Semiotics Analysis on Gender Role Representations in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Melly Ridaryanthi1*, Noel Ethelbert Jinguli2
1 Faculty of Communication Science, Universitas Mercu Buana, Jakarta, Indonesia
2 Faculty of Development and Multicultural Studies, University College Sabah Foundation, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected]
Accepted: 15 February 2021 | Published: 1 March 2021
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Abstract: This study focusses on gender role representations in Spider-Man: Into the Spider- Verse. Gender roles in this film are categorized and analysed by employing Roland Barthes Semiotics. The application of semiotics method is appropriate in this study to conduct a thorough analysis on how gender roles are represented in the film. Denotative and connotative meanings are explored. Deliberation on the character physical representations is presented.
Analysis towards the myths behind the gender roles representations is discussed. The analysis shows that no stereotypical characterizations of characters based on their physical representations and gender roles are represented in the film. The analysis shows that context is important in order to understand the meaning of gender role representations, whether it is stereotypical or not. In addition, the findings show that films each gender play multiple roles which are varied based on the context. Lastly, it shows that both men and women can have masculine and feminine traits in them as shown through the characters which display both masculinities and femininities despite their genders.
Keywords: Representations, gender, role, semiotics, film
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1. Introduction
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a film produced by Marvel Studios, and adapted from the comic book Spider-Man. It is based on the story of a teenager, Miles Morales, who is African - American that is entrusted to take over the mantle of Spider-man from Peter Parker. He meets several other “Spider-Men” from other universes to stop a villain from destroying New York City. With the help of the other “Spider-Men”, Miles tries to overcome the struggles of being a hero, just like the others have done before him. This movie is interesting to be studied to explore how gender roles are represented. Thus, the focus of this study is the representation of gender roles in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse film.
Representations of both gender and race have been studied for many years and it is still relevant nowadays in media studies. There are many films that portray certain groups of people in stereotypical portrayals. Message delivered in films consists of different constructed meaning perceived by the audiences, not to mention kids. Animation movies are consumed by children whereby meaning are constructed and shared among them. Superhero animation can be one of the movies that referred by kids how they should be in real life. One of the animated films that depict both gender and race representations as well as how they play a role in certain contexts in the movies is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse released in 2018.
2. Literature Review
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a film produced by Marvel Studios, and adapted from the comic book Spider-Man. It is based on the story of a teenager, Miles Morales, who is African - American that is entrusted to take over the mantle of Spider-man from Peter Parker. He meets several other “Spider-Men” from other universes to stop a villain from destroying New York City. With the help of the other “Spider-Men”, Miles tries to overcome the struggles of being a hero, just like the others have done before him. This movie is interesting to be studied to explore how gender roles are represented. Thus, the focus of this study is the representation of gender roles in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse film.
In order to further discuss on the gender role representations in this study, exploration on the previous studies are important to be addressed. Many scholars have conducted study on film with various focuses. Bocchino (2009) analysed male and female portrayals in American films circa 1950-2012. The method used for the analysis is a qualitative analysis. The investigator’s particular interest was whether portrayals of such characters perpetuate and/or break male and female stereotypes. The findings suggest that the female characters within the films studied broke old gender stereotypes more consistently than did their male characters.
Harmon (2012) analysed the films shown by the Black Entertainment Television. The investigator used a content analysis method to analyse how blackness is portrayed in the film aired by BET (Harmon, 2012). The article tackles how black culture is portrayed through the films that are broadcasted by Viacom, a company owned by white owners. The difference between this and the other articles is the inclusion of a quantitative method that displays the number of stereotypes portrayed in the films. The investigator concluded the context and power associated with blackness changes when a black man is the one defining versus a white man.
However, Hajariah and Briandana (2013) highlighted female heroism in their work by analysing female masculinity of the female heroic character in film. Their work aims to examine the physical representation of female heroes by analysing gender performance through three main aspects namely narrative structure, mise-en-scene and cinematography. The findings shown that female action heroes possess masculinity identification whereby could explain the androgynous personality that depict the breadth of diversity of their personalities and oppose to the rigid notion of the existence of gender binary. Furthermore, collectively the actors have depicted outstanding acting skills whereby showing a conviction of the character represented. Sexual objectification as one of the core issues addressed are identified through the physical representation of the particular character particularly through the outfit. This study is relevant with the current paper written in a way to analyzing how gender roles are represented in the film by taking physical representation into account in the analysis.
