paddington - representation

Gender: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBku6tXLDo4

• Male = Dominant – tries to put his foot down• Female caring/nurturing

Gender roles – employment25 mins

Reinforces patriarchal/dominant ideologies?

32 minutes in

• Gender again

• 1:06:00 in

Gender…• How Mr Brown arranges his stationary…• The strange objects Mrs Brown finds in her

handbag• Mrs Bird has a hoover for every occasion

Gender – countertype?

Male gaze?

Gender rolesQueer Theory or Sexuality…LGBT? 55 mins

• Paddington: “Mr Brown dressed up as a lady”• Jonathan: “In a dress…?”• Mr Brown: “No! It was more of a house coat.

It was quite liberating actually.”

Queer theory (coined by Teresa de Lauretis but later developed by Judith Butler) is a set of ideas based around the idea that identities are not fixed and do not determine who we are.

Judith Butler – Gender Trouble 1990

• Nothing within your identity is fixed.• Your identity is little more than a pile of (social and cultural) things which you

have previously expressed, or which have been said about you.• There is not really an 'inner self'. We come to believe we have one through

the repetition of discourses about it.• Gender, like other aspects of identity, is a performance (though not

necessarily a consciously chosen one). Again, this is reinforced through repetition.

• Therefore, people can change.• The binary divide between masculinity and femininity is a social construction

built on the binary divide between men and women – which is also a social construction.

• We should challenge the traditional views of masculinity and femininity, and sexuality, by causing 'gender trouble'.

With reference to your own detailed examples, explore the representation of gender in the

media today.

Age

• Younger:

Age

• Teenagers – Judy: “So embarrassing”

Age

• Middle Age:

Old age

Old age

With reference to your own detailed examples, explore the representation of age in the

media today.

Ethnicity –Darkest Peru

• Alvarado (1987) – Exotic (expedition)

Ethnicity –Darkest Peru

• Alvarado – Exotic

Ethnicity –Darkest Peru

• Alvarado – Dangerous.“Stranger Danger… Keep your eyes down. There’s a strange looking bear over there.”

Ethnicity – unaware of ways things are done

• Alvarado – Humorous

Ethnicity – Homeless/Orphaned

• Alvarado – Pitied

Ethnicity• Mr Gruber = Humorous. Eastern European –

quirky/odd & Pitied – had to leave his family.

With reference to your own detailed examples, explore the representation of

ethnicity in themedia today.

Regional/National Identity

National Identity

Multi-culturalism

Paddington offers a shameless celebration of Britishness:

Matt Lucas’ cabbie pokes a jibe at extortionate drivers; Paddington interprets literally the officious rules of the Tube Station in hilarious fashion; the Geographer’s Guild flashbacks parody the well-spoken, outdated colonials to surprisingly acerbic effect.Paddington recognises London and, more widely Britain’s inadequacies while simultaneously celebrating its rich cultural heritage in the magnificent backdrops of London architecture, in the enduring intrigue of institutions like the Natural History Museum, in the distinctly English wit and pompous pretence of the bumbling Mr. Brown.It also clearly celebrates multicultural London, through the calypso soundtrack. King states "It adds to the magic of our London that there's always a band playing the song that happens to reflect your feelings," says King.

Social Class

I travelled light, carrying only the absolute essentials… maps, rations, modest timepiece and travel piano.

Social Class

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKWGB-0yUso

Social Class

• Hippie rockers to middle-class bores

Millicent (Upper Class)Spoilt rich kid – whose father’s membership to the prestigious Geographer’s Guild was renounced. Felt working class life was a hardship and that she deserved what was rightfully hers – recognition, fame and fortune.

Mr Curry (Lower Class?)• Cockney-accent (sort-of), nosy neighbour.

Self-interested, living in late mum’s house. Xenophobic?

• “I have some meat paste sandwiches and pickles… they went off on Tuesday, bust you’re usually alright for a week.”

With reference to your own detailed examples, explore the representation of Regional/National identity in the

media today.

Immigration

• 7.35 – 10.55

Immigration

Paddington’s status as an illegal immigrant is quickly established when he responds to the Browns’ questions about where he has come from.

The use of the nominalisation ‘stowaway’ carries connotations of romantic adventure - an interesting representation by the film producers.

Telegraph

“I'm sure that UKIP will respond that while this is all very well, it comes down to a question of numbers. One well-spoken and polite bear turning up is fine. What if 260,000 turn up every year? It is a fair question. Within a decade we would have to build a city two and a half times the size of Birmingham simply to house all the Peruvian Bears. Could Britain's marmalade industry cope with the demand? Probably not.”

Xenophobic attitudes are seen through Mr Curry and Millicent

Mr. Curry worries about the “jungle music” and Millicent warns that one bear will result in more bears arriving and the whole street will be subject to their “all-night picnics”.

Stony Book PressThe anti-immigrant dialogue in the film should sound familiar to most people who live in the West. Mr. Curry’s lines about “jungle music” and “all-night picnics” are references to people’s fears about the contamination of their culture and lifestyle. People fear cultures that are not their own, especially when they have to confront them and there is a chance their own culture will be changed. …By having Paddington, a cute and benign bear, represent an immigrant, the film attempts to show that people should not be scared of immigrants.

With reference to your own detailed examples, explore the representation of a particular issue in the

media today.