Strength is In the Eye of the Beholder

1303 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How are women portrayed in current literature

In my quest to create a well rounded and A+ worthy essay about Shakespeare's As You Like It, I came upon key elements of popular culture pertaining to feminism and the rhetoric used to describe it. Of course, “strong female character” is a term thrown around plenty now days, however, I never took a moment to contemplate what it meant. Unfortunately, my research dredged up a plethora of unsettling ideas about what traits strong females posses, and has led me to think films should no longer portray what is now classically called “strong” and instead produce more realistic female characters, thus redefining a more positive representation of women. Without this awareness, young adults will continue to believe that a strong woman falls into three categories; abnormally smart, irrevocably sexy, and unquestionably strong.

I should clarify I don't mean that female characters cannot be blessed with one, two, or even three of the characteristics at once, but that the disproportionate amount of film and TV women are nearly super human with these traits. A perfect example is Angelina Jolie's portrayal of Mrs. Smith in the film Mr. & Mrs. Smith. She is wickedly smart & has sex appeal that is off the charts, and runs around wielding machine guns fending off enemies with every turn killing and leaving destruction without skipping a heartbeat. Her character seems fake and I have no reason to think anything of her but 'how does she go through everything and not get a hangnail?' Shallow, but honest, and sadly I see her only as carrying the quality of “bad-ass” not true strength. I wish I could write that Mrs. Smith is alone or just a single instance of this false durability, however these types of tough females are popping up in films left and r...

... middle of paper ...

...s speaks of a serious cultural disconnect where many people cannot handle the idea of woman who encompasses femininity and tenacity in equal parts, and therefore must rely on a fantasy image of a woman that is demeaning, yet shrouded in overtly cosmetic power that is so subversive even feminists do not realize that this type of character is far weaker and lacking than the helpless maiden. This type of character shows the flaws in current societal thinking; the idea that people are not ready to see a woman as more than a sex object especially if she is stronger or smarter than a man. In a way, a barrage of these characters is truly a mockery of females in a sense that if a woman decides not to be in need of rescue by a man, she can no longer be viewed as human, and therefore must transcend reality to avoid destroying notions of failing masculinity in popular culture.

Show More
Related

  • What Are The Stereotypes Of Women In Dracula

    1371 Words  | 3 Pages

    Even though women such as Lucy demonstrate stereotypical female weakness, characters such as Mina defy the conventional submissive female, as an independent woman, a role uncommon of novels in this era. In addition, Mina, in comparison to men, possesses substantially stronger emotional fortitude and controls her emotions, while the men who are supposed to be strong expose emotional weakness and frailty. Ultimately, however, no matter Mina’s intelligence or strengths, the men continually suppress Mina’s vast amount of wisdom in order to maintain their perceived dominance. Nonetheless, Stoker’s messages throughout the novel regarding women silently protest the sexist expectations of the overly limiting Victorian era. Should today’s modern feminists take Stoker’s peaceful approach and protest subtly hoping for long-term change? Or should feminists act with violent protests in hope for prompt change? Gender equality will not happen overnight, however, instead of rushing minuscule modifications with violent protest, society must patiently wait for productive and peaceful change, in order to prevent an even larger

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Laurie Penny's 'What To Do When You Re Not The Hero Anymore'

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the first paragraph of Laurie Penny’s essay “What to do when you’re not the hero anymore” she tells the reader how she recently went to see the new Star Wars movie. To her surprise a female character, Rey, fought off a bad guy as an equal. Hollywood has incredible power in how messages are portrayed in books, TV shows, and movies. It is no secret that media representation normalizes the reality of white male power. Penny explores how it is becoming more common to see a women lead in books, movies, and TV shows, rather than the stereotypical male.

    Read More

  • A Few Good Men Film Analysis

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gender and the portrayal of gender roles in a film is an intriguing topic. It is interesting to uncover the way women have been idealized in our films, which mirrors the sentiments of the society of that period in time. Consequently, the thesis of this essay is a feminist approach that seeks to compare and contrast the gender roles of two films. The selected films are A few Good Men and Some Like it Hot.

    Read More

  • Napoleon Dynamite Stereotypes

    833 Words  | 2 Pages

    Movies are a new edition in today’s culture. They are a new form of art medium that has arrived in the late 1900s and were a new way to express ideas and viewpoints of the time. A good example of this is the movie The Manchurian Candidate. The movie had a simple plot a man is kidnapped after the Korean war and is hypnotized to work for the communists and take down the U.S. This movie showed the American public’s fear of communism at the time. If a movie like this can easily portray the fears of the American people at the time then it can easily portray stereotypes of gender. There have been thousands of movies where the male protagonist is a rough tough dude but there is one movie that has that stereotype is broken. That movie is none other than Napoleon Dynamite.

    Read More

  • Trope In Frankenstein

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout most of literature and history, the notion of ‘the woman’ has been little more than a caricature of the actual female identity. Most works of literature rely on only a handful of tropes for their female characters and often use women to prop up the male characters: female characters are sacrificed for plot development. It may be that the author actually sacrifices a female character by killing her off, like Mary Shelly did in Frankenstein in order to get Victor Frankenstein to confront the monster he had created, or by reducing a character to just a childish girl who only fulfills a trope, as Oscar Wilde did with Cecily and Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest. Using female characters in order to further the male characters’

    Read More

  • Sleeping Beauty: Feminist Critics

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).

