SABC 2- 7de LAAN 05/12/2018

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Name of monitor: Your name Mpho Pitsi
Name of Television station: Channel where you are getting the scene SABC 2
Name of programme: Name of News programme 7de Laan
Date of broadcast: Date when the news item was broadcast 05/12/2018
Time: Time of broadcast 18h00 – 18h30
Genre: Type of programme
Drama series Drama series
Theme: Which topic category is this? List all the topics that relate to this scene HIV/Aids
GBV focus explicit or implicit? Please ensure that the examples you chose either explicitly or implicitly concern GBV Implicit
Gem Classification: Gender and Media Classification
Gender Aware
Gender Blind
Subtle stereotypes
Blatant stereotypes Blatant Stereotypes
Provide a link: Link to where this scene can be accessed
If no link provide the artefact upload on drobox

Brief description of scene:
Marco and Esthi are having a double date with Olivia and Diederick. Olivia is handling the food and she coughs a little before giving Marco a glass. Marco is disgusted by this because he is afraid that he might get infected with HIV/Aids since Olivia is still waiting for her results. The scene involves Olivia, Diederick, Marco and Esthi.

Context
Marco has a stereotypical view of Olivia since it was said that she is waiting for her HIV/Aids results after she experienced stealthing. Marco is disgusted by this and cannot hide it. He is also uninformed about HIV/Aids. It’s a series of incidents that lead to this scene.

Why it has been given this GEM classification: I gave it this classification because Marco is displaying a stigmatic view on Olivia because she might/not be HIV positive. He doesn’t want to touch her or anything that she touched because he doesn’t want to contract the virus.

Title: The topic is introduced when Marco immediately stands up to go to the bathroom immediately after taking a glass from Olivia. It conveys the stereotype that one can contract HIV simply by touching someone who has it. This is relevant to the storyline.

Focus: GBV is not the main focus of the episode

People in the programming. Both women and men speak in the scene. There is a reasonable balance between women and men in this episode. Olivia speaks her truth with confidence and Diederick gives her the platform and support her accordingly. Diederick and Esthi are portrayed as very reliable whereas Marco’s credibility is questioned.

Language. This scene relies heavily on body language instead of verbal language. When Marco excused himself immediately after he touched the same class Olivia touched, this spoke volumes as to how he sees her even though her status in uncertain at this point. Esthi realises what Marco did and she moves uncomfortably, checking if Oliva or Diederick caught on what Marco just did. His sudden urge to get away from Olivia conveys a stereotype that most HIV positive people must face daily. It also shows how ignorant Marco is about HIV even though he has all forms of mediums to access this information at the tip of his fingers.

Visuals. Both women and men are portrayed appropriately in the visuals. The images (video footage on television does illustrate the content of the storyline fairly. The image does not emphasize or exaggerate any physical aspects especially those related to the person’s sexuality. The image does not degrade the dignity of women or men and the visuals are relevant to the storyline.

Angles and perspective: Olivia and Diederick viewpoints are heard in this scene and their voices predominate. There is a reasonable balance of viewpoints presented by women and by men. The overall impression of this scene is that ignorance is really bliss.

Intersectionality: The cultural norm reinforced here is the concept of going to double dates to get to know the new person better. Intersectionality of social factors such as age are tolerated here. Marco being the oldest and Olivia being the youngest in the room, but they managed to spend an evening together and share a meal

Conclusion: This scene would have been gender aware if Olivia and Marco had an exchange of their views about Olivia’s undisclosed status. Maybe then Marco might have learnt something about HIV and how Olivia came to be in that situation.

SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENTS
BOYS GIRLS
Its nice to see the laan supporting 16days of activism hope to see a episode based on this soon well done dannie oddendal

Social media comment (not based on HIV/AIDS but speaks on GBV)
1. Speaking of gender-based violence, which should not exclude transgender and gender-diverse and non-binary folx and femmes, not just cisgender women.
2. 7de laan needs to listen and work harder to represent the LGBTQIAP+ community
3. Emile’s sexuality is treated carefully and respectfully by 7de laan. It is really unrealistic and irresponsible in the first place how few lgbtq+ characters there are in this show.
4. I would be extremely angered if 7de laan had to reinforce the stigma around transgender folx by pulling the harmful and incorrect trope of trans or gender-bending womxn, or men in drag ‘fooling straight men’.
5. Playing into that trope would be a violent aggression toward the lgbtq+ community. Please if you go near these storylines do it properly! (And I mean there are very few ways to approach that kind of plot without it being violent. As it is a very harmful trope and misconception that literally is why trans people are murdered and incites all disgusting forms of prejudice. This is no joke.) And if you don’t know how to write these storylines without reinforcing violent and prejudiced narratives, then hire trans and queer writers!!!!!! You should be doing that anyway.