caenanalysis

The media is notorious for finding new ways to sexualise and objectify women - from the countless selection of articles detailing what so-and-so was wearing on a night out (and how her boyfriend might feel knowing other men can see... gasp her thighs?!) to the infamous and shocking case of the Sun's countdown to Samantha Fox's sixteenth birthday and her first appearance on page 3. When I first saw this article, therefore, I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised by a positive representation of a feminist response to a sexually-charged bloke. Oh, how wrong I was - though what was I expecting from the Sun?

The basis of the article is actually rather funny - a man sends a woman a stereotypical, inarticulate and horribly unsubtle request for naked pictures, and she replies with a very flattering picture showcasing her understanding of the physics of refraction rather than the suggestive masturbation material that the bloke is after. Great! Women standing up for themselves and refusing to be intimidated or pressured by men! 

...Right?

...Hold on. What?

Originally I intended to glance through this short article (that popped up on my Facebook feed) for a cheap laugh before resuming my endless scrolling through the realms of the internet. However, once I read it properly, I felt it worth commenting on due to the consistently misogynistic representation of women in the media. Although feminism has brought about a gargantuan leap of progression towards equality between the sexes, unfortunately the media has been blind and deaf to the news that women are meant to be treated and seen as people in their own right, rather than just sexual objects to be commented on in the news. However, I make this judgement on my consumption of the media as a whole rather than just this article - a single piece of writing cannot be taken as representative of all media, especially one from an institution as biased and sex-obsessed as the Sun.

Let me preface this by telling you that I believe in aliens. Not the little green men up in the sky flying around in their high-tech spacecraft, but there is far too much scientific evidence, and just as much unexplained, about conditions in the universe (there's planets in our solar system that rain diamonds) for there not to be at least one other planet in existence which has the optimum conditions for sustaining life. However, I'm not a conspiracy theorist - I don't believe that global warming is a hoax or that HIV was created by the CIA to wipe out homosexuals (honestly, look it up). 

Max Spiers, the man found dead on his sofa after claiming that 'satanists wanted to rid him of his demons', certainly was a conspiracy theorist. The self-professed 'UFO expert' died days after an interview in Poland, in which his mother claims his speech sounds slurred.



This article, from the Daily Express, gives details from an interview with Spiers' mother. She is treating her son's death as 'suspicious' due to authorities refusing to carry out an autopsy even after he was found having vomited a 'mysterious black liquid' with no medical explanation. Spiers, who worked for the conspiracy theory group Bases Project, had a multitude of online followers, and they are reportedly convinced that Spiers was killed by the government for 'getting too close to the truth' (presumably inferring that the authorities are withholding important information from the public).

The initial title of this article seemed utterly ridiculous, which was why I chose to write about it - conspiracies in general are, in my opinion, theories formed from fragments of information by people with delusional views and far too much time on their hands. However, reading through the article, the information stated seems to suggest that Spiers' mother and online followers have come up with a fairly reasonable explanation for his death given the circumstances surrounding it. Unfortunately it is impossible to tell how true the information in this article is, as all media is constructed and reporters in newspapers often try to omit information in order to make the story seem as interesting to readers as possible.

My coursework last year was based around the creation of a teen thriller film, and constructing promotional material for said hypothetical film. Unfortunately I didn't manage to finish the project, so this year I am working on both finishing and improving my coursework. In order to complete the practical aspect of the project to the best of my ability, I have done research into the conventions of promotional posters for a variety of thriller films over the years (something which I began to explore last year, but never managed to document). 

As a child, I suffered with many of the usual fears - I didn't like the dark, heights terrified me and I'm still not too fond of spiders. Clowns, however, were something that never bothered me, but after the news this week I think that's changing. 

From The Week, a news site and app giving a brief summary of trending topics in the news, I was brought this article, adding another worrying story to the epidemic of copy-cat clowns roaming the streets of the UK. The Week isn't the only source of these stories - many British news corporations including the Metro, the Guardian, and the Telegraph have been reporting on strange sightings around the country. Many of these stories involve personal accounts from passers-by, reportedly having been chased or threatened by people dressed in clown suits and make-up, red nose and all.

However, this particular article focuses on more than just the general discomfort of the public. Now the nation-wide appeal for the so-called clown 'pranks', as they have been dubbed on social media, is being supported by Childline. The article, which is not credited to a particular reporter, uses emotive language to influence the audience as to the emotional harm that the 'pranks' are causing towards young people in the UK, such as including a quote from an eleven year old worried about his brother who had been chased by a clown. One statistic that tugged at my heart-strings is that the charity have received 120 calls in one week regarding the incidents, with a quarter of them coming from children of primary-school age.

This story caught my eye while scrolling through the news app, and I probably would have flicked straight past it to the next article had the featured photo not have almost caused me to spit out my tea in shock. Images within articles are also particularly effective in attracting an unspecific audience - a strange, exciting, or in this case disconcerting photograph within a text can make the difference between someone ignoring the article or being drawn into it to find out more about the picture. The other reason that I found this article interesting enough to write about is that the subject hits so close to home - a few days ago, my boyfriend's little brother was sent home with a letter from his school warning the parents of pupils who walked home by themselves to be aware after clown sightings in the Gravesend area. The fact that boys I know, boys who are studying for their GCSEs, are worrying about travelling home on the bus on their own is deeply concerning, and I, for one, think these immature and thoughtless people need to have some sense knocked into them.

Oh, how I love the Daily Telegraph. Every so often, there's a jewel among the rough of Conservative propaganda, and I think I've found it this week.

 I actually found this article by accident while looking for an article I read a few years ago about the dangers of Tinder, and though I am in no way technophobic or opposed to online dating, this piece really does sum up how risky meeting up with someone who you've met online can be.

A woman, Warriena Wright, visiting Australia on a two-week holiday from New Zealand, matched with a man via the online dating app Tinder, and when things became heated (and not in the way you'd expect) she found herself on Gable Tostee's balcony separated from him by a locked glass door. Allegedly Wright had become violent after a few drinks and Tostee had no choice but to restrain her, yet recordings from Wright's phone tell a different story, with snippets like Tostee's very complimentary description of 'you God damn psycho bitch' suggesting Wright had felt threatened and tried to climb down from his balcony when she fell, resulting in her death.

Surprisingly, this article holds no apparent bias - it tells a factual account of the events, lets Tostee's lawyer have his say on the matter and even reports uncertain details of the event in quotation marks, letting the audience know there is nothing but facts, facts, facts in this article. The author, Jonathan Pearlman, seems to be an all-round reporter, writing straight-forward articles about the ins and outs of Australian news. Though this is as far from a humorous article as you could get, I must guiltily admit that my favourite part of the piece is, and this is a direct quote:

A fine first date conversation if I ever heard one.