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Depiction of women in movies
Depiction of women in movies
Gender stereotypes in pop culture
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Movies like "Halloween", "300", and "Frozen" all portray a similar perspective on demolishing gender stereotypes. From feminism to homosexuality, these movies break the boundaries that women cannot be independent and that gays cannot posses masculinity. They show an entire new concept of gender roles and additionally create a very positive aura. The criticism used in these movies would be best described as "gender studies and queer theory" (Mays 1325).
The movie "Halloween" gives women the sense of superiority. Typically, horror films will make women appear fragile and weak. They make the women scream and cry for help. Films usually make them vulnerable to the attacker and more than often a male character will come to the rescue. This happens because there are "a set of social ideals that identif[y] white women with self-sacrifice, nurture, and the home, and white men with autonomous individualism and the world of capitalist commerce" (Hausman 579). Therefore, women are
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There is this massive war occurring between Persia and Greece. There's a ton of fighting, abuse, and killing that takes place in this movie. The masculine roles are completely fulfilled in this film, even though most of the characters in this movie commit actions that are not necessarily considered straight. There are numerous homosexual references like same sex hand holding and touching, and there are even some lines in this film that containsexual tension between men. This, along with many other elements, gives the movie a homosexual feel. Nevertheless, these men defeat the stereotypes of gays. Vatican states "gay men have not reached 'affective maturity' and so cannot 'relate correctly to both men and women' (Heck). This movie proves him wrong. These men are not light-hearted nor sensitive. They are mudering people with no remorse. "300" allows the opportunity for gays to be seen as equal as straight
Movies are a new edition in today’s culture. They are a new form of art medium that has arrived in the late 1900s and were a new way to express ideas and viewpoints of the time. A good example of this is the movie The Manchurian Candidate. The movie had a simple plot a man is kidnapped after the Korean war and is hypnotized to work for the communists and take down the U.S. This movie showed the American public’s fear of communism at the time. If a movie like this can easily portray the fears of the American people at the time then it can easily portray stereotypes of gender. There have been thousands of movies where the male protagonist is a rough tough dude but there is one movie that has that stereotype is broken. That movie is none other than Napoleon Dynamite.
Too many horror films provide scares and screams throughout their respective cinemas. Not many viewers follow what kind of model the films follow to appease their viewers. However, after reading film theorist Carol Clover’s novel, watching one of the films she associates in the novel “Halloween”, and also watching the movie “Nightmare on Elm Street” I say almost every “slasher” or horror film follows a model similar to Clover’s. The model is a female is featured as a primary character and that females tend to always overcome a situation at some point throughout the film.
The media is a powerful tool and has the ability to influence and change one’s overall perspective of the world and the position they play in it. Although Television shows such as Friday Night Lights are seen as entertainment by consumers, its storyline contributes to the social construction of reality about class in the United States.
According to Creed, there are seven possible faces of female monstrosity in the cinematic language: archaic mother, monstrous womb, vampire, witch possessed monster, deadly femme castrator, and the castrating mother. These elements of the female form in cinema help Creed’s definition of the female body as alien and an oppressive realm that provokes feelings of disgust. Creed states that “Horror emerges from the fact that woman has broken with her proper feminine role as she has ‘made a spectacle of herself’ and put her unsocialized body on display” (46). She goes on to relate this to the film The Exorcist (1973) and the young girl’s gradual possession, “with its emphasis on filthy utterances and depraved acts, seems so shocking… mockery of all established forms of propriety, of the clean and proper body and of the law itself define her as abject.Yet, despite her monstrous appearance and shocking utterances, she remains a strongly ambiguous figure.” (46). Creed also makes another fascinating point that highlights the films use of male and female characters. Besides the mother and daughter in the film The Exorcist all law enforcement, doctors, healers, archaologists, and priests are
I did my paper on the movie Pleasantville. This is about a brother and sister who get trapped inside the 50’s television show, Pleasantville. The movie starts off in color until they get to Pleasantville where their world suddenly turns to black and white. Pleasantville is a perfect society where husbands come home to a beautiful wife and children and a home cooked meal ready on the table, and everything and everyone works together to make the community a perfectly functioning society. When the siblings, David and Jennifer, become part of Pleasantville’s perfect society they immediately have a strong influence that changes it substantially. As the people of Pleasantville start breaking their community’s norms, color starts to appear
Led by Laura Mulvey, feminist film critics have discussed the difficulty presented to female spectators by the controlling male gaze and narrative generally found in mainstream film, creating for female spectators a position that forces them into limited choices: "bisexual" identification with active male characters; identification with the passive, often victimized, female characters; or on occasion, identification with a "masculinized" active female character, who is generally punished for her unhealthy behavior. Before discussing recent improvements, it is important to note that a group of Classic Hollywood films regularly offered female spectators positive, female characters who were active in controlling narrative, gazing and desiring: the screwball comedy.
