Gender in TV Drama

Gender in TV Drama

Gender is represented in many ways across all forms of media, the form one with the largest variety of gender characters and gender stereotypes is TV.

There are many different stereotypes of gender that are represented in TV. A gender stereotype shows one narrow minded view of a certain gender, for example a woman would be stereotyped as being weaker than a man and conscious about their looks, where as a man would be stereotyped as being insensitive and controlling.

In the TV series ‘Banshee’ Rebecca Bowman is shown as being physically attractive, unintelligent and weak, as her uncle is able to completely control her. Characters such as Rebecca Bowman are very stereotypical female characters as they are portrayed as being naïve, unintelligent and promiscuous. 

In the TV drama ‘True Detective’, Woody Harrelson plays ‘Martin Hart’, the character is shown as being very stereotypical of a male character. For example he regularly cheats on his wife, which shows he has little regard for women and is very insensitive. He also is a crime investigation detective, showing he is vaguely clever, as well as being physically athletic and aggressive. Similar too many other stereotypical male characters ‘Marty’ Hart is violent, overpowering and intelligent.

   

In many TV dramas the 4 areas of textual analysis are used to represent gender, for example different camera angles can be used to show the power of a character. TV dramas regularly place the cameras slightly below a male character so that the audience is looking up at the character, showing his dominance. The opposite effect is also used on self-conscious, weaker female characters, but with the camera looking down on them.  Sound can also be used to create the same effect. A deep undertone non-linguistic sound can be used to suggest dominance. Mise-en-Scene and the characters clothes, as well as surroundings, can be used to suggest that particular characters social standing in a hierarchy.