Portrayal Of Genders In Breaking Bad Show

In the summer I watched a five-season show called “Breaking bad” on Netflix. I considered it one of my favorite shows so far according to the way they filmed it and the idea far from romance and comedy which what I like.

Breaking Bad is an American drama series that portrays power, sin, cruelty, humiliation and manhood. The main character in the show is Walter White that was acted by the brilliant Bryan Cranston. Walter is a humble high school chemistry teacher that was humiliated by his own students and his boss at his other job. He later on the show resorts to using his chemistry knowledge into cooking and selling methamphetamine thinking that’s his only way to get money after being diagnosed with lung cancer, simply to provide money to his family and pay for his treatments. Even though the show was nominated for a variety of different awards; the show’s main characters are only males and they are presented as powerful, fearless and masculine. While on the other side there are only two female characters in the show and they were portrayed as two grouchy, nagging and annoying wives. In this paper, I will be talking about how in general the show Breaking Bad portrays gender in its series. I mostly will be talking about the relationship between Walter and his wife Skyler and then about other couple male characters. The connection between Walter and Skyler reinforces the most common well-known stereotypes that males are the masters, and women should obey them because they bring the money and the food to the table.

For instance, in season two, episode 1, we can see Walter controlling the relationship between him and his wife after couple of incident with the most dangerous drug dealers and getting a lot of money, Walter feels dominant, just like a king right now, he even named himself as “Heisenberg. ” At the end of the episode; Walter walks in on Skyler and grabs her wanting to have sex with him. Skyler wasn’t having it, in fact she screamed saying “No, Stop, ” but Walter wasn’t listening to her, in this scene Walter was treating her as she’s one of his belonging and she needs to obey because he is the alpha male in the house. Fortunately, Skyler managed to push him away. Walter’s character in Breaking Bad is an example of the male stereotype, which males need to be strong, harsh, emotionless, hard worker to feed their children. Another Example, in season two, episode twelve, “Phoenix. ” Walt Jr; Walter’s son created an operation fund called “Save Walter White” to help them raise money for his father’s surgery. Walter on the other hand gets really angry and told his wife that he won’t accept this charity and called it cyber-begging. Money indicates the worth of the person who earns it, Walter would literally rather die than accept charity from anyone, because if he accepts it he wouldn’t feel masculine. So he goes around and funnels the drug money into his son’s website exposing the idea of a man provides for his family, alone without anyone’s help.

Furthermore, in season four episode eight, while Walter was finishing getting treatment another diagnosed guy says to him that after he was diagnosed with cancer he felt that it was a wakeup call for him which was “letting go and give up control. ” Walter looks at him with anger and tells him; “that’s bullshit!” then continues “never give up control, live life on your own terms, ” “They told me right from the start, it’s a death sentence. Well guess what; every life comes with a death sentence, but until then who’s in charge? “Me” that’s how I live my life. ” In this scene they’re showing an alpha male character and he’s the only one in charge of his own life and he can make his own decisions. Moreover, after Walter’s wife know that he is dealing, she goes crazy and she tries to take the kids from him, which in my opinion is the right way to do things when you find out that your husband is dealing but the show has a way of portraying Skyler as headache to Walter because she prompts him of his weakness and powerlessness on the other hand the audience would connect with Walter more because he keeps saying that he’s dealing for the family’s future, and what convinced him more when his partner Gus says to him “"When you have children, you will always have family. They will always be your priority, your responsibility. And a man, a man provides. And he does it even when he's not appreciated, or respected, or even loved. He simply bears up and he does it. Because he's a man". It only took Walter till the end of the last season to realize destroying lives and murder to get money to save for his family’s future was only a lie he lied to himself and others because if he truly loved them like he says he would’ve spent more time with them and not spend on them blood money. He finally tells his wife the truth in the last episode; “I did it for me”, “I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really… I was alive”. So it was only about gaining more power and control.

Breaking Bad portrays women as weak and fragile. For example, Jesse is one of Walter’s old student but then they both become partners on cooking meth. Throughout the show you hear Jesse always screaming out “Bitch” to Walter or to anyone who bothers him. If you think about it, when you call a women a “Bitch” it’s like you are referring to a women who is cruel, independent, and difficult girl. But on the other hand when Jesse keeps calling men as “Bitch” it’s like he is a coward. It’s amazing how one word can mean two different things if two different genders said it. Later on the show, we get to know how sensitive Jesse is, and he refuses to continue cooking meth because a lot of killing started to get involved and instead he gets to be called a “pussy” by the rest of the drug dealers.