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Week 4 – Genre and Class
In this week’s lecture we were introduced to the concept of genre and class being linked together when represented in the media. The representation of class in television such as Peaky Blinders would suggest that within genres like drama there’s a normative and this carries a subliminal framework which portrays class in a derogative way.


Mia Wallace and Clint Spinner suggested that being a ‘chav’ is a lifestyle choice which parallels with the characterisation of the Shelby family in Peaky Blinders. The idea of Tommy inheriting the family business and choosing to continue and share the illegal conduct with his brothers implies that the ‘underclass’ lifestyle is an active choice and even though it’s a fictional drama, the representation of working class people still matches derogative and stereotypical views of  class.

 As well as this, the characterisation of the Shelby family being violent, rebellious and mostly made up of men parallels with the notion of representations aiming for authenticity and realism because lower class gangs in the 19th/20th century would typically be made up of these characteristics. In this scene Arthur Shelby says the phrase  "by order of the peaky blinders" after violently attacking a man which reinforces this image of an omniscient criminal network having the ability to be violent and rebellious. Perhaps this shows that television programmes like Peaky Blinders display derogative representations of class and this becomes a norm because it's broadcasted into mainstream media. 

 






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