Representation Theory

Representation theory

Representation theory refers to a medium (commonly the mass media) constructing a version of reality. How identities are represented through media affect the realism. 

Dominant ideologies or 'morals' are things that society deems acceptable, they are not static as over time they change. An example of this is smoking, it used to be classed as acceptable it public places however now it is deemed deviant and goes against societies ideology. 

Dominant ideologies in the UK are that:

- people should put their families first

- people should work for their money and not show off about how they did

- women should behave modestly

- women should take care of their appearance

and there are many more. If someone goes against these ideologies they are stereotyped negatively. 

Stereotyping are highly linked to representation theory. Conventional stereotypes are not just associated with race, gender, age, social class, sexuality and disability are also areas where they are represented in certain ways. In our film trailer, gender is a key feature of representation. For example,in our trailer, in the hospital scene, we have represented the nurse as a women as according to statistics from the Nursing and Midwifery Council: only 10.21% are male, therefore a more realistic representation of nurse would be a women. 

Another example, is that fact that her husband who was in the armed forces died. Again in comparison to nursing, men dominate the armed forces therefore we felt this would be a representation that many women could relate to. 

In terms of our mental illness story, our main character is diagnosed with 'dissociative identity disorder.' We did not have in mind that we were representing a women as this, we just knew that we wanted to include a mental illness in order to use the alter ego story line. However, in terms of representations, statistics do show that women are more likely to suffer from mental illness than men. They are also considered the weaker or inferior sex and therefore we felt this did provide a realistic representation. 

In terms of statistics women are more likely to be treated for mental health problems than men, 29% of women compared to 17% of men. Depression is also a mental health issue and is more common in women, 1 in 4 women are treated for depression where as 1 in 10 men will. 'Dissociative identity disorder' can stem from anxiety, women are twice as likely to experience anxiety and 60% of people with phobias or OCD are female. Therefore we felt that representation in our trailer was correct or the ideologies in society and realistic.