Page - 137 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/02

Beyond Cinematic Stereotypes | 137www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/2, 123–140 conventions and media logics related to westerns, drama and film narratives more generally. Film narratives often build on contrast, which can be developed through characterization, including the different ways of representing a charac- ter’s religious life or their gender. This logic can be seen behind how Stig and Daniel are gendered contrastively as men in As It Is in heaven (2004) and the different ways in which the religious worlds related to them are constructed. By gendering the characters differently and by relating them to quite different religious ideas and worlds, the film highlights the conflict between them and creates a tension that can help guide the story. Yet the mediatization of religion theory does not explain everything and must not be used to explain away everything. The theory can be challenged, for example, by the use of religion to gender characters in alternative ways. Instead of saying that only religion is shaped by the needs of media, one can also argue that filmmakers are inspired by ideas of religion and thus guided in their media production to think gender differently. At this point, it is unclear what is influ- encing what, and the simplified idea that media always clearly sets the agenda is problematized. Furthermore, this underlines the problem with some notions of media logics that are used in the theory of a mediatization of religion. The talk of media “logics” suggests that media always works in a set way, but this is far from the case. The ways in which religion sometimes opens up for alternative ways of im- agining gender does not overthrow the mediatization of religion thesis, but it does underline the complexity of the relationship between religion and media and questions who sets the agenda for how we understand religion. For those with no personal relationship to official religious groups, media can play a cen- tral role in how religion as well as religion and gender are understood. The open character of religion today together with the, to some extent, liminal place of religion in Scandinavian society allow for many types of representation, and representations that may inspire many and complex images of religion. Media such as film might then to some extent set the agenda, but this is by no means a simple process and leaves space for alternative voices and recognizes the shap- ing influence of many different factors on media. We need more research on the processes of mediatization, but this research also needs to look at gender and be open to questioning crude ideas of how different media work. In this article the focus has been on the Scandinavian context, but research on other contexts is also necessary. How are religious spheres gendered in other films and how is religion used to gender characters in certain ways? What do films from other contexts suggest about current ideas of and attitudes toward religion and gender? Future research will hopefully add more voices to the discussion and deepen our understanding of the interrela- tion of film, religion and gender.