Homeland Representation Stereotypes

Principle cast members of Homeland.

Hall argues that:

In short Hall is arguing

"Representation is not about whether the media distorts reality" it is about the way audience can interprete their own multiple meanings from the media language - this is based on their social.
Power - through ideology or by stereotyping- tries to fix a preferred meaning.
Meaning can be created through following or breaking ("anti-stereotypes") stereotypes.

Hall's and Gauntlett's theory can be link to the media language in Homeland for a number of reasons.

Gauntlett argues that:

In short, Gauntlett is arguing

Media has moved away from 'traditional' stereotypes to more 'open' representations to repeat modern audience .
Online media contributes to this as people can represent themselves.

Carrie

Carrie is breaking gender stereotypes since the job she is in is not stereotypically a female populated job and she also has a mental illness. She also doesn't care too much about how she looks when stereotypically females care about how they look too much. She also fits the stereotype slightly because she is blonde and pretty.

In terms of gender, Carrie character breaks and follows a number of female gender stereotypes.
This fits Hall's theory in a number of ways, firstly in regards to Hall's idea of 'anti- stereotypes,' Carrie being the main protagonist who excels, and outsmarts, males seem to show the preferred reading is that women should be seen as equal to men. However, Carrie having a mental illness and fitting the stereotype of, 'object of desire' (Mulvey, 1975) as she is, young, blonde and sexual attractive means multiple meaning(Hall) can be read by the audience as this could also connote that women cannot handle the same pressure as males and are more likely to succeed if they fit attractive stereotypes. This also fits Gauntlett's theory that representations of gender have moved away from traditional stereotypes to more 'open' representations (Gauntlett).

Brody