Miss Jones' Cover Work


Neela in ER.

• The clip opens with Neela arriving at Tony's house in an over the shoulder shot which shows Tony but the back of Neela. This shot immediately gives authority to the male, Caucasian character because he is the character the audience first sees thus encouraging identification with him, more than Neela's character.

• As Neela enters the house, it is clear that this is a date -conventionally, the conversation is centered around the dinner they will be having tonight. A 'date' is a western idea, so that in this clip, Neela is shown to stand stationary by the door and only moves when Tony comes to get her. She is then offered a glass of wine, that in a medium shot she drinks in one go. What this shows is that Asians cannot fully mix with the western culture; the hesitancy personified by Neela is meant to represent Asians as aliens to western life.

• As the clip progresses, it becomes clear that behind this hesitancy is the worry of having sex. It is the stereotype that Asian girls hold very strong anti-sex ideologies (especially before marriage) that is being performed here.

• However, it can be argued that Neela is also showing signs of being sexually active through the mutual kiss.

• She drinks wine, thus modernising the traditions of the Asian female.

• Neela speaks fluent English with the absence of a heavy Indian accent.

To summarise, it is clear that the BBC and other broadcasters such as E4 are attempting to introduce ethnic minorities in their programmes but elements of stereotyping are still evident; Neela explicitly says she is not used to 'dating' which shows cultural ideologies where 'dating' is absent. The issue of sex is also addressed so that it conforms to the stereotype of Asian females as being sexually 'restricted.' There are however, a few minor developments; Neela could be seen as sexually active, successfully adapting to the western culture to represent her as the new, "Western Asian."