Primeval Essay

How Is Gender Represented in Primeval?

For this task the class was presented with a section of clip from one of the Primeval episode. In this clip there is a dead body found that is buried around ten feet deep in a forest. When excavating it a sabre-tooth tiger, once the tiger has been dealt with there is a new challenge of Mr West and Jenny (the reporter) where west threatens Jenny with a gun after she blackmails him for taking the blame for some crime he has not committed.

In the opening of the scene we are introduced to the leading male character and the leading female character (Abby). The audience would be unaware of that the female actually turns out to be the protagonist of the clip, where as it would be unusual for the audience to watch something that has a female protagonist.

In Primeval gender is presented through various different techniques, for example symbolic signs are used to give the impression that the man (leading male) is going to protect Jenny from the Sabre-tooth tiger attack, when in fact it is Abby who saves his life. During the conversation that takes place after the body is found, we see that Abby included in the conversation; however when she tries to contribute to the conversation her ideas are not taken on board by the other men in the group discussion.

Gender is also represented thought by the clothes that the characters wear, for example the man that puts the rock on top of the trap in the beginning is wearing a scarf. Now to the audience that would see the type of scarf and also a pink top that he is wearing are symbolic of the female gender (the colour pink denotes love and passion, which connotes that he is less involved in the scene). He is also wearing a leather waistcoat and Is not really suited to the occasion (not wearing the appropriate clothing) this indicates that he is not one of the main characters, this together with the fact that he does not contribute to the discussion that takes place shows that he is an smaller role in the scheme of things. On the other hand Abby wears a leather jacket and shorts which is symbolic of men, this indicates that she has a more important role, and that perhaps she has male tendencies/ characteristics (i.e. strong, brave and determined)

When we hear the roar of the Sabre-tooth it is an indexical sign (it signifies danger and we associate the roar to a tiger). Then the tiger comes in and attacks the man who is excavating a dead body from the big pit in the ground. He is low down and high camera angle is used to look down on him to make him appear small and inferior to the tiger (which in reality would be true, because the tiger is much bigger and more powerful. The camera angle is facing up towards Abby, this informs the audience that she the powerful character . The fact that Abby is look up to from the camera and the man in the hole is looked down at by the camera reiterates the fact that he is defenceless and the fact that she is the one who will eventually have to rescue him, which would be perceived to be unusual because she is the woman and it is a symbolic sign for the woman to be the one in distress, and the male gender is seen to be the dominant one.

Abby operates a large piece of construction machinery which is iconic for a man to use, however Abby manages to operate the machinery with precision this again reiterates Abby's masculinity. The leading male then sees it as his duty as a man to get the sabre-tooth away form her, but inevitably Abby has to save the day by firing a shotgun which scares away the tiger (a shotgun is a very powerful fire weapon, which is easily capable of knocking someone off their feet, however Abby does flinch when she shoots the gun which is very unrealistic seeing as she is a rather small woman and it is a strong powerful gun.

In the next scene which is located at Mr Wests' barn Jenny (the reporter) confronts West about illegally breeding. At the beginning of the conversation Jenny is very much the more powerful dominant character because she has something against him (at this point the camera is at eye level showing that they are relatively equal, but as soon as Mr West grabs his gun she immediately becomes the weaker sex, high camera angle looks down at Jenny on the floor and the camera is looking up at West which shows him as the more significantly dominant character.

In conclusion in the begging of the clip, it was Abby who tended to the the more dominant character over the other males, she had masculine aspects about her that suggested that this was the case, however in the second half of the clip we see the West become the most dominant character , which to me indicates that the viewer is meant to see that both sexes are meant to be equal, on one hand we have a weak and defenceless man in the first half and a strong brave woman, and in the second half we have a strong man and a weak, vulnerable woman.

Word Count: 903