Gender essay

The clip Luther represents gender by using 4 key aspects these are,
camera work, Mise en scene, editing and sound. These four things are
used in a way that represents the man as being more dominant than the
women. In the clip the woman looks more vulnerable and less powerful
than the man.
Camera angles are used to portray the dominance of the man. One of
these camera angles is a high shot. This is used when the male character
and female character are having a conversation. The high shot is used to
show the male looking down on the female making her look weak and
small in comparison to the man. The camera shot does this by making
the man look bigger than her as the camera is looking down on her from
what would be the males point of view. Another shot used to represent
the gender stereo types is close up which is used in a tense situation,
when they are talking about sex. This not only sexualises women but it
again makes the women look weak and portrays them as sexual objects.
The camera angle at this point makes the man look like he owns the
women as she is looking up to him like she wants him. One more shot
used is the mid shot, when the mid shot is used we can see the difference
in size between the male and female, this represents the connotations
with gender differences like the stereo typical example of men are bigger
and more muscular than women.
Mise en scene is also a way of representing gender. In the clip we see
Alices home, a city apartment which is tidy, clean and well-kept
resembling the stereotypical idea that women are homely and stay at
home to look after the house. It also supports the idea that women like
thigs to be perfect and have the domestic role in society. Alices hair and
make-up is simple but still makes her look beautiful, she is made to look
naturally pretty which is conforming to the ideology that women should
look good and pretty to impress the men and they are there to be looked
at and look good for the men. The setting (her home) has dull colours like
brown, white, cream and beige. This represents her personality as from
the dialogue we see in the clip we can tell that she is boring. This
represents gender as women are seen as less important and have less
important things to say as men. Men in a patriarchal society, especially in
Victorian tines, had more of a valid opinion than women. The clip starts
with the two characters in an urban city background; this shows us that it
is a modern society so the two genders should be equal.
Sound is used to show the audience the differences between the male
character and the female character. Throughout the clip the female is very

softly spoken and speaks in a soft quite tone. However the male has a
deep loud voice this shows us that he has more control and is more
dominant. Because the female speaks quietly we get the impression that
she is timid and shy which is how women are represented and they should
been seen but not heard. This changes however when they get inside,
the woman starts to speak louder, this could suggest that she feels more
comfortable when she is in private and in the comfort of her own home.
This could be because society wants women to be quite to fit in with the
stereotypes of women. Non diegetic sound is used when the female is
talking this is used to make her sound more powerful when she is talking
about the black hole however when the man is talking there is no music
in the background, this suggests that the female needs help to sound
powerful but the male is powerful on his own, this supports the idea that
men are independent but women are dependent on other people and
things to make themselves look good.
The editing cuts the woman off a lot of the time and the man gets most of
the screen time, this supports my ideas that men are more dominant and
has the most control. It also tells us that the women arent as important as
men. The editing is fast paced suggesting that the situation is serious and
that the two people are in deep conversation.

Sophie Harris-Brotherhood
You make some effective and relevant observations but need to be a little
more specific with some of your comments. Try to refer to more of the
media ideas/concepts/theories we have considered
LOW LEVEL 3: 30