How to discuss
representations
of strong
women
When you are describing a representation, it is
essential that you use appropriate terminology to
describe how the representation is constructed.
The following are some descriptions of the film 28
days later which attempt to explain how one of the
female characters has been constructed. The
response that describes the representation best is
the one that uses terminology accurately to
describe the representation in detail, explaining
how it has been constructed.

Danny Boyle has created an awesome movie
full of action and excitement and very strong
characters. Selena is very strong and there
are many scenes when she shows she is an
awesome fighter. There is a scene where she
takes on one of the infected and kicks his
butt!!

In one scene, Selena hacks to death an
infected person that tries to attack them.
They are scary but she is stronger than them.
Therefore, this is a tuff woman character.

Selena is not a traditional female character.
The scene in Jim’s parent’s house
demonstrates this. It is very tightly edited and
there are lots of loud diegetic stabbing and
hacking sounds. As Selena hacks into the
infected person with a machete, each sound
is emphasised.

Selena is represented as a strong female
character. At the end of the encounter in
Jim’s parent’s house with the infected with an
low angle shot of Selena. In the next shot,
which is tighter but still from the same angle,
we see the determination in her face
demanding to know if Jim was bitten,
conveying her strength. Her acting along with
the camera angle depicting her dominance in
the situation contributes to this
representation of a strong female character.

In the encounter in Jim’s parent’s house in 28 Days Later,
Danny Boyle has carefully constructed the scene to represent
Selena as a powerful female character. He uses a range of
codes to achieve this effect, including diegetic sound,
dialogue, editing, camera angles and shot selection.
Examining this scene closely reveals how the character has
been constructed. After the infected is slain as a result of
Selena’s quick thinking we see a low angle shot of Selena
depicting her as dominant. Boyle cuts to a high angle shot of
Jim portraying his weakness in contrast to Selena. The return
shot of Selena is a tighter shot to emphasise her
determination demanding to know if Jim has been bitten and
convey the savagery of her physical abilities. When she
discovers Mark has been bitten she immediately and
remorselessly hacks him to death. The pace of editing and
emphasised digetic foley sound of the hacking reinforces her
pragmatic approach and survivalist thinking, contributing to
the representation of an extremely strong female character.