Prison Break is a show about a man that is trying to break his brother out of prison. To do this, though, he has to go to prison himself. This may not sound full of stereotypes but there is one big one that I do want to talk about. The prison doctor in the show is a woman. At first the show shows her as the one with power. She is always businesslike and never takes crap from the prisoners. This was breaking the submissive stereotype that is often shown about women. Another woman character is the president of the United States. That in itself is breaking a stereotype because there is a woman as the president. However, as the show goes on, those stereotypes begin to show themselves again.
First of all, the doctor starts off as a figure of power that is always in control of any situation. In one episode of the show, the prisoners take over the prison and she is in danger. Then she becomes the damsel in distress until her "prince" who is a convict is able to rescue her. From then on, she becomes more sterotypical. She becomes submissive and needs men more. This leads her to help him escape even though she knows she shouldn't because she is love-stricken. This makes her seem weak because of a man.
The president is another powerful woman. She is shown as very dominant, crushing anyone and anything that gets in her way. She is the antagonist of the show. She is the reason that the two men are in prison. She breaks stereotypes because she does not use sex or any submissive actions to get what she wants. She uses fear. That is very unusual in an antagonist in a movie. Usually the women are shown as sex objects.
Prison Break is a good example of stereotypes. It both shows many and breaks many. It has many characters that break from the sex object or submissive woman stereotypes. At the same time, many of its characters fit one or both of them.
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