EastEnders - Representation of sexuality

From the 1980s

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The narrative of the excerpt all takes place in one location, a public laundrette. There are two central characters, who develop a conflict due to liberal vs conservative views on homosexuality. Both characters are introduced within the first two seconds of the opening shot. The young Caucasian male is already onscreen, sitting down, listening to music on a yellow-black walkman (walkman given exposition later) with small orange black earphones and reading a coloured comic He has short, black hair with a slight fringe, is wearing a brown jacket with a purple shirt visible just above the loosened neck, and later it is revealed blue jeans.The rule of thirds isn't being applied. He is shot down to mid waist, but as the other central character rushes in , the opening shot is revealed to be a longshot. The Caucasian woman is older than middle-aged (exact age is never given), which is signified through the voice being somewhat deep. She has dark read hair, is wearing a light brown tight-buttoned coat (with a golden broach on the top), carrying a black handbag, with gloves in her right hand.

The conflict between the two character's binary views, liberal vs conservative, young vs old, is not developed in the narrative until later, but it is already signified in the opening shot, through the comic and the newspaper the male and 

The shot moves on to reverse shot as well match on action. We do not get an eyeline match for either characters,

The laundrette's walls and surfaces are light blue and light green with some white wall paper with coloured patterns.Extra detail has been added to mise-en-scène of the laundrette,  with labels saying "Laundry Bags..40p" and "Dry 20", which the 40p,  exposing the regional identity of the scene, Britain. As soon as we here the voices of the characters in the first two shots it is located in England. The accents, leaving out h "omosexual", signifies her class as well, that of working class. 

Further verisimilitude is achieved through adding two characters in the background, one in the opening shot which can be seen at the edge of the left frame. Further realism is given through her not staying too long and it is clearly seen she is emptying washing into a bag, grabbing it and leaving the laundrette with it, instead of just repeatedly emptying the washing machine for a length of time that would make no sense. Later in the scene a more older woman is seeing grabbing a bag, although in my opinion she is gone from the screen to quickly, a small lapse in the verisimilitude.

The second shot, a medium close-up of the male character, Barry, has a shallow focus of his background. This can be read as an early signifier to manipulate the audience who to sympathise with.

The cinematography is used to signify the character of Barry as the Other, a term developed by psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and ethical philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas as the radical counterpart of the self. The self here being signified is the normative values that Dot represents, and the values of Barry are being signified with just having reactionary close-up shots of his face, but just having two-shots with Dot. However the closing reactionary shot of Barry's actor using body language to express his aghast shock contradicts the early signifier, along with the shallow focus signifying him as a more central and important character to the narrative in the second shot earlier.

The whole scene develops a binary opposition within the plot which is already signified through the mise-en-scène in the opening shots. It is one of age, sexuality and social attitudes. The character of Dot is very stereotyped, conservative views and not wishing to approve of changes in society and attitudes. Another There are decisions of framing which could signify a negative view on Barry's sexuality, but also could be seen as a way of making the audience empathise with the prejudice he receives.