Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts

Monday, 3 November 2014

Representation of Regional Identity

A person’s identity rooted in setting, speech, costume and region in which they live

Areas to think about in relation to  regional identity:

Accents

Location/ setting

Slang

Clothes

Pastimes

Attitudes/ behaviour

Stereotypes of the following regions:

Scottish

·         Strong and loud accent

·         Countryside like landscape

·         ‘We lass’ instead of ‘little girl’

·         Kilts and tartan clothes, red, checkered

·         Drinking beer, playing bagpipes, watching sports

·         Aggressive and sensitive

An example of a person from Television would be: Doctor Who – Peter Capaldi.

Liverpool

·         Annoying and whining accent, scouse

·         Village/town area with flowers and chavs

·         Y’lright there instead of ‘Are you alright’

·         Tracksuits and Shellsuits and football shirts

·         Theatre, partying, going to the beach

·         Welcoming but also stubborn and agitating.

An example of a person from Television would be: David Morrissey from The Field of Blood.

Newcastle

·        Quick and difficult to understand, Geordies

·        Town, lots of shops and clubs

·        ‘Petal’ as a name for a young girl. ‘Wheyy aye mann’ instead of hello

·        Plastic girls, and young boys head to toe in Newcastle football kit

·        Clubbing, football, having children at 16

·        Personal, confident, has attitude

Yorkshire

·        Farmers tone

·        Countryside, lots of hills, very small villages, pubs.

·        Generally cut off words, ‘‘goin’ up t’ pub’’

·        Scruffy, dirty, rude, obnoxious folk.

·        Going for walks, mountain climbing, drinks

·        Friendly, joking

Birmingham

·        Unintelligent, not liked, irritating, Brummie

·        City, lots of cars, highrise buildings

·        Unknown

·        Football kit, chavvy, hoodies

·        Concerts, shopping, clubbing, travelling by train

·        Aggressive, rough

An example of a person from Television would be: Sharon Osborne of the X Factor.

Welsh

·        Different, strong, extension of words

·        Countryside, cows and sheep, farms

·        ‘Jolch’ means thank-you. Jolch is slang for Diolch like we say ‘cheers’

·        Red, white and green, top hats

·        Fishing, walking, looking for fossils, caves

·        Powerful, drunk, friendly

An example of a person from Television would be: Stacy from Gavin and Stacy

Irish

·        Classic accent, lots of essence, strong

·        Busy cities, tall buildings, busy

·        ‘Turty sevin’ instead of ‘thirty seven’ etc

·        Green clothes, hats, leggings, chinos

·        Riverdance, counting money, boxing, drinking

·        Happy, loving

London

·        Polite, friendly or loud, aggressive, (markets)

·        Big city, big shops, busy place

·        General slang, ‘init’

·        Designer clothes, lots of makeup, suits, blazers

·        Shopping, spending money, going out for dinner, theatre

·        Rush around, apologetic

An example of a person from Television would be: All of the EastEnders cast e.g. Bianca.

Essex

·        Loud, stands out, can be annoying

·        Towns, large houses, small boutiques

·        ‘Like OMG’ ‘Total-e’ – abbreviations

·        Fake tan, short dress, low cut tops, skinny jeans (both genders)

·        Clubbing, running, shopping, hosting parties

·        Friendly or bitchy. Either.

An example of a person from Television would be: Everyone off The Only Way Is Essex (Towie).

Cornwall/South West

·        Pirate like, sing song tone.

·        Beach, countryside, busy in the summer

·        Coastal slang

·        Big coats, jumpers, snapbacks

·        Drinking, fishing, walking

·        Tourist welcoming, aware of other people, friendly

 

Tuesday, 28 October 2014

Representation of Disability

Within the media the representation of disability is most commonly based on stereotypes and it represents certain people in a negative and weakening way. Paul Hunt found 10 obvious stereotypes that were used in the media to represent those with a disability. This include; a disabled person is pitiable and pathetic, seen as an object of curiosity and violence, being either sinister or evil, a super cripple, purely as an atmosphere, laughable, his or her own worst enemy, a burden, as a non-sexual character, or being unable to take part in daily life tasks. These are all stereotypes that you would probably notice yourself.
 
