Image.net for images from Top Gear


MM In spite of previous controversies, there does


appear to be a grain of truth in what he claims, given the show’s audience demographic. It is also interesting to note that viewing


figures were far lower back in the old days of Top Gear, when there were female presenters at the helm such as Vicky Butler-Henderson and Julia Bradbury. Of course, in the ten years since ‘old’ and ‘new’ Top Gear, the audience itself has changed. The way it consumes and responds to media products, has changed immensely, and to suggest that the audience was ‘turned off’ by female presenters in a ‘male’ show would be churlish. But is it so left-field to suggest that these notions of masculinity so apparent in Top Gear as it is now are what make it appeal to both a male and female audience? Also interesting is that the viewing figures for Fifth Gear, Channel 5’s rival show, are significantly lower, even though the show has a more equal gender split in terms of presenters. In conclusion it would seem that although


Male mise-en-scène The cool, muted colours in the mise-en-scène


of the Veyron sequence suggest typically male virtues of strength and dominance. Blues and blacks are used extensively (May is himself dressed in dark blue overalls for the challenge) and the lighting in the sequence is high key. Close-up shots of May’s hands and eyes serve to reinforce the idea of his dominance over the machine in his charge, and the non-diegetic soundtrack also contributes to this idea of power. This is only slightly subverted, perhaps fittingly, by May’s admission that his ‘eyes are watering’ once he begins to slow the car down. The show has also been accused of misogyny


at various points over its long run. The infamous sequence where Jeremy Clarkson compares three different Porsche 911 models using female models in bikini tops and short skirts as a metaphor is a case in point. One model has had cosmetic surgery to enlarge her breasts and the other, to quote Clarkson, is ‘all woman’. It is impossible to believe, in this postmodern era, that Clarkson and Wilman did not know what they were courting when they wrote this sequence. The pure Mulvey-ness of this gesture, its distilled subversion of the Male Gaze, is so typically Top Gear that it is difficult to take it seriously. But then, by admitting this, are we as viewers


falling into the trap of allowing ourselves to be guided by masculine ideals of postmodern humour here? And in fact is this elaborate double bluff nothing more than the audience pandering to subversive male tactics? Given that the outtake from that filming sequence was posted on the Top Gear website, and Clarkson is seen to be getting visibly distracted by the girls, sending himself up in the process, this notion of double bluff would not seem so outlandish. Louise Livesey, tutor in Sociology and


Women’s Studies at Ruskin College, Oxford has accused Top Gear of ‘entrenched, institutional sexism’ and having a ‘boys’ club’ production team. Although it could be said that examples such as the above might serve to reinforce gender stereotypes, it might be argued that by turning typically male characteristics into


38 MediaMagazine | December 2009 | english and media centre


comedy, Top Gear subverts male gender stereotypes in much the same way as TV programmes such as Gavin and Stacey and Grumpy Old Men.


Sexism or self-parody? In the current series, there has been some discussion in the press and on message boards about the inclusion of glamour model Madison Welch during the Spanish Rally Championships filming. Could this again be executive producer Wilman’s knowing subversion of the Male Gaze theory in order to court controversy? Or is it merely Top Gear pandering to the ‘boys’ club’ mentality that Louise Livesey criticises so heavily? Alternatively, the inclusion in several episodes


of Sabine Schmidt, the well-known expert on the Nurburgring, seems to suggest that there is at least a nodding acceptance that women play as equal a role as men in the world of motoring. Several jokes are made at Richard Hammond’s expense when Sabine enters the studio after her attempt to beat Jeremy Clarkson’s time around the ring, and she is acknowledged as an expert in her field, even if she is also referred to as ‘an alluringly Teutonic bombshell’! Recently touted changes to equality laws


have brought the future of Top Gear’s presenting line-up into question. The apparent insistence that all BBC shows should have a representative ratio of male and female presenters has given rise to the question of whether the show can be sustained in its current format. Andy Wilman has reacted strongly to assertions of sexism on the show, stating that: this sort of claptrap is very patronising to women, because it assumes women can’t enjoy a show’s presenters on merit, but can only appreciate a programme if spoken to by one of their own sex.


Top Gear may seem to be a throwback to the values and ideologies of an earlier time, the appeal of its three presenters, and the show’s willingness to subvert its own values, to send up the very traits by which it is known is what prevents it from being merely a mish-mash of mainstream, patriarchal values, and elevates it to the enviable position of having viewing figures other shows would dream of, which, more importantly, encompass that vital male and female demographic.


Fay Jessop is Head of Media Studies, Backwell School, North Somerset.


Additional references:


http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/ issues/stereotyping/men_and_masculinity/ masculinity_defining.cfm


http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/ issues/stereotyping/men_and_masculinity/ masculinity_authority.cfm


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/ article-1192350/Jeremy-Clarkson-Politicians- Aston-Martins-Dont-Top-Gears-James-May- started.html


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Watch Annette Hill discussing Top Gear in MediaMagClips.


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