- cultural roles of masculinity and femininity
- not natural properties but social constructs
- definitions of gender are specific to time and place
- gender roles change over time, reflect broader cultural change
- representations of gender: ideas are reflected and explored within the media and wider visual culture
- gender and power structures
- why do we use gender as the basis upon which to place discussions of identity
- gender performance
- what are the political, economic, scientific, and social elements that affect attributes to gender
- how is gender represented in visual culture
- do representations in the popular media reflect changing perspectives or perpetuate gender stereotypes
- the gendered body, cultural ideals
- the relationship between gender and consumerism
- gender as construct- gender as per formative act
- socio historical conditioning
- culturally anchored
The male gaze:
- the male gaze is the act of representing women in visual media from a heterosexual male point of view, which reduces women to objects of male pleasure
- mull eyes points to three perspectives 1. That of the man behind the camera 2. That of the characters within the film representation 3. That of the male viewer 
- women are depicted in the passive role of the observed
- men are the active observers in viewing the female from their perspective
ritual subordination of women:
- the social presence of a woman is different
- men pictures as assertive
- women in supportive roles
- men survey
- women are surveyed
gender roles power dynamic:
- men inhabit the world of paid work
- women inhabit the world of the home
- humorous/ironic depiction of men in the home
- women rarely shown in positions of power in the workplace
- men appear in formal dress codes
- women often shown at leisure
- reinforced patriarchal power structures
the gendered body:
- men’s bodies sown as active and forceful
- women’s bodies shown as passive and yielding
- men seen as reserved or detached
- women seen as emotionally outgoing
- the feminine touch, women depicted as tactile 

- The term subculture goes back to the 1800’s, early studies referred to deviant groups or an urban underclass
- the prefix sub suggests a lower rank
- term associated with post 1945 youth subcultures, rise of the teenager
- a sub culture is a minority group that stands apart from the prevailing mainstream culture
- mainstream culture is the organisation of a society into a hierarchical structures that are shaped by prominent political, media, social and corporate interests. 
- mainstream culture is found in state institutions and apparatus, government laws, authhorities
- dominant ideology reflects the interests of powerful social groups
The Beats:
- sub cultural elite, mostly male, young, white, educated, middle class
- writers: William Burroughs, Allen Ginsburg, jack kerouac etc
- frame of reference: post ww2, 1950’s America, alienation from mainstream society
Beat literature themes:
- anti mainstream culture, opposition to the military industrial machine, anti 1950’s materialism and consumerism, anti censorship, moral ambiguity, emphasis on individual autonomy
Square values:
- mainstream culture, deferred gratification, conformity to bereaucratic rules, comfort in routine, consumerism equals status, family as moral centre, defined gender roles
Beat values:
- counter cultural, hedonism, spontaneous action, non conformity, distain for work ethic, anti materialistic, spiritual, non binary relationships

- punk dress code: anti Tate reflecting social dislocation, use of collage and bricolage, provocative, subversion of cultural signs, cross gender 
- sub cultural rituals: nihilism, sarcastic patois, speed logic, participation in spectacle, gobbling etiquette
- punk semiotic code: energetic, crudely produced, cheaply printed, mix of collage elements, no rock star posturing, lettering

-The language of comics is developed over time
- American comics came form the Sunday paper
- Comic gutters are essential for breaking up what we see
- Speech bubble, sound effects, symbol icons
- Scott McCloud: “the more photographic the more we see it as another entity”
- Encoding: The creation of the page by the artist involves cognitive reasoning in the selection, arrangement and layout of text and visual elements that compromise the narrative 
- Decoding: Comic strips rely on the reader to read, understand and make connections between the linguistic and visual information at hand and navigate spatial relationships to follow the action between one panel and the next
- Unlike other storytelling forms, past and present and future is shown at the same time and occupy the same space
- Focus and direction of eye movement can be erratic, the reader is constantly traversing and rewinding across the page
- Reader deviation is common, seasoned comic strip artists are aware of the instability of the medium and employ various control strategies to counteract this
Reader control strategies:
- Page layout
- Strip ellipses
- Key panel co-ordinates
- Page breaks and cliffhangers
- Use of negative space
- Reader closure
- Transition typed to show the passage of time
- Page as a multi frame encourages the appreciation of the complexity of the creative process
- Just as the eye can move erratically across the page it may also telescope in and out
Level of the strip:
- The reader becomes more conscious of the style and aesthetic of the work
- reader function: routing sequences left to right
 - correlations between panels begin to motion the story 
- the strip is utilised as an intermediate ellipse in the narrative or shift in location
Potency of negative space:
- the drawn surface represents only a portion of the story content
- the indrawn space in the margins and gutters functions as a surrogate for hidden parts
- closure: the reader must enter the negative space, in their imagination, yo make a coherent whole of the story 