Shakespeare in 1999 presented to an audience the reason why people use stereotypes towards the disabled. He said ‘The use of disability as character trait, plot device, or as atmosphere is a lazy short-cut. These representations are not accurate or fair reflections of the actual experience of disabled people. Such stereotypes reinforce negative attitudes towards disabled people, and ignorance about the nature of disability’. What he meant by this is that writers and film makers often use disability to draw an audience into the story by grabbing their attention towards that character. This type of stereotyping is often used to background the main story and this making the disabled character seem different and non-human.
 
There are also individual and social models of disability stereotypes. The individual model is usually to do with the view that other people have a disability that has to be overcome or something medical. This would hold that disability with the particular person and they then have the responsibility for it. This being whether they have to overcome it or cope with it on their own. This overcoming is often done with medical attention and done with the use of cures, however there isn’t a cure for everything just yet. The medical approach to disability aims to, stereotypically, ‘normalise’ the disabled people.
 
The social model of disability is the way people can identify a person’s disability between a physical or a mental problem. The way that society views these types of disabilities is most commonly negative. What this type of disability does is it holds the disability with the individual almost labelling them by their impairment. This means that in society people sometimes forget about these people and access isn’t so easy to gain. An example of this is when in a built up environment it sometimes doesn’t allow people with mobility problems to access certain facilities. All this is all affected by discrimination from society. An example of this is when someone has had a personal tragedy and their daily life is instantly affected. What I mean by this is that they might not be able to get the job they want purely from the discrimination behind it. ‘You can’t work here because you’re in a chair’.
 
There is actually a difference between social and individual disability and it has been discussed that people don’t allow natural differences between people. This view is not only prejudice to the disabled people but it also has an effect on those people without a disability. A girl name Charlotte Cooper is an example of social obesity. It is found that obesity is also a disability and can be defined as a variety of things. This includes:
 
• A slender body is ‘normal’
• Fatness is a deviation from the norm.
• Fat and disabled people share low social status.
• Fatness is medicalised (e.g. jaw-wiring and stomach-stapling).
• Fat people are blamed for their greed and lack of control over their bodies.

 
A lot of people would say that fat people or people that are disabled aren’t usually seen as attractive. Why?  I think that the reason why people that have this ‘issue’ are seen as less attractive because they aren’t perhaps so agile. What I mean by this is that, for example, a person in a wheel chair would have to do things very differently to a person who doesn’t have to be in a wheel chair this meaning that they probably wouldn’t do so much in terms of activity. In the past, people used to think that a little fatness was attractive, showing that you are rich enough to eat and buy fattening foods. I would say that an example of this would be Marilyn Monroe Nowadays the public think that being skinny is attractive and much healthier so those who have a bit of ‘fat’ on them are unattractive. People, normally teens and women often become anorexic because they fear of being too fat because they won’t to be attractive. This suggests that to be attractive, you have to skinny. So why is being fat considered to be sexually unattractive? My opinion is that people think that being fat is really unhealthy and that idea could potentially come from the media and stories that even children read about fat people. The people who are perhaps looking for a sexual partner normally don’t even bother looking at the people that are a bit curvier because they are labelled as simply ‘fat’. This meaning could become a slight trend so nobody wants a ‘fat partner’. All this could be considered and used for people in wheel chairs or generally having a mental or physical disability because people might ‘follow the crowd’. Some people do find it difficult to look at people with disabilities purely because all they imagine is the suffering that the person goes through daily, so these people are instantly not attracted to them sexually. The public find it upsetting to think about people with a disability let alone see them on a daily basis and this could affect a person’s opinion in a sexual situation. They realise that these disabled people will have to face these problems of being perhaps, looked at funny, or treated differently and the disabled feel that people don’t know how to hand them in way of, do you give them sympathy, treat them like idiots or treat them the same. This meaning that SOME people generally avoid them for this reason.
 
In television the people directing instantly decided quite commonly that disabled can’t be used as sexually attractive characters.


 
 



The clip above is from the television series, Glee. In this clip you see two characters in wheelchairs talking about themselves and also about each other. This will show you some representation about people in wheelchairs and also how they can be stereotyped.


