Representation in Humans

Binary /opposition that create meaning in HUMANS:
Man vs machine
Anita vs Laura
Captivity vs freedom
Progress vs Regression
Family vs Institution
Conscious vs unconscious
Past vs present
Male vs Female
Old vs Young
Appearance vs Reality


Representation of Women vs Synths in HUMANS

• Representation - repetition, showing something so much that is becomes a normal thing
• Representation exist to make it easier for viewers to understand/recognise/label/categorise things.
• Women roles in HUMANS: Mother, Caregiver, Prostitute

How does the scene 'Buying Anita' represent women?

• Objectification: 'hope she's pretty' - play on feminine ideals, values of being a woman relying on looks.
• Initially only see her feet, in the mesh 'delivery bag', she is an object to be bought and sold.
• Non-diegetic audio track reflects heartbeat - "birth" of a synth
• Programmed for 'standard domestic model... basic housework" - female as domestic.
• "my primary user" suggests she is simply an appliance "used" by the humans
• "she's ours"- ownership of the object
• Referred to by Laura as a machine.
• Focus - use of deep shallow focus to connote dominance eg, Laura is in the background, Anita is clear in the foreground.

Key Theory:

MADONNA/WHORE COMPLEX: Sigmund Freud

• developed a theory to explain men's anxiety towards women's sexuality, suggesting  that men define women into one of two categories: the madonna (women he admires and respects) and the whore(women he is attracted to and therefore disrespects)
• The Madonna is typically virtuous, nurturing, saintly and sexually repressed
• The Whore is sensual, sexualised, and desirable without purity

Cybernetic Organisms - a combination of the organic and mechanic.