Throughout the century gender roles have changed dramatically. During the 60s roles were given to certain genders. Stereotyping them to play the action of what their gender was expected to do. One may believe that a man or women should have a specific role, but as the years came, certain genders stuck up for themselves, making a statement that they are just as capable to do anything anyone else does. The 1968 drama film Night of the Living Dead directed by George Romero is full of gender discrimination. This movie shows the typical actions of how women and males were supposed to act during the 60s; however, the roles played in this film have changed majorly over the years. Women and males have every right to play any role they want in today’s world. Romero may leave the audience angry with how he judges gender roles in
For several years now, Disney seems to be determined not to offend anyone in order to keep its audience; indeed we are confronted with animation films full of compromises; they are not as degrading for women as Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), but they are nonetheless still filled with clichés. Films such as The Princess and The Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), Wreck-it Ralph (2012), have in common the sense of being progressive and however we can notice the resurgence of harmful gendered stereotypes on the subjects of the social scale, women’s role in society, or the status quo. Frozen comes in and turns out to be no exception. Though it includes several encouraging and gratifying elements, it contributes insidiously to spread numerous
Smith, Jeff, and Chloe Beighley. "Normalizing Male Dominance: Gender Representation in 2012 Films." Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy. N.p., 12 Feb. 2013. Web. 1 Apr. 2014.
This essay sets out to distinguish how male characters can be portrayed in the same fashion as their female counterparts, and therefore become subjected to the same erotic objectification. This will be researched under the circumstances that the production revolves around gay characters and the assumed audience is exchanged from a homogenous crowd of heterosexual spectators, to a homogenous crowd of homosexual spectators. To support this claim there will be references to a segment from the American remake of the television series Queer as Folk (USA, dev. Ron Cowen, Daniel Lipman, 2000-2005) where Brian Kinney (Gale Harold) and Justin Taylor (Randy Harris) first meet.
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.
Film scholar and gender theorist Linda Williams begins her article “Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess,” with an anecdote about a dispute between herself and her son, regarding what is considered “gross,” (727) in films. It is this anecdote that invites her readers to understand the motivations and implications of films that fall under the category of “body” genre, namely, horror films, melodramas, (henceforth referred to as “weepies”) and pornography. Williams explains that, in regards to excess, the constant attempts at “determining where to draw the line,” (727) has inspired her and other theorists alike to question the inspirations, motivations, and implications of these “body genre” films. After her own research and consideration, Williams explains that she believes there is “value in thinking about the form, function, and system of seemingly gratuitous excesses in these three genres,” (728) and she will attempt to prove that these films are excessive on purpose, in order to inspire a collective physical effect on the audience that cannot be experienced when watching other genres.
Some of the films that bring out the gender roles in our society include; Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, The Princess and the Frog, Aladdin, Hercules,
Throughout various mediums, queer and gender portrayals are not shown in the best light. Majority of media show clear negative connotations of homosexuals and queens while constantly being a target of discrimination and ridicule. Though as time went on many writers decided to speak up and gain awareness for queer and gender biases by incorporating messages of societal discrimination in their plays. Much of their ideals were that of how sexual/gender identity portrayal, lifestyle stigma, and preconceived notions of the homosexual community. These ideals were combined in what is called gender studies and queer literary theory. Some of these concepts and ideas of queer and gender theory can be seen throughout the play
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 ...