Mise en Scene
  • The mise en scene in this clip isn’t very easy to link to the representation of disabled people. What I will say is that Artie (the boy) is wearing glasses and is dressed quite geeky for his costume. Stereotypically people think that disabled people are all really clever and in my opinion I think that that is how Artie is being presented.
  • Another comment I will make about the mise en scene is that the setting has been down suitably for the needs of the wheelchair users. What I mean by this is that the two characters have plenty of space and the accessibility to move around easily. In society this isn’t always the case so this represents an opposing stereotype.
  • The girl is represented in my opinion as an opposing stereotype example as she talks about how she is captain of the cheerleaders and is blonde and has ‘this going on’ (meaning boobs). As a stereotype people wouldn’t think that any of that is even possible but it is realistic. This relates to people thinking that disabled people cannot be sexually attractive.
Editing
  • The camera consistently switches between the two characters.
Sound
  • The way the girl talks are against her stereotype of being in a wheelchair and having a disability. It represents her as being very opinionative and strong whereas the stereotype of which you would think she would represented as is weak and sometimes shy.
  • Artie does follow the ‘rules’ of his stereotype and the way he talks about himself and the female quite clearly shows his acceptance of being disabled. Stereotypically.
  • There is background noise whilst they are by the lockers of loud chatting in the hallway. This could be there to show that the two characters are a lot quieter than everyone else and ‘have to be’.
Camera Shots, Angles, Movement and Composition
  • At the very start of this clip, the first few seconds, you can see that the camera doesn’t quite capture the characters whole faces. This is to show that the people are lower down.
  • When the dialogue in the scene begins between the two characters, the camera is at their level and it isn’t at ‘normal’ height looking down on them. This is sometimes the case in films, to show the belittling of the disabled character.

Tuesday, 7 October 2014

Gender Stereotypes


Gender stereotypes are almost a theoretical term for a specific sex’s social and behavioural actions. It could be within a specific culture, religion but as a stereotype there it is considered to be a socially appropriate thing to consider when talking to someone of again a specific sex. The idea of a stereotype depends on roles and how

a person’s attitude is, what actions they do, what their personality is like, and how they are associated with other people of that culture. Gender roles and stereotypes are often seen obviously in a home environment but you can also see them on the television and in television dramas of how particular characters are presented depending on their gender.

I am going to use doctor who as my example as it is a very ‘manly’ program and I would say that the majority of their target audience are male. In doctor who, every single doctor that has been on the show has been male and all of the assistants have been female. When looking at this in terms of stereotypes you could say that the doctor is the predominant person in the program and the assistant is just there to look pretty. What I mean by this is that the man is in charge, and this is often the case when thinking about home environments and things like that. Stereotypically, the man does the watching of the television and the women is stuck in the kitchen or doing some kind of house work when the man or men of the house do nothing at all. In Doctor who currently the female assistant is a girl called Clara Oswold. She is a very clever brunette girl and is very pretty. As a stereotypical way of putting this, girls are seen as cleverer than boys and it is portrayed as this in this case. Sometimes girls are seen as the dumb ones but this programme is the opposite and have a got a teacher as the doctors assistant. In the programme she wears makeup and her hair is always done perfectly. She is skinny and wearing skirts and little blouses. Again stereotypically I would say that that is what ‘girls’ wear. However not all girls like wearing skirts, not all girls wear make-up and not all girls can be bothered to do their hair in the morning and can be stereotypically as lazy as boys but in Doctor Who this is not the case.

When looking at the camera angles in the show you can actually notice how most of the shots of the doctor are just of his head and shoulders, so a long shot and how most of the shots of Clara are of her full body. This could also be due to gender stereotypes because of the audience. With there being a predominant male audience they will want to see Clara more clearly, like her body and the way she dresses so that it draws the audience’s attention further. I’m not saying that this is a good way in which to show females in TV Dramas, but this could be the case in this programme. In terms of how the characters speak, Clara has quite a stereotypically sweet and girly voice. It is soft and can be quite relaxing to hear whereas previous voices that were heard in the show like Katherine Tate was quite strong. Stereotypically girls have soft voices so when Katherine was in is was a more opposing sound to hear. As a male stereotype in terms of The Doctors voice it would be seen as quite powerful. He has a very loud voice and this also links back to men being in charge over women.

Overall I feel that gender stereotypes are used in TV dramas and this is represented in Doctor Who in very non obvious ways. This through the mise en scene, lighting, sound and editing. Clara a typical girl and the doctor a typical strong man who like to be in charge. In the shows defence, I personally can not imagine a doctor being female and that is most probably the idea of the show therefore the stereotypes in this programme are probably suitable for what the drama actually is.

