Seventeen Going Under (Sam Fender, 2021)

• Van Zoonen:

  -Women shown as subjects to identify with not objects- low angle and centre of frame shot of girls at the beach

  -Men also shown as subjects- Sam Fender centred and direct address- establishes star identity
• bell hooks:

  -Issues of social class highlighted

  -Ethnic minorities represented but not the issues surrounding them

  -Focus on WC community- terraced houses

  -Challenge reps of women- strong through girls fighting- but boys (heroic masculinity) save the girls
• Gauntlett:

  -Represents both young women and men’s experiences e.g. angry young women and men

  -Diversity of sexuality: girls comforting and hugging each other in the garden

  -Diverse ethnicity- variety of young people in the cliff scene

  -Contradictory elements- women shown as strong but then as emotional- girl crying on the street
• Gaye Tuchman:

  -Symbolic annihilation: focus on motherhood with young mother and baby on the cliff looking out to sea for a better life/escape.
• Stuart Hall:

  -Stereotypes young WC people: fighting, drugs- ‘shifting gear’ country roads

  -WC ppl turning to alcohol to cope with social deprivation- women in low-key lighting and the green bottle of alcohol

  -Inequalities of power young people fighting on the beach

  -Challenge- Sam Fender overcomes this and rises above the community: escapes

  -Stereotype- lesbian girl in the back garden with short hair and dungarees

  -Promiscuous, violent, irresponsible WC women- teenage mothers
• Gilroy:

  -Racial diversity e.g. diverse group on the cliff

  -Challenge to racial hierarchies shown as equal to each other not othered e.g. equal shots of all the characters

  -White male character rises above the other characters- repeats hierarchies, but not shown as different

  -Tokenism- 1 black male, 1 South Asian female

  -Shared WC experience and equality no matter your background or identity- so lacks tokenism
• WC deprived area:

  -Liminal spaces- escape looking at the sea from the cliff, club scene dancing

  -Filmed on-location in the North East- social realism

  -Terraced houses, working uniform-takeaway?

  -“the debt, the debt, the debt”- constant stress for WC families

  -Realistic depiction- not glamourising