Luther: Representation of Gender

Luther: Representation of Gender

In this clip, gender is represented is several different ways but overall, there is strong binary opposition, throughout the whole thing, representing gender and males stereotypically being more superior than women. However, throughout the whole clip Alice doesn't show many signs of being intimidated by Luther despite the topic they are talking about and in fact, shows a little dominance towards him at some points.

At one point in the clip, a point of view shot is used and due to the conversation being between a male and female, you would expect the angle of the camera to be tilted slightly, looking down at Alice. However, it is un-stereotypical as the camera height is the same, this shows us that Alice and Luther have equal dominance. This is unusual as often, with TV shows and films represent women as weak and not being able to stand up for themselves, they need protecting but Alice doesn't go by these stereotypes.

Sound bridges are used when Luther and Alice are having a quite fast-paced conversation I the apartment. This is so we can she Luther saying quite offensive Things to Alice about love and how shell never understand it and we as an audience would expect her to portray the offence taken on her face and like every other stereotypical woman, cry or sulk but instead she shows no emotion standing still with good posture, looking tough.

Shallow focus is used when we are first introduced to the characters, this is so that the audience can clearly see that Alice and Luther, the only people in the frame, are the main focus in this scene. The non-diegetic sound of music isn’t actually used until further into the clip, which helps the audience understand that there shouldn’t be any distractions from the conversation happening at this point and it is clearly quite is important. Another way this could be shown is the actions of both characters, Alice has a very mysterious, flirty; almost quite lustful way of looking at Luther and he has a very serious, business-like way of looking back at her. This is odd as usually, stereotypically, men should be the more suggestive gender and women are used for sexual activities but in this situation, we see gender reversal as Alice is coming on to Luther and he is trying to pull away and focus on the conversation.

It is clear that Alice is wearing makeup, this might suggest that she might suggest that she wants her appearance to seem more pulled together or maybe even attractive to Luther. The representation of women is that they need to be attractive to men. In order to be like this, they wear makeup and do their hair nicely, Alice fits this stereotype as she has done both of these. However, even though she does fit this stereotype, in her apartment you can see she owns a lot of books and has some science-related items dotted around the place. This suggests that she is intelligent, when stereotypically women are seen as dumb and naïve yet Alice seems to know what she’s talking about and how to stick up for herself.

As the conversation continues, the dialogue between Alice and Luther becomes more fast-paced and is shot in shot-reverse-shots. This shows that both of the characters are tense and so they have quicker responses, firing statements at each other to prove who is right, but in the end Alice has the last say. So overall, in this clip, Alice is sexualised and Luther is the more dominant gender. However, Alice seems to be intelligent and Luther appears to not respond to her suggestive actions. This shows that in some ways, the characters apply to their gender stereotypes but in others, they are the exact opposite of what they ‘should’ be.