Bridesmaids Film Analysis

When observing television shows and movies, many stereotypes of women commonly exist such as a mother, a dutiful wife or a sex object. Many of these movies and television shows display women as prize for men to compete for by generalizing their abilities and feelings. While it is typical for a woman to play a lead role in a romance film with some sort of fairy-tale ending, Bridesmaids defies the typical by portraying women as main characters in a comedy. Bridesmaids, the movie, focuses in on the struggling life of the maid of honor, Annie, who is competing with another bridesmaid, Helen, for attention from the soon to be bride, Lillian. Annie’s life happens to also be spiraling out of control after losing bother her jobs as a baker and a jewelry

The theories of Feminine Mystique suggest that “all women are inherently domestic” and giving Annie, the main character, the title of a baker, the film suggests that she is domestic (Ankerson, 2016). Additionally, symbolic annihilation states, “if women worked outside the home at all, they worked as secretaries, nurses, teachers and in other positions subordinate to men” (Ankerson, 2016). When examining the title of a baker, it is typically seen as a woman’s job as opposed to a man’s job. Along with this theory, it is also supposed to be beneath men who are typically seen having professional jobs such as CEOs of firms or lawyers. This helps to establish that the film represents the women being portrayed in it as domestic. Ultimately making them seem less successful in the job force than men. Along with this notion, rather than having Annie or any of the other main female characters in the film having a high ranked job, they are all mainly seen as housewives, stay at home mothers or have a stereotypical domestic job. Following in the film, Annie receives a job as a jewelry sales woman, her job had her use her looks to sell the jewelry. The audience can clearly see this when Annie’s boss tells another employee to “show Annie your love is eternal face” (Townsend, Mendel, Apatow & Fieg, 2011). This helps to show how the employees boss treats is workers like sex objects in order to help sell and promote more products in the store. This specific action helps to represent women in this particular film as unintelligent people whose only important quality is their outer physical appearance. Alongside this stereotype, women portray the stereotype of a mother in this film. This can clearly be seen by Rita in the film who is constantly cleaning up after her children. When she first met Annie, she says her kids, “are cute, but when they reach