Gender Representation Presentation - Orphan Black (By Alex and Andrew)

Orphan Black is a show I have enjoyed since the start and I have always been fascinated by the representations of gender in the show as well.

I really like the fact that the main character(s) are women and at the same time men are seen as the less authoritative figures during the show. In a way it is the opposite to most shows where the opposite is true.

This goes against our ideology that most shows have men as "heroes" whilst generally women are a sidekick or a not so influential character in the show. Orphan Black is the opposite as Sarah/ All her clones are the dominant figures whilst the sidekicks are men (Her brother & ART) which for me at least is a nice change from the norm.

The show also shows the main characters trying to break the hegemony (leadership) that is put on them. Throughout the show Sarah and her ally clones are trying there best to defy the leadership of project Leda and try there best to find out the information they are trying to hide from everyone.

The idea of the pluralism theory is also prominent in the show. As I just mentioned  they are constantly trying to defy the "leaders" of Project Leda who are trying to control them. But the power is constantly ebbing and flowing between them as The "good" clones find out new information and in a way try to bribe PL for more information, however at the end of each series it does seem that the "good" clones have less power as it always ends in a bad cliffhanger for them.

The Marxist theory is also prominent throughout as both sides are constantly battling over the same subject and are both trying to outdo each other and always have the upper hand. They constantly are trying to find new ways to find new information out which sometimes leads the main characters to do crazy things for a small piece of information.

The media are also influencing the citizens in Orphan Black as most people think what Project Leda are doing is fine and only good but we see the other side of it where a lot of there projects are going wrong normally ending in death. However as Project Leda have such an influence on the media they really control what is broadcast and Sarah and her allies are trying to defy that and show the reality of what project leda is doing.

The audience of the show will generally be on the side of sarah and her allies but it could be seen that she is also doing a lot of wrong to find her eventual right. She does still kill and hurt people to find her facts, so does this make her bad as well? Of course it is in the eye of the viewer what is right and what is not but we are biased to watch as if we are on the side of Sarah even though she still does a lot wrong as well.