media homework task: gender representation in "Dalziel and Pascoe - a clubbable woman"

Dalziel and Pascoe is a tv crime drama series that aired in the late 90's. For my homework i have been tasked to do 4 P.E.E paragraphs writing about how gender is represented in the show.

Firstly Mise-en-Scene is used to represent gender by character.This is due to there being no female police officers shown working for the force/in the investigation and the woman character being murdered. This suggests that since it is set in the 80's that there is still the traditional dogma that men went out and got a job and women did all the housework as the female characters in the show all appear to be wives or daughters, which stay at home (with the exception for the male characters daughter as she returns for the funeral.) therefore suggesting that the male characters are primary and integral parts to the story , which would mean that the male gender is portrayed as strong and integral, yet the femal gender on the other hand is portrayed as weak and needing to be protected and therefore the weaker gender in this episode/tv series.

Camera is also used to show gender representation by the use of angles and shots. This is shown by a low angle being used more primarily on male characters as opposed to mid/high angle shots on the female characters, this would suggest that the female characters are represented as the female sex in this episode , dialoug could also support this as they tend to have more shots focusing on the male gender which would show that the males are represented as being the more powerful/dominant and important gender in the show.

There is nothing in editing to support the representation of genre.

Lastly sound is also used to show gender representation by the use of music in scenes. This is shown by the music going slightly louder when the female gender speaks whereas the music goes quieter to suggest that the male characters scenes are much more integral and important to the story than the females.Therefore showing that the male gender is represented more strongly than the females.

Inconclusion i think Mise-en-scene represents gender representation as biased, as male characters are more prominant and more dominant in the scenes in the episode.