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1. Mad Men Clip
One of the scenes in Mad Men is of the opening scene, which is of the bar that the
main character is in (don Draper) this shot is a long shot of the bar that contains
loads of men and a few women. This shows men to be dominant in this area and
can also suggest women to not venture to these locations often which links with
the era (50’s) in terms of gender representation this states that men are higher
in the hierarchy than women.
Continuing on to the next shot, which is a medium-close up shot of couples at the
bar with it panning to the right going past them. In the couples the men are taller
in height, which shows dominance over the women.
A little further into the episode we receive more visual information on the main
character through various shots such as medium-close ups and low angle shots.
The angle of the shot suggests his dominance over the waiter. The waiter’s
clothes also links in with dominance as it connotes him to be lower in the
hierarch than Draper. Draper is smartly dressed in a suit whilst smokes and
drinks whisky, this is a strong stereotyping of men, this is because of the drink
being a typical one to associate with me (whisky and scotch) the suit is also
typically found on a man as women tend to wear dresses. Along with smoking
that is considered a masculine habit.
The next scene is of Draper turning
up at a woman’s apartment. In the
apartment there is a medium shot
of both Draper and this woman,
the woman’s clothes connotes a
dominance sense from her as it is
the same type of shirt that Draper
wears with his suit. It has
connotations of repetition as if
Draper has been in this same
situation before, the dialogue
emphasises this when she states something that happened 5 years ago.
After the last scene it skips to the morning when they are lying on the bed. This
scene is not the usual stereotypical one of two people on the bed, for example the
woman would generally be lying on him but instead it is the other way round
which shows us that the woman has dominance over Draper in the relationship
that they have. She is the one smoking first in the scene, which further
emphasises the idea of her being the one in control.
Further on in the episode, it comes to some new characters. One of the significant
scenes is where they there men are walking around the office. When walking
around the office you can see women all at desks and crammed into an area
whereas the men have separate offices to themselves. They did this with a
track/dolly shot of the office. This in terms of gender representation shows the

2. women to be discriminated against and treated unequally whereas the men are
treated better.
Another scene is when the woman is introducing the new secretary to the office,
Draper then walks straight past them ignores them when they tried to
communicate to him. This was done with a shallow focus medium shot where
Draper was blurred to show him not having attention on them. It is also done
with levelling as the women are siting on the desk or smaller in height to show
that Draper is dominant towards them.