Battle of the Sexes (2017)
GOING IN
In 1973, a tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs became the most watched televised sporting event of all time. Riggs was past his prime and in and effort to regain the lost spotlight, he claimed that even at the age of 55 he would be able to easily beat the best female tennis player. Billie Jean King (one of the women he challenged), was both extremely successful and an outspoken advocate for gender equality. This biopic starring Emma Stone and Steve Carrell covers the famous match as well as the effect it had on their personal lives. I truly believe that Emma Stone can do no wrong, and in recent dramatic performances Carrell has proven to me that he is more than just a comedian. It feels
…show more content…
Every year she seems to wow me more. First her wonderful supporting role in Birdman , then her Oscar-winning leading performance in La La Land, and now she has equaled that with her portrayal of Billie Jean King in Battle of the Sexes. From her fiery outspoken strength on gender equality to her passionate awkward confusion over her feelings for a same-sex lover to her determination and physical dominance on the tennis court, Stone captures every quality of BJK perfectly. Though the eventual famous tennis match between 29-year old BJK and 55-year old Bobby Riggs may give the film its central plot, make no mistake that this is truly King's …show more content…
Despite the actual Battle of the Sexes match being incredibly well shot and riveting, there isn't much other tennis. What we do get is a thorough exploration of BJK's budding sexuality and exploration of a same-sex relationship. It's sweetly done and handled with great respect. However, this wistful romance all occurs while King is still married to her husband Larry, and this is where the film lost me. I watched closely waiting for the moment when consequences would come, but ultimately the movie has nothing good to say about commitment in relationship, and instead keeps the focus on the positive aspect of loving whoever you love and not being ashamed. That's all well and good if you're single, but that wasn't the case
Like a contemporary Dorothy, Romancing the Stone's Joan Wilder must travel to Columbia and survive incredible adventures to learn that she had always been a capable and valuable person. Romancing the Stone (Robert Zemeckis, 1984) is part of a series of 1980s action comedies that disrupted previous expectations for female heroines. These female protagonists manage to subvert the standard action narrative and filmic gaze, learning to rescue themselves and to resist others' limited vision of them. Not only did these action comedies present strong female characters, they also offered a new filmic experience for female audiences. The commercial success of comic action heroines paved the way for women to appear in serious action roles--without the personal sacrifices required of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. Figures like Joan Wilder serve as an important link between previous strong yet feminine screen personas and current female stars.
In 'Girlfight', the main character is at first skeptically viewed by her coach and then she is viewed as a humorous oddity until she proves her determination. Last year, Muhamid Ali and George Foreman's daughters decided to fight each other in a rematch of the famed Rumble in the Jungle. This received major network coverage and was a pay-per-view event on HBO, but the girls were trivialized and many late night commentators ridiculed the idea of women boxing more than one round. Jay Leno suggested that in between rounds, the ladies would stop to touch up their makeup or become enraged if their hair was mussed during the match. The event was well watched because of this curiosity, and it hopefully proved that the daughters of Ali and Forman were just as much an athlete as they were. Women or men who enter a non-traditional sport for their gender will always be viewed with skepticism.
In almost every film there is constant gender expectation and role audiences expect men and women to act like in a particular story. It always seems that every plot the women are the ones that can't fend for themselves, so they are saved by masculine male figure. Although this is how most stories pan out, with slasher films, this is not entirely true. Slasher films have “The immensely generative story of a psycho killer who slashes to death a string of mostly female victims, one by one, until he is subdued or killed, usually by the one girl who has survived” (Clover 193). It is thought that most people only subside
These movies allowed female characters to embody all the contradictions that could make them a woman. They were portrayed as the “femme fatale” and also “mother,” the “seductress” and at the same time the “saint,” (Newsom, 2011). Female characters were multi-faceted during this time and had much more complexity and interesting qualities than in the movies we watch today. Today, only 16% of protagonists in movies are female, and the portrayal of these women is one of sexualization and dependence rather than complexity (Newsom, 2011).
