Gender Stereotypes: Video Analysis

Chloe midwinter
Doctor who and gender representations
The video is a clip of doctor who aimed at a wide age range audience. It has a range of different ages and characters both male and female, however both genders tend to be portrayed in a different way.
The clip presents many general gender stereotypes and includes some which differ against what the audience are expecting. For example within the sound aspect of the clip the female protagonist who has been capture by the doctors nemesis has a soft playing sound whenever she comes into shot to match her soft feminine voice. In contrast to this the nemesis enforces his power and speaks vociferously and clearly, we can hear him say ‘I’ve got her exactly where I want her’ as if she were
However as we progress more into the clip and hear of Martha’s plan the music becomes more powerful in parallel to her voice which becomes more confidant in addition to this going against traditional female expectations. The doctor uses sound to emphasise his power also as he grows into a stronger human being s does the music; it gets louder and more powerful.
Near the beginning of the clip the camera pans across the side of the room to show the female hostages being held by large men with guns this stereotype shows how the females are being kept as slaves of the master who has the highest level of dominance as if they were just to serve him. The camera shots of the clip show Martha and the master both in a position of power but at different times, in the beginning the camera is placed behind Martha kneeled position as too look up at the master, he is the focus of the scene whilst Martha is on the right hand side of the frame as if she was of less
As well as the guards being only male they are the characters that have guns and the only other character who has a weapon is the Master. The weapons in the scene enforce power and establish which side is in control. It is only the male characters in the scene that have weapons this follows the gender stereotype that they are stronger and the dominant gender the masters dominance is also clearly conveyed .The master is dressed in a formal black (which typically has the connotations of being evil and dark) and white suit as if he was of high importance .His female assistant in spite of this is dressed seductively in a long red dress and pretty face as if she where an object the masters ‘trophy’ wife. Martha is contradictory to this example however going against the typical gender stereotype and dressing herself in army uniform demonstrating a strong independent female who can battle for herself. Each scene of the clip shows a power object of the masters including the large ship they are currently on; the cut away shots show the orbs and missile shots which the master also controls. The massive objects of destruction show a gender stereotype due to the fact that rather than his female assistant the master himself does all the heavy duty work and