Gender, ethnicity, age, issues and events

Representations communicate ideas about society

A representation is a constructed portrayal of a person, social group, issue or event. Media products do not simply show reality unchanged. Producers select images, words, sounds and actions, then combine them to communicate a particular version of it.

Those choices can suggest who deserves respect, who has authority and whose experiences matter. A character who makes decisions is represented differently from one who mainly decorates the background. A news photograph can make a politician appear confident, careless or vulnerable, depending on the moment selected and the words placed alongside it.

To analyse a representation, connect a concrete choice to a meaning. Costume, posture, framing and dialogue are not just details to list: together, they construct identities and relationships.

Gender: who has power, and who takes action?

Masculinity and femininity describe qualities that societies associate with being masculine or feminine. These are cultural expectations, not fixed rules about what people are actually like. Media representations may associate masculinity with authority and independence, or femininity with beauty, romance and caring. Other products question those associations.

Look beyond whether men and women appear. Consider their roles: who leads, who cares for others, who speaks and who controls the outcome? Narrative agency means being able to make choices and take actions that influence the story. A female protagonist with goals and decisions has agency; a woman included mainly for her appearance may have very little.

A feminist approach examines gender inequality and asks whether representations support or challenge it. It considers women's visibility, opportunities and power, including whether women are treated as active subjects or as objects. Objectification means presenting someone primarily as something to look at, desire or choose rather than as a person with their own thoughts and goals. These approaches also help us question restrictive representations of men.

Quality Street: romance organised around male authority

The Quality Street print advert (1956) places a suited man in the centre, holding a tin of chocolates. Two women lean towards him, kiss his cheeks and reach towards the sweets. His central position and control of the product suggest authority; his suit connotes a working businessman and provider.

The slogan “What a delicious dilemma!” connects choosing chocolates with choosing between the women. Their clothing echoes the colours of the sweets, strengthening the suggestion that both women and chocolates are desirable things to be chosen. A feminist reading therefore sees a patriarchal representation: the man occupies the dominant position, while the women are defined through their relationship to him.

There is room for a more complicated interpretation. The women may be using affection to obtain the chocolates, rather than simply waiting passively. Nevertheless, their influence is still expressed through romance, and the man remains central and controls the product. A supported judgement would recognise this limited influence without treating the advert as a straightforward challenge to male dominance.

The representation connects to its 1950s context. In post-war Britain, economic recovery and the end of wartime rationing helped make luxuries an acceptable part of shopping again. The advert sells not just chocolate but an aspirational lifestyle. The formal suit, ornate gold frame and historical brand characters associate the product with elegance and status, even though it was marketed to working families. Its gender relationships also reflect contemporary expectations of men as providers and women as more dependent on them.

Feminist perspectives reveal both continuity and change

Laura Mulvey's male gaze is one possible feminist perspective. It asks how media position women as objects of visual pleasure from a heterosexual male viewpoint. Evidence might include revealing costume, provocative poses or shots that isolate parts of a woman's body. A woman's presence alone does not demonstrate a male gaze.

In The Man with the Golden Gun poster, women in revealing clothing pose alongside Bond. A feminist reading sees them as decorative and sexually objectified, while Bond occupies the central heroic role.

Representations can also contain tensions. In Rio, shots fragment women's bodies and women appear in revealing clothing, supporting an objectification reading. Yet women also exercise power over men: one man is pushed into the water and hauled in a fishing net by a woman. This combination reflects a tension between sexualised representation and movement towards gender equality in its 1980s context.

More contemporary products can challenge traditional roles. Good as Hell presents strong, independent women as active protagonists. The Man uses satire to expose gender bias; the ending reveals Taylor Swift as the director, overturning the apparent male control of the video. These examples show why change should be judged through particular choices, rather than assuming that every newer product is automatically more equal.

Man Like Mobeen: caring masculinity and assertive women

In Man Like Mobeen, series 1, episode 2, “Wifey Riddim” (2017), 28-year-old Mobeen cares for his younger sister Aqsa in Small Heath, Birmingham. His caring responsibilities, work as a care-worker and affectionate greetings to male friends challenge the idea that men must be emotionally distant or that caring belongs only to women.

However, he also claims, “I'm the boss of the house”, and warns Aqsa about boys. These choices draw on familiar ideas of male authority and the protective older brother. The comedy undermines his claim to control because Aqsa tells him how he should be parenting her.

