Stereotypes in Shameless - Homework

In the previous work that we have done we have established that there are certain things that make you label someone, or a group of people and categorise them even without knowing them. These are called stereotypes. Stereotype are often wrong but help give the audience more of an insight on the characters without actually having to show a back story. There are some aspects that people would put down to be more of a working class thing to do, so the working class stereotypes in this clip are:

• The man has long hair and messy stubble which shows he doesn't really take care of himself and doesn't clean very much.
• He has wearing dirty clothes that are old.
• There is a large family which is generally associated with the lower-working class.
• They will be living in a caravan (which doesn't make you working class if you're a traveller and it's your choice but if you have to live in a caravan because you can't afford your house then it does).
• They swear a lot.
• The man drinks a lot of alcohol, there are many empty bottles and cans of alcoholic drinks on the table in the garden which confirms this.
• The young girl already has a baby (I'm assuming it's hers).
• They wear tracksuits and joggers and the girl walks out on the street in just a dressing gown.
• The house looks untidy.
• They don't have a big garden, or any flowers/grass in their garden.
• They live on an estate.

Some of these stereotypes don't apply to all working class people, but instead just more of the lower-working class. There are some stereotypes that are actually challenged by the clip, these are:

• When the man walks down the stairs he says "Is this my family, which I see before me?" which is an adaption of "Is this a dagger, which I see before me?" from Shakespeare's Macbeth. This shows that he is educated which is going against the lower-working class stereotype that they aren't educated, or at least not very well.
• They also have a moment in the clip where they show their strength as a family and how much they love and care for each other, no matter what they do (even if their dad gets completely smashed all of the time). This opposes the stereotype that all lower-working class families argue and don't get along.