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Masculinity and Top Gear
Whether you see it as a sexist boys’ club or post-modern self-parody, T
op
Gear is one of the BBC’s most popular factory brands, and has increasingly adopted the conventions of ‘reality’ programming. Fay Jessop explores its representations of masculinity, and the personas of its larger-than-life hosts.
Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with the absolute truth. Simone de Beauvoir
One of the BBC’s flagship programmes, Top
Gear returned to BBC2 in 2001, after being axed for falling viewing figures in 1999. At the helm were the duo who were mainly responsible for its content in the mid-Eighties and early-Nineties, presenter Jeremy Clarkson and executive producer Andy Wilman. On its return, the show’s audience demographic was predominantly male.
The first line-up comprised Richard Hammond, Jason Dawe and Jeremy Clarkson, which was amended later when Dawe was replaced by James May in 2003. The notion of ‘boys and their toys’ has always
been central to the success of the show, and the combination of fast cars, exotic challenges and blokeish banter has certainly proved popular over the years. However, it is interesting to note that the audience demographic has shifted from being predominantly male to a more equal gender split. As of September 2008, 42% of the television audience was female. This can be
english and media centre | December 2009 | MediaMagazine 35
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