In this sequence ethnicity is represented in many different ways beginning with the fact her accent challenges the stereotype of Asian women with her Yorkshire accent instead of Pakistani accent. Another challenge of her stereotype is presented in this clip by somebody on the television a ‘Paki’ to try and escape the stereotype of being Pakistani and being related to the events of post 9, 11.
The costume does not fit the stereotype of her ethnicity her costume represents her as out going and not following religion or her race by dressing in a low cut top and jeans with make up and high heels. Where as normally she would be seen in a hijab with no make up and lots of religious bracelets and bangles where she keeps them in her challenge to her stereotype but uses them as an accessories instead of religious items.
The setting of the open shot is very stereotypical of her ethnicity on a very small working class cobbled street where it is often related to the Islamic religion. The next setting is stereotyped with white people because it is set in a bar and Yasmin attempts to challenge her racial stereotype by going to the bar with her white colleagues to try and break the stereotype of being a ‘Paki’ and a terrorist because of the way Muslim’s were treated post 9,11.
The props used in this sequence are very important to help us understand how unreligious and how unmuslim she is by smoking and drinking vodka as well as all the make up, these are all used as things to prove she is not religious and she is trying to break free of the ethnic mould that has been placed upon her due to the 9, 11 terrorist attack. Another prop that was used was the mirror which was important in terms of camera shots as well because it was the prop that revealed her putting on make up making her self look glamorous to symbolise the passing of her ethnicity. This was to show she wanted to fit in and become part of the white ethnic crowd by dressing like them and looking like them to not fit in to her ethnic group.
The shots that are used into the mirror are panning over the shoulder shots to show the loss of being an Asian Muslim and becoming white to escape the ethnic bullying she receives from her white counter parts in her job. The mid shots and the long shots to show her separation from everyone else because of her ethnicity to show that even though she has changed what she is wearing to fit in with a different ethnic crowd her ethnic skin colour singles her out because she is seen as dangerous by the white ethnic population because of the 9, 11 attacks.
The editing in this sequences is hard to come by but there are some eye line matches between her and her white male colleague where as no other character gets an eye line match because this shows that they are not important to her because they don’t accept her into the society where as john does accept her into the white ethnicity. Also in this sequence a lot of framing takes place with John taking up a lot of the frame and Yasmin taking up very little this is to show she is out of place she is the smaller ethnic group in the current place she is in and less part of the surrounding where he is more of the surrounding by taking up more of the frame.
The digetic sound within the scene is very clear that she wants to break free of the stereotype about her with the shouting at other Muslim’s on the TV to try and fit in with the ethnic stereotype of the fellow white people surrounding. The non-digetic in this piece also fits the white ethnic stereotype it is really cheesy and bass filled to show that it is not any other type of ethnic music. The other digetic sound suggesting she is not much of a Muslim because she says she doesn’t go mosque this could show that she has been trying to relief herself of her ethnic group for a while even before the attack on 9, 11 and that she doesn’t want to be associated with that ethnic group but continues to fall into it.
All together the whole sequence is about a young Muslim Asian woman trying to escape her ethnic group by challenging her religion stands for but because she is the ethnic minority in her work place and the place they visit she is miss treated because this is how all Muslims were treated post 9,11 when it was unfair because it forced many people to not be proud of their religion and their race and try to escape it like Yasmin did in this sequence.
By Tom Woolston
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