Gender, Sexuality, And Power In The Australian TV And Film Essay

Gender, Sexuality, And Power In The Australian TV And Film - Essay Example Initially, the nation was against any form of immigrants from nations outside of Europe. In a bid to enforce this, the country adopted the Immigrant Restriction Act in 1902 which required that the immigrants into the nation had to prove that they had a command of at least one of the languages spoken in Europe (Jabukowicz, 1994). This effectively barred immigrants from Asia and Africa. It favored the development of the Anglo-Australian from the early years and in turn, implied that they became the dominant population of the nation. This dominance translates to power as the Anglo-Australians are the most powerful in the nation even up to date. The TV and film industry have demonstrated this dominance and power over the years (AUSTRALIAN FILM COMMISSION; SMYTH & ASSOCIATES, 1994). The power enjoyed by the Caucasian community has been portrayed in the TV and film industry in Australia as being related to gender and sexuality. This relationship is in the sense that the powerful Caucasians intermarry amongst themselves while the minority groups comprising of the Orientals and the blacks also intermarry amongst themselves. The policy in Australia which encouraged the immigration of strictly the Europeans was abolished following the end of the Second World War and this saw the incoming of other nationalities into Australia. The throngs of the policy were however felt till sometime around 1970 (Khamis, 2009). The immigrant communities were compelled to have their cultures swollen into the mainstream Anglo-Australian community. This implied that the power of the Anglo-Australian dominance compelled the new immigrants to share in a common sexuality and gender interaction as dictated by the mainstream Anglo-Australian culture. The TV and film of Australia has made this evident in the recent past. In 1989, the Commonwealth Government endorsed the principles of the report titled National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia: Sharing Our Future. One of the key principles of this report was the principle of Cultural identity. This principle protects all Australians’ rights, in the constraints of limits that are carefully defined, to share and express their distinct cultural tradition. This implied that the immigrants would be freed from the dominance and power of the Anglo-Australian culture and, hence, could stick to their traditions in relation to sexuality and gender within the context of their native cultures. Another principle was the principle of Social justice which protects the right of every Australian to equity in opportunity and treatment, besides the elimination of barricades of ethnicity, race, religion, culture, gender,