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This subvertisement highlights the way that females are depicted as stupid and Aswariya Rai plays up to the stereotype which is conveyed through her ditzy expression. Typically, the central focus her face which in turn ignores her intellegence. Therefore she becomes an aspiration for the target audience and she has a large appeal because of cultural background.



However, this advert demonstrates the different way men andwomen think and the image further illustrates that women are simply sexual objects.




This image positions women as 'eye candy' and her sole purpose is to serve as entertainment for men.

Female directors

Sanaa Hamri
Born in Tangier, Morocco. Sanaa immigrated at the age of 17 to America where she study theatre at the prestigious Sarah Lawrence College in New York. She is most famous for her music video directing; however in 2005 she began to direct films and series.

She studied theatre at the prestigious Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Shortly after receiving her degree, Hamri learned that legendary music video cinematographer Malik Sayeed was looking for an assistant to oversee his post-production company, Salaam Inc. . Hamri landed the job at Salaam Inc., where her duties primarily consisted of, as she describes it, “sitting in the office waiting for deliveries and answering phones.” But Hamri, a self-confessed workaholic, explored the machinery - “I had no editing skills when I started--nothing,” she recalls.
Her videos include but are not limited to Jadakiss's "U Make Me Wanna", Prince's "Musicology" and Mariah Carey's "Crybaby", Bringing On The Heartbreak, "Don't Stop (Funkin' 4 Jamaica)", and Mariah Carey's unreleased video for "Last Night a DJ Saved My Life."

With a distinguished roster of high-profile artists including Mariah Carey, Destiny’s Child, Dr. Dre, Prince, Jay Z and India Arie, Hamri has proven that she is a force to be reckoned with—accomplishing this in just 3 years!
Mariah Carey was so impressed with Hamri’s work that she asked Hamri to direct her “Thank God I Found You” remix, since she has helmed several clips for Carey including her video for “Don’t Stop” featuring Mystikal and her video for “Cry Baby” featuring Snoop Dogg. Hamri also directed Carey’s “Oh Holy Night” clip, a special Christmas video to benefit children in need These projects were soon followed by videos for Bilal featuring Jadakiss “Fast Lane”, Destiny’s Child “8 Days of Christmas” and “Nasty Girl”, Solange “Feelin’ You”, Common featuring Mary J. Blige “Come Close to Me”, Kelly Rowland “Stole”, India.Arie “Little Things”, Heather Headley “He Is” and Jay Z “Song Cry”.

The films and episodes Sanaa directed include:
· The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (2008)
· "Men in Trees" (1 episode, 2007) - The Indecent Proposal (2007) TV episode
· "Desperate Housewives" (1 episode, 2007) - No Fits, No Fights, No Feuds (2007) TV episode
· The Adventures of Mimi (2007) (V)
· Something New (2006/I)
· Prince: The Art of Musicology (2004) (TV)
· Prince Live at the Aladdin Las Vegas (2003) (V)

Jamie Babbit
Jamie Babbit was born 16th November 1970, Ohio. She is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. She studied West African Studies at Barnard College (graduating in 1993) and began taking film classes at New York University during her summer vacations. Babbit's partner is producer Andrea Sperling[4] with whom she has collaborated on several projects.
After graduating from Barnard in 1993, Babbit's first job was as a production assistant for Martin Scorsese on The Age of Innocence. After that she worked as a production assistant on John Sayles's The Secret of Roan Inish where she worked with fellow aspiring filmmakers Karyn Kusama and Jasmine Kosovic.

She directed the films But I'm a Cheerleader, The Quiet and Itty Bitty Titty Committee. She has also directed episodes of television programs including Gilmore Girls, Malcolm in the Middle, Nip/Tuck and The L Word. She is involved with film production company POWER UP.

