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Portrayal of women in movies
Gender inequality in the movie industry
Gender inequality in the film industry
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Name – PriyankaDharwani
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Final Draft - Sexism in the Indian Cinema
Indian cinema has contributed a lot to the media and the entertainment industry over the years now and moulded the image of cinema in India in the eyes of the world. In the Generation we live in today, India has arrived at a stage where woman and men are treated equally; well almost equally. But there are still people, still industries and certain areas that do look down upon woman till date. And have we ever wondered why? There are many industries and reasons why woman are still looked down upon on. One of the industries being Cinema, The cinema over the years has only portrayed the image of woman as being in the house doing the chores or being dominated by
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When she was asked by Amish tripathi if she faced any gender issues in the industry she had replied “Though my father is a North Indian Punjabi, never once did he make me feel the difference between my brother and me. Our parents never told their daughters you can’t do this, or we would have to marry at a certain age or we cannot work. But when I joined the film industry, it was such a shock! I would give an opinion on something and would be told to behave like a girl and be softer else people wouldn’t find me attractive. On occasions, I have been told to go on stage and speak after the male actor. I have reacted by saying but I am a bigger star,” Stating another famous Bollywood actress – Anushka Sharma’s viewpoints on Sexism in Bollywood she said ““If there is an actor at the same stature as me, who would be able to bring in only that much money to a movie, he would still be paid more than me because he is a guy. Nobody is even thinking about it. It is just ingrained.” And when she was asked about who is given more preference every time she said ““You always feel the discrimination. It is not just with the money, it is also in general. If you are on an outdoor schedule, you know that the guy is going to get the better room. Why does that need to
Film making has gone through quite the substantial change since it’s initial coining just before the turn of the 19th century, and one would tend argue that the largest amount of this change has come quite recently or more so in the latter part of film’s history as a whole. One of the more prominent changes having taken place being the role of women in film. Once upon a time having a very set role in the industry, such as editing for example. To mention briefly the likes of Dede Allen, Verna Fields, Thelma Schoonmaker and so forth. Our female counterparts now occupy virtually every aspect of the film making industry that males do; and in many instances excel past us. Quite clearly this change has taken place behind the lens, but has it taken
Decades ago Katha Pollitt realized there were not enough women is the television industry and preschool aged children were the ones being effected the most. From Pollitt’s article the Smurfette principle was developed and spread worldwide. This principle has helped lead the way for women in the media, but has it been enough? In her dissertation about how female characters are represented in Hollywood, Reema Dutt (2013) points out that “Animated children’s films tend to focus on male characters, with females as ancillary accessories...” Young girls are the most impressionable at the preschool age, yet Hollywood allowed men to dominate the big screen for so many years. Dutt (2013) goes on to explain “This is particularly disappointing given the fact that these films target impressionable children, who are being fed normative and antiquated portrayals of women at a young age.” Pollitt’s outlook was not erroneous, however the differences in television between 1991 and 2016 are astounding. There are twenty three years between Pollitt’s article and Dutt’s dissertation and many aspects still hold true. Over those years there has been much headway made for women in television. According to a study in HuffPost Women Nina Bahadur (2012) reported that “…44.3 percent of females were gainfully employed — compared with 54.5 percent of
Some people might say that these movies provide entertainment and transport families into the lives of princes and princesses. Many critics have said that the films have amazing soundtracks and have detailed and interesting plots. Still, however entertaining the films may be, the way women are viewed and treated outweigh any enjoyment that a viewer could have. The subliminal lessons young women learn from these films have lifelong repercussions and negatively affect the female
modern media is objectified and put on the screen for male viewers. Films are a
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.
Hannan Goodall, author of Media’s Influence on Gender Stereotypes, once said “If as a society we refuse to accept certain gender stereotypes as truth, then the media makes may not be as inclined to center their message on them”. Do you ever wonder why Windex commercials generally show women cleaning the windows instead of men? Or why beer commercials show men sitting around watching sports with their buddies while sipping a beer instead of women? Commercials, Movies and Television Shows are the vast source of gender stereotyping, because they are adapted to the specific, focusing on male or female’s gender roles as their main target. Deborah Tannen, the author of Sex, Lies, and Conversation, focus on addressing the different communicating styles between men and women and how it effects their relationships as a whole. Media’s gender role stereotypes have shown effect in the Hindu culture, work and family
Movies are a big part of people’s lives; everyone has a favorite movie, or set of movies. They have impacted people’s lives since they were first made, and continue to do so today. In recent years, movies have cast women to play the roles of heroes. Although women have been playing heroic roles recently, they have always been role models in movies, which have set examples for future generations, empowered women, and have shed light on the feminist movement in the U.S.
