Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For our film, we decided to have 3 female protagonists, 2 of which were Asian. We researched the representation of Asian females in film, and this is my interpretation of our findings.

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We wanted to challenge these stereotypes to increase the diversity of representation in action films, as this is a very heavily male dominated genre. Even within the film industry, there are not as many women who have directed action films as there are men, so we wanted to make more of a balance, and more equality. We think that our film will appeal to a range of audiences, female and male, because of the universal themes such as triumphing over adversity and good vs. evil, and the interesting storyline. We want women to read our representations as showing that female characters are just as complex as male characters, and can be beautiful and strong and intelligent, and those characteristics are not mutually exclusive. Their femininity does not limit their ability to be intelligent or fighters. Echo is very ruthless, which is not a typically feminine trait, but that does not make her any less of a woman.

However, outside of Hollywood, British Asian female representations in UK film making has been hugely successful in recent years, with films such as Slumdog Millionaire, Bend It Like Beckham, and East is East. However, action films are normally made by Hollywood, so we took a successful representation of British audience so it would have a national appeal, and applied it to a globally successful genre, to appeal to a large audience.

Statistics taken from It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World: On-Screen Representations of Female Characters in the Top 100 Films of 2011 by Martha M. Lauzen, Ph.D.

Character inspirations (who aren't sexualised): 

Summary:

• There is only a small percentage of female protagonists in film, even less are action heroes and even less are Asian in Hollywood, so we decided to represent those social groups in our film.
• A lot of female action heroines are sexualised, which we did not want.
• We wanted to represent a wide range of female personalities (more accurate representation of women).
• We also wanted to not stereotype our Asian characters (more accurate representation of modern London).