By Josie Muggleton

1. Representation of stereotypes
in films and TV

2. Knives Chau – the cute Asian girl
(Scott Pilgrim VS. the world)
• For first half of the film she wears either school
uniform or bland, very unrevealing clothing. This
implies she is shy and works very hard at school and
is perhaps frigid. This is backed up by the fact she
says she has never kissed a guy. This use of
costume is a visual semiotic, as if we see a female in
bland clothing we are meant to not pay much
attention to her
• She is portrayed as being very polite, but also very
needy. She tells Scott she is in love with him after not
dating very long and immediately wants him to meet
her parents. Once they break up Knives obsessively
stalks Scott for the rest of the film.
• A picture of Scott’s Ex is in the background of this
shot. Even though it is out of focus it signifies that his
Ex is still on his mind and Knives is just a distraction.
But she either doesn’t notice or ignores the signs that
Scott isn’t listening to her. Even when one of Scott’s
friends tells her directly she should leave him, she
dismisses it as a joke.

3. Knives Chau - Continued
• It is also implied she lives in a very sheltered household
since the worst insult she can come up with is ‘fat-ass
white girl’ which draws the audiences attention even more
to her own race.
• She is also seen repeatedly playing ‘ninja ninja storm’
which she appears to be very good at, which fits into the
stereo type that Asians are all trained in martial arts, play
video games a lot and are generally nerds
• the idea she is a nerd is further reinforced when she
decides to visit the library for a date.
• When Scott says he is too old for her, she says her dad is
‘9 years older than her mom’ perpetuating the stereotype
that old Asian men always marry young women.

4. Buffy Summers – the blonde bimbo/victim (Buffy
the Vampire Slayer: season 1 episode 1)
• When we are first introduced to Buffy she is having a nightmare. There are
many high angle shots of her tossing and turning in her sleep. This makes
her look like a victim. If we apply Bartes theory this is an example of a
technical semiotic.
• When Buffy first comes into school she is wearing mainly white on her top
half. This is a deliberate costuming choice as white has connotations of
purity and innocence, so we subconsciously associate these features with
buffy. This is an example of a visual semiotic
• Then when she is walking around school someone bumps into her and she
accidentally spills the contents of her bag onto the floor and a male (Xander)
comes to help her. This is a common trope scene we associate with
romantic comedies and makes Buffy appear ditzy and in need of help and
establishes the possibility of romance between Buffy and Xander

5. Buffy Summers - Continued
• As well as using tropes from romantic comedies the episode also
uses codes from the horror genre. For example an extreme long
shot from behind in the dark to make it look like she is being
followed and also over the shoulder shots which suggests she is
being watched. We as an audience know something bad is about to
happen and since the rest of the episode has portrayed her as a
victim we assume she doesn’t stand a chance.
• However it turns out to be quite the contrary when she easily tricks
and overpowers her persuer. This is our first demonstration she is a
strong female character that can look after herself. This cleverly
makes the audience question their previous assumptions that
women cannot be feminine and still independent.
• This is particularly important when considering the context. This was
first aired in 1996 and before then there had been very few iconic
strong female characters, so this episode proved influential to
media.
• So in the end buffy is more of a countertype than a stereotype

6. Constance Langdon – The bitter mother (American
Horror Story: season 1 episode 1)
• Constance is used to being the one and only authority
not only over her household, but everybody she knows.
This is not only shown through her dialogue but through
her actions and camera shots.
• Her facial expression is either a very fake smile or a
menacing glare. This is a visual semiotic telling the
audience to not trust her and that she is hiding
something
• Her hair is rather outdated as though from the 60s and
despite her age she wears a lot of makeup. This
suggests she still pictures herself as young and is maybe
stuck in the past and is unwilling to move on.

7. Constance Langdon - Continued
• The focus on her hands show how old she actually is, and how
superficial her personality is since everything from her clothing, to
her hair, to her make up suggest she is trying to look young.
• Superficiality is a key part of her personality. She appears to love
her disabled daughter, but as soon as she leaves the room
Constance indirectly states she would have had her aborted. This is
even further evidence to the audience that she cannot be trusted
and she is bitter as her family is not perfect.
• Her confidence dominates each scene she is in. The camera follows
her around when she is in a scene and her body language is nearly
always completely relaxed, slouching around on other peoples
furniture and not being afraid to touch or even steal other peoples
possessions and is passive aggressive to anyone who questions
her, which implies to the audience she is a force to be reckoned with
and is an important character