Firdaus (2015) on his study found out that the characterization of Margaret Thatcher relates to liberal feminism. Firdaus used a qualitative content analysis method to analyse the film The Iron Lady. The main objectives of the paper were what characteristics were the character portrayed and what were the struggles of the character.
Brount et al. (2015) analysed the validity of the historical and artistic portrayal of slavery, in the film Django Unchained. This is not a specific analysis of how race is portrayed, but the subject is touched upon in the article. It is not specifically stated on the methods to analyse the film; however, it is assumed the investigators used a qualitative method. The investigators concluded that the director of the film focused more towards art rather than historical accurate
portrayals. This means that some portrayals were intended to have artistic values. The racial tension is portrayed in the film, with some comedic factors to extreme factors. It was analysed that white characters were portrayed as unintelligent. On the other hand, black characters were portrayed from the slaves to folk heroes, with some depictions of slave on slave violence being portrayed. Therefore, from the analysis, one cannot talk about a film like Django Unchained and not talk about race, but it is worth noting that the depictions of race vary widely (Brount et al, 2015).
The analysis of gender representations is widely discussed. Little (2014) wrote that critical sociological theories are often applied to inequalities of gender, social class, education, race, and ethnicity. This can be interpreted as the theory studies the inequalities based on race and gender. In relations to the analysis, the inequalities of race and gender, through the representation in the film, can be studied based on this theory. From symbolic interactionists perspective, race and ethnicity provide strong symbols as sources of identity (Little, 2014).
Each race and ethnicity has their own identities based on the strong symbols that they provide.
Those identities can be seen through the representation of symbols when analysing the film.
Eagly's (1987) social role theory argues that widely shared gender stereotypes develop from the gender division of labour that characterizes a society (Ridgeway, 2001). This means that the stereotypical roles of society are developed through the divided labour of previous societies.
This helps to understand the gender roles portrayed in film.
Hentges and Case (2012) in their study found that characters on Cartoon Network with male audience targets are portrayed with physical aggression displayed being in danger and play a role to rescue others. However, in Disney and Nickelodeon whereby target female audience showing that characters are mostly displaying affection. Furthermore, they stated on their work that female characters on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon depict physical aggression than the ones on Disney Channel. Male characters on Nickelodeon and Disney are more focused displaying appearance than the ones on Cartoon Network. They indicate that messages with regards to gender representations in television programming are not similar for both boys and girls. Nevertheless, the stereotype portrayals are still depicted on it.
Gender stereotype is something unavoidable in our daily life, let alone it is consistently displayed in media and consumed by tremendous numbers of audiences. The representations depicted in media with regards to gender are constructed and shared among the society, whereby perpetuate the existed stereotype. Gender stereotype is defined as belief towards characteristics associated with, and the activities appropriate to both men and women (Brannon, 2016). Furthermore, Brannon defined that these stereotypes can be distinguished based on four different aspects namely physical characteristics, occupation, traits and behaviour.
Basarah (2019) in her work on feminism representation in a web series “Sore-Istri Dari Masa Depan” which can be translated as “Sore-A Wife from the future” argued that Sore, female character, managed herself to control her husband’s life, Jo. Basarah argued that the intention to control Jo’s life is seen as representing woman’s life as well as domination for the sake of better future condition for their family. This paper has shown a relevancy in the analysis with regards to gender role representation.
Based on the above discussion on the previous studies with regards to representations in films, especially gender, thus this study is trying to fill in the gap gender roles are represented in animated movies. This study is significantly important to be conducted for this film will reach
children as the audiences and it possibly affects their perspectives on how they play a role in society based on their gender. Thus, understanding gender roles representations in this film can be beneficial for both industry and society to comprehend how gender roles are eventually constructed in the society.
Theoretical background
This study is a semiotic analysis on the characterizations of the characters from the film Spider- Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The concern of the analysis is to analyse whether the characters, based on their genders (femininity and masculinity) and race, are represented and characterized in stereotypical characterizations. Race and its physical portrayal will be explored. This would include the portrayal of women as feminine while men are masculine. Thus, the gender role representation would be able to explored and clarified based on the approach applied in this study.
