EsSaY PlAn..

EsSaY PlAN..
‘How are women represented in sugar rush and in what way does the audience interpret the text’

KeY WoRdS:
Male gaze
Erotic pleasure
Feminism
Role-reversal
Post-feminism
Objectification
Stereotypes
Patriarchal society
Voyeurism
Scopophilia

ThEoRiStS:
Laura Mulvey
Gauntlet

Introduction (1st paragraph):

• Sugar rush is a contemporary teen drama series broadcasted on channel four at 10:00pm every Thursday. It explores the life of a lesbian teenager who falls in love with her best friend sugar and many of the storylines are based around female charcaters. Its a series that parts itself from many others as it explores things such as teenagers sexualities and moves away from typical representaions often seen in contemporary television series. As many of the characters are female the way they are represented stands out from all other representaions and gives us a chnace to question whether the representaions of women in the media have chnaged.
• target audeince is females aged 15-21 as the series is based around the lifes of teenage girls, they would therefore be able to relate to the charcters and what is going on in there lives.The secondary audeince would be a male audience of around the same age group. However as these two audience are of different sexes and may interpret the text in completly different ways but the qustion is how...
• both these questions can be answered by looking at theorists such as laura mulvey and looking at historical texts which give us a chnace to look and what has chnaged and what remains the same.
• My hypothesis is: although the representation of women has progressd, as many typical sterotypes of women have been eliminated, women are still being objectified and many appear to live there life for men (patricachal society). Which then links to the way the audeinces interpret the text. Women watch the programme to relate to similar situations they may be going through, whereas the men watch is purley to objectify the female characters.

2nd paragraph:

• In general, how women have been represented over the years and the way in which women were once sterotyped in televison series ..
• Analyse and didcussing a hstorical text ( ) backing up how women were represented in the past and the roles that they played. For exmple the way they were shown to be under the control of a male character and that many women were shown as housewives who were there to keep everything going whilst the man was at work. Those women that didnt conform to this were often punished and were rarley seen. Also discussing how all this shows how patriachal society was in these texts.

3rd paragraph:

• Feminism...what it is and when it occured (3 waves of feminism: First-wave feminism focused on gaining the right of women's suffrage - being able to vote, Second-wave feminism: concerned with independence and greater political action to improve women's rights, Third-wave feminism: seeks to challenge and expand common definitions of gender and sexuality. lesbians)...The way that it changed society, the effect that it had on television and the way that women were represented.
• It lead to many stereotypes being eliminated giving the chance for female roles to expand and also caused alot of role reversals between men and women. It also lead to females playing more important roles in the programmes in comparison to the few roles played by women at al before feminimsm occured. (gauntlette*)

4th paragraph:

• A more datailed anaysis of historical texts and the differeneces/similarities that can be seen between Sugar Rush (a contemportary teen series) and historical texts, which should hold different representations of women.
• Did this lead to a change in the audiences and interpretations of the two texts and is it effected because of the way in which women are now represented or whether it remains the same throughout both contemporary and historical texts.

5th paragraph:

• Into more depth about the way in which Sugar Rush's audeince interprets the text. Why they watch the programme and what is it that satisfys the audience.
• men and women in general, discussing the way men watch it to objectify women getting sexual pleasure from watch two women having sex (laura mulvey*) and also to watch sugar who, through out the whole series seems to flaunt her body. Whereas women watch it to relate to the situations women get into and to follow the characters around watching relationship progress and so on.

6th paragraph(conclusion):

• "Although the representation of women has progressd, as many typical sterotypes of women have been eliminated, women are still being objectified and many appear to live there life for men (patricachal society). Which then links to the way the audeinces interpret the text. Women watch the programme to relate to similar situations they may be going through, whereas the men watch is purley to objectify the female characters." was this hypothesis correct? (does the essay suuport what I belive)
• Do we still live in a patricachal society in terms of the media and even though women have been given more roles in the media are they purley there to satisfy the male gaze?
• Sugar Rush has two main audeinces...are there interpretations different, why do these interpretations diffrenciate so much...