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

Common Stereotypes-Ethnicity

http://www.scribd.com/doc/240666622/Common-Stereotypes

 To begin with I probably need to explain what ethnicity is. Ethnicity is a belonging of a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition. This would be called an ethnic group. An ethnic group is stereotypically a socially-defined group of people who identify with each other based on common ancestral, social, cultural, or national experience. Being part of one of these ethnic groups tends to define you as a person by your cultural heritage, ancestry, and myth of origins, history, homeland, language (dialect), or even ideology. It can also have something to do with your cuisine, physical appearance and something fashion choices.

Since the 9/11 attack and all the political issues that sided with it, we commonly see that certain ethnic groups are represented in different ways. Religion I would say is significant here because people look at religious figures and how they are represented. Stereotypically people look towards non-religious leaders more positively than leaders that are religious. Issues can also be created by national and regional identity. Western and non-Western people (in terms of clothing, social attitudes – e.g. towards women and alcohol – religious practice, music etc.) can be a key binary opposition to look for. The most negative stereotype that we often see is of Muslim/Asian/Middle eastern characters. They are normally often similar to the old stereotype of the Northern Irish; Violent, fanatical and religious. More side taking representations of people being ethnically stereotyped may include issues of social class and status and how black youths are stereotyped as criminal. This is spreading to Asian youths being stereotyped like this also. With coloured youth people in particular, in TV dramas you often see a heavily Americanised character through the persons language, dress and occasionally there musical taste. You may also get in TV dramas racist white characters that are against the ‘black criminals’.  The question that is often asked though is; are the different ethnic groups shown in TV dramas, have more in common with each other than they actually have differences.

The TV drama that I will be focusing on is Doctor who and how ethnicity is stereotypically linked to it. At the end of May this year there was a discussion about the ethnicity of the programme and whether it was okay to show or not. In the new series of the show the new star is Peter Capaldi and he is a Scottish man so the show has started making references to stereotypically Scottish things. David Tennant, also Scottish, stared in the TV drama however he changed his accent for the show and was never known as Scottish in the programme. It is only the new series where they have kept the identity of the actor in the programme and added something ‘different’. Peter has also mixed up the show further as he disposes of the boyish attitude and gets older. Previous actors like David Tennant and Matt Smith played the character much younger of 34 and 27 when they landed the part. Peter however is an older man at 57 and is a throwback to the show’s roots when the character was once iconic. Another thing about ethnicity that I should mention about doctor who is that it is alien based, so that no matter what, they have included everyone in their show.




Sunday, 21 September 2014

Representation of Tony - Skins

Representation of Tony – Skins


I will be looking at how the character Tony is represented to the audience in TV series, Skins. I will be analysing his character, the way he acts towards other characters and also what his personality is like. Throughout doing this I will look at the mise en scene in the programme and other specialist things like; camera, editing and sound.

 

At the start of the first episode of skins we are given a shot of Tony in his bed with a duvet cover with two naked people on it. The man on it was facing down and the woman was facing up. What I found interesting about this was that Tony was positioned in the very center of the bed, neither with the man nor woman. This initially suggested to me that he could be confused about his sexuality. Following this you heard an alarm go off however Tony was already awake laying there, directly facing the camera in the center of the frame. Two camera shots were used in this first shot and they were an extreme close up and then the camera zoomed out to a bird’s eye view of the whole bed. This could be seen as a longshot. He also noticed how he had half of his face in shadow and half clearly visible. This could be to give the audience an initial impression that he is quite a dark and sneaky character but also that he is shy in some ways. Maybe? Because his alarm went off after he was awake I think he must have had something on his mind that had either kept him awake all night or must have woken him earlier than he wanted to.

 


After this, the camera frame changed and it moved to seeing his room much clearer and it stayed as a long shot while you saw him get out of bed and start his day. He began with him doing his exercises and posing to himself in the mirror. This suggests to me that he cares a lot about himself however he is a bit obsessed with himself too. The music and backing track to the scene turns to rock music and this must be his personal choice as it is music within the scene rather than it being added afterwards. This is called diagetic sound as it was already in the scene. Non diagetic sound is when it is added afterwards in editing. Other sounds are also involved in the scene. This includes the use of morning bells and his other alarm clock. The bells could signify that he lives in a quiet village although perhaps bordering the city as you can hear the bells rather than everyday traffic in a city type area. Living in a village also makes me initially think about his family and how he must have a tight relationship with them. Tony then leads to looking out the window after his alarm goes off. This is at a woman through another window as she gets dressed. She stands naked and knows Tony is watching her and is pretty much encouraging him to do so. The camera angle that is used in this case is a personal view from Tony himself and how he would see the young woman across the street. I feel that the woman is older than Tony and likes his attention due to his lust for sex. Tony could be lonely and I think this because of the way he looks at the woman. He looks at her as if she is an object and he is using her to gain a ‘buzz’. Another reason I think that he could be lonely is because of his quilt cover and the way he doesn’t position himself with either person

