Skins is a contemporary British show whose popularity stems from its dramatic and wild portrayals of groups of teenagers. The first episode of Skins season 5 focuses on Franky, but introduces a new gang as well. This season stars girls Franky, Minnie, Liv, and Grace with boys, Alo, Rich, Nick, and Matty (an even balance of girls and boys. The show is an ongoing drama about the trials and tribulations of teenagers in Bristol, England. The drama of adolescence is heightened by the inclusion of pretty heavy drug and alcohol usage, which serve to complicate gender interactions and romantic relationships.
Franky is the star of this episode and her character presents a unique gender presentation showcasing traditional and atypical gender behaviors. Overtly she is rather gender non-conforming wearing masculine clothing and sporting cropped hair, and indeed she is ridiculed for her style of dress, with a focus on her presumed sexuality which is not ever revealed. Yet unlike Minnie, the blond stereotypical feminine popular girl, Franky’s personality ranges towards the traditionally feminine. She is demure and described by her adoptive father as “fragile”, whereas Minnie is highly aggressive.
Despite an atypical lack (for this series) of sex in the episode, the theme is not entirely lost. When Minnie and pals Gracie and Liv take Franky to the mall (an appropriately feminine activity) they work feminize her. Putting makeup on Franky for the first time, the girls are pleased with the result telling her she has “fuck me” eyes. The suggested goal of makeup and ultimately of looking “pretty” seems to be becoming sexually desirable, wherein the characters take it upon themselves to look pretty for men, not themselves.
The boys in this episode play only a minor role though they do come out of the woodwork in following episodes. In this first episode however the boys serve primarily to do the bidding of the girls. Minnie’s boyfriend Nick, an appropriately fit and mindless jock does her bidding in hanging up humiliating photos of Franky and acting and her arm candy. Alo and Rich mainly appear when they do Grace’s bidding in helping her to “kidnap” Franky, taking her to have fun. The only boy who is entirely self-motivated is Matty, who appears in the episode when rescuing Franky, pulling her from a tearful breakdown and calling her beautiful. In this episode it would seem that men are only for manipulating or acting as heroes, two very flat and stereotypical roles that also demean women by painting them either as bitches of victims.
Despite the use of traditional gender roles, I think the show, if not his specific episode, gives each character enough depth to show that they do in fact break from traditional gender roles in some ways.
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