Females have usually been perceived and represented as sex objects to fulfill the male gaze in the media, however CSI:crime scene investigation is able to subvert this representation. in the past the two general female images that are seen are, madonna, or whore.these extreme stereotypes left no room for anything in between, or even a realistic image for a woman. Even though CSI:crime scene investigation represents women as a minority within the programme, they do have major roles which influence many of the stories.women are conveyed with the same presence of men within the programme, allowing a decent female representation.Catherine Willows and Sara sidle are two investigators quite high up in the heirarchy, with Willows second in command, which is not usually seen, however with other central female characters such as lady heather, it re-inforces the idea of fulfilling the male gaze with a "whore". In previous texts,such as cagney and lacey it partially follows stereotypes and fills in the absence of a man within the female characters, but it was still a large break through within the media, because women had not been shown in a powerful and authoritative figure before this.the crime genre works as new way to relate to women beyond the stereotype boundaries.
I will argue that CSI:crime scene investigation is one of the few programmes that subvert the typical stereotypes created in the media about women, and shows them as superior as men,however they may not be doing this in the right way. for example, to refer to the quote used in my essay question I am a woman, and I have a gun. And look how he treated me. I can only imagine how he treated his wife(sara sidle)...there was no apparant reason for sara to state she has a gun, but refering back to freud's and Mulvey's findings, a gun can be represented as a phallic symbol which gives all power and control to a man, but as she is holding it this is the only way she can be as strong and powerful as a man.
