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Sexism in the modern day
Sexism in the modern day
Sexism in the modern day
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First things first, starting off with how gender plays a very important role when it comes to heroic films like these. Most of the movies out in the world have all male dominance where they are usually the lead characters and end up saving the world. This is the most stereotypical presentation within the media, which refers to white hegemonic masculinity in the film industry. Simply because they are considered to be far more superior to other races within the United States, one must be white, heterosexual, powerful, affectionate and athletic in build to be able to categorize as hegemonic masculinity. Not to mention that in the end, where the main character called Ben was able to man up and kiss his crush, Kendall. This is what the media portrays to show that women want men who are the whole package of being brave, This reveals the passion and desire where the teenage boys are curious and want to see a woman stripping naked on the dance pole. In this scene, Denise instead portrays feminine heroine, which shows that she is definitely not the typical female actor in most movies, where she is “childlike, feminine and passive” (Friedan 3). Instead she is bold and strong since she took matter into her own hands and wield a shotgun to save the two teenage boys that were trapped in the club. Then again, Denise has all the characteristics for a female lead in the film, she is beautiful, has an amazing physique and she showed her side of being able to take care of herself without men’s help. Unfortunately that wasn’t enough because she somehow disappeared and left towards the end of the movie. Besides showing a different view of feminine heroine, she still cannot escape the details of having to show certain body parts or even a bit of skin to appear sexually
How does the film support or negate tgis point? In Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Mulvey states that, “Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side of the screen.” (Mulvey 40). A woman’s role in the narrative is bound to her sexuality or the way she draws attention away from the narrative.
In fact, we could even say that the film is liberating because young black men are able to see themselves in a new reimagining of black masculinity in opposition to the stereotypes of whites and blacks alike.
Like a contemporary Dorothy, Romancing the Stone's Joan Wilder must travel to Columbia and survive incredible adventures to learn that she had always been a capable and valuable person. Romancing the Stone (Robert Zemeckis, 1984) is part of a series of 1980s action comedies that disrupted previous expectations for female heroines. These female protagonists manage to subvert the standard action narrative and filmic gaze, learning to rescue themselves and to resist others' limited vision of them. Not only did these action comedies present strong female characters, they also offered a new filmic experience for female audiences. The commercial success of comic action heroines paved the way for women to appear in serious action roles--without the personal sacrifices required of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. Figures like Joan Wilder serve as an important link between previous strong yet feminine screen personas and current female stars.
Discriminating gender roles throughout the movie leaves one to believe if they are supposed to act a certain way. This film gives women and men roles that don’t exist anymore, during the 60s women were known to care for the family and take care of the house, basically working at home. However, a male was supposed to fight for his family, doing all the hard work so his wife didn’t have too. In today’s world, everyone does what makes them happy. You can’t tell a woman to stay at home, that makes them feel useless. Furthermore, males still play the roles of hard workers, they are powerful compared to a woman. However, in today’s world a male knows it isn’t right to boss a woman around, where in the 60s, it happened, today women have rights to do what they want not what they are
Women were represented in different ways throughout the movie Metropolis, but the underlying theme was women were seen as purely sexual. Maria was seen as the nurturer in the film, but also as a sexual object. She was the one who preached for peace and harmony down in the catacombs to the workers. Maria was also the nurturing maternal figure that was seen walking into the garden with all of the poor children. The vamp, on the other hand, was portrayed blatantly as a sexual object. This whole movie was seen through the eyes of the male perspective, which usually portrays women as sexual objects, and robs them of any identity. Lang shows Frederson as having fear of femininity which involves women's emotion and nurturing.
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
While we tend to look at the world in a gendered fashion, there are differences in what’s considered masculine and feminine. In addition to varying from person to person, the concepts of masculinity and femininity also vary across time periods, across different cultures, and even across the span of an individual’s life. Kimmel pluralizes these terms to “acknowledge that masculinity and femininity mean different things to different groups of people at different times” (Kimmel; 10). He goes on further to reference sociologist R. W. Connell’s explanation of hegemonic masculinity, which states that it is “constructed in relation to various subordinated masculinities as well as in relation to women” (Kimmel; 10). In an article by Connell, he describes
How can you be a man to your family when you are poor and black? Killer of Sheep poses this question over and over again, and the tension between masculinity, blackness and poverty is central to the movie. The film seems to provide Stan with several choices, all of which are directly related to his masculinity. He can accept the advances of the white woman, which offers him both a way out of a miserable job at the slaughterhouse and a boost to his “manliness” in the form of a tryst with a woman of a higher status. This is immediately unpalatable to him, a fact that is emphasized by the uncomfortable close-on of her hand rubbing his wrist and followed by her sideways smirk. Although he promises to think about her “warm proposition,” the movie never again explores this possibility. Alternately, he can buy the engine, which serves both as an assertion of masculinity and—as his friend notes—as a signifier of class. While he opts to try this, the entire plan is ill-fated; the scene where he picks up the engine contains some of the most imbalanced sequences in the entire movie, and the extreme and off-putting diagonal of the street effectively communicates
Masculinity is described as possession of attributes considered typical of a man. Hegemonic masculinity is a form of masculine character with cultural idealism and emphasis that connects masculinity to competitiveness, toughness, and women subordination. Masculinity hegemonic is the enforcement of male dominion over a society. Masculine ideology dates back to the time of agrarian and the industrial revolution in Europe when survival compelled men to leave their homesteads to work in industries to earn a living for their families while women remained at home to take care of family affairs (Good and Sherrod 210). Women did not work in industries then because industrial labor was considered too physical beyond their capacity. This led to definition of roles which placated the position of men in a society while condemning women as mere subordinates who cannot do without men. The critics of gender stereotypes in America describe the following five hegemonic features of masculinity: frontiersman ship, heterosexuality, occupational achievement, familial patriarchy, and physical force and control (Trujillo 4). The advent of the 20th century led to sweeping changes in American masculinity.
