Our Girl: Representation of Gender and Ethnicity

Gender - how does Georgie meet gender stereotypes and how is she represented as a counter-stereotype?

Georgie meets gender stereotypes in many different ways, Kenya is a majority black country and she is compared to 1,000 children by saying "1 white women is equal to 1,000 children, They kidnapped a woman in contrast that they are weaker than men as in stereotypes, When she gets kidnapped they hang her from the wall and she shows that she is strong by fighting back and trying to free herself, hinting she knows what she is doing because after all she is a solider. At first she acted like a stereotypical woman but by the they kidnapped her she stated acting counter-stereotypical because she was fighting back. The women is the victim, she is scared and is trying to escape and survive, she tells the terrorists that she is a medic which is why they didn't kill her. She also used the phrase "I'm here to help people" which also showed them that she is not harmful towards them. In a stereotypical way she tells them that she is a medic which is more believable to them as they are more used to females being medics, however she is both a trained doctor and a soldier which is why she hides her dog tags so they only think she's a medic. When the special forces arrived even though they knew that they didn’t refer to her by her name or a female soldier just as the “primary”.

Ethnicity:

Our Girl uses the stereotypes of Muslims to present them as terrorists, the example used would be of them being crushed and their not allowing them to be crushed. It also shows religion in a stereotypical way. A British person is their leader who had also covered to Islam. One of the terrorists also compared one white women to 1,000 children, this means that the British military wouldn’t let anything happened to one of their solders but would kill 1,000 children in return. What Abu (White converted Muslim) was doing would now be seen as a stereotype more and more but when he speaks of them he uses the phrase “us” showing that he is part of them now and always has been even before he had converted to the religion.

Editing:

In season 2 episode 2, fast paced editing is used in the establishing shot/opening scene. To show effect when recapping the story, a hand held camera is used to show effect towards the viewer. Non-continuity editing is used when they are showing the previous episode. When she gets kidnaped at first the scene cuts between what is going on which shows that there is a lot of things happening at once. Another example of fast paced editing would be when the soldiers get shot in the car and it shows the three bullets on the windshield. It all happened so quickly which is meant to build tension within the viewer.

Camera:

Many camera shots/angles were used to add effect onto what is currently happening. An establishing shot was used to engage the viewer with what is currently going on. For example, in episode two the establishing shot would of been the van because it immediately continues with what was happening in the previous episode. Another camera angle used was a tracking shot, when the terrorists were taking her out of the truck and a tracking shot was used to focus on what’s going on. They were dragging her across the floor and the camera followed along to give the viewer the same experience of what’s going on. At the same time a point-view shot was also used in the same scene when she was thrown on the floor for example you see the camera pointing upwards at the terrorist which tells the viewer that this is what she can see right now. It makes us feel like we are dragged/thrown with her. When the solders got shot in the truck before Georgie was kidnapped a medium shot was used and then they were shot, this is used to show us the face and upper part of the body which in this case represents a strong effect on the viewer because it shows them with the three bullets in the windshield. Close up shots are also used to show emotion of the characters which are scared.

Sound:

Sound links to stereotypes in this case because of what she acts like when she first gets kidnapped. Diegetic sounds are used such as guns’ shots this also links with synchronous sound because the sound that she makes and the gun makes are expected and would be different if those sounds weren’t there. The diegetic sounds generally tell the story which this why they are important in a show like this. Through the episode we can hear background music which links to non-diegetic sound, this is used to build tension and attract the viewer even more to what is currently happening. This is also classed as a sound bridge because it’s a dialogue. Eventually the music leads up to a climax which tells the viewer that something is about to happened. Another example to a scene leading up to a climax would be the tires in the van when it moves at a much quicker speed and you can hear the drifting in the background, this shows a crescendo.

Mise-en-scene:

The soldiers are dressed in a certain way and the terroirs are too, each part of the groups wear the same thing to show who they are. For example, the terrorists are all dressed the same except from their leader who is dressed in full black to indicate that he is their leader, the clothing they wear would be associated with terrorism because they cover the whole of their face so you can’t see who they are, because they do this we can immediately tell that they are the antagonist and the soldiers are the protagonist. Georgie wears her gloves for the majority of the kidnapping which indicates to the terrorists that she is a medic whereas she is both a medic and a soldier but at the time she was wearing medic clothes because she was treating a patient. The blood on the windscreen from the soldiers which were shot also makes the scene more alive and real for the viewer. She immediately berries her dog tags in the sand because it’s a narrative as it means that she is military. When Zakki found the dog tags his eyes were wide open while he was shouting to scare her which comes across as him being violent.