This clip represents gender and the stereotypical roles society
thinks they should play by various ways. Femininity and masculinity adapts
within the characters for example props and costumes, stereotypes, location,
editing and sound.
Significance of gender
The first character that appears
in the clip is the male sales assistant strikes me as a post masculine male
because he’s working in retail that is considered to be a job for a female. The
way he talks and the vocabulary he uses indicates his archetype is camp, as
well as his behaviour and the way he reacts ecstatically to a dress that has
just been imported from Paris strongly suggested he’s a camp feminine male or
in a stereotypical point of view, he’s gay. The second character to be
portrayed is a poor elderly lady, visually she looks like she doesn’t keep up
her appearance or possibly cant because of a lack of disposable income. This
contrasts between the rich lady with the nicely maintained hair and expensively
looking clothing to show the difference in lifestyle and how appearance is
important and closely linked to hierarchy. It was noticeable to me that she is
very self-reliant because she doesn’t expect her husband to pay for her dress
even though it’s for her daughters wedding. Although her self reliance
contradicts the stereotype of a woman she becomes submissive when she realises
she cant afford the dress, implying she’s the subordinate to the male sales
assistant. The camera angles that are used when she is talking are often
looking down on from the male’s point of view to show how she is considered the
inferior character. When the man is conversing with her they are partly in a
close up but you can always see the middle class lady to show contrast of class
and gender stereotypes. The middle class lady is well presented in the clip
with one of the first close ups being of her diamond wedding ring, white gold
watch, perfect hair and make up. This suggests she’s a sex object and stereotypically
a housewife with no aspirations; she in actual fact is a scam artist and tricks
the male sales assistant by pretending. This means she’s not a stereotypical
typical woman.