But I'm a Cheerleader
In 1999, Babbit directed her first feature film, But I'm a Cheerleader. Starring Natasha Lyonne and Clea DuVall, it is a romantic comedy about a high school cheerleader who is sent to a so-called "reparative therapy" camp when her parents suspect she is a lesbian. The film was inspired by an article that Babbit read about a man who had been sent to a similar camp. The camp in the film was partly based on a halfway house for young people with drug and alcohol problems run by her mother. In 2000, the film won the Audience Award and the Graine de Cinéphage Award at the Créteil International Women's Film Festival, an annual French festival which showcases the work of female directors.

The Quiet
Babbit's second film was 2005 thriller film The Quiet. Starring Elisha Cuthbert and Camilla Belle, the plot revolves around a deaf girl who, when sent to live with her godparents, discovers some dark secrets about the family.

Television
Babbit has directed episodes of several television programs including Undressed, Popular, Maybe It's Me, The Bernie Mac Show, Malcolm in the Middle, Miss Match, Nip/Tuck, Gilmore Girls, Alias, Ugly Betty, Dirty Sexy Money and The L Word. She enjoys working in television because it helps her to "keep her skills up". She says that because television directors have less overall responsibility than film directors, she is able to concentrate on working with actors. Television work also enables her to earn money while pursuing her long term goals of making feature films.

POWER UP
Babbit is on the board of directors of non-profit organization and film production company POWER UP. Founded in 2000 by Stacy Codikow and Amy Shomer, POWER UP promotes the visibility of lesbians in entertainment and the media.Two of Babbit's films, Stuck and Itty Bitty Titty Committee were produced by POWER UP. She has also been involved with feminist group Guerrilla Girls and pro-choice groups.

Lucy walker
Lucy Walker (born in London, United Kingdom) is a film director, mostly of theatrical feature documentaries.

Lucy was born in London, United Kingdom, read English Language and Literature at New College, Oxford receiving first-class honors. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the graduate film program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where she won a contest to direct a video for Cowboy Junkies, directed three award-winning short films and received an MFA.

Lucy's directing credits include Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues, for which she was twice nominated for Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Directing, and Devil's Playground - Amish Teenagers in the Modern World, a feature-length documentary about the struggles of Amish teenagers during the period of rumspringa. Financed by HBO, Wellspring and Channel 4, Devil's Playground premiered at Sundance Film Festival and went on to many accolades and awards, including winning Sony-AFI digital Best Documentary Award as well as overall Best Film Award, a Special Jury mention at Karlovy-Vary Film Festival, Audience Award at Sarasota International Film Festival, and nominations for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary, and for three Emmys (for Best Documentary, Best Directing, and Best Editing). She was named one of the "Top 25 New Faces In Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine.

Films directed by Lucy include:

• Blindsight (2006/I)
• Devil's Playground (2002)
• "Blue's Clues" (1996) TV series (unknown episodes, 1998-2001)
• Blue's Birthday (1998) (V)

Samira Makhmalbaf
Samira Makhmalbaf was born February 15, 1977, Tehran and is an internationally acclaimed Iranian (Persian) filmmaker and script writer. She is the daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the film director and writer. Samira Makhmalbaf belongs to New wave movement of Iranian cinema. At the age of 20 Samira studied Psychology and Law at Roehampton University in London.

At the age of seven, she acted in Mohsen Makhmalbaf's film The Bicyclist. She left high school when she was 14, to learn cinema in the Makhmalbaf Film House for 5 years. At the age of 17, after directing two video productions, she went on to direct the movie The Apple. One year later, the 18 year old director went on to become the youngest director in the world participating in the official section of the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. The Apple has been invited to more than 100 international film festivals in a period of two years, while going to the screen in more than 30 countries.

In 1999, Samira made her second feature film, entitled The Blackboard and for the second time participated in the competition section of the Cannes Film Festival as the youngest director in the world, in 2000, this time winning the jury prize.

Samira Makhmalbaf has been the winner and nominee of numerous awards; winning a total of 15 awards for her works. Some of her achievements:
“Sutherland Trophy”, London Film Festival 1998, UK.
“International Critics prize”, Locarno Film Festival 1998, Switzerland.
“Jury’s Special prize”, Thessalonica Film Festival 1998, Greece.
“Jury’s Special prize”, São Paulo Film Festival 1998, Brazil.

