Primeval - Textual Analysis of Gender.

The overall portrayal of gender and the adherence to gender stereotypes and archetypes is rather balanced between subversion of normalcy and conformity to it.

The scene opens by presenting a red-haired woman talking to a man, getting upset, and then storming off after he male placates her. This could be seen to be presenting women as overly-emotional and less stable than men, the fact that the other male in the scene tells him to "just let her go" could be seen to emphasise this.

This stereotype implicating women as 'weak' was subverted in the next scene, as we see the white-haired woman driving a typically-masculine looking piece of machinery, going on to be put in the place of having the sole ability to save the light-haired male in this scene from the very dangerous Sabre-Tooth Tiger with nothing but the machine as she batters the carnivorous pre-historic animal around as he is stuck in a hole in the ground, and would have probably been killed without her help. This subverts the 'damsel in distress' archetype, the idea that women always need to be saved by the man, never the other way around. The light haired male and the white-haired female are very much at equals during this scene, as they both save each other several times, and the female is never made to look weak, as misogynistic hegemony suggests that they are.

The next scene shows a typically macho-looking farmer type male wielding a gun at a helpless, albeit classy female, this conforms to male and female stereotypes. The female proceeds to be splayed out on the ground, breathing heavily as the farmer guy points a gun at her. This could be seen as over-sexualising the female, which is a very serious issue, as men do not suffer this problem in the media.

And obviously, the light haired male leader comes to her rescue, followed by a dark haired male and the white-haired female. Even though the white-haired female is admittedly presented as strong, she also displays typically masculine characteristics such as short hair, and a leather jacket. This may suggest to the audience that women can only be strong if they adhere to masculine stereotypes, that a woman can not be both feminine and strong at the same time.