humans .

The brothel scene/ closing montage

- Binary opposition between Anita and Humans 

Lisbet Van Zoonen argues that women and men are represented differently in media.

She also refers to the male gaze = assumption that audiences are always heterosexual man so women are always objectified. She argues women are argued to present a spectacle. 

Exploring how representations of gender are encoded in the closing montage:

Media language 

Anita carrying the child into the suburban night functions as a hermeneutic code, enticing the audience to interact with the next episode.

Mise-en-scene of water running down window is symbolic of Anita's past.   

Genre

Narrative

Diegesis - in the world of the narrative = diegetic narrator underscores key plot information, allowing the audience to comprehend a difficult narrative and to reinforce themes such as "what is love?"

Representation 

Men consistently represented represented in positions of dominance. The punter in the brothel has a shaved head, rough clothes and briefly barked orders at Nishka. 

Double standards of representation. Woman often sexualised.  Nishka's revealing costume. However the camera zooms in on Nishka's face acting as a direct mode of address to the audience. The preferred response is for the audience to identify with Nishka and to feel as uncomfortable as possible. This is further anchored through the lexis that the Punter uses which is both unloving and aggressive. This is further reinforced by Nishka's dead expression. 

Van Zoonen: Male gaze. Woman as object to the male. "we're not taking it back". Dismissive objectification of the female cyborg

archetype = type of character 

Madonna/Whore complex - Sigmund Freud 

- Freud was obsessed with dreams and the idea of the unconscious desires.

- His ideas were extremely influential in the media world. 

Madonna = Virgin Mary - virtuous, nurturing, saintly and sexually repressed

Whore = someone who takes money for having sex - sensual, sexualised and desirable without purity.

- Men are anxious about women - they define them in two categories; the madonna (virgin, women he admires and respects) and the whore (women he is attracted to and therefore disrespects)

Leo thinks

Niska = whore - because he goes to brothel to rescue her but then says he needs to rescue Anita first leaving her to get raped - showing he cares more about Anita than her. 

Anita = Madonna she is a typical housewife, motherly, friendly, well spoken, she is stereotypically attractive, quiet, doesn't answer back, does exactly what she is told 

= Levi Strauss - Binary opposition. 

Humanity (what defines being human?)

- Being able to communicate through talking 

- we can communicate in varies different ways - thumbs up = proairetic and hermeneutic        code

- we have complex thoughts

- loving and hating 

- we can do complex tasks 

- we have sense of morality 

- we have a consciousness

- we can create art

Cyborg = cybernetic organism - a being that combines both mechanical and organic components.

Fetishism = an obsession of a certain characteristic 

Mattie says "the dishwasher has feelings" which shows how Anita is like a dishwasher - objectification - she is only there to aid the family 

Donna Harraway believes we are all cyborgs 

Everything that we use isn't really human anymore as we use cars, electronics etc however the act of taking on technology, creating culture etc makes us human.

Humans is a highly polysemic media product which provides audiences with a massive range of interpretations. It can be a philosophical experience. 

Commodity fetishism = obsession of buying things.    
Why are attractive woman being used to sell products? 
To catch the eye of viewers due to the male gaze (Lisbet Van Zoonen theory)
An association is being made between the product and woman - but you don't need an attractive woman to use it. 

This is why Anita is a sexually attractive woman because it helps sell her as a product - she is a perfect example of commodity fetishism

"that one is really fancy" 
"i like our one" 
the little girl likes Anita for who she is and thinks she is pretty
Whereas Joe thinks she's sexually attractive also making Anita a sexual fetish.

Anita is east asian because audiences can refer to racial stereotypes = she is a stereotypical maid that is a role that may be taken on by an East Asian person and she is stereotypically attractive = she is exotic 

Gender performativity = people's perceptions of the ways in which genders act - 

Gender performance = how we act 
Gender performativity = how this affects other people 

Key theory 10 - Judith Butler = theories of gender performativity 

- identity is a performance and is constructed through a series of acts and expressions that we perform everyday
- while there are biological differences dictated by sex, our gender is defined through this series of acts. These may include the ways we talk, dress and so on. 
- therefore there is no gender identity behind these expressions of gender 
- gender performativity is not a singular act, but a repetition and ritual. It is outlined and reinforced through dominant patriarchal ideologies. 

Things Anita does to reinforce her gender performativity:
- Anita is symbolically stealing Laura's motherhood (cleans a lot) 
- Reads to the little girl = maternal role

Joe is a stay at home dad = subversive role - Men are stereotypically the ones to go out and work while women stay at home

Mattie = subversive = shown through the mise-en-scene of her love of guns 
Her parents lying in bed hear a bang and say "thats probably just Mattie again" - don't think highly of her
Mattie calls her brother a "knobcock" 

Niska can't say no to sex, she is completely helpless and has to consent to all sex - shows how women are treated not only in a lot of tv shows but in society. 

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How is gender constructed and seen when Leo enters the brothel?
- Walks there confidently, then when he gets inside he looks timid and nervous
- Mise-en-scene of his outfit shows he is masculine = rough and dirty - green/black outfit has connotations of the military and a commander to what they are wearing. 
- Mise-en-scene of his beard makes him stereotypically masculine 
- When he is spoken to in the street, he becomes more dominant and aggressive. 
- Leo is walking with a purpose and urgency 
- Situated in a backstreet which has connotations of crime. Binary opposition to Anita reading the book to the young girl. 
- Leo aggressively mutters "go on" to a passing man and glares - attitude = assertive 
- Leo gesticulates aggressively and assertively at Max - makes him stereotypically manly - he is getting the job done. "walk over there, i'll be right back"
- Tracking shot positions us with Leo as he enters the brothel - he is not happy to be there and we know this because he tries to conceal his disgusted expression but clearly upset to be there.
- In the video in the brothel - Niska is pulling a seductive face, Nishka is acting sexy and putting on an act not because she wants to but in order to survive - she is trying to hide the fact she is a synth.
- This is a hyperreal representation of a brothel - we have never seen a brothel before but we know what it is because of other media products.
- The soundtrack insinuates Leo is nervous - the audience are meant to feel uncomfortable. Brothels are exploitative 
- An eye-line match establishes Niska 
- Nishka is posing and grabbing her breasts, pouting = sexualisation and sexual objectifying 
- Leo and Niska meet and hug = break out of their characters = gender performativity = Leo has been acting aggressively and manly but then they hug and show who they are. 
- Niska is very human
- Leo cannot get the princess out - failed his job - but he thinks its safer for her to be inside - He says Niska can cope with being raped daily
- Niska smacks him in the face - stereotypically masculine thing to do - taking her anger out on him even though she says she is doing it so that it doesn't look suspicious - this gesture, smacking and glaring at him (close up shot of her glaring) emphasises the power she has over him, taken away his masculinity - she symbolically castrates him. 
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The building blocks of any media product is media language 

Hyperreality = beyond reality

when the representation is more important than the thing it presents 
Joan Boa

Paris syndrome = in this postmodern age of simulacra, audiences are constantly bombarded with images which no longer refer to anything "real"

Simulacra = representations of things that don't exist

The fake is more real than the real.

Hyperreality and simulacrum in humans
- The synths themselves: perfect representation of humanity. Look identical to humans. Yet better than humans. Niska decides not to switch off her pain-chip to deliberately force herself to suffer.
- The synths are more attractive than people themselves. Fake is better than reality.

In real life
- Christmas (expectation is better than reality)
- birthdays 
- halloween 
- living in a small town (expected to be really nice but in reality boring)
- Pornography is a hyperreal version of sex - reference to this in the brothel scene with Niska.