How does you media product represent particular social groups?

The character that I have decided to focus on is Kerri. Our original idea was to create a character that would look like the typical innocent suspect by appearance but really was the criminal. By doing this we wanted to use a white, middle class, female, with blonde hair. We thought this would be really effective and would add a twist to the film and not being a typical thriller killer. Overall I think that Kerri represents gender, age, and social class.

Gender, social class and appearance:



I have decided to compare Kerri played by Sarah to the main character in Monster played by Charlize Theron. Both characters have similarities, both are blonde and have fair skin colour, they are also both the serial killers in their films. However they both have their differences, Kerri is very feminine wearing high heels and jewellery whereas compared to the killer in Monster she is very scruffy, wearing quite male/ unisex clothing, and not very clean looking, not only does this relate to appearance but social class, it’s obvious from the film monster that she is form a very low social class, working as a prostitute and living with a friend, her scruffy appearance exaggerates this, whereas Kerri is well dressed, with nice hair showing she is from a higher status. Also there types of victims are very different; Kerri’s are young females whereas the main character in Monster’s is males who she gets her revenge on- typical when using a female killer. The basis of our film is also very different from that of monster, ours is pure fiction, whereas Monster is based on the true story of Aileen Wuornos.


Age, appearance, personality and gender:



Another character who I think Kerri would be a good comparison to is Amanda from the Saw movies. Like Kerri she is quite feminine and wears a lot of red which is symbolic of blood and death. In terms of hair colour etc they physically appear different but both characters are the same age range and their personalities are similar, Amanda is copying the techniques of killing of another character called Jigsaw, and Kerri in our film is influenced by other serial killers. However their social classes are very different, Kerri is middle class, well dressed and educated whereas Amanda has a troubled background with drug abuse suggesting a low social status.