Levi Strauss was an anthropologist in the early 1900s who developed the theory of binary opposites. He believed that our understanding of words depends on understanding their opposites. Some common binary opposites in media include dark-light, good-evil, rational-irrational. Binary opposites are often used in films to help establish and reinforce the plot by creating a clear distinction between two opposing concepts or characters. However, critics argue that everything does not always have a clear opposite and there can be middle grounds between supposed binary concepts.

1. LEVISTRAUSS(1958)
Binaryopposites
Zeel Sanatkumar

2. Whowaslevistrauss?
Levi Strauss was born in France in the early 1900’s.
He was also an anthropologist who believed that the way we
understood certain words depends on our understanding the
difference of the word and its “opposite”
This led to the production of his “Binary Opposites” theory.

3. Binaryopposite examples
Binary opposites have a frequent use in the action genre
whereby many of the films include binary opposition in their
plots. The understanding of the word “villain” largely
depends upon the difference between that word and the
opposing word “hero”.

4. Commonbinaryopposites inmedia
Dark-Light
Sane-Insane
Good-Evil
Rational-Irrational
Human-Supernatural
Rich-Poor
Gay-Straight

5. Binaryoppositesinrelationtotheplot
Binary opposites are based on our understanding of a story
and its conventional narrative thus enabling a balance.
They are often used in films to help and re-establish and
reinforce the plots giving the story line a chance to be a
clear difference between two opposites increasing the
awareness of the person watching the film.
Levi Strauss’ theory largely depends and is associated with
our ideological perceptions of the world and its characters.

6. Binaryoppositesandcrime
Crime solvers Vs Criminals
Police Vs Criminals
Innocent Vs Guilty
Truth Vs Lies
Justice Vs Injustice

7. kingsman:ThesecretserviceBInaryopposites
Kingsman also follows Claude Levi Strauss’s idea of binary opposition, as good and bad battle
out for the fate of earth and mankind, the antagonist and protagonists are opposites, Eggsy
is a “good” , trying to save the world, and Valentine is a malevolent villain trying to destroy
it. Some can even argue that there’s a binary opposition of race, as Eggsy is white and
Valentine is black. In some ways the film also follows the “rags to riches” trope in films, as
the protagonist overcomes his poverish life style to become a “gentleman spy”, from
working class to upper-middle class.

8. kingsman:ThesecretserviceBInaryopposites
Eggsy represents the commoner whilst Firth represents the upper class, another example
of binary opposition in costume is the contrast between the Eggsy we see at the start of
the trailer and the one we see at 2:19, which is Gary Unwin refined into the model
gentleman spy. There are clear connotations of the upper classes being more mature and
refined, in comparison to the lower ones as Eggsy's transformation is that akin of a raw
diamond being cut into the stereotypical diamond we imagine, this clearly appeals to the
target audience whom are mostly middle to upper class. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl8F-8tR8to

9. CriticismoflevistraussBinaryOppositeTheory
Even though everything has an opposite, there is also a
medium to everything for example:
Rich - Middle Class - Poor
Gay - Bisexual - Straight
Bad - Normal - Good
Antagonist - Bystander - Protagonist