    Read More

  • Sandra Cisneros's “Never Marry a Mexican”

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...e relationship with men, as nothing but tools she can sharpen and destroy, lives through lust and an uncanny ability to blend into any social class makes her unique. Her character is proven as an unreliable narrator as she exaggerates parts of the story and tries to explain that she is in fact not guilty of being a mistress, but a person caught in a crossfire between two others.

    Read More

  • The Thousand And One Nights Vs Medea Analysis

    1471 Words  | 3 Pages

    Due to traditional stereotypes of women, literature around the world is heavily male-dominant, with few female characters outside of cliché tropes. Whenever a female character is introduced, however, the assumption is that she will be a strong lead that challenges the patriarchal values. The authors of The Thousand and One Nights and Medea use their female centered stories to prove their contrasting beliefs on the role of women not only in literature, but also in society. A story with a female main character can be seen as empowering, but this is not always the case, as seen when comparing and contrasting Medea and The Thousand and One Nights.

    Read More

  • Treatment Of Women In The Odyssey Essay

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...e, women are the weaker of the two sexes. Women are slaves and spoils of war, if they are valued for sex they are used for sex. The universal portrayal of women causes a reevaluation of modern day gender balances by the reader.

    Read More

  • The Construction of Feminity in “Hills Like White Elephants” and “The Stoy of an Hour”

    1438 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to “The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language”, the word “feminity” is defined as “the quality or condition of being feminine or a characteristic or trait traditionally held to be female.” Further speaking, feminity is formed by various socially-defined and biologically-created gender roles played by women influenced by a number of social and cultural factors. For example, the traditional gender roles of women include nurturer, birth giver, homemaker and caregiver. However, marked by a series of women's rights movements starting from the 19th century, women’s gender roles, as well as the ways how society and men perceive women, have been largely changed. This significant change, described as a process of female awakening, was widely reflected in many contemporary literature works. This essay will specifically focus on the construction of feminity in two short stories, “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and “The Stoy of an Hour” by Kate Chopin through examining how the authors define “feminity” in their treatment of female characters.

    Read More

  • What Does Strength Mean?

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    Strength is a term with many definitions. What does strength mean? Anyone can sit down and start to write down their strengths but, how many different types of strengths are there? There are personal strengths, mental strengths, and spiritual strengths that all have a positive effect on people’s lives. Throughout life, strength is what helps overcome the problems we face. Strength is defined by Dictionary.com as “a good or beneficial quality or attribute of a person or thing.” No matter what kind of strength different people in society have; strength is something gained through personal experiences and life. Strength is having the mind set to overcome all of life’s challenges and battles.

    Read More

  • The Evolution of the Role of Women in British and American Literature

    1818 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.

    Read More

  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    The films message to viewers about gender and power is that women are meant to take care of the home and play the supportive role, while men go out to their jobs and provide. Men are strong and burly and women are naïve and domesticated. Women need men and men always come to the rescue to save women and give them a happy ending. Power is portrayed in the film both visually and through the film’s script and dialogue. The common idea that women are inferior to men is placed subtly in this movie throughout the plot and how these charac...

    Read More

  • The Representation of Women in Action Films

    1897 Words  | 4 Pages

    The demand for strong female characters in action films grew to a new high when Angelina Jolie starred in ‘Tomb Raider’ in 2001 and then in the sequel, ‘Tomb Raider II: The Cradle of Life’ in 2003 as Lara Croft. Her strong female character was not only masculine, but was also portrayed as a sex object. Most often, strong women in these types of films tend to fight without even gaining a mark. At the end of each fight, her hair and makeup would always be perfect. The female characters in these action films, whether their role was as the lead character or a supporting character, had similar aspects.... ...

    Read More

  • Feminism and the Movie Industry

    1785 Words  | 4 Pages

    Feminism is a movement that supports women equality within society. In relation to film, feminism is what pushes the equal representation of females in mainstream films. Laura Mulvey is a feminist theorist that is famous for touching on this particular issue of how men and women are represented in movies. Through her studies, she discovered that many films were portraying men and women very differently from reality. She came up with a theory that best described why there is such as huge misrepresentation of the social status quos of male and female characters. She believed that mainstream film is used to maintain the status quo and prevent the realization of gender equality. This is why films are continuously following the old tradition that males are dominant and females are submissive. This is the ideology that is always present when we watch a movie. This is evident in the films from the past but also currently. It is as if the film industry is still catering to the male viewers of each generation in the same way. Laura Mulvey points out that women are constantly being seen as sexual objects, whether it is the outfits they wear or do not wear or the way they behave, or secondary characters with no symbolic cause. She states that, “in traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote it-be-looked-at-ness.”(Mulvey pg. 715). Thus, women are nevertheless displayed as nothing more than passive objects for the viewing pleasure of the audience. Mulvey also points out through her research that in every mainstream movie, there is ...

    Read More

More about Strength is In the Eye of the Beholder

Open Document