Theories...

Althusser - Interpellation (1918-1990)

The term interpellation was an idea introduced by Louis Althusser to explain the way in which ideas get into our heads and have an effect on our lives, so much so that cultural ideas have such a hold on us that we believe they are our own. Interpellation is the idea that we are “bred” to think, act and react in certain ways. We are interpellated from the day that we are born into specific roles that society has created for us.

Info found from http://www.longwood.edu/staff/mcgeecw/notesoninterpellation.htm

Barthes 

Death of the author - 

Barthe argues against traditional literary criticism's practice of incorporating the intentions and biographical context of an author in an interpretation of a text, and instead argues that writing and creator are unrelated. 

"To give a text an Author" and assign a single, corresponding interpretation to it "is to impose a limit on that text."

Image reinforcing cultural myths - 

Roland Barthes, in his 1957 book Mythologies, argues exactly this : that no language use can be separated from structures of ideology and power. Barthes recognised that the signified can operate on two levels of signification- the primary level, that is, the most commonly accepted signified (four legs, barks, smells); and a secondary level of signification - the 'other' signifieds that we come to culturally accept (so with 'dog' this might be 'scoundrel' or 'ugly woman'). The descriptions he used are now common - denotation and connotation.

Mulvey - Male gaze theory 

It describes the act of looking; began as the study of the objectification of women in visual texts. Laura Mulvery introduced the "male gaze" as a feature of gender power in film. Mulvey argues that in classic Hollywood films in particular women are merely represented to provide visual pleasure to men.  Her concept of to be looked at, exemplifies that women were merely shown on screen in classic Hollywood in order to provide men with visual pleasure and have an erotic impact. Mulvey argued that the typical key protagonist within a classic Hollywood film was male and the audience members where similarly typically expected to be men.

Winship - Gender complicity 

Janice Winship (1987) has been an extremely influential theorist. “The gaze between cover model and women readers marks the complicity between women seeing themselves in the image masculine culture has defined”. The ‘final girl’ is always a pure, innocent girl who abstains from sex and may be less attractive than the other female characters. The message here is clear, in horror film, if you are a woman, sex = death