Representation is an integral part of the process by which meaning between members of a community is created and shared. Representation involves the use of language, signs and pictures that depict or represent objects (Hall, 1997). Representation is neither as simple nor transparent a practice as it first appears and that, in order to unpack the idea, we need to do some work on a range of examples, and bring to bear certain concepts and theories, in order to explore and clarify its complexities (Hall, 1997). It is an essential part of a process whereby meaning is produced, exchanged and shared. There are two systems or processes of representations. First, there is mental or conceptual representation which defined as concept about ‘something’ we carry around in our head (conceptual map). This representation is related to something considered abstract. Second system of representation is language. Abstract concept in our head should be translated into prevalent language used in order to relate both concepts and ideas with certain symbols to understand (Eriyanto, 2001).
1. Signifier 2. Signified 3. Sign
1. SIGNIFIER 2. SIGNIFIED
3. SIGN
Figure 1. Barthes Semiology Source: Budiman (2011, p. 39)
According to Barthes, as cited in Bouzida (2014), in order to illustrate how meaning is generated by complex semiotic interaction, the image is connected to the esthetic and ideological influences that are open to readings and interpretations connotative degree. A wide range of texts, including photographs, ads, and films, are used, especially in media studies, to provide recipients with the information they need to be able to interpret and create meaningful texts and designs. In media studies that focus on semiological analysis of such diverse media domains as advertising, video clips, caricature or even films, Roland Barthes approach is highly applied. Barthes brought up concepts of connotative and denotative as the key analysis (Wibowo, 2011).
In Barthes semiotics, there are two order of meaning constructed; the primary sign is addressed as denotative, meanwhile secondary sign is addressed as connotative meaning. The concept of connotative is the important key that distinguish Barthes semiotics with the rest. Connotative
Language (Code)
MYTH
is the term refers to the second order of signification that illustrate the interaction occurred whereby signs meet readers’ emotion and values of their culture (Wibowo, 2011).
3. Methodology
This research was conducted on the basis of constructive paradigm with qualitative approach.
Semiotics method was employed to analyze the analysis unit in this study based on Roland Barthes Semiotics. Analysis units are defined based on the focus of this study which are parts of the film that represent gender roles. The complexities of the characters in the films has brought this research to categorize analysis unit based on their race and further more analyzed based on the representation of gender roles. The following table represents the categorization of analysis unit used in the present study:
Table 1: Analysis Unit
Characters Criterion
Race based characters African American
• Miles Morales
• Aaron Davis
• Jefferson DAvis Caucasian
• Peter B. Parker
• Mary Parker
• Gwen Stacy
• Dr. Olivia Octavius
• Kingpin
• Physical representation
Gender based characters Male Female
• Physical representation
• Gender roles representation
The aspects of physical representations are examined in order to understand how race are represented in the characters in this film. Besides, the core focus of the analysis are regarding physical representation and eventually withdrawn the understanding of how gender roles are represented in the film.
4. Findings and Discussions
Findings of this study will be presented based on each character listed in Table 1. Findings and discussion will be deliberated based on characters physical representation and gender roles simultaneously.
Figure 1: Miles Morales
Miles Morales is an African – American teenage boy who got bitten by a radioactive spider and received superhuman powers that made him into the second Spider-Man in his universe before Peter Parker died. He spends the rest of the film to learn and control his new powers.
To keep it simple, Miles is from the current universe the film is based in, Universe1 (U1), as there are other spider characters from other universes.
Miles Morales lives in an assumed middle-class family with a police officer for a father and a nurse for a mother. He does not get himself into too much trouble, however, he does commit vandalism as portrayed by him sticking stickers onto public properties and spray-painting graffiti on public walls. Miles has just transferred from a public school to a boarding school which required him to pass an exam to enter. This shows that he is a very smart student.
Further evidence of this is when Miles purposefully failed his math test by getting 0%, but instead showing he knew all the answers. He is also portrayed as a creative person from the designs of his graffiti in his notebook. He is portrayed as the “cool” kid in his old school. As Spider-Man, he shows how athletic he is. As a son, he shows his affinity to both his parents.
He is dependent on his parents’ affection, shown when he came home after Peter Parker’s death. However, he is sometimes embarrassed when he is with his father.
As a student, even if it is shown only briefly in the film, he does not like his new school. He shows his struggles to get used to his new school life. However, he does show that certainly intelligent enough for the classes that he attends. Apart from that, he does tend to sneak out of his dorm room, either to go visit his parents or his uncle Aaron. He also does not have a good relationship with the school guard, shown through their brief interaction. As a nephew, he looks up to his uncle more than his father. He considers Aaron like a brother and tells him about his life more than his father. When he found out Aaron was Prowler, he got scared and did not know whom to tell. However, when Prowler knew Miles was Spider-Man and got shot, Miles tried his best to take him away and save his life.
