Commodity In The Film 'The Wolf Of Wall Street'

Commodity or Woman?
Zohra Nouri A commodity is defined as a product or service that is in demand, in relation to a product that the public wants, is mass-produced and subsequently purchased. This definition does not raise an eyebrow until we further analyze that the definition broadly includes women, this being a result of the pervasiveness of popular cultures portrayal of sexually explicit women, especially in mainstream films. One may question not only the definition, but the fundamental role this commodification of women plays in reiterating gender stereotypes and inequality. These exploitive sexual hedonistic behaviours are evident in the 2013 Martin Scorsese film, The Wolf of Wall Street, stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, a New York stockbroker who runs a firm that continuously participate in money laundering, security fraud

The Wolf of Wall Street, as one may assume, failed miserably. The first requirement is if the film has at least two women with names, which it does Naomi Lapagina (Jordan’s second wife) and Aunt Emma (Naomi’s Aunt). Secondly, do the women talk to each other at least once, some of the women within the movie are seen to have friendships or familial bonds however they are not seen conversing. Their plot lines all involved, sex, motherhood or being cheated on, which is the third requirement: when the women speak, do they talk about something other than men. The Bechdel Test demonstrates how the women in this film are merely objects of lust, have two dimensional personalities and are only present to please these men. It is disheartening that in a generation of feminism, women can still be degraded to roles, in films of one of this era’s iconic directors, that commemorate stereotypes of females as being helpless, provocative and their inability to exist outside of their male