In our media product, we wanted to draw comparisons to our characters and those in actual media products; we found it interesting to adhere to and challenge the stereotypical roles that men and women are given in the media to show how they act and are spoken/referred to by others. Only representatives from two social groups appear in the opening of our film, so we had to make their personalities and actions very clear from the moment they appeared onscreen.
Our male character is very clearly shown to be the person in charge, which the audience typically associates with a male character. He issues the orders to his subordinates, and is therefore in control of the professional relationship he has with the other character. These actions are typically masculine and as he relays information about the situation to his less-informed colleague we see him as the intelligent one with more power, another male characteristic.
As well as this, he is shown to have caring qualities, as he asks his subordinate whether she wants backup in her job, showing concern about her personal safety. This shows him as a typical male as he thinks that she is unable to do the task set, although he does challenge these conventions by showing concern. Because of this we see the other character as a typical women, who cannot carry out the orders that she has been set, making her the weaker sex before we have seen her character in action.
Our film further challenges how males are typically portrayed as he isn't the first character to appear on-screen. The main character is usually shown before others in media products, and through this we understand that although the character is more powerful and intelligent than the other character, he isn't who we should be focusing on. Males are typically the main character, and in taking this away from our character we lessen the power that he has.
However, there is an absence of typical stereotypes of our character's race in how he acts, which challenges his masculinity. Asian characters are typically portrayed in media as having important and professional jobs such as doctors, lawyers, etc, they are seen as being extremely successful and intelligent in those careers - because the position of this character is not immediately known we cannot apply these stereotypes to this character.
Our other character has typical female qualities shown from the moment she appears on-screen - she is unsure whether she can complete her job to the standards that her boss requires. This tells us that she doesn't consider herself as strong or intelligent as the male character, which is a trait usually held by female characters.However she also challenges this view by rejecting the proposal of having other people work with her. This isn't a typical feminine quality as women tend to work with other people so they do not fail, and by rejecting this she appears more confident than women are usually portrayed.
Although our character challenges the view of being completely feminine, she has similar qualities to other female characters in her position (a professional business). Many women in thrillers or dramas that work in a professional business are shown to be cold or wanting to work alone, as well as having a strong will and being confident with themselves - an example of this would be Brenda Leigh from The Closer, who is a feminine-looking woman that can work with men successfully and on tough cases.
In doing this we kept her character close to how audiences expect to see a female working in a business that is important, even if the qualities she shows are not typical of a feminine character. In addition, we kept her looking feminine to show that she is not a 'butch' character - the actor playing her wore a wig that was long and good-quality to show that she cares about her appearance, another typical female quality. However, she is dressed in a masculine-looking suit with trousers and a tie, to show that she can act and dress like the men do and that she is not out-of-place in her business.
She challenges the idea of how young adults are shown in media as well - our female character is very obviously young, but is dressed in a formal suit - which contrasts the typical hoodie and tracksuit clothes that youths wear in media products - and acts calm and rational, once again different from young adults that act aggressively.
She retains the quality that younger people are less informed than adults as she asks her boss what she has to do, showing her ignorance, but overall challenges the idea that young people are aggressive and lazy.
We also challenge the idea of females being portrayed as the weaker sex - the camera angles and frames used keep the audience at eye-level with her and we never look up or down at her. By doing this we don't feel overpowered by her, which is how a male would be seen, and we don't feel like she can be manipulated easily, which is how females are usually shown.
Despite this, she is not shown as being more important than the male character, as she rarely takes up the entire frame and although we concentrate on her, we aren't forced to. This adheres to the idea that women are less important than men, even though her character is shown to be the main character.
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