Gender representation - Sherlock Holmes

By: Nathan on 02:29

When the video starts There is an establishing shot with some upbeat music (diegetic sound), we are immediately drawn in my the combination of the sound and the shot, which focuses us on the fact that there are no women in the scene. This is quite an effective way of stereotyping that the world that we live in is a very much male dominated one. Also worth focusing on is that the people (men) in this scene all clearly have good jobs, and I will explain how I came to that conclusion below, it portrays the representation stereotype that women all occupy lower level jobs comparatively with their male counterpart, if we look in deeper we could see that this has been used to represent that they also occupy a generally lower role in society as a whole and that they are an inferior gender. 

In this same section of the video we find out that these men are represented to have high level jobs, we can tell this as they are wearing high level clothes, such as suits, top hats and pocket watches. All of these items are associated with wealth. This gives the impression that women are generally accepted (due to a stereotypee) to be inferior as these clothes are generally only made for males.

Of further interest is that the main character "Sherlock Holmes" is often looked down on by the camera which, points down. This could be representative of the fact that, despite the previous gender superiority idea, there can still be inferiority/superiority within the same gender. This is further portrayed as the character that tries to shoot Sherlock is often mounted higher in the shot, thus further representing the fact that there can be superiority/inferiority within the same gender. This is also further backed up when goes to turn the extractor fan on, in this shot the camera is clearly pointing upward and by doing this the director empesizing is the characters control over the situation, this could further link back to the question as it could be representative of the fact that males are stereotypically level headed and in control of situations. 

Also in this scene is the fact that in all places where there is a male presence the decor is of gold. This could be further representative of the importance that males have in society as gold is often associated and represents high class and superiority, in this particular scenario, the male gender as a whole. 

The relatively calm colours of white and black could also be representative of the commonly used stereotype that as mentioned before males are always level headed and can stay calm in an otherwise stressing situation/environment.

Also present in this section of the video is that most of the men have beards, these are often associated with strength and raw power. Which is the desired image and stereotype (that men are powerful and always strong).

Throughout this section of the video the transitions between different shots are largely jump cuts and fade effects, the latter could be representative of the tranquility and calmness in which men can stereotypically deal with stressful situations. The jump cuts in this scene are largely used in order to create tension. Both of these transition effects back up points made earlier, for example the jump cuts that are quick are generally used as I said before to increase tension, this is likely to give the effect that the situation is quite intense and this then represents the stereotype I talked earlier about that males are strong and have a lot of power. This would cause the situation to be more tense as it is more equal. 

In the scene, when it cuts to the male in the sewers, the initial camera angle is a sort of areal view, giving the effect of vulnerability, thus portraying that in some secnarios even males (agreeing with the stereotype that normally they can always cope with situations) can be out of their depth. In a way this can be seen to promote gender equality as it gives the effect that both men and women can be out of their depth and that men went always totality in control of everything. This effect is, however reversed when we later see an up-tilted camera angle, this re-imposes the genes superiority as a camera pointing up is indicative of power and superiority. 

The lighting in the house of commons scenes is natural while by contrast, the sewer scenes are darker. This is representative of the stereotype that males are conformable;e in most situations. This gives of the general effect that the stereotype that the male gender is the strongest and most easily adaptive, as they can deal with multiple scene changes and receive no effects.

Once the main character (Sherlock Holmes) jumps out of the window and into the river and we see the male on the boat, he is higher placed in the set consistently, which could again be signifying in-gender superiority. 
In this same scene there are various shots of a woman, she is clearly not important though, as the shots are short and the editors have sped up the transition speeds. We do however, get a chance to see what she is wearing, it is a tweed style (grey) coat which could represent efforts to fit in to make society in order to get some importance. She has though still got lipstick on to keep her feminism. meaning that women always try to make themseveles appealing to men, this is also caused with her hair, as it is nicely made up and is styled in a fashionable (for then) way.

The conclusision is that this video focuses largely on male superiority. As the whole idea of men fighting with guns and action is what expected of a male in that situate, stereotypically. Also touched on is how women sometimes attempt to fit. Another point we can conclude from this video clip is that it also emphasises in-gender superiority throughout.