Is masculinity a gender role or are you just born to be masculine? There are plenty of movies especially movies that contain superhero’s where masculinity is found. You can spot masculinity not only in men but also in female superheroes. The movie I want to analyze is Kick-Ass but the character I mainly want to analyze for the over the shadowed role is Hit-Girl. The movie Kick-Ass is about a boy name David wanting to be a superhero he cannot do like Hit-Girl aka Mindy. Mindy father tells her that her mother is killed by the mob so she trains eleven years of her life to take down every single person in the mob. Gender is a way of expressing who you are then why does expression become an issue when gender roles are in the way. If gender is your …show more content…
Culture forces you to teach boys they must act a certain and tell the girls they must act a certain way. "People who express masculine and feminine traits equally are sometimes called androgynous. Among androgynous people, neither masculine nor feminine traits dominate" (Planned Parenthood). This movie does well with breaking typical stereotypes when Hit Girl comes across Kick Ass. Society teaches you that to be masculine you should be strong, independent, aggressive, non-emotional, and competitive while females are seen as gentle, caring, sensitive, and sweet. "Gender roles vary greatly from one culture to the next, from one ethnic group to the next, and from one social class to another" (Planned Parenthood). The movie has made a great deal of gender role reversal between Hit-Girl and Kick-Ass. While Kick-Ass is very sensitive and gentle because in one scene of the movie he is crying because he feels he can never be a true superhero. Hit girl is the total opposite, she loves to be aggressive, competitive with her father, and she shows no emotion, especially when she tells Kick-Ass that he is the reason her father is dead. Kim Peter's can relate to this with the study she did on women discrimination in the work" The importance of fit along social, identity- related, dimensions for occupational outcomes, there is …show more content…
The last scene I analyzed was the scene after Big Daddy (Mindy father) dies which is the end fight scene. This scene can be seen from two different angles because it shows masculinity and femininity. The scene shows masculinity because she is an eleven-year-old girl who took out mobsters with guns and knives in all to get revenge for her father and to make him proud of her even though he is dead. In the fight scene, she acts like she is tougher than them and does not care about any of them all she cares about is killing every one of them like it is a game. There is a sense of femininity right before she starts to kill all the men the camera zooms in on her face. In my opinion, you can see her looking fragile and questioning how this is going to play out. It was at least 15 men versus her how was she has gone to do this, but then she remembered that who she is doing this for and where she came from. The article Women in Combat Pros and Cons which talk about how women feel they should be on the front line of war fighting with men but men feel don't share the same idea. Women soldiers are downplayed just like female superhero's men always feel a need to sideline women's capabilities. If women can prove to be physically and emotionally helpful will there be a change on behalf of women attributes because we put the same effort just because women aren't allowed to fight in front
Tough Guise 2 began by illustrating the issues of de-gendering in news stories, articles and headlines regarding violent crimes. This would include stating “The shooter” or using some other generic phrase to describe the person who was the main cause of these crimes when, in fact, men are the leading cause of most of these crimes. De-gendering brings the issue away from just one gender and instead places it as a crime of a specific group, usually of age or race. The fact that we are constantly glossing over that most violent crimes are played out by men is probably one of the most important things touched on in this video.
Gender roles are a common if outdated, categorization of the ‘right’ ideas of what men and women are to do and be. Often unchanged throughout the decades and appearing to just develop into more complex entities as the year’s pass. These roles encompass ideas of day-to-day life, personal interactions, and often job prospects as well. Although vilified and greatly disliked by many, to the point people go against them, these roles are often portrayed in films, both old and new. The film we have just watched, His Girl Friday, has some instances of these roles and showcases the main character, Hildy, breaking a few of these gender roles.
One of the most prominent aspects of Stand by Me is how Reiner applies the gender stereotypes to the main characters in the film. During the film, several characters describe the actions of others with the use the derogatory word “pussy.” The boys use “pussy” as a synonym for the words girly or feminine. In American society today, individuals continue using stereotypes to define specific actions and groups. Researches Deborah A. Prentice and Erica Carranza address the topic of gender stereotypes in American culture when they
However, in Modleski’s analysis of the film, Rear Window, it is apparent that it is the actions of the characters that evaluates and defines their masculinity or femininity. The heroines, Violet and Corky are opposites when it comes to appearance. As it was established, Violet is feminine and Corky is masculine. However, in the film it only initially seems like Violet plays the more passive role and Corky plays the more active role. At the escalation of the film, Violet demonstrates her masculinity and actively uses the male gaze in her
The movie "Girl Fight" did an excellent job of depicting how one person dealt with and overcame gender stereotypes. The movie depicts the struggle of a high school girl, Diana Guzman, to overcome gender buriers and become a boxer. Her mother having died when she was young, she lives with her father and younger brother, Tiny. The father forces the son to take boxing lessons because he feels that it is important that Tiny know how to defend himself. However Diana cannot even tell her father that she wants money to take boxing lessons. Her father constantly hassles her about behaving more like a "girl" i.e., wearing skirts and giving more consideration to her appearance. He does not think it at all important that Diana should know how to defend herself as well, even though she obviously lives in the same dangerous neighborhood as her brother.
