Our Girl Gender and Ethnicity Stereotypes

Gender and Ethnicity

Our girl is a drama based on BBC1. Our Girl is about a White British female who is a Medic in the British Army. She's over in Kenya because the Military need a Medic and her Boss claims that she is the best and just what they need. This Drama is a Mainstream Drama which means that everyone is able to watch this drama and most people are able to understand this drama. This is why they have Michelle Keegan as a main character because she used to be a main character In a TV Soap so she is well-known and well-loved so people are able to connect to her more.

Gender Stereotypes

The stereotype for gender is shown numerous times in this episode of Our Girl. The first way that she is stereotyped by is how every man shows genuine concern and worry that Georgie has been taken. This shows that because she is a Woman, she is very important and feels as though she may not have it in her to survive so they need to support her as much as they can so that she is able to survive. This shows a typical stereotype. On the other hand, Georgie does show a counter stereotype when she doesn't show herself as vulnerable later on in the episode and fights back when they are try to kill both her and Kiki. The terrorists feel as though they are too weak to fight back but she fights this and protests against them killing her. The usual stereotype would be that she would just take it because she is too weak to fight them, but within this episode she proves that wrong so therefore it is a counter stereotype.
At some parts in the episode though she does show typical female traits such as breathing extremely heavily in panic and when someone finally helps her to breathe again, she shows her vulnerability by showing pure distraught in her face and worry about what lies ahead. This is stereotypical because men are usually seen as the stronger gender so by her acting this was and portraying her emotions like this, it matches with the stereotype and shows her weakness.
Furthermore, when the men are finding her, they show no favourability towards her because she is female, which can sometimes happen in society and they remain the name "Primary" attached to her. Finally, the terrorists feel no shame or care for her when they throw her into the back of their van and throw her around as though she is an animal instead of a woman. Women are usually seen with dignity and respect so for this to happen it would not be seen as usual or a normal act to carry out.

Ethnicity Stereotypes

There are many traits of ethnic stereotypes including the fact that Elvis is an Asian British yet he is on the British Military and not fighting the Muslims. Another fact is the at the start, one of the terrorists compares Georgie, one white woman, to a thousand black children by explaining that the British government would never let anything happen to any of their soldiers, especially a female, yet it is okay for their military to kill 1000 black children and families just because it has 'moral meaning.' Abu (also one of the terrorists) is a white British converted Muslim. He has used religion to claim that he is fighting for what is right. He is a counter stereotype but is now gradually becoming a stereotype. He also refers to his terrorist group as "us" so he feels like he is part of that group and his loyalties never lied with the British even though he was born and raised there and has not long converted.

Sound

During the opening scene of episode 2 gender stereotypes are shown a lot through Georgie showing her vulnerability through the sounds that she makes and the way she is represented. There are a lot of diegetic sounds such as the shooting of gun and the screams that Georgie lets out to show that she is scared and is in despair. This shows her vulnerability and also shows what is happening in the scene through sound. This also can be classed as sychronous sound because it is what would be expected with the action that is taking place within the scene.Non-diegetic sound is also used as there is tension building music in the background and does not have a source on the screen. The music builds up tension and eventually leads to a climax which would show that the action is only just beginning. The music can also show movement as when the music is at a faster speed, the van is moving at a much quicker speed as well which would show a correlation between the two things. Furthermore, the screech of tyres is a way of building climax because the pitch increases showing a crescendo. Finally, a sound bridge is followed through two scenes when the increasing pitch music is carried on.

Mise-en-scene

The series is set in Kenya and this is easily noticeable by the broken down buildings that surround the area in most of the scenes and would indicate a warzone. Another way that a warzone is represented is how Georgie is dressed in scrubs and still has her gloves on throughout the kidnap showing that she was mid way through helping someone when an awful event occurred. Blood splatters on the windscreen could also make the scene become more alive and feel more realistic as it was splattered in random places like blood would after being shot. They are shown as dead when they are slumped down in their chairs which is a stereotypical way of showing that you are dead or acting as though you are. Furthermore, the main leader of the terrorist group is in black which could also be related to being scared or death as black is seen as a sinister colour and one that should be avoided. Using black could also be a representation of ISIS as their main colour is black and the way that they wear their headscarf's is the same. So they are showing a stereotypical view on what a terrorist looks and dresses like. 

Camera

There are many camera angles that are used to show representations such as an establishing shot which was used at the start of episode two when the van is just coming into the cameras view from a long distance away. This would show the build up to the kidnap scene and also show to an audience that something is about to happen. Also, during the attack, before the kidnap, the people are very much out of focus in the camera and the focus is around the special effects such as the blood smears and the dust on the vans windscreen. This is called shallow focus and also happen when Georgie arrives at the camp and the camera is focused in at each terrorist one by one as a way of introducing them to the audience through camera techniques. Other camera techniques that were used are hand-held camera and this was used when we were following Georgie and being dragged with her. The camera was placed at a lower angle to show the feet moving forward. Georgie's feet were dragging along as though she couldn't walk and the terrorists were walking fine which shows authority. Georgie has no authority because she is being dragged behind. Another focus was on Georgie's experience so a point-of-view shot is used so that we can see the experience from Georgie's perspective and the canted angle shows that there is tension and something is happening to someone that we should support so this use of technique shows that our priorities should lie with Georgie. Finally, there is a aerial shot which shows distance so could be incorporated as Georgie being taken far away so that nobody can find her in such a remote area.

Editing

Fast-paced editing is used throughout this episode as there are many scenes, during the action, that would need to have been previously filmed and carefully placed together afterwards. An example of this would be when there are three bullet holes in the windscreen of the van one after the other. Therefore, these would have had to have been done to  build tension. Also, continuity editing was used when the second episode has started as it repeated the end of the first episode so that we could remember the action that had previously taken place and as it was a replica of the episode before, it was continuity editing. Finally, at the end of the travelling scene, once Georgie had been kidnapped there was a cut which is an abrupt transition and maintains the continuity. It was done to show that the action had ended and the new ordeal for Georgie was just beginning.