What is Representation/Realism

What is Representation?

Representation has seen a considerable amount of change especially in the more recent years. If we are to look at the representation of women in media, producers once had a more dismissive view of using women in advertisement and when they were shown it was in more of a ‘domestic sphere’ (Roderick, 2017) regardless of the context of the piece. It has been widely suggested that the common representations of women can be detrimental to them especially for girls whom are in their formative years. Clay tells that ‘possibly the most damaging part are the ads where women are there to just fill in the background of the scenery.’ (2017) whereas men fulfilled roles that highlighted a binary opposition (Strauss 1964) between genders. Supporting an ideology of women and men being incredibly different that has been instilled into many. More recently the traditional roles have been disputed in media. For 54 years the main protagonist of BBC’s television series Dr Who (1963) was male until in 2017 this role was taken over by a female actress. Whilst some could say that this could be a positive step towards better representation the show did receive a significant amount of backlash where many were complaining that the show was ‘trying to push a “social justice warrior” agenda.’(Jones, 2018) The fact that this has been highlighted as a type of warfare signifies that there is still much more progress to be made in terms of the representation of women, and this is reflected across the industry concerning many issues of representation of a number of groups.

What is Realism?

Realism has technically seen little change as the ‘tradition of realism’ has been assumed to include a reliance on common-sense, where, despite a small chance of something happening, it could still suit the concept of realism as there is the understanding that something being shown is inconceivable. (sytaffel, 2008). This means that realism can be different for everyone, it can be influenced by beliefs, lifestyles and cultures and then also a person’s very own morals. As a result, it can be quite difficult to really say how the realism of a piece has been perceived as a whole by a large audience. The Charming charter of the Sons of Anarchy and their closest friends are typically described as family, there is a constant reflection of typical families and perhaps this appeals to those that desire to have a close-knit family who would do anything for each other. When regarding the questioning of the term ‘Family,’ there is a debate concerning the definition of family ‘and how the very concept of” kinship” can be shaped and interpreted under a variety of cultural conditions.’ (Weston, 2997). So, by this definition family is not necessarily something determined by blood and this is heavily supported throughout the series.