Claude Levi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist who developed the concept of binary opposition. These are to very distinct opposites or clashing pairs you could say, for example, (male, female; rich, poor, dominant, submissive etc.). These are used to spark or create conflict for a film.
When we are using stereotypes, binary opposition is quite evident. So, when we imagine a poor person we imagine something entirely opposite to what we would imagine for a rich person. This theory is used to basically reduce the world to a simple either/or structure. Things are either right or wrong, good or bad, but never in between.
Queer theorist, Judith Butler, also argues that the binary opposite of gender is problematic.
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