Shameless- Sexual and regional identity

  

  In the lessons as a class we discussed sexuality and regional identity, in this episode of shameless there is more sexuality than regional identity although there are a couple of noticeable factors of this. When we had the discussion about sexuality we were asked to define what we thought was ‘gay’ and ‘straight’ and also the differences between ‘northaners’ and ‘southners’.

Gay- Camp, Limp wristed, Minching walk, Muscular, Flamboyant (in your face), Loud, Gay couples, Camp one (female), Butch one (male)

Straight-

Too sensitive/Insensitive, Loves women, Reads ‘lad’s mags’, Drinks beer, Unhealthy, Metro sexual (men who look after their appearance)

Northaners- Butch, strong accents, uneducated, heavy drinkers, old fashioned, speak in slang, crime higher.

Southners- Camp, well educated, city, gold, cockney, high disposable income.

In the first scene of shameless we were asked to see how regional identity and sexuality were represented. When the episode starts the character Frank Gallagher is talking about where he lives as is shows you the estate he lives on. He then goes on to introduce his children Fiona, Lip (Phillip), Ian, Carl, Debbie and Liam. Throughout when Frank is talking there are clips of where they live, it then goes on to a clip of the estate with loads of people standing around a burning car and he’s saying it’s nice to have open space and a half decent community where you live. When this clip is going on the police then come on and break it up and when the people see the police coming they start shouting at the police and run away from them. Just from the start of this episode the characters are really playing up to the stereotypical view on ‘Northerners’ , Heavy drinkers, crime, uneducated, bad language, speak in slang.

The next scene you see is where Lip is going round a girls house to help her with some homework. They are in the dining room talking across the table to each other, when the girl crawls under the table towards Lip. He does hesitate because the girl’s mother is just in the next room but then says yes after he finds out that she cannot pay him with money because she is ‘skint’ this also backs up the stereotypical view on the northerners because they are seen as poor and the girls are seen as ‘easy’ . Lip seems like a normal teenage boy because the day that the experiences the sexual encounter he boasts about it to his brother Ian that night. When lip gets back from the girls house he hides his dirty boxers behind the desk and as he does a folder drops down from being the radiator, he find his brothers porn stash, but its not female porn its male porn. When he confronts his brother about this later on after he has told him about his sexual encounter from earlier in the day he asks him whether he has ever had that before from a male. Ian takes a feminine approach to this and starts crying and runs and gets into bed. Ian doesn’t look ‘typically’ gay as some would put it.

We are also introduced to two other characters called Fiona and Steve, the two meet in a night club but it seems on purpose by Steve who gets Fiona’s attention after her tries to get her handbag back after it was stolen. Immediately the two are attracted to each other, Steve ends up going back found Fiona’s house and as predicted they have a ‘one night stand’.  During this scene Fiona is making noises during their sexual encounter and these noises come from the film Monty Python, this is called intertexuality. While this scene is going on you can hear gentle music in the back ground and you can also hear the sound of birds.

The mise en scene in this episode reflects the life style that the people on the Chatsworth estate are living, I think the light and all over colours are very dark. This may have been done to show that where they are living is not a very happy place for them. The blocks of flats look very big and over powering, making the estate seem like a rather intimidating place to be.