Module 6 essay comparing "Fawlty Towers" and "The Bash Street Kids" continued...
‘Text 2’ is a cartoon strip and follows the conventions of bold close-up and medium shots concentrating on the character’s gestures and facial expressions. Particularly, the medium shot of the main female character saying “something’s not right here!” shows her to not have the quality of to-be-looked-ness due to her short dark hair, blunt features and simple boyish dress sense. However, the new girl fully conforms to Mulvey’s male gaze theory but although she is popular with the boys, her running away in shame of wearing glasses shows that in society women are wrong to use their good looks to be noticed and men are just as wrong for falling for her. Instead, it is the hegemonic values in society which force ideologies that women should use their looks to gain attention or even a slight status.
Similarly, the female characters act either very passive in ‘Fawlty Towers’ or are told to “shut up”. This shows that to the males such as Basil Fawlty the issue of the war is not as serious thus portraying women to be unable to understand or take part in the sarcasm he creates about the Germans in World War Two. This, like ‘text 2’ agrees with Mulvey’s theory of women being passive but their body parts are not fetishised so they are not objectified. The audience would be well educated about the history of the war, as Basil uses a pun to state that the Germans “stated it” because they “invaded Poland”, to find humour in the text.
The intentions behind the humour of the two texts are very similar. Basil Fawlty in “Fawlty Towers” laughs at the Germans but this backfires as the English man is called “a naughty moose”. In “The Bask Street Kids” the audience presume the girl is jealous but in fact she is correct in thinking that something is not right and then the audience laugh at the new girl’s stupidity as she would rather not see properly than wear her glasses. It is also humorous that the boys at the end have to hold hands; creating a sense of homophobia in the children pointing and laughing. This does not represent society today as the BBC reported in the same year that 'text 2' was published (2005) that it legally recognized gay relationships for the first time. It can be considered that the ruling elite want to impose more conservative values onto society by producing this text.
‘Text 2’ is a cartoon strip and follows the conventions of bold close-up and medium shots concentrating on the character’s gestures and facial expressions. Particularly, the medium shot of the main female character saying “something’s not right here!” shows her to not have the quality of to-be-looked-ness due to her short dark hair, blunt features and simple boyish dress sense. However, the new girl fully conforms to Mulvey’s male gaze theory but although she is popular with the boys, her running away in shame of wearing glasses shows that in society women are wrong to use their good looks to be noticed and men are just as wrong for falling for her. Instead, it is the hegemonic values in society which force ideologies that women should use their looks to gain attention or even a slight status.
Similarly, the female characters act either very passive in ‘Fawlty Towers’ or are told to “shut up”. This shows that to the males such as Basil Fawlty the issue of the war is not as serious thus portraying women to be unable to understand or take part in the sarcasm he creates about the Germans in World War Two. This, like ‘text 2’ agrees with Mulvey’s theory of women being passive but their body parts are not fetishised so they are not objectified. The audience would be well educated about the history of the war, as Basil uses a pun to state that the Germans “stated it” because they “invaded Poland”, to find humour in the text.
The intentions behind the humour of the two texts are very similar. Basil Fawlty in “Fawlty Towers” laughs at the Germans but this backfires as the English man is called “a naughty moose”. In “The Bask Street Kids” the audience presume the girl is jealous but in fact she is correct in thinking that something is not right and then the audience laugh at the new girl’s stupidity as she would rather not see properly than wear her glasses. It is also humorous that the boys at the end have to hold hands; creating a sense of homophobia in the children pointing and laughing. This does not represent society today as the BBC reported in the same year that 'text 2' was published (2005) that it legally recognized gay relationships for the first time. It can be considered that the ruling elite want to impose more conservative values onto society by producing this text.
posted by Kavita at 1:12 PM
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