As a friend, he was very popular in his old school and knew how to converse confidently. In his new school, it was hard for him to make new friends as he displayed a sense of not belonging there. As Spider-Man, his portrayal earlier in the film was being clumsy because he was not used to his powers. He embraced his role as a hero even when the other Spider-Men do not think of him too highly. In the end, he did manage to control his powers and helped saved the day.
Figure 2: Aaron Davis
Aaron Davis lives in an apartment alone but does allow Miles visit him occasionally. His apartment is furnished very nicely while also being moderately sized. Aaron works under Kingpin as one of his underlings, which may explain his moderately lavished living situation.
Aaron is a criminal known as Prowler, so it shows the negative portrayal of Aaron as one of the villains in the film. As Prowler, he is focused and determined to capture enemy. He is very competent in fighting.
As an uncle, he permeates a positive vibe on Miles. He gave Miles advice, motivated him to continue being creative, and comforts him. He hunted down Miles, before he knew Miles was Spider-Man, and almost succeeded in killing him. When he found out who Spider-Man was, he did not kill him and tried to protect him, and he got shot and killed for that. Meanwhile, as
a brother, he had a negative image when compared to Jefferson. Also, Aaron looks down on Jefferson as a member of society because of the choices he’s made.
Figure 3: Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis, he is Miles’ father as well as plays a role as a police officer. He does not know that Miles is Spider-Man and also dislikes the ideology that Spider-Man represents about vigilantes. Jefferson Davis, as a father, he deeply cares about Miles, but he does not know how to show his affection towards Miles. He is stern yet playful in his own way to Miles. He did manage to tell Miles about his true feelings and show some emotion. As a brother, he looks down on Aaron’s choices as a member of society. He reminisced on how close they were when they were kids. However, even when he looked down on Aaron, he still cared for him because he was sad when he found his body in the alley. As a member of society and the police, he stands by his beliefs and values, looking down the vigilante work of Spider-Man. However, in the end, he accepts, or at least tolerates the works of Spider-Man in the end of the film.
Figure 4: Peter B. Parker
The next character is Peter B. Parker. Peter B. Parker comes from the Universe 2 (U2) and is an alternate version of Peter Parker from U1. In U2, he is left by Mary Jane, he is demotivated to fight crime, and he has a pessimistic point of view about being Spider-Man.Comparing his life to the U1 Peter Parker, the start of their backgrounds are similar. They both married their girlfriends, Mary Jane. However, Peter B. Parker’s life took a turn for the worse compared to U1 Peter. Peter B. Parker’s Aunt May has passed away, he got divorced by Mary Jane, and lives alone in his dark and dirty apartment. He has a cynical and pessimistic outlook on life because of the negative things that have happened. His has a bigger body frame compared to U1 Peter. This means he is much fatter and less fit. There are also characters that become the reference his body image, including Gwen Stacy, Miles Morales, and Aunt May from U1. He does not care about his appearance. He showed his intelligence, but because of his older age, his is not merely portrayed as smart, yet clumsy. He also becomes one of the comedic elements of the film.
As Spider-Man, he is one of the mentors of Miles Morales. He taught Miles on the responsibilities of being Spider-Man. His experiences of doing it for years have given him the ability to do this. However, he is not competent on doing so, not because of his capabilities, but because of his look on life. He taught Miles in a pessimistic way, using bad jokes to explain
how things work. As a husband, he seemed to have lost his charm with his then wife, which led to their divorce. He mentioned his fear of having kids which was the reason for the divorce.
Figure 5: Mary Parker
May Parker, she exists in the multiple universes but May Parker in this film is focused on the U1 character. She is Peter Parker’s aunt. She is knowledgeable about the other Spider-Men from the other universes. Mary Parker is representing a middle age woman look who wears cardigan over a shirt, and wearing long pants. She has long hair and is slim. She is not built very tough. She looks like she is in her early 50’s, but she is not portrayed as “old”. She is initially portrayed as a helpless woman who does not know much about Spider-Man. However, when the time came, she is very knowledgeable about how U1 Peter Parker operates his crime fighting side. She can defend herself when villains came attacking her home. She does not just sit there and cower in fear.
