I am going to be focusing on how gender is represented within the beginning of an episode of Silent Witness. This is a British crime/thriller drama which is aired and produced by the BBC, and is aimed for the mainstream psychographic audience. This crime series focuses around forensics and experts looking into investigations; it first aired in 1996 and after 20 series’, is still being produced. I am going to explore how the non-stereotypical denotations of women are focused upon and will also be examining the connotations of the male characters presented and how they conflict the female connotations, leading to unconventional gender roles.
In the first scene, there were four armed-force characters (three males, one female), the woman is focused upon mainly through. This could connote that the television show is not as stereotypical as most believe within a crime genre, this can be denoted through her costume: no makeup, tight and pulled back hair, uniform, boots and a loaded weapon. The anti-stereotype is denoted by the short duration clips of manlier actions such as 'scoffing' chewing gum and masticating with her mouth open, as well as her use of profanity later on. As many girls within this genre are shown innocent and victimised; this woman shows the stronger, empowered character that exists in reality. A woman who defends and seeks the safety of others. She is also portrayed as knowledgeable and experienced, when after the shooting of the antagonists she takes the initiative to return to unmask the villain. As she walks back she has a long tracking shot with her centre frame throughout, encoding that she is a main character at that certain scene and should be remembered further on. “Because ‘inherited recipes for living and role stereotypes fail to function’, we have to make our own new patterns of being, and it seems clear that the media plays an important role here.” (Gauntlett, 2002) This can help to understand why role stereotypes are no longer being portrayed as importantly anymore within mainstream television, especially on a public service broadcaster such as the BBC, whom claim to “inform, educate and entertain”. They wish to reform the hegemony of victimized females and heroic men by creating strong and versatile characters which are both believable and relatable to, examples shown through Silent Witness.
‘Tim’ (the driver), is the next main character; shown to shoot the second antagonist and kill them. He is another example of anti-stereotypical connotations because he is portrayed as anxious, worried and not as driven as the woman. The anxiety is connoted with extreme close-up shots of his fingers tapping the steering wheel as well as in establishing shots; we also see the tapping subtly in the background as a focus pull moves from the antagonists to the unmarked car. This nervous persona is shown through all characters as "state amber" is declared through the radio, this puts all of them on high alert and raises the severity of the scene where they all begin to agitate, these expressions are shown using a series of close-up shots between the four actors. However, the anxious representations are mainly denoted from shots of Tim. Towards the end of this opening scene, the female antagonist is revealed, there are extreme close-up, shot reverse shot, used to contrast between the female and male armed police to present the audience with a view of contrasting emotions and roles. Tim is worried, unprepared and frozen whereas the armed woman is quick, decisive and carries on past the difficulty of the antagonist being revealed as a female, whom may be innocent.
The first shot we see of the female eye witness is used to present her basic image, red hair and show the clothes worn so that we can recognise her throughout the episode but also to portray her status, age, and basic reason of how she may be involved. Technically, they may have used no speech to create enigma coding around her character to encourage the audience to try and guess her role and personality. She wears boots and trousers with a hoodie, connoting that she is a younger character around 20 who may not have a large income, if any however wishes to look in style with current mainstream items. Mise-en-scene is key during these shots, her phone connotes to the audience that she’s not scared and has almost a casual atmosphere through her body language, scrolling on her phone rather than typing really fast which could show worry. This creates enigma coding as the audience no longer know for certain whether she is involved in a certain crime or if she is just an eye witness caught in the wrong time, at the wrong place; both could be plausible. The use of a high shot, concentrating on her face can show that she is a vulnerable character who needs to be focused on, especially her reactions as they could give away important information which may connect pieces of the plot together in further scenes. There are also other key shots from around a corner or behind objects, creating realism for the viewer and the feeling that they are within the storyline, watching as a witness from a hidden space. A series of shots are used in order of: extreme close-up, close-up, mid shot, long shot; this is use of voyeurism offers the audience gratification of being able to view her from different shots whilst judging and creating their own opinion based on her physical representation. Whether she is being portrayed stereotypically is also a difficult matter to decide upon due to her relaxed and calm body language, this makes the audience question whether she is a confident female character who does not feel anxious to be alone in these situations or maybe she is just oblivious to the preceding events?
The final gender representation that I have found is unconventional is the presentation of the two shootings: the armed male versus the female antagonist. The male shooting was offered a lot of emphasis with technical codes such as slow motion and tracking shot used. This conflicts against the quick, short clip of the female being shot. This is subtly connoting that the male shooting was worse than the female which is quite different to how most would be represented. This is because men are portrayed as powerful and resilient characters who can handle pain whereas women suffer and complain more about the same injury. Although these shots are both powerful, it shows technically that he was only injured so he could be enduring more pain that the woman who has been killed at the scene, which can explain the difference in representation, ensuring her camera shots relate to the harsh and abrupt death. The use of both male and female shootings also makes it clear that the binary oppositions between the genders in this programme are not key and do not have the stereotype of female victims versus male heroes. The exaggeration of her death can be argued to be shown dramatically through the characters: Tim and the female armed force. As they unveil the antagonist, the use of profanity, to connote the idea that because she is a woman it is unexpected and unfortunate that she has died, can balance the stereotype. It is said that people automatically feel drawn to a female being innocent and vulnerable to being hurt. Tim's reactions also reflect the situation where he is stunned and does not know what he should, this shows that the antagonist surprise will create tension and problems through this episode as it had so easily affected a man who is shown as strong and confident.
Stereotypes are important in media texts as they allow the demographic to immediately respond to a situation presented in the narrative, as the audience may relate to previous media texts. Stereotypes enable an audience to identify with particular situations or characters, which can aid in adhering to a particular preferred reading of a text. Therefore, I can understand why gender roles are still represented through many texts especially Hollywood blockbuster movies stereotypically, however television programmes aired on channels like the BBC and Channel 4 have been produced with the ideology that women and men should both be perceived more realistically, and this is something I completely agree with. Surely if characters are denoted true to reality, more audiences will be able to relate and fan bases can grow whilst reinforcing more equal gender roles? I argue that, yes, stereotypes are necessary for an audience to identify with preferred readings however this can be balanced with characters such as those present in Silent Witness, which fine tune the underlying characters in everyone’s realities. Leading to a more balanced programme, and this has been shown to be successful through many shows on BBC and Channel 4 however must now begin to expand into film ‘territory’. I leave this essay with a final thought:
“Some critics say that the media should offer traditional role models and reassuring certainties, but this view is unlikely to survive. Radical uncertainties and exciting contradictions are what contemporary media, like modern life, is all about.” – (Gauntlett, 2002)