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women's roles in world war 2
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women's roles in world war 2
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Throughout time much has been said about the film roles of women. Everyone from scholars to bloggers has an opinion on the significance in society of how women on the big screen are portrayed. For me all of this debate only detracts from what the true focus of a film should be; an artistic expression of a story that reflects the values of the time in which it is written. Pauline Keel a respectable critic for the New Yorker once said “Movies of the past are like samples-swatches of cloth-of the period in which they were made” (Kael). The purpose of this essay is to analyze lead female roles in one action film from each decade starting in the 1940’s up to today to see if they do in fact reflect the current ideas of society.
1940’s
The 40’s was a pivotal decade in the rethinking of the American woman. With all the men gone to war the country counted on woman to take up the slack and perform not only their designated roles of mother and housewife but also as a good percentage of the workforce. This is the beginning point where traditional ideas of the roles of woman were questioned and society started to understand that women were capable of doing much more than originally thought. However this new awareness did not reflect in most of the movies portraying women in the 40’s. Most of the roles were either maternal dramas or showed woman as the desire (or fear) of the male protagonist (A. S. Walsh). Of course let’s not forget the film noir style of dark shots and undertones of mistrust, cynicism, and despair. Although film noir depicts women as dangerous, manipulative, and needing to be exterminated it still confines them to the traditional roles and their behavior is a display of them rebelling against a situation forced on them by a...
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THE SAGA OF THE VIKING WOMEN AND THEIR VOYAGE TO THE WATERS OF THE GREAT SEA SERPENT. Dir. Roger Corman. Perf. Abby Dalton. 1957. Online.
Velding, Victoria. Gender & Society in the Classroom: Media Representations. 2012. Web. 09 April 2014.
Walford, Michael. Women & Film: the Representation of Women Today. 23 September 2007. Web. 09 April 2014.
Walsh, Andrea S. Women's Film and Female Experience, 1940-1950. New York: Praeger, 1984. E-Book.
Walsh, Kenneth T. The 1960s: A Decade of Change for Women. 12 March 2010. Web. 09 April 2014.
Wilson, Natalie. Hollywood’s War on Women. 15 May 2012. Web. 14 April 2014.
Wloszczyna, Susan. Film females join the fight club. 07 July 2012. Web. 24 April 2014.
Wonder Woman. Dir. Vincent McEveety. Perf. Cathy Lee Crosby. 1974. Online.
Zurko, Nicholas. Gender Inequality in Film . 25 November 2013. Web. 09 April 2014.
In Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Mulvey states that, “Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side of the screen.” (Mulvey 40). A woman’s role in the narrative is bound to her sexuality or the way she
Today’s culture sees a gap between the male and female gender. This is evident in everything from the films we watch, music we listen to, and even in our everyday lives. Historically, this issue has seen an even larger gap, and can be observed in the films that were made during that time. Vertigo and Citizen Kane both show the objectification of women by controlling them, writing them in supportive roles, and placing their value in the way that they look.
A female in film noir is typically portrayed in one of two ways; she’s either a dependable, trustworthy, devoted, and loving woman, or she’s a manipulative, predatory, double crossing, and unloving temptress. Noir labels the cold hearted and ruthless woman archetype as a Femme Fatale. A femme fatale is walking trouble, and she’s aware of it. This woman is gorgeous, refined, eloquent, and commands the attention of any room she’s in. When the femme fatale desires something, she pursues it. If there’s an obstacle in her way, she overcomes it. If she can’t handle it herself, all she needs to do it bat her eyelashes and the nearest man is all too willing to take care of it for her. In essence, the most dangerous thing about the femme fatale is her
Todd, Janet. Women and Film. Vol. 4. New York, NY: Holmes and Meier Publishers, 1988.
Kaplan, Ann. "Is the Gaze Male?" Women in Film: Both Sides of the Camera. London and
African cinema has evolved in its representation of the contemporary African woman. Earlier portrayals of women in African cinema conveyed stereotypical notions of the ‘Ideal African woman’ which reflected gender relations concurrent in early and modern day Africa to an extent. Hitherto, conventionalized depictions of women in Africa have diminished their roles in African cinema as simplistic docile maternal figures, male sexual commodities and casualties of a domineering patriarchal society. However, modern characterizations of women in African cinema have partially metamorphosed in accordance with the progression of gender equality. Modern African filmmakers are using their artistic abilities to advocate a more egalitarian society
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.
Williams, Linda. "Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess." Braudy and Cohen (1991 / 2004): 727-41. Print.
In the 1930s, aspects of pre-feminism in Hollywood movies were rampant (Hugel 1). This helps to explain why women were given limited roles in the movies. The women were portrayed as symbols of love. The women never participated in other active roles. Because they were weak creatures that could not perform other challenging roles in the society (Horowitz 41). The women were also presented as victims of the environment in which they lived.
Led by Laura Mulvey, feminist film critics have discussed the difficulty presented to female spectators by the controlling male gaze and narrative generally found in mainstream film, creating for female spectators a position that forces them into limited choices: "bisexual" identification with active male characters; identification with the passive, often victimized, female characters; or on occasion, identification with a "masculinized" active female character, who is generally punished for her unhealthy behavior. Before discussing recent improvements, it is important to note that a group of Classic Hollywood films regularly offered female spectators positive, female characters who were active in controlling narrative, gazing and desiring: the screwball comedy.
Women have made progress in the film industry in terms of the type of role they play in action films, although they are still portrayed as sex objects. The beginning of “a new type of female character” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47) in the world of action films began in 1976 with Sigourney Weaver, who played the leading role in the blockbuster film ‘Aliens’ as Lt. Ellen Ripley. She was the captain of her own spaceship, plus she was the one who gave out all the orders. Until then, men had always been the ones giving the orders; to see a woman in that type of role was outlandish. This was an astonishing change for the American industry of film. Sometime later, in 1984, Linda Hamilton starred in ‘The Terminator’, a film where she was not the leading character, but a strong female character as Sarah Connor. She had a combination of masculine and feminine qualities as “an androgynous superwoman, resourceful, competent and courageous, while at the same time caring, sensitive and intuitive” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47). These changes made in action films for female’s roles stirred up a lot of excitement in the “Western society” (Starlet, 2007). 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. I...
The depictions of women in films have changed in time with society to ensure the films popularity.
Women’s roles in movies have changed dramatically throughout the years. As a result of the changing societal norms, women have experienced more transition in their roles than any other class. During the period of classical Hollywood cinema, both society and the film industry preached that women should be dependent on men and remain in home in order to guarantee stability in the community and the family. Women did not have predominated roles in movies such as being the heroin. The 1940’s film Gilda wasn’t an exception. In Gilda, the female character mainly had two different stereotypes. The female character was first stereotyped as a sex object and the second stereotyped as a scorned woman who has to be punished.
Noted in Yvonne Tasker’s Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema, Goldie Hawn says this about women's role in the film business “There are only thee ages for women in Hollywood: Babe, District Attorney and Driving Miss Daisy” (1998, p. 3). While Haw...
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 ...