Figure 6: Gwen
Gwen is from Universe 3 (U3). In the film, she mentioned failing to save the U3 version of Peter Parker. She is known as Spider-Gwen. She also becomes one of Miles’ mentor in the film. Gwen on the other hand has a dark look on life because of the death of her best friend, the U3 Peter Parker. She is very competent in hand to hand combat, very agile, and smart. This ability is seen when she fought with the villains in the film. She is also mature for her age and portrayed good leadership skills. When Peter B. Parker, who is older than both her and Miles, could not defeat a villain, Gwen was the one lead the team and help defeat the villain.
As Spider-Gwen, she is also one of Miles’ mentors because of the experience she has. She treats him more as a more as a mentee rather than a friend in the earlier parts of the film. In the end, she changed her perspective of him, almost hinting at a possible romance between them.
However, as a friend, she failed to save her best friend and blames his death on herself. This is what gives her more of a cold expression and attitude in most of the film. Although she does open up from time to time, and joke around with Miles, for instance when they were talking in the bus after encountering Doc Ock. As a teenager, on the outside she looks like the typical teenager who does not care about anything, but because of the circumstances of having superpowers, she understands the responsibilities she has and carries them proudly while still understanding the burdens that come with those responsibilities.
In this film, Gwen Stacy is presented as a girl who has a short blonde hair. Her hair is chopped to the side after Miles accidentally got his hand stuck on it because he could not control his powers. Gwen is very slim; much like a typical teenager is built. This means she is not portrayed to have large breasts which are common on comic book characters. She wears a tight spandex throughout most of the film. The spandex is the “uniform” of superheroes as Miles
and Peter B. Parker also wears tight spandex. The colors of the outfit consist of white, black, and magenta. With that said, there are elements of femininity in the outfit as the black part is designed to look like a dress. Other key feature of Gwen is that she has a piercing near her eyebrow. She is also gifted in having good hand to hand combat skills.
She is not shown a majorly feminine character. She does not show too much of her emotions.
She does not get pushed to the side when it comes to getting her voice heard. She is the a
“supporting” character in a sense that she is only there as a side character, but instead helps Miles grow and evolve into the hero that he is. She can defend herself and others when they were confronted by the group of villains in May's house. She is very intelligent. Even when the film hinted at a romance between her and Miles, she was not portrayed as being caught up with the affection side of their relationship. This means does not talk about Miles to anyone that implies she has feelings for him in any way.
As female, Gwen is not shown a majorly feminine character. She does not show too much of her emotions. She does not get pushed to the side when it comes to getting her voice heard. She is the a “supporting” character in a sense that she is only there as a side character, but instead helps Miles grow and evolve into the hero that he is. She can defend herself and others when they were confronted by the group of villains in May's house. She is very intelligent. Even when the film hinted at a romance between her and Miles, she was not portrayed as being caught up with the affection side of their relationship. This means does not talk about Miles to anyone that implies she has feelings for him in any way.
Figure 7: Dock Ock physical portrayal
Dr. Olivia Octavius (Dock Ock) is one of the researchers building the portal for Kingpin.
Although she works with Kingpin, she does not consider herself as an underling but as a partner. Dock Ock is displayed as the one with long frizzy hair-look, she looks aged like she’s in her 40’s. She wears a lab coat occasionally but is seen wearing her villain suit for the most part of the film. Her villain suit is mechanical, colored green and black, and has mechanical tentacles as arms.
The main difference of U1 Doc Ock to other portrayals of Doc Ock from Sam Remi's Spider- Man from the early 2000’s is that she is female. More physical features are the way she transitions from being an innocent looking scientist into the villainous character that she is.
The first time we see her is when she is assisting Kingpin with the portal. She also wears spectacles.
She is and evil villain. She shows toughness when she does not mind getting her hands dirty when fighting. She does not like being pushed around, shown when Kingpin cautioned her on doing her job properly and she retaliates. She is very intelligent, portrayed through her job as a scientist. Villain wise, she is portrayed as having a sinister personality, or what people say as being a crazy woman. Putting that into the context of the film, she is focused on reaching her goals no matter what happens.
Figure 8: Kingpin
Kingpin, he is also known as Wilson Fisk, is the main villain in the film. The U1 version of Kingpin’s plan is to create a portal to bring his wife and child from other universes because his wife and child from U1 have died. That plan is what caused the other Spider-Men being transported into U1. Kingpin is very stern and strict when it comes to his work as the villain.