Aqsa challenges passive femininity through her assertiveness. Khadijah also shows agency when she uses prepared questions in a notebook to interview Mobeen about his views on women. Yet Khadijah remains subject to her father's authority. The episode therefore challenges some traditional roles while retaining others. Its representation of family also broadens beyond a conventional mother-and-father household: Mobeen, Aqsa, Nate and Eight sit together outside at the end as a supportive family group.

Ethnicity: belonging, diversity and shared community

Ethnicity concerns cultural identity and heritage. It is distinct from religion: describing Mobeen as a British Muslim identifies nationality and faith, while his South Asian descent identifies ethnic heritage. Representation can combine these aspects, but they should not be treated as interchangeable.

Man Like Mobeen places a working-class British Muslim community at the centre of the story. Real Birmingham locations, market stalls and shots of the mosque construct a strong sense of everyday community life. The mosque's prominence gives religious identity importance without making it the characters' only defining characteristic.

Nate, a black British man who does not share Mobeen and Eight's religious faith, is their close friend. Their friendship represents belonging across ethnic and religious differences. This fits Gilroy's idea of conviviality: diverse people sharing ordinary relationships and community life, rather than being represented as inevitably in conflict.

The programme aims to challenge narrow portrayals of British Muslims and Birmingham. Its central, culturally diverse community contrasts with the under-representation of ethnic diversity in Friends. This difference connects to changing expectations about whose lives television should represent, but it does not mean that every contemporary portrayal is equally inclusive.

Age is constructed through roles as well as appearance

Age representation involves more than identifying someone as young or old. Clothing, interests, responsibilities and relationships can portray younger people as rebellious, capable or dependent, and older people as authoritative, supportive or out of touch.

Aqsa's school uniform establishes her youth, while Mobeen's responsibility for her places him in an adult caring role. Her interest in a teen magazine and rebellious behaviour draw on familiar teenage expectations, but her control of conversations makes her more than a powerless child.

Uncle Habib and Uncle Shady occupy older advisory roles. Their traditional clothing and encouragement of marriage connect age with established values, while their support for Mobeen prevents them from being represented only as obstacles.

In Quality Street, the main characters are young to middle-aged adults; the advert targets adults aged 25–40. Their fashionable appearance and romantic interaction associate this stage of life with desirability and consumption. Across these examples, age becomes meaningful through what people are shown doing and the authority they hold.

Issues and events: representations with public consequences

An event is a particular occurrence; an issue is a wider subject of concern or debate. Producers' choices can connect a specific event to broader questions about responsibility, health or political power.

For the newspaper editions studied for 2027 exams, The Guardian of 18 January 2022 selects a candid image of Boris Johnson to communicate ideas about the Prime Minister's attitudes and behaviour. The Sun of 1 January 2021 combines an image of Big Ben with a needle graphic to construct urgency around the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out. The latter turns a public-health issue into a striking national message. Selection and image manipulation shape interpretation rather than merely recording what happened.

The NHS 111 advert (2023) has a different purpose from Quality Street: it seeks to reassure audiences that the service will help keep their families safe and healthy. Its male carer challenges the association of caring only with women. Its inclusion of non-white characters reflects greater social diversity and presents public healthcare as relevant to a broad population. As a government-produced campaign, it also has a political context associated with promoting equality and reaching a wide demographic.

Representations matter socially because they communicate expectations about relationships and behaviour; culturally because they express identities and values; and politically because they can support or question authority and public priorities. The strongest analysis explains these connections through specific evidence. Context helps explain a producer's choices, but a product remains one constructed viewpoint—not a complete picture of its society.

Gender and feminist approaches

• Ask who has authority, who cares, who acts and who is mainly displayed.
• Feminist analysis examines inequality, objectification and women's agency.
• Quality Street (1956): central suited male controls the chocolates; women and sweets become linked as objects of choice. Connect to patriarchal expectations and post-war aspiration.
• Man Like Mobeen (2017): caring, affectionate masculinity; assertive Aqsa and Khadijah. Traditional authority remains, so the challenge is partial.
• Rio: objectification alongside female power. Good as Hell: active female protagonists. The Man: satire of gender bias.

Ethnicity and age

• Distinguish ethnicity, nationality and religion.