Evaluation Question 2 | 2nd Draft

Question 2

Representation of gender

The aim with our characters was to challenge the stereotypes of many thriller archetypes, by making gender irrelevant to the plot. We therefore chose to use a contemporary portrayal of women.

In our society at present, women are stereotyped as the recessive gender; weaker than men in most respects — Maria is represented as the opposite. She is headstrong, balanced and not afraid to behave as she pleases, not under the rule of any other. She is the lead character, who is not ‘subdued by a marriage’, and isn’t punished for resisting societal restrictions.

The protagonist is not a hyper feminine, sexualised character, which many films, often even contemporary ones, still regularly perpetuate as the norm. She has a mission, and that, rather than her anatomy, is what defines the character.

An example of the misogyny which we are trying to avoid in our piece, would be Irene Adler, from BBC Sherlock. She originally was written — by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — as the first person to outwit Sherlock Holmes — the fact that she is female making it all the more defiant of stereotypes of feminine weakness.

But Stephen Moffat did not stay true to the plot line with the way he wrote the character. Moffat makes the character a dominatrix - while this is obvious hyper-sexualisation, it would be misogynistic in itself to assume that her job defines her character - much like the writer has done.

The character falls in love with Sherlock, and has to flee to another country. As she is on the brink of being beheaded, Sherlock appears out of nowhere and saves her.

Overall, the character is defined by her work in the sex industry, and through a non-mutual love for a man. The former being very taboo in our culture, and the latter stripping her of any power she may have initially held.

In our production, we stray away from the dominant male, and passive female stereotypes.

Due to Maria’s domination of TM, he is emasculated, thus denying the generic convention of tough male protagonists, and their weak, female lovers. Films which perpetuate these traditions, would include ‘Once Upon A Time In America’; in which Eve is Noodle’s mistress, and Psycho; in which Marion Crane is willing to steal from her employer in a desperate attempt to buy her lover - she pays the ultimate price for her deviance.

Maria’s quest for revenge clearly reflects other modern thrillers, which also deny gender stereotypes - examples include; The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - in which the protagonist, Lisbeth Salander, is a rape survivor, and is on a quest to get revenge on the perpetrator, by tattooing on his chest ‘I AM A SADISTIC PIG, A PERVERT, AND A RAPIST’. 

Maria displays a lack of empathy; clearly shown when she nonchalantly puts in her headphones at the end. This may make audience members uncomfortable, probably assuming that she is a sociopath — but, would the audience be as uncomfortable if it were a man carrying out the same actions? James Bond shows no remorse at all for the large amount of people he kills in the films, but regardless, the franchise is still a massive hit.

There is no specific representation of youth, other than that both of the characters of our piece are obviously young adults.

The world which they inhabit does not seem to connect to reality, and the violent content of the production, acts as a microcosm for the violence among some groups of youth in Britain. Much like how the Essex Marshes (where Jason Locke of Essex Boys, dumps his hapless victim after throwing acid in his face), are a symbolic representation of the isolation of his career path.

White British is the ethnic group which most dominates our TV and film screens in the UK. Our film. For example, Midsomer Murders, in the past, has had controversy surrounding the lack of ethnic minorities shown, due to the fact that everyone in the show is white.

Unfortunately, our film also reflects that, simply because we did not have the actors available for any sort of ethnic diversity.