery. dark and bleak colours.music then softens as joe is signing for anita, much brighter lighting, more open shots reflecting that this is a positive thing hes doing.close up of anitas face makes us believe she is human, however reboot/ startup sounds brings us bac to the fact that she is a robot, has no thoughts or feelings.

Diametric oppositions

structuralism, oppositions. make sense of our world by knowing pairs of opposites.

• Man Vs Machiene
• anita Va Laura
• captivity Vs Freedom
• Conscious Vs unconscious
• Progress Vs Regression
• Appearance Vs Reality

historical representations of robots/mechana

metropolis (lang 1927)

female figure, is an actual objects but is made to seem sexual, womanly shape 

blade runner (1982)

sexual, binary oppositions of femininity, dressed in sexual human xlothes 

cyborg- combines both mechanical and organic materials, part human part robot

Key theory 10- judith butler - theories of gender permormative

• identity is a performance and is constructed through a series of acts and expressions that we perform every day.
• not a singular act but repetition or ritual it is outlines and defines by a patriarchal society.
• there are differences between the sexes, gender is completely constructed.

mostly powerful white men, e.g. Leo, guy tracking synths down. racial representation too, most ethnic characters are synths or have very little power.

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS - THE BROTHEL SCENE/ ENDING

what representations of gender are encoded in this scene? 

• women- objects ,passive, and around for men to use to get any sort of sexual gratification. miska is a synth but she represents what men would do to women if they had total control and there weren't  consequences of any sort. also caring or nurturing as we see both Laura and Anita take on very warm motherly roles
• men- power fuelled and driven by sexual desire. more active and take charge.
• leo is an active protagonist, adventurer, confirms van zoonens theory of gender being constructed
• all white family but annita is south east asian. eroticism and post colonialism
• laura is seen as not enough, not enough of a woman whereas anita comes in and does lauras "jobs" better than she does. anita does housework, cooks, cleans and is there for children, also sexier.

these representations are encoded by diegetic sound e.g miska does not speak or many any sounds, because she is not supposed to. the man does however, makes commands and takes/acts, miska has no control or consent. the non diegetic music is slightly mysterious and eerie as the narrator talks about what it is to be human and how these machines could evolve to be even more like us.

close up shot of Niskas eyes while shes essentially being raped, they look very emotionless. further objectifying women and almost disregarding that they have emotions, feelings and consciousness too. from this the audience might make the assumption that sex is what the female body's function is. whereas men take sex from women. binary oppositions of active and passive, give and take, love vs lust.