When looking at the way Tony presents himself in the programme he appears to be a bit OCD. When he is getting dressed in the morning he makes sure that everything is perfectly folded and all his shirts (about 6) are hung up above his draws as if they were being presented at a shop rather than in a teenage boy’s bedroom. His OCD may also have something to do with why he is so obsessed with the way he looks and could be a reason why he always does a workout in the morning as soon as he wakes up. Another reason Tony is represented that gives the audience an idea that he is OCD is how tidy his room is. When looking at the area around his bed in the opening scene you can see that his floor is completely clear and his bed looks as if it hasn’t even been slept in. Again this could also be another signification that he might be slightly lonely.

After this the camera goes onto Tony’s younger sister. She is walking along the street early in the morning and wants Tony to let her in. To distract his dad Tony turns up the volume on his stereo to its maximum and his dad comes storming in. Tony speaks in a very polite manner to his dad as he swears and yells at him. This could be seen as Tony being spiteful and somewhat passive aggressive. By helping his sister sneak into the house and not snitching on her suggests that he cares about his sister however is rebellious with her towards their parents. I guess that Tony could be seen as stereotypical teenager. The camera angles in this scene range from being extreme close ups of that dad to potentially elaborate the fury in the scene and also show full body angles so long shots on Tony to make him look smaller. However, when looking at the behaviour of the father and son, Tony appears to be in control of the relationship when it is normally the dad. Tony is also in control of the sister, Effie, as he could simple go and tell the parents what she has been up to. Further representation of Tony is shown in a similar manner when he is in the bathroom. Tony is seen reading a book about nausea in the shot showing that he is very intelligent. He also looks intelligent in what he wears because it is very basic however is also quite stylish. He is wearing a pair of beige chinos, a plain red top, a V-neck black jumper and a pair of white shoes. This will all have been planned out very carefully in costume design because they had to make sure that Tony did look intelligent but they also had to make sure that he was keeping his look of ‘popularity’. The nausea book that Tony is caught reading would probably be to expand his knowledge for maybe future university/college applications as he would have expanded his knowledge rather than wasting his time. 

 


Another thing that I notice about Tony is how he is represented when he goes out in the morning. He is the person to wake everyone up and get the ready for the day ahead. He begins with ringing someone up called Chris. He is with someone in bed and Tony encourages him to continue and acts as if he is the boss of the whole situation. He the calls up another friend, and she is playing her musical instrument. He attempts to talk to her but she tells him off and he ends the call. From these two first calls I got the impression that Tony is quite a manipulative person and normally tends to get his own way rather than people saying no to him. Tony also appears to have an aim for everyday and in this case in this episode it is getting his best friend Sid to have sex before his 17th birthday. He continues to call around his friends and speaks to Anwar who is Muslim and Max who is a gay dancer. This to me makes me think that Tony is very popular and has a quite broad range of friends. This makes him as a character to more interesting and will also give the audience something more to connect with as it makes the programme itself link to, different genders, different sexuality’s and also different cultures. Anyway, he calls up a girl called Michele and asks her straight out to have sex with his friend Sid that evening and treats her as if it is her duty to do so. This again gives me the impression that he is quite a controlling person and also is very disrespectful to woman. Being disrespectful towards woman wouldn’t give any potential girlfriends a very good first impression, this could be another reason why he could be lonely and is in ‘need of sexual activity’.