Filmography
The Apple (Language: Persian)
The Blackboard (Language: Kurdish)
God, Construction and Destruction as part of 11'9''01 September 11 (Language: Persian)
At Five in the Afternoon (Language: Persian)
Two-Legged Horse

Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron (born May 19, 1941) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, and blogger.
She is best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in Seattle. She sometimes writes with her sister, Delia Ephron.

Ephron was born in New York, New York, eldest of four daughters in a Jewish family and grew up in Beverly Hills; her parents, Henry and Phoebe Ephron, were both East Coast-born and raised screenwriters. Ephron's parents based Sandra Dee's character in the play and then Jimmy Stewart film Take Her, She's Mine on their 22-year-old daughter Nora and her letters to them from college. Ephron graduated from Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, California in 1959.

Ephron graduated from Wellesley College and was briefly an intern in the White House of President John F. Kennedy.

Ephron got a job at the New York Post, where she stayed as a reporter for five years, after a satire she wrote lampooning the Post caught the editor's eye. Upon becoming a successful writer, she wrote a column on women's issues for Esquire. In this position, Ephron made a name for herself by taking on subjects as wide-ranging as Dorothy Schiff, her former boss and owner of the Post, Betty Friedan, whom she chastised for pursuing a feud with Gloria Steinem, and her alma mater Wellesley, which she said had turned out a generation of "docile" women. A 1968 send-up of Women's Wear Daily in Cosmopolitan resulted in threats of a lawsuit from WWD.
Some of the films include:
Producer, director, and screenwriter
(1996) Michael
(1998) You've Got Mail
(2005) Bewitched
(2009) Julie & Julia

Director and screenwriter
(1992) This Is My Life
(1993) Sleepless in Seattle
(1994) Mixed Nuts

Producer and screenwriter
(2000) Hanging Up
(1990) My Blue Heaven

Producer and director(2000) Lucky Numbers

The number of female directors can increase if:
· More females take an interest in this forte by exploring media and realising they can achieve these goals
· They are well balanced and manage family life by not letting interfere with their work
· Work with prestigious people or mingle with people who can enhance their skills

Women in adverts

Noticeably all the adverts are selling food and cleaning products as a woman’s traditional role is to be a housewife which these adverts conform to. Shockingly, pizza advert uses a blunt portrayal of the division of labour with the women being subject to her husband’s dominance. Her husband orders her yelling ‘chop chop’ to make a pizza and she gleefully makes it despites his rude attitude towards her. Stark contrast between the hard working rushed of her feet women and her lay about television junky man but the advert depicts these opposing positions as socially acceptable.

Sex objects

During the montage a modestly dressed young women rips of her skirt when she spills drink on it. It positions her from a formal woman to a sex object, maintaining that women are simply there to serve men.

Similarly, at the beginning of the adverts a women is attempting to fit in her jeans but she has clearly put on weight. Therefore she will have to diet in order to please her man- suggesting that women should satisfy their men and live up to men’s expectations.

Housewives (adverts include tide, whirlpool, hovers, Mr Muscle etc)
In one of the adverts a child drops the drink but as she goes to clean it the mum says ‘’It’s alright, I’ll clean up’’. Women are consistently being shown as domestic Goddesses that are satisfied with their role as house slave. These adverts are also inaccurate as they assume that all women stay at work and ignore the fact that an increasing number of women are now in paid labour and this figure is rising dramatically. Despite the family offering to assist the mum in hamburger helper as they say ‘’let’s give mum a hand’’. However, it is ‘mum’ who is doing the chores and is the leader whilst it is the other family member that help. Although ‘mum’ has full responsibility nobody offer to do the chores for her.

Stereotypes like multi-tasking are also displayed in the advert whilst the women is hovering she is carrying her baby. The ideal woman is illustrated as superhuman and somewhat flawless. The underlying message further exemplifies that perfection equals being a domestic Godesses and submissive to your partner; which the female voice encourages by telling women to behave in this manner.