The two-time Oscar nominee, 50, took the opportunity to make a statement about racial inequality in Hollywood. She also thank the people who helped get her into a leading role.
Drew Barrymore’s Whip it, follows 17 year old Bliss Cavendar on her journey to find herself through the stigmatized sport of roller derby. The film Whip It plays with themes such as the American Dream and Gender, and uses these themes to combat the normative views of femininity within America. Bliss progressive view on femininity is used to contrast her mother’s, Brooke traditional views on femininity, giving the audience a means to analyze and critique the traditional views of gender roles that is often portrayed in Hollywood. This critique will examine how Whip It uses roller derby as the catalyst to Bliss escape from her mother’s traditional views on womanhood, and how this liberation from the norm more accurately reflects the ideals of
...ue to the fact that she is so concerned with the gender aspect that she overlooks the reasons for keeping the categories separate. By having separate categories a male and female staring in the same film are both eligible to win an award, something that would be impossible if the categories were merged. She also disregards the fact that merging the two categories would lead to fewer nominees, which would force both male and female actors to be left out of the nominations. Her background in Women’s studies further impacts the overall effectiveness of this argument. Many readers may disregard the entire article because they feel that she is just using it as a means to promote Women’s rights. On the other hand, people who firmly believe in gender equality may be more inclined to accept her argument, even if they could care less about having separate categories.
Throughout time, women in movies and other similar texts are shown to be generally focused on men. This might make sense if every movie ever made was set in a time where women had absolutely no rights but of course, that is not the case. Older and more modern depictions of women in media, both show women whose lives revolve around men. Even movies that market their female characters as strong and powerful are still shown to be dependent on the male leads and puts them first. Also, since women in movies have more of a focus on men, female to female relationships suffer in the same films. There are very few exceptions to this unfortunate truth.
In today's society there are many stereotypes of women in the media and what they are supposed to represent. This movie effectively portrays what women have to go through to be remembered for their story rather than their face. As a young reporter, Tally Atwater walks into the Miami station ready to do whatever is asked of her. Because her dream is to become a news ancho...
In Brenda Cooper’s article “Chick Flicks,” she argues, the film, Thelma and Louise employs mockery as a narrative tool, and functions to produce a defiant narrative which fiercely confronts and denounces patriarchy. Societal norms are able to create a kind unconscious compliance, resulting in self-imposed coercion and oppression. A film like Thelma and Louise brings consciousness to women’s own complicity in social norms like patriarchy, so they can no longer blindly follow these norms. This leaves women in either a state of denial and resistance or a state of evolution and change. Through mockery this film sheds light on accepted norms, and in some, causes a defensive response, as it
With the help of superb editing, sound, mise en scene, and cinematography, this film cannot be topped. The fist scene of the movie creates an atmosphere that helps the viewer know that he/she will enjoy this wonderful classic. Throughout the movie there are surprises and fun that makes this a movie that people will want to watch again and again. Gene Kelly said it best when he said, "Dignity, always dignity. " That is what this movie has from beginning to end, dignity.
Gender in sports has been a controversial issue ever since sports were invented. In the early years, sports were played only by the men, and the women were to sit on the sidelines and watch. This was another area of life exemplifying the sexism of people in which women were not allowed to do something that men could. However, over the last century in particular, things have begun to change.
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...
The Movie “Aging of Champion” I had the opportunity in my Social Work with Aging to watch a movie called “Aging of Champion”. It is indicated in this paper, I will be connecting class material witnessed in the movie and I will discuss ways in which the film challenged or confirmed my views on aging. The movie is a documentary that follows five competitors who sprint, leap, swim, a 100-year-old tennis champion, 86-year-old pole vaulter, and rough-and-tumble basketball grandmothers as overcome the obstacles of aging that our society puts on them. I believe the documentary challenged and confirmed my views on aging. Furthermore, when I first saw the documentary it really inspired me to see 60-year-olds and even 100-year-olds that are active healthy
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...