-Signifier + signified = detonation sign (+ connotative signifier)
- Denotation = literal understanding
- Connotation = secondary meaning
Myths:
- Sites in mainstream culture
- Reflect societal norms in dominant ways
- Structured to send a message which may be ideological or some groups in society
- ‘Ads ask us to participate in ideological ways’
Advertising and Myth:
- Ads have a currency
-Ads are particular to a time and place and reflect current political ideas and social ideals
- Ads reinforce particular cultural myths, which are often presented as natural but present a cultural norm or dominant ideology
Examples:
- Moral values
-Cultural norms and ways of behaviour
- Representation of gender class and ethnicity
Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs:
- Self actualisation
- Esteem
- Love/belonging
- Safety
- Psychology
The advertising business:
- Highly professional and competitive
- People who work in the industry are often highly creative and well educated
- Aware of cultural trends and the use of semiotics 
- Magazines are self contained, product is differentiated for target audience
- The signification image and text is intentional
- Encoding; presents a constructed message
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Anchorage is used to describe the ‘relay’ between words and visuals where text and image stand in a complementary relationship. In our visual culture and media, it is rare that images and words are not placed together for example graphic design webpages or comic books. 

- Word specific: words (either text or verbal) providing all or most of the information needed to decode an image.
- Image specific: Images providing all or most of the information needed to decode a message.
- Dual message: words and images communicating the same message either in tone or content (amplified design).
- Interdependent/convergent: Words and images working together whilst also contributing information independently to convey an idea that neither could do alone.
- Parallel/divergent: words and images appear to follow different paths and/or communicate ideas that do not seem to intersect.

- Denotation: This is the primary meaning, the most immediate reading of a sign. It is a literal deduction that reflects broad opinion or consensus. 
- Connotation: This is the secondary reading, for example a reader/viewer may pick up on style, mode of production, medium and materials, plane of expression, or abstraction. 

Semiotics is defined as the study of signs and sign systems within society. Anything that is capable of conveying meaning is a sign (e.g words, images, clothes, gestures, symbols). Often, signs are grouped together to form codes, such as gestures (body language) and clothing/dress (dress codes). Clothing is in fact a cultural sign system which has strong communicative value and which is used on  a daily basis to negotiate meaning and interaction on the basis of that negotiated meaning. Semiotics provides a useful framework for deconstructing visual ‘texts’ around us, and looking beyond their mere surface at any underlying cultural messages and ideas. 

- Signifier: physical representation (stimulus: verbal or textual context)
- Signified: mental concept (response: cognitive reading) (signifier + signified = sign)
- Langue: whole language system 
- Sign: single word
- Parole: partial example of speech or writing
- Syntagm: a complete, ordered sequence of signs, eg a sentence (eg my dog smells bad)
- Paradigm: point of substitution in a sentence (or a group of signs) which allows for an exchange of a similar sign, abstract sign or metaphorical sign without changing the overall structure

- ‘The virtue of all-in wrestling is that it is the spectacle of excess. Here we find a grandiloquence which must have seen that of ancient theatres.’
- ‘Even in the most squalid Parisian halls, wrestling partakes of the nature of the great solar spectacles, Greek drama and bull fights.’
- ‘The public is completely uninterested in knowing whether the contest is rigged or not.’
- ‘It abandons itself to the primary virtue of a spectacle, which is to abolish all motives and all consequences: what matters is not what one thinks, but what one sees.’
- ‘Wrestling offers excessive gestures, exploited to the limit of their meaning.’ 
- ‘The gesture of the vanquished wrestler signifying to the world a defeat which, far from disguising, he emphasises and holds like a pause in music, corresponds to the mask of antiquity meant to signify the tragic mode of the spectacle.’
- ‘Each sign in wrestling is therefore endowed with an absolute clarity since one must always understand everything on the spot.’