Unusually even in cleaning adverts patriarchy is being promoted as the women is told by the controlling male voice over ‘’You’ll never clean the same way again’’ Mr Muscle rescues her from the burdens of cleaning. Even in areas that are considers a women’s domain it is men that teach women the way succeed.



The lighting mainly focuses the models breast to enlarge them and make the model appear more curvaceous. Moreover, dehumanisation ignores the women’s contributions and intellectual capacity to portray them in an animalistic manner, for instance the women liking the floor. The faceless women does not allow them to have an identity and groups them as all the same.

Key quotations
’We are exposed to over 2,000 adverts a day, constituting perhaps the most educational force in society’- Jean Kilbourne

‘In an extremely competitive environment, you kind of go back to T & A (tits and ass)’’- Bugle Boy clothes publicists

‘We often find no representational connections in contemporary advertising. One of the common registers of print advertising is of the naked or sexually-posed woman selling a product’- cf. Lazier Smith 1989, Furham and Bitar 1993.

‘Clearly, the construction of masculinity involves a dual defamation of women as sex objects and a maintenance of male sexual superiority.’- cf Hood 1995

Turkish delight also draws on typecast to sell the product. Props theory is applicable to this advertisement, the women is waiting for her prince to rescue her whilst she is stuck in the desert (damsel in distress). Therefore, the man is the Proppian hero whilst the woman is the Proppian princess; a direct binary opposition is being displayed which mirrors patriarchal ideologies. The central focus of the advert is the woman’s face which the camera often subject to close-ups again her main purpose is to be ‘eye candy’. Continuous shots focusing on her eyes relate to the idea of mysteriousness which is significant as it is correlates to the Arabian theme.



Shake and vac uses obvious stereotypes of women to sell their product. The way the woman prances and cleans reflects the notion of multi-tasking; suggesting that the ideal housewife can do everything at once. Stereotypically, bursting into song is associated with women as it represents femininity implicitly indicating that perfection means living up to generalisations about females. Although the women is wearing modest attire her jives and beauty highlight that her only purpose is to serve as ‘eye candy’ because she is being projected through the male gaze (Laura Mulvey). Constant zooms on her legs further exemplify her objectification because the central focus is her body. Lastly, her blonde hair conveys a ditzy persona and despite the absence of men their presence is still felt as her cleaning ritual is ultimately to please her husband.

Femme fatale

Femme fatale rejects traditional portrays of women and are a direct on the nuclear family. She refuses to be a dutiful wife and has no aspirations to be married as marriage to her closes off excitement often being sexless and loveless. As Janey Place points out, "She is not often won over and pacified by love for the hero, as is the strong heroine of the forties who is significantly less sexual than the film noir woman." Highlight the double standards whilst women must be outstandingly attractive it is the unconventional looking man that she falls for. Similar to Disney the woman’s appearance is vital and she must appear to be flawless.

She remains fiercely independent even when faced with her own destruction. And in spite of her inevitable death, she leaves behind the image of a strong, exciting, and unrepentant woman who defies the control of men and rejects the institution of the family. Enchanted (2007) also has an inevitable ending however it often results in the ‘evil’ characters death rather than protagonist yet the message is clear the ‘whore’ always dies leaving behind the innocent virginal character.

Classic femme fatale resorts to murder to free herself from an unbearable relationship with a man who would try to possess and control her, as if she were a piece of property or a pet. According to Sylvia Harvey, the women of film noir are "[p]resented as prizes, desirable objects". Although women are indirectly sexualised they remain the trophy for the man with little focus placed upon her intelligence. Often it is the man enticing the women but she is labelled as the ‘bad one’. Edward in Enchanted also lures Giselle to break the traditional story of a princes getting the princess however, Giselle is not punished because ultimately she is a virgin.

