Analysis Of Gender In Cold Feet

An analysis of gender in Cold Feet

After watching a clip of Cold Feet I can see a clear stereotype between males and females. One main stereotype being that females are the gender that stay at home and cook, whilst males go to work and earn money for the family.

In the first scene we see the wife in the kitchen cooking. This shows a major stereotype which states women should stay home and cook. This can be seen as both positive and negative. Most women believe they have the same rights as males to be in the workplace, so this will be seen as a negative for this type of woman. For generally old fashioned people who still believe that women should stay home and be a housewife whilst the male goes to work will see this as a positive. We then see her husband sitting on the table in a suit, as if he has just come home from work. While he sits at the table he tells his wife of an investment he has made, which didn't work out, so she gets very angry with him. As the scene progresses another stereotype comes apparent, which is that women are generally smarter than males. This is emphasised when the husband makes a very bad mistake and his wife gets very annoyed with him. They then talk about how she was never involved in investments in the past and now she will be, which shows that she believes she has to watch over everything he does. This shows another stereotype that males should not be trusted.

In the next scene we see a couple shopping for baby items. We see yet another stereotype in this scene. We see the wife walking around the shop/supermarket picking up items and putting them into the shopping basket which her husband is holding. This is part of the stereotype that men hold women's bags whilst they are shopping. We then see the husband pick up an item, but then the wife picks up the bigger, more expensive product. The husband then complains about the price of the product, insisting that there is no difference between either product. The wife then persuades her husband that it's the best product for the baby. This is a stereotype because the males are usually the ones to try to get the cheaper product, but the females always want the best products possible. Most males will see these particular stereotypes as a negative because they do not want to seem like they are controlled by women, whereas women will see it as a positive because this shows that they have control over women.

To conclude, the representation of gender is shown through mise-en-scene. The stereotypes are shown through their actions. For example the stereotype of females being a housewife is shown where the wife is cooking. The stereotype that the men are the workers is shown with the husband sitting at the table in his suit. Also the male is shown to make a lot of mistakes, which shows that he does not know what he is doing. Both representations have a polysemic effect, being either positive or negative, depending on the audiences point of view.