Consequently, they must then take on parties, dates, auctions, beach days, and fashion shows, all while concealing their true male identities. While doing this, the movie portrays extreme stereotypes of gender roles and expectations. Although the portrayal of female expectations and characteristics is exaggerated for comedic effect, the underlying points and issues still remain. The way the brothers dress, speak, act, and understand their new social life as females, all contributes to the obvious contrast in gender specific qualities. The consistent sexualization of women and over pompous attitudes of men throughout the film provides exceptional evidence that society has established acceptable norms for both genders. These established roles of femininity and masculinity conflict within the undercover agents as they struggle to act poise, arrogant, non-confrontational, and sexy like their fellow female friends are, yet this is completely out of the norm for them as they are truly males. However, when they slip-up and allow their defensive masculine traits to show through it allows for not only a comedic break, but an exceptional
The ways the characters portrayed what is supposedly masculine and feminine was when the author wrote about the type of clothes the grandma is wearing. She is wearing
We come to scene which is most important when talking about dependency on male counterparts. Evey is caught in the act of prostitution by fingermens who then decide to do whatever they want with her and even kill her but that’s when V a character from V for Vendetta comes to rescue Evey as a damsel in distress (Moore and Lloyd 6). This shows how Evey’s character is defenseless and couldn’t take on a masculine role and is instead waiting for someone in a masculine role to come and save her. By showing that scene Moore and Lloyd have separated male from a female according to their bodies and their representation of masculine and feminine. In an article about gender stereotyping and under-representation of female character in children’s picture
Gender is not based on the sex of a person, but the cultural norms of that society. Gender roles are based on the norms and standards in different societies (Flores 2012). Each societies has their own set of social norms, and the identities that fit those norms. In the United States masculine roles are associated with strength, dominance, and aggression. Women in the US are expected to be more passive, nurturing and subordinate (Flores 2012). Gender roles not only assign traits to men and women they affect the way men and women are supposed to think and act. Women are held to a different set of rules than men are. For a woman to show anger in public is highly stigmatized, and looked down upon. When a man does it it's considered normal. When women are in the media they are given a different set of g...
Others often use masculinity, most often associated with strength, confidence and self-sufficiency to define a man’s identity. The narrator perceives Tyler Durden as a fearless young man who is independent and living life by his own rules. So is Tyler Durden masculine because of his no nonsense attitude or are his law breaking antics and unusual lifestyle seen as a failure because he is a man with neither family, money nor a well respected job? These typical aspirations are commonly defined as the male American dream, but does following life by the rulebook placed on males by society really make a male masculine? Fight Club specifically debunks the male American dream. It challenges’ the idea that the masculine identity is defined by material items and instead embraces the idea that masculine identity can be found in liberation from conformity and the ability to endure pain.
Ruby, J. (2005, November 1). Women in Combat Roles: Is That the Question?. Off Our Backs,35, 36.
...into play that could affect how women perform in dangerous situations. Women are doing an outstanding job performing and magnifying their current positions in the military. We need to be satisfied and recognize our limitations as humans and soldiers. The role of women has always played an important role in military history. By leaving them out of combat their reputation can remain untainted.
The film, Ex Machina, is allegorical in reference to the ways in which women are treated in society today. The movie follows Caleb Smith as he goes to a research lab in which Nathan Bateman has crafted robots and is testing their artificial intelligence. Caleb takes part in a “Turing Test” which tests whether a human will recognize artificial intelligence or not be able to set the robot’s intellectual abilities, and in this case physical features, apart from a human. The robot being tested is Ava, and is crafted specifically to Caleb’s sexual interests as Nathan reveals that her appearance was inspired by Caleb’s pornography choices. In the film, Ava forms an artificial connection to Caleb; however, Caleb’s connection to Ava is far from artificial.
To sum up, one can conclude that all three films playfully and pointedly include a man’s image to convey certain meaning, but highlight the inability to connect to others and personal failure that is largely not based on gender
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.... ...