How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 2

Gender Representation
Our film, Envy, challenges the stereotypical image of women commonly created in the thriller genre; women are usually seen to be seductive, vulnerable characters such as the character of Gilda in the 1946 film Gilda, whereas the protagonist female character in our production is presented to be a subversion of this with the short, boyish hair and deviant nature (shown by the shot of her smoking at 00:17).

However, in saying this, the storyline behind the production is rather stereotypical of the female gender; women, young girls especially, are seen to be very jealous and envious people who commonly create tension and conflict over the affections of a male. This judgement and stereotype has been heightened in our film to attract and hook our audience. The inspiration for this was taken from the TV series, Skins in which envy is presented as a big issue that causeseconflict between various female characters throughout. With a female target audience, this theme of envy will be more appealing to them as it is a subject they can relate to.

Age Representation
The two protagonists in our thriller are between the ages of 16-19 which is parallel to the age group of our target audience; this allows the audience to identify and associate with the characters featured. This means the audience is fully engaged and can share the apprehension and angst felt by these characters. Stereotypically, people of this age are commonly seen to be involved in violence and conflict and therefore we have used a generic stereotype.

Ethnicity Representation
We have challenged the conventional representation of ethnicity by casting a white British female as the deviant character; stereotypically in similar urban films such as Kidulthood and Adulthood it is the black races that are portrayed as violent and aggressive figures of society. Another example of where this stereotype is challenged would be in This In England by the sociopathic character of Combo. This character is seen to be the leader of a group of skinheads who becomes violent towards the passive, Black African descendant character Milky.

Combo from This Is England

Milky from This Is England