The next section that I will be looking at in terms of Tony and how he represented is the mise en scene of skins. This for example is the props he is given, the action going on within the frame he is in and things like that. In terms of props Tony has a mobile phone, very basic and typical for a teenager to have but it shows he must have a social life and is high in popularity, as he seems to be on his phone a lot when walking down the street. Another prop that I will be looking into is the fitness equipment at the start of the show that is in his bedroom. His bedroom looks very intelligent and clean and you would often stereotype this attitude with a geek or someone who isn’t very popular. However in this situation it’s someone who appears to be very popular and quite ‘cool’. He obviously cares about his belongings and himself, hence the exercise and fitness equipment. He had weights, a pull up bar, sit up mat etc. This, to me and as the audience suggests that he could be trying to impress people and stay within a certain type of people rather than him being labeled as something else. This could be another reason why he has friends that are all different because he is trying so hard to fit in. The way he actually speaks to his friends is quite narcissistic as he almost speaks down to them. This represents him as someone who doesn’t actually see any potential damage they could cause. An example of this could be getting Sid to have sex with someone just so he can keep his and Tony’s friendship. This also happens so that Tony doesn’t get seen to be associated with a loser. This is almost threatening and arrogant. Another example is when he speaks to his dad and acts in a spiteful way; this could lead to a non-existent father son relationship that they will most probably regret in the future. The lighting that is used in the clip of the programme that watched makes the programme seem quite bright and upbeat. The colours and light activity could a way of making the audience connect to the day-to-day life of the characters. This could be like getting up early in the morning for social things like Tony or coming home from a party early in the morning like Effie. Either way the audience can resemble something, even the parents. Maybe the audience acts like Tony at home and have to do there exercises in the morning but still keep in touch with their intelligent side of life. Other lighting features include the shadowing of the woman that Tony looks at through the window. It keeps the programme decent and the darkness also adds a sense of suspicion. Should Tony be really doing that or could he get into trouble for it?

What are the relationships like between Tony and the other characters? If you analyse the first relationship that you see in the programme, with the father, you can see that it isn’t very strong and it is almost a love hate relationship. When the dad storms in in the morning you can see that he is fed up of his sons attitude and how he speaks down to him. This seems odd as it is usually the father’s job to be in charge and in this case it is the other way round. An example of cheek that Tony gives his dad is when he goes down the drainpipe rather than opening the door to let his dad in to the bathroom to use it. This aggravated the father even more so giving Tony a sense of ‘pride’. The next relationship that you see represented in the programme is between Tony and Effie, his younger sister. Siblings don’t usually stick up for each other but in this case Tony makes sure his sister gets back into the house okay without getting into trouble and gets himself into trouble to help her out. This as a representation of Tony shows that he can be quite a caring person despite being controlling and arrogant towards others. This especially happens with his sister. You only see Tony for a short amount of time with his mother however it does look as if she doesn’t care about what he does. When his dad comes storming into the room to tell Tony off the mother just stands there and appears to smirk slightly. This will give Tony the encouragement to not behave himself. His mother also seems quite laid back with him going out early in the morning for no reason and with the attitude he actually has towards his dad. When it comes to male friendships Tony does seem to be pretty polite and happy towards them, makes them laugh like a good friend should do. With Sid he is very encouraging and supportive in the fact that he is ‘still a virgin’ however he is very passive aggressive in the fact he basically tells Sid that he has no choice in what happens to him, sexually. With Chris he really gets into the idea that he is with a girl in bed when they are on the phone and Chris appears to be the player of the group. Tony talks to the girl and almost in a flirtatious way as if he wants to join in. He probably does. This friendship relationship probably isn’t very strong as you would expect Tony to come to between his friends and their girlfriend’s partnerships by perhaps telling stories or forcing himself in on the ‘action’. I think Tony could be a player himself. When you see Tony’s female friends you would think that he would be quite popular with them and they would really want to talk to them however one of them doesn’t really. She turns him down and this probably comes as a surprise to Tony as he is ‘so popular’ with the ladies. At least that’s what he wants to think. The way he is represented in terms of partnership relationships he looks as if he would struggle getting a committed girlfriend due to manipulation and disrespect. An example of this would be the situation between Sid and Michele.

In conclusion I think that Tony appears to be a very handsome, popular and academically gifted person and has a very stereotypical English middle-class background. He plays cruel games with his family and friends, in particular those closest to him showing that he is manipulative and sneaky. Tony's sexual encounters are supposedly vast and eventually when he gets his girlfriend Michele it is a rarity too. I feel that Tony thinks that sex is a type of power so lusts for it in any way that he can. So, Tony is represented in Skins in many different ways, a dark side and a nice side.