Gender in TV Drama

Gender in TV Drama

Stereotype of Women:

TV dramas are always thought to be a female-viewer-attracted industry, especially for soap operas. However, the same as other types of television programs, TV dramas represent and reinforce the majority’s ideology of modern western culture. The role of a female character is to make the male characters appear more important to the series.

 

It is also interesting to see how female character’s professional achievements correlate with their physical appearance. In the so-called nerdy sitcom the Big Bang Theory, the only scientific illiteracy main character is a beautiful blonde named Penny. On the contrary, another minor female role is Leslie, who is also a highly educated scientist, and is portrayed as not attractive at all. This stereotype is used in TV dramas to express that the highly intelligent women are represented as inferior whereas the more sexualised, and typically blonde, characters are considered to have a more important role in the drama.

 

Another example is the show about advertising industry. Betty, a full-time housewife is shown as an elegant blonde (blonde again!) with a nice figure; Peggy, an ambitious secretary who later becomes a copywriter, is much less attractive. Both characters are from The Mad Men.

 

Here draws the conclusion that female characters in TV dramas are either represented as pretty or intelligent; successful either in family life or workplace—there is hardly any way to accomplish both.

 

Female characters’ professional lives are usually ignored, or more often, they are portrayed as housewives who takes care of children and family chores every day, but not ambitious at all in building a career. Even if women do work, they are often shown on TV in traditional feminine jobs such as teachers, secretaries and nurses, which kind of professions all require patience, carefulness, warm-heartedness. For the relatively small amount of women who try to further their professional lives, in which they do fail a majority of the time For example Samantha from EastEnders left her husband to pursue a career in modelling, but was unsuccessful.

In this way, female characters are often punished for pursuing their own careers at the expense of their boyfriends or husbands. Of course there are also women in power in TV dramas, though the number is limited. However, these professional successful women are less favoured than housewives; furthermore, women in power are usually portrayed to be villainous, which indicates the discouragement of being such type of female.



 

Stereotype of Men:

The first stereotype of men is that they should appear to be strong and powerful, mentally and physically. Males appear to be the elements that are the face of TV drama as they are seen as an important role due to their abilities.

An example of a strong male character is The Doctor from Doctor Who. His character is presented as strong due to his vast knowledge of planets, strategies and monsters to face up against. Although he cannot resist travelling with a female companion. This makes his character seem more important as he has an inferior with him which makes him the superior.
 

Whereas a countertype to this is Ian Beale from EastEnders. This is because his character can be perceived as weak due to his vulnerability due to recent narratives and can easily be manipulated by other characters.

 

Another stereotype is that men are obsessed with sex. This can be interpreted due to immaturity of a small majority of the male population. This stereotype begins with the idea that teenagers become sex crazed and become obsessed. Whereas when they age, this craze is not so effective.

An example of a sex crazed character is Jay from The Inbetweeners. The character always talks fantasy with his group of friends that he has do sexual things with other people that just simply are not true. Eventually, his act becomes transparent and his friends do not take an interest in what he has to say a majority of the time.

The countertype to this is Sheldon Cooper of the Big Bang Theory. Who has no interest in sexual actions or sexual intercourse. This character prefers to focus on his scientific career. Additionally, if he was ready to reproduce with a companion, it will be accomplished clinically and not amorous and widely.

 

 

How Gender is Represented Through the 4 Areas of Textual Analysis

 

Camera shots/angles/movements:

Establishing/long shot – This shot can be perceived as an establishing shot as the scene is set and the characters are clearly visible. But it is also a long shot as the audience have a closer insight into the details of the clothing worn, the way in which the characters behave and details of the expressions from the characters. The characters appear to be dressed appropriately for their age considering that a stereotyped teenager is dressed up in hoodies and tracksuit bottoms.

 

Close-up – This shot captures even more detail of the character’s facial expressions. This allows the audience to interpret whether the character is intelligent or not. In this case, the audience can perceive Neil’s character as unintelligent because of his wide eyes, blank facial expression and parted mouth.  

 

Two shot – The following shot is a two shot which shows the interaction between the two characters in a scene. This scene shows Neil and Jay conversing before conversing with Simon and Will. Jay’s attitude towards sexual activity is strong as in this scene he desperate to go to a club and get some ‘clung’.

 

Panning – The next scene shows a panning movement which allows the audience to understand the surroundings as the camera pans to the right. In this case, the bus stop is being panned so the audience can see the details of the bus stop as well as the reaction from Jay’s speech.
 

 Editing:

Cross-cutting – This transition is used when there is a conversation between characters in a scene. This I used in this scene to ensure that the following scene begins immediately without any details being lost. The quick reactions of the transitions allow the audience to capture the expressions of all the characters in the scene.

Sound:

Upbeat music – This music begins when the characters are just about to pass the bus stop. This creates a feeling that an action is going to happen in which was calling the people ‘bus wankers’. Which then ends once the characters have passed. This creates a sense that the audience have realised that what Jay did was wrong and will have consequences. Which in this case was being threatened by two men from the bus stop.

The same track begins once again one the boys try to escape but fail. This creates another uplifting moment for the audience as they can interpret that the characters could escape but unfortunately do not. This is a comical moment for the audience as they realise that an uplifting and exhilarating opportunity has been open to the characters but does not become reality as they become boxed in. Once again, the music concludes when the characters realise that there is nowhere else to go.  

 

Mise-en-Scene:

Clothing – The main characters in the car are not wearing stereotypical teenage clothing of hoodies and tracksuit bottoms. Instead they are dressed up appropriately like adults. Furthermore, the people at the bus stop are wearing thick coats and scarfs which could indicate that the scene is set around winter time when the temperature becomes chillier.

Lighting – The scene clearly shows that it is at night, around 10pm. However the street is lit up with street lights and shops to create a brighter mood to a darkened city.

 

How Gender is Represented with the Other 6 Areas or Representation

Age – The representation of character’s depend on their age. For example, teenage boys are obsessed with sex, get drunk a lot and can be law abiding. Compared to teenage girls who obsess about their physical appearance, talk about boys and hang out with friends. However, when they turn into adults, the males are portrayed as strong, powerful and intelligent, whereas adult women can be portrayed as domestic, vulnerable and unintelligent.

Ethnicity – Both genders can have different ethnicity. Stereotypically, coloured people prefer to speak quickly with slang language compared to white people who do not. TV dramas tend to use characters of different ethnicities to prevent ethnical inequality.

Sexuality – Gender does not particularly impact sexuality as in modern society as genders can be attracted to the opposite gender or the same gender. In some TV dramas, there are at least one homosexual couple to ensure that any homosexual viewers can compare to the characters. The effects of these are either positive, negative or neutral.

Class and Status – In the media, it is portrayed that men support women to keep a balance and live a healthy lifestyle. Men are represented as being higher class citizens due to stereotyping and can generate a suitable income to provide for a family. Lower class characters commonly resemble single mothers, who struggle to provide for their families. Thus showing that women are of lower class than men in the media.

Physical Ability/ Disability – Out of the two genders, men are viewed as more able than women in the media. Stereotypically, since men are considered to be stronger, it is unlikely for them to be disabled. Becoming disabled in the media can be caused due to simple tasks, but become over exaggerated leaving a character disabled.

Regional Identity – Since men are considered to be upper class they are more likely to speak in the certain accent related to the area living in or speak posh to show high authority. Whereas women tend to be judged by the way in which they speak by society as to some people it may not seem natural compared to the male’s speech.