Representation of Gender - The Wire in the Blood

Representation of Gender

The Wire in the Blood

The clip opens with the two main characters, Alex and Tony, arguing about the case in which they are investigating. A hand held camera is used in this scene to emphasis chaos and tension between the protagonists along with the panning movement that applies to the camera shot to show that the characters are being rushed, to show emphasis of their dispute. This shot is viewed from behind a barred gate. This could represent that the two characters are trapped and imprisoned, linking to their occupation. The lighting is darkened to create an element of mystery and dark activity. The male character (Tony) is clearly viewed as the dominant character in the conversation due to his character arguing with the inferior female character. This applies to the Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory because males are viewed to be more superior over women. Alex is viewed wearing thick clothing and a turtle neck top, which shows that her character is hiding her femininity by covering her female aspects. This allows her to appear more masculine. This contradicts the Male Gaze as women are shown as flirtatious and reveal bodily parts in order to appeal to men.

The following scene shows that after the dispute, the female character and the male character have reversed roles. This scene shows the female character taking the lead role leaving the male character behind. Although a close up of this scene shows that the male character is still superior by positioning him higher up than her, thus adding pressure onto the female character. This shows a power play between the two characters. When Alex discusses an investigative plan with another female officer, Tony turns away, indicating that he does not agree with her decisions. His character is placed in the centre of the frame which indicates that his ideas are separate to Alex’s. Tony’s character walks upwards to express dominance whilst Alex is left below him and undermining herself. She replies to his speech with ‘please’ which expresses weakness and the need for male support. Again this follows the Male Gaze as females are considered to be weaker and inferior to men, thus in need for male support. The scene concludes with a crane shot, capturing Tony continuing onwards expressing higher authority and leaving Alex below and helpless. This conclusion shows that distance between the two characters and how fractious their relationship is.

The next scene continues with an insight into Tony’s house. It contains references to his occupation, such as the red wall colour which represents crime, blood and death and the butterflies hanging on the walls which could represent biological science and intelligence of the character. Additionally, Tony is wearing the same clothes with his sleeves rolled up to express his masculinity. The darkened lighting suggests independence with emphasis on male characters. This links to the Male Gaze as the character is clearly motivated and consumed by his work. Diegetic sound in this scene is the character sharing to the audience the evidence that he has uncovered from the case, which questions the audience to what happened and whether they can solve the case. Non-diegetic sound in this scene is the soundtrack in the background which suggests the character is walking the audience through his though process and links to the concentration and seriousness of the character. The scene concludes with a close up of the character which again focuses primarily on the concentration of the character as well as the thought process. Throughout this scene, illustrates and highlights how much work has been put into investigation as well as working at a brisk pace in an attempt to get the answers needed quickly.

The next scene gives the audience an insight into Alex’s living area. In which the audience can pick out is that it is disorganised as the house is cluttered and her character is clearly rushing to get to an important meeting. A similar theme appears here as red coloured walls appear again here to emphasise masculinity. This is so that she can bring in a feeling of masculinity in the house because she is a single parent who is living in a man’s world so by projecting masculinity her character can exert more dominance. The diegetic sound in this scene is the narrative of the character as the speaking at a faster pace than normal and how she is rushing to achieve something which emphasises how disorganised her character is. As she is on the phone, her son, Ben, is sitting in the corner of the stairs. The character appears neglected and lonely. This character is wearing the same coloured clothes as the walls which show that this character is consumed by this job and is often left alone due to his mother being disorganised and spending very little time with him. As Tony enters the house, the double doors emphasise parts of a woman which indicates that they are inviting men in. This refers to the Male Gaze as women need companionship and one way to help with this is to appeal to men to draw them in. Tony enters the hallway to try and talk about the case with his working partner but realises that she is neglecting her son by not being there for him as her character puts her job in front of her family. Tony asks ‘What happened to the nanny?’ in a confused way as he is unaware of the story behind the babysitter and Alex. The gender stereotype becomes reversed when Alex asks Tony ‘Are you busy tonight? Which shows that the male is the figure that looks after the family at home, thus contradicting the Male Gaze.

The next scene opens with an establishing shot which gives the audience an idea of the setting. An abandoned house and dark lighting creates a dark and eerie atmosphere to the scene. The car that pulls up in the drive way is a modern Mercedes-Benz which indicates that the owner is wealthy and the colour silver emphasises violence. The audience is then introduced to the antagonist of the clip, a bald man dressed in thick, black clothing to exert masculinity. However this masculinity is expressed through violence. The character breaks through the door and storms into the following room. The camera is positioned and follows the antagonist to create a sense of chaos similarly to the beginning of the clip. For this another hand held camera is used again. As the characters in the main room begin the conversation, the audience hear of a character called Danny who has mysteriously disappeared. A flashback showing this Danny character being gagged a red lighting feature indicates blood and fear. The antagonist is positioned as the highest character in the scene to express his dominance and masculinity. Meanwhile the supporting characters look away from the antagonist as they express fear and fright towards the character.

The final scene of this clip creates the opposite atmosphere to the previous scene. The scene shows Tony and Ben playing with popcorn in the kitchen. The stereotype continues here as Tony has no idea how to control the situation. Uplifting music is played in the background for this scene to emphasise to emphasise the enjoyment and fun of the situation. However this only occurs when Tony is around, when Alex is around a feeling of tension between the mother and son. Fast paced editing is used to again place emphasis on the fun and enjoyment between the two character and the activity. The appearance of the kitchen is similar to the rest of the building and inside Tony’s house. Here it clearly shows that Alex is trying to represent herself and her family to be in a man’s world. By conversing, the two characters are bonding far better than the mother. Tony is presented to be higher than Ben as the close up positions Tony’s character in the background and higher than the child. This shows the dominance of the character. Lastly, when a conversation about the nanny occurs, the audience begin to realise that the nanny has spent more time with Ben than his own mother. This shows that there is a very little balance between a male job and a female lifestyle of Alex’s character.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Representation of Class and Status

Class and Status

Common Stereotypes

REPRESENTATIONS – COMMON STEREOTYPES

Representation of Age - Bad Education

Representation of Age – Bad Education