Gender in TV drama

Female gender stereotypes begin from when the baby is given its sex. If it is a girl then the baby will be given pink items of clothing with decorations of flowers and butterflies, where as if the baby was a boy then the baby will be given hats that are blue which have footballs on them. We then presume that the little girls will be very girly and have lots of dresses and want to play with dolls this is opposite to boys who would want shorts and t-shirts and want to play football or rugby.

Stereotypes of women are things like:

·         Women are nurses not doctors

·         Women are not as strong as men

·         Women don’t play sports

·         Women love to sing and dance

·         Women do not play video games

These stereotypes are now very less thought about but now women are very equal to men as they can do everything that men could do, but in the past they have not been given the opportunity to do these things.

Stereotypes of men are things like:

·         All men enjoy working on cars

·         Men are doctors not nurses

·         Men play sports

·         Men play video games

·         Men do not cook, sew or do crafts

Lots of these things are now not applied to just men but a few years ago this was very true. Men are now more likely to cook or sew than they were 50 years ago because people would have thought that this was unmanly and stupid for men to do when they could be working on cars or doing manual labour work.

Camera angles are used in TV dramas to make women look weak, there are maybe some angles looking down on women from a man’s perspective which makes the male look a lot better than the women is and make her look frail and weak. Close ups can be used to show shock on the faces of women if they are in a certain situation this could make them seem not as good as the male characters. This can also make the male stereotypes look stronger because it may have the male looking confidently down at another male or a unfortunate female or child.

Editing can be used to make women look like they are weak because there may be a scene when a main male character is looking around for his women assistant and it pans across towards her and he sees her doing something she shouldn’t be doing so he punishes her and this makes her look weak to the audience.  

Sound can make women look weak because there can be moments when women are in troubled situations. Women are known to scream a lot so they are used to scream which makes the audience feel like the women is in trouble and needs help, this makes her seem weak and unable to fend for herself. This can be used for male stereotypes because when a male character steps out into the scene then there could be music playing which makes the male character seem like the main piece of the scene.  

Mise-en-scene is used for women stereotypes because when women are in fear or are at risk of something happening the lights normally go dim or the scene is normally a night time scene. This is very useful for horror scenes because a lot of people are scared of the dark. It can be used also for the male stereotype if a male who has done something special or courageous there will be a lot of light on the specific character because it shows the audience who has done something special.  

Gender links to age because if there is an old woman who is fragile then they will look weaker than an old male, also the old women will need more help to look after her than the old man would. This means that there is more chance for the women to be picked on than the man so this is following in the order of the gender stereotype.

Gender links to Ethnicity because women who are of an Indian Ethnicity are more likely to be singled out and racial abused than a white British female. This is an example of the racist society that we live in and this is why the Indian population live together in most parts of cities and towns because they do not like to be singled out and racially picked on.

Gender links to sexuality because a homosexual women or homosexual man is normally very likely to be singled out because of his sexuality, this is linking to gender because women are singled out to be weaker and so are homosexual men because they are described as being more women than they are men.

Gender links to class and status because a high class rich women who is very powerful like the queen is not going to be told she can’t do something just because she is a women. But then there is a young single mother who has very little money who is told she can’t do something that the queen could very easily do because she is a woman. Richer people normally get better things than poorer people do, because they have the resources to do so.

Gender links to physical disability because people who have a disability are already very unlucky. But then to be a disabled woman could be seen to be more helpful because women are seen as weaker and so people want to help a disabled women more than a disabled man. This is not because they feel less sorry for the disabled man but because men are thought as more powerful and safer than women are.

Gender links to regional identity because if you are part of a region and community then people in that community will know who you are; this means that you are mostly friends and no-one is weak. There could be some people who are part of a community who feel that they should work together as a community in order for everyone to function properly, like on the TV series Emmerdale or Coronation street, where everyone knows and looks out for each other.