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This essay will argue that films and other media cultures represent an element of modern life, whilst gender ideologies and stereotypes still remain as a question of how society thinks about gender identities. With so many films that deliver messages and images about men and women today, it is inevitable that it would leave the audiences with no impact about these ideas whether directly or indirectly. However, people live in a modern life that keeps changing and thus the traditional stereotypes and generalisations that existed before about media and gender might not be as relevant in today’s world, as the society keep changing which gradually affects the media and people’s attitude to change. Douglas Kellner phrase that media culture “constitutes a common culture” (Kellner 1995, p.1) about gender is not entirely true. This essay will argue that media images do not fully represent the gender roles in today’s society. Using the film Mr. and Mrs. Smith as an example, where the gender roles have been switched, it will examine on how the gender roles are represented in the film (Mr. and Mrs.Smith 2005). Traditionally, men would be seen as more dominant than women, but in the film, one could see that the female character, Jane Smith is more dominant compared to her husband, John Smith.
At the beginning of the film, when the police are looking after Jane, John was at the bar and Jane was the one who approaches John in order to get saved by him (Mr. and Mrs.Smith 2005). John has taken the role of a man that protects the woman in which shows that women are vulnerable and inferior who often has no control over themselves and rely on men (Firestone et al. 2003). The film does show the generalisation about man and woman ideology on the societ...
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...als of which we forge our notion what it means to be male or female” is becoming less applicable as many films are becoming less predictable and taking up challenging roles by allowing women to act as a more dominant character in order for the movies to succeed. Therefore, film does not constitute common culture, as movie makers will create fascinating stories out of what is actually happening in the society for the film to be exciting to watch for the audiences. The film may deliver or represents certain aspects and stereotypes of gender in the society but does not fully represent the society itself. As a result, every viewer would be left with their own thoughts and opinions without judging what the movie is presenting are totally right. Therefore, films do give people an insight about our society but it does not control the way people should behave in the society.
Mainstream movies are about men’s lives, and the few movies about women’s lives, at their core, still also revolve around men (Newsom, 2011). These female leads often have male love interests, looking to get married or get pregnant. Strong independent female leads are still exist for the male view, as they are hypersexualized, or the “fighting fuck toy,” (Newsom, 2011). This depiction has created a culture where women are insecure and waiting for a knight on a horse to come rescue and provide for her as well as the acceptance of women
American commercial cinema currently fuels many aspects of society. In the twenty-first century it has become available, active force in the perception of gender relations in the United States. In the earlier part of this century filmmakers, as well as the public, did not necessarily view the female“media image” as an infrastructure of sex inequality. Today, contemporary audiences and critics have become preoccupied with the role the cinema plays in shaping social values, institutions, and attitudes. American cinema has become narrowly focused on images of violent women, female sexuality, the portrayal of the “weaker sex” and subversively portraying women negatively in film. “Double Indemnity can be read in two ways. It is either a misogynist film about a terrifying, destroying woman, or it is a film that liberates the female character from the restrictive and oppressed melodramatic situation that render her helpless” (Kolker 124). There are arguably two extreme portrayals of the character of Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity; neither one is an accurate or fare portrayal.
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.
While the film focuses mainly on the theme of media responsibility and covers US’s politics in the early 1950s, it also encircles around other crucial themes such as sexism. This essay discusses about how this film is used as a tool for objectivity, agenda setting, stereotyping within gender, and how these has impacted the characters in the movie and viewers.
Even in modern media today, strong examples of gender role expectations, gender role socialization, gender inequality, and heteronormativity are expressed. Movies are a prime example of where they can be found. Even though times have changed and gender role expectations have faded slightly from the traditional ones, they are still expressed in media which we surround ourselves with every day. Due to the amount of examples found in films we are subconsciously being socialized without knowing it. Gender roles and expectations will always exist and even if they are hard to notice, they will always be present.
What is stereotype? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines stereotype as “believing unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same.” Stereotypes are everywhere. Stereotypes cover racial groups, gender, political groups and even demographic. Stereotypes affect our everyday lives. Sometimes people are judged based on what they wear, how they look, how they act or people they hang out with. Gender and racial stereotypes are very controversial in today’s society and many fall victims. Nevertheless, racial and gender stereotypes have serious consequences in everyday life. It makes individuals have little to no motivation and it also puts a label about how a person should act or live. When one is stereotype they
Girls are supposed to play with dolls, wear pink, and grow up to become princesses. Boys are suppose to play with cars, wear blue, and become firefighters and policemen. These are just some of the common gender stereotypes that children grow up to hear. Interactions with toys are one of the entryway to different aspects of cognitive development and socialism in early childhood. As children move through development they begin to develop different gender roles and gender stereotypes that are influenced by their peers and caregivers. (Chick, Heilman-Houser, & Hunter, 2002; Freeman, 2007; Leaper, 2000)
In Kenneth Mackinnon’s article “Masculinity in Movies,” he provides information about what has changed and what has remained somewhat the same throughout the years of film making, as well as examples of “masculinity in movies.” It is said that the movie industry is a “key source for images of dominant masculinity.” To help with categorizing different types of movies, movies separated into “genres.” They may not tell the same story, but all movies in a specific genre are somehow related in one way or another.
The author Sarah Projansky is the professor of film and media arts as well as of gender studies at the university of Utah. The book addresses
an also kept very private. Since feminists and adult film has come together over the past couple of years , many adults films has not been the same. Feminist bring a middle ground of the fantasy world and some social problems together. They bring about ways that stop inequality , from the color of your skins to your sexual orientation. Society see adult films as woman being degraded , but feminist see it as woman being empowered and coming in tune with one self. So in this paper we will discuss how many people see adult films as a social problem and others question why should it be a social problem.
Unrestrained female sexuality in popular media is regarded as something of a taboo. As a society, we are not used to the pleasure of women being portrayed on screen, despite our supposedly ‘equal’ society. Much of this is the inflection of sexism and the patriarchy, placed upon the minds of the masses, influencing the internalized discomfort of female sexuality. This, of course, does not apply towards male sexuality. Male sexuality is unrelenting and respected, even revered. These concepts of unrestrained sexuality, equal pleasure and lack of censoring have leached into one of the major sources of media in our society, which is the all encompassing film.
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 ...
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).