He is very aggressive and merciless, portrayed to the way he killed U1 Peter Parker. He is also determined on finishing his work. He does not listen to anyone who explains who explained the consequences of his work, including U1 Peter Parker and Doc Ock.
As a father and husband, he loves his family. He tries his best to get them back, even if his actions will hurt others in the process. As a person and villain, he blames others on the loss of his family. The film only hinted at the remorse of his actions that caused the death of his family, but he still blames others on it. He does not care what happens to others as long as his goal can be carried out successfully. He even killed his own underling when Aaron failed to kill Miles.
Kingpin is merciless as a villain.
Physical Representations
The stereotypical portrayals of female characters in films are mostly representing such as the sex object, the stay at home mother, or the timid girl next door. While the male stereotypes are usually represented include being the tough and built jock, the nerd, and being unemotional.
From these, we can see how characters are “normally” portrayed based on their genders.
However, the presences of these traits are almost non-existent in this film, as explained in the findings above.
The female characters are not portrayed as sex objects in the film. Typical comic book female characters are portrayed to have large breasts and have a sexy vibe to them. The female characters in the film do not feature said features. This does not mean that having such traits as big breasts is the only way of portraying female characters as sex objects, but how the other characters, especially male characters interact with them indicates as such. The male characters do not desire the female characters in such ways.
The male characters are also not portrayed as the stereotypical hero, having large muscles and built bodies. Peter B. Parker is a good example as he has a “beer gut” to put it simply. This means that is portrayed of being slightly overweight. Other characters such as Miles do not portray the “ideal” body of a superhero because Miles is a skinny teenager.
Another trait to look at is the femininity and masculinity portrayed by Gwen, Aunt May, and Doc Ock. Gwen’s image is both feminine and masculine. She shows he masculine side from the hair she has, which is short and cropped to the side, to her willingness to get her hands dirty fighting the villains. However, she shows her femininity from the grace and dexterity of fighting. Also, she is not portrayed as being the damsel in distress as she joins in with the male characters to fight villains, although, her costume does show a bit of her feminine side. She
wears a tight spandex costume coloured black, white, and magenta. The black part is shaped as though it is a dress. She also wears ballet shoes as part of her costume. This portrays some feminine part of her portrayal.
Other female characters such as Aunt May and Doc Ock also show the femininity and masculinity sides of the characters. Aunt May is portrayed such that she looks like a damsel in distress who cannot defend herself. However, when the villains come and attack her home, she can fend for herself and participate in the fight. Doc Ock on the other hand is portrayed like a timid scientist. But she too can hold her own as a villain and does not like being pushed around, evident by her warning towards Kingpin when he tried to blackmail her.
The male characters are also shown in less masculine ways in the film. Peter B. Parker cried in the shower when coping with his divorce. Miles was scared when he first encountered Kingpin and the Prowler. The male characters were not inclined to show their emotion, even when they are stereotypically portrayed as to being not emotionally active in films. Even Kingpin felt sadness when he lost his family and was shown crying.
These physical representations of the characters in this film have shown another level of understanding on how female and male are represented. It is not always about female being feminine and male being masculine, but it most probably can be represented both characteristics. Denotative and connotative understanding of each physical representations can be seen by strongly relate the analysis towards gender roles of each characters.
Gender Role Representations
From the findings of this study, it is determined if the film follows the trend of stereotyping characters or if it breaks it by portraying such characters against the stereotypes usually imposed upon them. With that, it can help determine if the film helps spread a positive point of view towards these characters, thus making it suitable for viewing with less cautionary outcomes. On the other hand, if it is determined to portray characters stereotypically, then it is not suitable for viewing it without properly understanding the meanings in the messages it delivers.
The portrayals and roles of the characters were not the stereotyped. The main evidence is how Miles Morales is portrayed as an African-American. Stereotypically, films portrayed African- American youths growing up in harsh conditions. However, in this film, Miles lives in an urban middle class household. The household seems to be supported by his father and mother. From Harmon’s analysis, it seems that one of the stereotypical portrayals of African-American characters are how they are gangsters and have a bad image. In the film analyzed, the only portrayal of an African-American character having that sort of image is Aaron Davis. However, to put it into context, he is one of the villains in the film, therefore making it redundant to accuse the film creators of portraying him in a bad light. Furthermore, when we first see him, he is a caring uncle towards Miles as he supports Miles’ creativity and hobby.