Patriarchy is a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it. It is called “the dominant ideology of patriarchy.” A system where men continually play the dominant or masculine role. Past generations argued that people who speak against feminism are scared of change. They believed one gender should have control over the other and were scared that everyone should be treated the same. The idea that one gender is inferior to another in any aspects is absurd and damaging. Each human being has its own special talents and skills that they can choose to help society, and if we start to embrace those abilities without prejudice and without controlling people with stereotypical gender roles, then
Also, the film revealed women empowerment and how superior they can be compared to men. While demonstrating sexual objectification, empowerment, there was also sexual exploitation of the women, shown through the film. Throughout this essay, gender based issues that were associated with the film character will be demonstrated while connecting to the real world and popular culture.
Media representations of women remain wrong. However, the status of women has changed significantly. Representations of women across all media tend to highlight the following: beauty (within narrow conventions), size/physique, sexuality, emotional (as opposed to intellectual) dealings and relationships (as opposed to independence/freedom).
...ality because everyone should have equal to do what they want. Popular culture spread the idea of nautaral which changed the position of female in the univeral. Women' knowlegdes and abilities seem to have rise a lot compare with 1990s. Woman would be a successful businessman, worker, fireman and so on. As mass media become the most important part of communication in the earth, the most infusive part to affect human's attitudes is the domestic or romantic drama. It spread the different concepts to the families, neighbors, friends etc by the interaction between them. Movie heroes are not spread one single-minded nowadays, the gender and sexuality of people or hero should all be equal.
Feminist theory was derived from the social movement of feminism where political women fight for the right of females in general and argue in depth about the unequality we face today. In the aspect of cinema, feminists notice the fictitious representations of females and also, machismo. In 1974, a book written by Molly Haskell "From Reverence to Rape: The treatment of Women in Movies" argues about how women almost always play only passive roles while men are always awarded with active, heroic roles. Moreover, how women are portrayed in movies are very important as it plays a big role to the audience on how to look at a woman and how to treat her in real life due to the illusionism that cinema offers. These images of women created in the cinema shapes what an ideal woman is. This can be further explained through an article 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' written by a feminist named Laura Mulvey in 1975. She uses psychoanalysis theories by Sigmund Freud to analyze 'Scopophilia' which is the desire to see. This explains how the audience is hooked to the screen when a sexy woman is present. In a bigger picture, where Scopophilia derives from, 'Voyeurism' is also known as feeling visual pleasure when looking at another. Narcissism on the other hand means identifying one's self with the role played. It is not hard to notice that in classical cinema, men often play the active role while the women are always the object of desire for the male leads, displayed as a sexual object and frequently the damsels in distress. Therefore, the obvious imbalance of power in classical cinema shows how men are accountable to moving the narratives along. Subconsciously, narcissism occurs in the audience as they ...
Rao, S. (2007). The globalization of bollywood: An ethnography of non-elite audiences in india. The communication Review, 10(1), 57-76. doi: 10.1080/10714420601168491
“This was supposed to restructure the representation of women in film so there would be more positive ‘role models’ for young girls to look up too. (Chaudhuri, 2006)” (Sutherland, Feltey, 2016). Making films that put out more positive images truly change the way women in real life see themselves. “These effects shape the personal identity of women given that people naturally adopt traits of the representations that they see of themselves,” (Trujillo, Sim,
The representation of violence exacted upon women in cinema is inextricable from being projected upon all women. To provide a scene that objectifies the female is to reduce the feminine form to its non-dual state, e.g., a sexual object providing a vessel for male gratification (hubris and sexual) rather then being defined by its duality of sentient and physical forms. Those who construct scenes of violence against women are bound to a moral responsibility to subjectify the woman’s perspective, thus reestablishing the female as a victim rather then an object and rendering the act of violence intelligible (deplorable, open to interpretation).