Stereotypes of gay people showing the sexuality of the character.

1. Sexuality
This shot was taken from the TV drama Little Britain. This shot is a mid shot. The mid shot
provides the audience with a view of the character from the waist up. The director uses this
shot to enable the audience to become more familiar with the character and their
motivations in the narrative. Their facial expressions and body language also become more
detailed.
The dominant reading of this shot, that the creator intended the audience to interpret is
that the character is homosexual due to the rainbow inspired attire and the general body
position of the character. The oppositional reading could be that the character is maybe
wearing fancy dress but might not assume he is homosexual.
A stereotype of sexuality being represented in this still shot is a gay man wearing women's clothing. For example, the gay character in the
shot is wearing a crop top which is clearly too small for him and doesn’t fit. We can see this because his stomach is hanging over his shorts
and the top appears to be a bit tight. The character, David, is also wearing what seems to be ladies shorts. Due to the length of the shorts, we
can assume that they are ladies because men wouldn’t normally wear really short shorts, that are at that length. This represents a stereotype
of sexuality for gay men. They also look to small for him because they are very high up his legs, which would suggest his legs are to big for
them resulting in them rolling up and moving closer to his upper quads. David is also wearing a makeup as we can see his face looks more
tanned and shiny, suggesting he is wearing foundation. He has also drawn on his eyebrows. This is a stereotype of homosexuals because gay
people are known to express the opposite sex, for example wearing makeup. Another stereotype is represented in the shot, is that gay
people wear a lot of bright colours, such as clothes and accessories. For example the character is wearing a rainbow inspired top with gems
around the hems. His outfit contributes to stereotypes of homosexuality because it isn’t what men usually wear and he looks more like a
woman, making him effeminate. Also, by David’s pose and body language again suggests he is homosexual because the pose is quite
feminine as he has his hand on his hip, referring to the flaming queen, a word used to describe a camp or gay man that is associated more
with women rather than a men. For example he is more feminine than masculine as he is wearing women's clothing and makeup, when he
could be wearing joggers and a t-shirt.
Another stereotype that is possibly represented in this shot is that gay men are spotted a lot in gay bars. Evidence that this could be
represented in the shot is the pink decorations in the background of what looks like a pub. If we use our knowledge we can assume that the
character would probably be at a gay bar rather than a local one, that is attended by everyone rather than just homosexuals. It would be
more logical to attend a gay bar because that’s where the character would be more likely to get lucky. The pub has also got cocktail glasses
on the side of the bar, again suggesting it is a gay bar. For example there are no other women in the shot and it is stereotypical of gay men to
be more feminine, supporting why they would drink drinks populated by women, such as alcoholic fruit drinks and cocktails. In the
background of the shot, there are only two visible drink pumps, suggesting they are beer pumps. Whereas, on the right side of the shot the
shelves are full of ‘women's drinks’ like spirits, cocktail mixers and alcho pops, stereotypically drank more by gay men than beer. Again, this
represents the characters sexuality because it suggests he is gay.