Critical Investigation: Project Proposal

Working Title
To what extent do films such as 'The Hunger Games' series prove that gender stereotypes are being increasingly subverted in the film industry?

Angle
Are we being introduced to more characters in films, particularly protagonists, with characteristics that conventionally wouldn't be associated with their gender?

Hypothesis
Due to the ever increasing number of feminist figures in the media, along with the long running societal debate revolving around gender equality, I believe that there has been a noticeable rise in films featuring characters, particularly female characters who strongly subvert the stereotypes they have been given by society over the years.



Linked production piece

I will be making an opening scene to a film and will attempt to mirror The Hunger Games's inclusion of stereotypically subversive characters.

MIGRAIN
Apply the Key Concepts to your text/topic by using the questions from the Summer Research Project to help you. (Include at least five bullet points per key concept). Include as many media keywords as you can.

SHEP
Apply the Wider Contexts (Social, Historical, Economic, Political) to your text/topic, including at least three bullet points on each one.

Issues/Debates
Select at least five and say how each relates to your study, using theMedia A-Z to help you think about this. Your research and essay plan will need to factor these issues and debates into your work:

  • Representation and stereotyping
  • Media effects
  • Reality TV
  • News Values
  • Moral Panics
  • Post 9/11 and the media
  • Ownership and control
  • Regulation and censorship
  • Media technology and the digital revolution – changing technologies in the 21st century
  • The effect of globalisation on the media
Theories

Select at least five and say how each relates to your study, using keywords/specific theorists' names from the Media A-Z:

  • Semiotics
  • Structuralism and post-structuralism
  • Postmodernism and its critiques
  • Gender and ethnicity
  • Marxism and hegemony
  • Liberal Pluralism
  • Colonialism and Post-colonialism
  • Audience theories
  • Genre theories
  • Contemporary Media Landscape
You may need to further research these theoretical areas. 



Research plan (media texts, academic texts and websites)


Media texts
  • The Hunger Games (2012)
  • The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015)
Secondary/historical media texts - *films in which gender roles are either noticeably reinforced or subverted*
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) -reinforced-
  • Calamity Jane (1953) -subverted-
  • Sense and Sensibility (1995) -reinforced-
  • Mulan (1998) -both-
  • American Beauty (1999) -subverted-
  • Kill Bill Vol.1&2 (2001 & 2004) -subverted-
  • The Stepford Wives (2004) - deliberately reinforced-
  • Brave (2012) - subverted-
TV documentaries
  • The Hunger Games: The Phenomenon (2015)
  • The World Is Watching: Making The Hunger Games (2012)

Academic texts/books

Internet Links

Use our archive of 2017's top-grade Critical Investigations to help you. (You may also want to look at those from previous years too: 2016,2015, 2014, 2013).



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Notes and Quotes

Image
Media Texts To what extent do films such as 'The Hunger Games' series prove that gender stereotypes are being increasingly subverted in the film industry? Primary text: 'The Hunger Games' quadrilogy (2012-2015) Online Texts https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/aug/12/why-hunger-games-killer-katniss-is-a-great-female-role-model http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-with-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-2-theaters-katniss-feminism-lawrence-20151119-story.html https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/nov/30/hunger-games-mockingjay-part-two-women-femininity Online Interviews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzj7aXxDm6I  - Natalie Dormer on playing strong female characters in 'The Hunger Games' and 'Game of Thrones' "I'm interested in feminism meaning equality" "What's interesting to me is roles that are interchangeable; it's irrelevant whether they'
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The issue of gender inequality has long been debated in the media, especially in regards to how genders are represented in film. Through the years, it has become common knowledge, to some extent even the status quo that all characters in film have specific roles with specific criteria that audiences expect them to follow, based on the fact that they are male or female. My main argument, supported by my primary text, is that as time goes on, gender representations are evolving to the point where they are indeed being increasingly subverted, subversion that has been maintained and successfully publicised by the 'The Hunger Games' films. Throughout the four films, Katniss Everdeen the protagonist exhibits not just behaviour but a personality that ordinarily would be strongly associated with men. In her 2016 book 'Hunting Girls', Kelly Oliver says that "our prepubescent protagonist, a tough no-nonsense teenager, is more comfortable wearing hunting clothes and boots th
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" A fighter, a killer, a survivor, she fights boys, and even rescues boys." - Samantha Ellis To what extent do films like the 'The Hunger Games' films prove that gender stereotypes are being increasingly subverted in the film industry? The issue of gender inequality has long been debated in the media, especially in regards to how genders are represented in film. Through the years, it has become common knowledge, to some extent even the status quo that female characters in film have specific roles with specific criteria that audiences expect them to follow, based on the fact that they are female. To support this particular argument, one historical text that this investigation will focus on is Disney's first feature film, 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' from 1937, as throughout the entire film, the eponymous character encompasses every female stereotype that society reinforces. However, as much as this film suggests that gender stereotypes are n
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