his Essay will analyse, introduce, and discuss the terms Hegemonic Masculinity and Emphasized femininity, if it still applies in modern times and the use of these concepts to comprehend the role of the man and female in Eastern Asia, in relation to post-war Japan. In order to present a clear and linear argument I will divide this essay into three parts: In the first part I will define the term hegemonic masculinity, the common traits and the influence that it has in society; the essay will continue then in explaining and outlining the term emphasized femininity. The second part will analyse the impact of the notions of hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity in relation to post war Japan has. The last part will briefly identify some
Hegemonic masculinity is a concept that is illuminated by Ten Responses to the Phrase “MAN UP” and “Do it for all your Pubic Hairs!”: Latino Boys, Masculinity, and Puberty, which identifies masculinity as a social construct influencing how one does their gender. Masculinity is a measure of a man’s social dominance and success and therefore is based on exaggerations of gender differences. Therefore, the more a man engages in masculine qualities and less in feminine qualities, the more accepted he will be. These readings build on different aspects of masculinity and work together to generate a more rounded analysis of social influences and pressures endorsing hegemonic masculinity, how it is practiced, and what its associated costs are.
While the social construction of femininity has been widely examined, the dominant role of masculinity until recently, has remained largely invisible. To construct a reasonable for or against argument that will outline whether masculinity is in crisis or not, I will apply relevant media theories along with ideas from influencing figures to create a constructive argument. The questions that arise that either support or argue with the statements that key theorists propose will be answered formatively and critically. Furthermore, analysis of the representation of gender and masculinity within modern media forms, along with the rise and formation of the ‘laddish’ culture and what factors have influenced the creations of lad mags; while outlining
3b. The books talk about the masculinity or tough man representation in crime films. The book also talks about the prison and the power to reform. A prison is a place where people are supposed to pay their punishment but it is also a place where people are humiliated like what we see in American History X when the guard yells and talks in an unprofessional manner to the inmates. Prisons are inhumane. Derek was reformed not by the prison itself, but by the actions of his fellow inmate who changed Derek’s perspectives towards minorities in particular to African Americans.
During a review by Vox, of the gender biases in Hollywood that were reported by the data visualization website Polygraph, over 2,000 movies underwent scrutiny in determining why men have more dialogue in movies, even in those that are supposed to be focused on the lead female characters. In what was stated to be one of the largest analyses of script reviews of all time, it was determined that the male characters within the study overrule women in over 78% of the analyzed films. This was concluded through a cross-analysis of character information such as name, gender, and age, with the information reported by the popular movie database, IMDB. The results of their study are astonishing. In the 2,005 screenplays across all movie genres that were reviewed by Polygraph, only two movies were delivered 100% by the lead female character. Conversely, the male dominated list has not only the largest number of results;
Women have made progress in the film industry in terms of the type of role they play in action films, although they are still portrayed as sex objects. The beginning of “a new type of female character” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47) in the world of action films began in 1976 with Sigourney Weaver, who played the leading role in the blockbuster film ‘Aliens’ as Lt. Ellen Ripley. She was the captain of her own spaceship, plus she was the one who gave out all the orders. Until then, men had always been the ones giving the orders; to see a woman in that type of role was outlandish. This was an astonishing change for the American industry of film. Sometime later, in 1984, Linda Hamilton starred in ‘The Terminator’, a film where she was not the leading character, but a strong female character as Sarah Connor. She had a combination of masculine and feminine qualities as “an androgynous superwoman, resourceful, competent and courageous, while at the same time caring, sensitive and intuitive” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47). These changes made in action films for female’s roles stirred up a lot of excitement in the “Western society” (Starlet, 2007). The demand for strong female characters in action films grew to a new high when Angelina Jolie starred in ‘Tomb Raider’ in 2001 and then in the sequel, ‘Tomb Raider II: The Cradle of Life’ in 2003 as Lara Croft. Her strong female character was not only masculine, but was also portrayed as a sex object. Most often, strong women in these types of films tend to fight without even gaining a mark. At the end of each fight, her hair and makeup would always be perfect. The female characters in these action films, whether their role was as the lead character or a supporting character, had similar aspects. I...