Gender on TV

In my media lesson we learnt about different genders on TV. We learnt that TV shows portray several different genders in stereotypical ways for example:

Female stereotypes:

Traditional female- a traditional female is presented to be very girl likes to wear pink,she does a feminine job such as hairdressing, very emotional, pure and innocent, she will always need ti be saved. This shows that shes weak and has little power. 

Sexy woman- this type of character is more powerful than a traditional woman. she will also always use a man to get what she wants, they will wear more revealing clothes, also will have no loyalty to other woman and will also be portrayed to usually be a bitchy character. 

Lesbian woman- they are often presented to be quite masculine in the things that they wear and the jobs they tend to do. 

Male stereotypes: 

Traditional male- often to be shown muscly, strong,brave and heterosexual. They usually have very manly jobs such as building, plumbing etc. they are often shown as aggressive and very dominant especially over woman. 

New man- often shown as being less masculine as a traditional man but still heterosexual. they are also shown as very peaceful and likes to help out at home with the cooking and with the children. 

gay man- often shown as being very feminine, weak, they usually do a very feminine job such as fashion. they are also shown to be a bitchy character. 

we watched a short scene of a TV series called 'primeval' and we were told to look at all the characters and to look at the costumes, lighting, actors (body language & facial expressions) movement, props and setting (CLAMPS). this is what i picked up from all the different characters in the scene:

female characters

in the scene that we watched there were two main female characters. the first female character Abby was portrayed to be quite a masculine female character. this is because when we first see her she is driving a JCB tractor which is a masculine job. also the props she used was mainly a gun. this again shows that masculine element. The costumes she wore were also quite masculine, as she wore combat trousers. However, the top she wore was slightly revealing and tight which shows she has a slight  'sexy woman' character as well as a masculine character, this is also shown with her gun it also shows that she has power and also has control when she saves the male character from the saber tooth tiger.  

In comparison, the other female character was portrayed to be a much more traditional woman. this is because when we first see her she is all dressed up with her make up done with red lipstick which maybe suggests that she is also dangerous, her hair is also neat and tidy. She is also wearing a revealing dress and a cream coat, which inst very practical for the setting that shes in. she is also shown as a weaker character as towards the end of the scene she needed saving. the only time that she was in control was when she was threatening the male character with her words until he held a gun to her then she was shows as weak and vulnerable.

Male characters

There were 4 main male characters in this scene. firstly, the male character that was with Abby was shown to be quite dirty doing a manly job moving all the sticks, it also seems as he is in control when  he commands Abby the stop the tractor when he discovers the hand. this shows that he has power and that he is a much stronger character. however, when the saber tooth tiger appears there is a sudden stereotypical shift in roles of gender as the male character needs saving, and Abby saves the male character twice.

the next male character had a slight feminine element to him. this is because his costume was a pink shirts waist coat, a red scarf and finger less gloves. whereas the other male characters are just in a shirt and combat trousers. furthermore, in the scene where the female character needed saving in the barn. both Abby and another male character had guns whereas this character picks up a shovel which suggest that he is a lot weaker than the other two characters with guns.