Speaking of Miles, he is not the typical African-American youth that I usually observe to have a bad reputation. Of course, he commits vandalism, but it does not fully show his personality as a black teenager, only as a rebellious teenager. Miles is also portrayed as a smart student that does not fit in his new school. I do not believe it is because of the colour of his skin, but because of the anxiety one feels when put into uncomfortable situations. Miles’ father is also portrayed as the responsible father who wants the best for his child. Even if Miles and him do not connect emotionally too well, but Jefferson tries his best to show Miles how important he
is to him and that he loves. This goes against portrayals of how the fathers of African-American characters tend to abandon them as a child.
In addition, Caucasian characters are also not portrayed as being superior to African-American characters. Peter B. Parker does not impose his superiority, if any, towards Miles because of the colour of his skin. He becomes Miles’ mentor because of the amount of experience he has compared to Miles. The same goes for Gwen Stacy. Both these characters are portrayed as to having the same intelligence and dexterity, with minor differences based on the context, compared to Miles.
The only portrayal of a Caucasian character having to be superior over African-American characters is the main villain of the film, Kingpin. He tells Aaron, who is The Prowler, to do his dirty deeds and kills him when he failed. However, he is the “boss” of the villains. Meaning he has more power compared to the other villains in the film, evident by how he controls the other villains of the film as his henchmen. Apart from that, Miles was able to defeat him in the end, showing us that an African-American character can best a Caucasian one. In addition to the portrayal of Caucasian characters, both Gwen and Peter (U2) have unfortunate backgrounds when they introduced themselves in the film. Peter is divorced while Gwen lost her best friend.
This goes contrasts the happy life that Caucasian characters have in films normally portraying them against African-American characters.
Putting the findings in context is important. Without the context, the analysis can be nit-picked easily. For example, how Kingpin seems superior to Aaron because Aaron’s skin colour.
However, Kingpin is Aaron’s boss, and has the reputation to prove it as he has other villains, who are not of African-American decent, under his payroll. Therefore, putting it into context, Aaron and other villains work under Kingpin in his corporation, so I cannot categorize it as a Caucasian being superior to an African-American. Apart from that, another example would be how Peter and Gwen seem to impose their authority on Miles. This would be a portrayal of superiority towards an African-American character. However, when we put it into context, we can understand that both Peter and Gwen have more experience being Spider-Men compared to Miles. Regarding Gwen’s costume, it may seem that a tight spandex portrays Gwen as a sex object. However, that is her costume as Spider-Gwen. Miles and Peter also were tight spandex as part of their persona.
5. Conclusion
The analysis shows that no stereotypical characterizations of characters in this film based on their race and gender were portrayed. However, one could argue the presence of those characterizations but when put into context, their meanings change to suit the film. The analysis shows that context is important in order to categorize the characterizations as stereotypical or not. In addition, it shows that films do not need to show stereotypical characterizations in order to be interesting, as the film is very popular after it was released.
The analysis shows that both men and women can have masculine and feminine traits in them as shown through the characters showing both masculinities and femininities despite their genders. Due to that matter, they have shown multiple roles; as an individual or something else related to the society construction status. Comparing it to Brount’s analysis, neither race of the characters was portrayed negatively in order to show a big contrast between them. Each of the characters have played a big positioning in every role they play. Through Bocchino’s analysis, it has shown a progressive improvement that Bocchino mentioned in his analysis regarding
female portrayals, whereas the male characters do not follow the Bocchino’s belief that they are still portrayed stereotypically. This has giving another level of understanding on how gender roles are represented through the characters in this film.
The analysis helped to understand the importance of context on characterizations. If we go around believing a character is stereotyped without looking at the context, then that would mean that every film includes those stereotypes, despite the message that is being portrayed in the film. Therefore, media literacy is very important when consuming media as to not misjudge the messages that the media is trying to convey to its audiences. This film is one of those that can represent the complexity of gender role without merely distinguish between being feminine or masculine, and being female or male. The complexity and multiple roles have given an implication towards the understanding gender role itself.
The application of Roland Barthes Semiotics has helped this study to explore and analyse the representation of gender roles as the focus into the next level of meaning. The analysis might be different if analysed using different method, thus author highly recommends other scholar to conduct. Determination whether the film is suitable for viewing will not be discussed further than this, as it is not the main concern of the analysis. Therefore, information in this study may be used by other researchers when doing an analysis and have them further analyze and identify representations in some other aspects and explore meanings of it from the film.
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