They feel trapped by husbands or lovers who treat them as "standard equipment" and by an institution — marriage — that makes such treatment possible. Marriage for the femme fatale is associated with unhappiness, boredom, and the absence of romantic love and sexual desire. In some films, the husband's lack of interest in his wife seems almost sadistic. Despite men being in control of women in Disney films they are put on a pedestal and respected in contrast to the poor treatment of femme fatale’s.

Another sign of the sterility of film noir marriages is the absence of children produced by these marriages. Childless couples are far more common in film noir than the traditional father-mother-children nuclear family. However, Disney films depict women with installed maternal instincts and imply that after marriage they conceive bt Enchanted (200) sees Giselle becoming a step-mother. It is possible that Enchanted (2007) is challenging traditional stereotypes as she is a ‘’good’ step-mother but also fits in with the diversity of modern families.
The family home only intensifies this atmosphere of coldness and entrapment for the married femme fatale. The lighting and mise-en-scène of the family home contribute further to its image as a trap whereas the bright spacious apartment in Enchanted (2007) exemplifies Giselle’s freedom.

Noir films create this image of the strong, unrepressed woman, and then attempt to contain it by destroying the femme fatale or converting her to traditional womanhood. Her determination to change often leads to her death and like Disney implies that we are born with certain characteristics that we can not change. She refuses to be defined by the male hero or submit her sexuality to the male-dominated institution of the family; instead, she defines herself and resists all efforts by the hero to "put her in her place." Akin to this Giselle never changes herself to impress Edward which is partly the reason he feel in love with her.

The explicit messages of film noir seem to be clear regarding women and the family: Women who transgress the boundaries of conventional family life meet with and deserve the most extreme punishment, and the men who fall victim to their sexual charms meet a similar fate. The simplistic message is also echoed by Disney that if a character goes against stereotypes they are severely punished and good always triumphs over evil.

It could also be argued that the Femme fatale never achieves ultimate control because she dies and uses her sexuality to lure men. Similar to Disney’s women’s intellectual attributes are ignored. However, the duplicity nature of the women highlights intelligence unlike the passive Giselle. Overall, ‘evil’ women are always punished whilst the innocent character is rewarded no matter what the genre.

Disney accused by Catholic cleric of corrupting children's minds

A leading Catholic cleric has launched a fierce attack on Disney, claiming it has corrupted children and encouraged greed.












Christopher Jamison, the Abbot of Worth in West Sussex, has accused the corporation of "exploiting spirituality" to sell its products and of turning Disneyland into a modern day pilgrimage site.

He argues that it pretends to provide stories with a moral message, but has actually helped to create a more materialistic culture.

Corporations and industries have benefited from promoting false notions of fulfillment. Disney he says is "a classic example" of how consumerism is being sold as an alternative to finding happiness in traditional morality.

While he acknowledges that Disney stories carry messages showing good triumphing over evil, he argues this is part of a ploy to persuade people that they should buy Disney products in order to be "a good and happy family".

"The message behind every movie and book, behind every theme park and T-shirt is that our children's world needs Disney," he says. "So they absolutely must go to see the next Disney movie, which we'll also want to give them on DVD as a birthday present. "They will be happier if they live the full Disney experience; and thousands of families around the world buy into this deeper message as they flock to Disneyland." He continues: "This is the new pilgrimage that children desire, a rite of passage into the meaning of life according to Disney. "Where once morality and meaning were available as part of our free cultural inheritance, now corporations sell them to us as products." "Once planted there they can make us endlessly greedy. And that is exactly what they are doing."

The Walt Disney Company, founded in 1923 by brothers Walt and Roy Disney, is one of the world's biggest entertainment companies. It owns 11 theme parks and several television networks, while its Hollywood studios have produced more than 200 feature films.

Similar to my research Jamieson explores the notion that Disney has an underlying message which it conceals through the overly joyful innocent characters. However, whilst Jamieson examines the capitalist message I am analysing patriarchal ideology. Nevertheless Jamieson is a critique of the way Disney feed children corrupt message. He even goes as far as to say that secularization is due to Disney ignoring religion and celebrating wealth.

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk