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Gender roles and how they have changed
The change of gender roles
Gender roles and how they have changed
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Throughout the course we learned of the monstrosities that not only humans are capable of, but also attracted to. In the movie Gone Girl we see a female character fake her death and frame her husband for her murder. Prior to this class I had just taken the movie for what it was, a drama and mystery but, after examining the movie closely I see it is way more than a Hollywood blockbuster. By picking apart all aspects of the movie through both a philosophical and theoretical lens we see how the movie addresses social norms, our ideal selves, and gender performativity. Amy plays a very intricate role when it comes to exposing contemporary social norms. When I first saw this movie I did not give many things a second thought, for instance when the …show more content…
In Magistrale’s “Terror Theories” we see how abjection affects society. Abjection is when our natural understanding of roles, rules, and borders is threatened. Theoretically Amy should be a submissive, delicate, loving, and dependent wife. Even since 2014 I feel as if society has steered away from that. Overtime I feel like these gender roles are changing for the better. Earlier I had spoken in regards to gender performativity and now we are on abjection and I feel as if they go hand in hand because times are changing. In the 1900’s a woman who spoke her mind and had a high paying job virtually went against all societal norms, whereas now a woman who possess these attributes no longer threatens these norms. Amy was not the only one who threatened societal norms; Nick also was not falling inline to what is required of a man. Nick said that he had a mistress because he felt that he was just Amy’s puppet and his relationship with Andie was the only thing he could control. With no job or anything really going for Nick he knew that he was not fulfilling what was required of him. Desi was close to an ideal man; he was wealthy and was only missing a woman. Did you ever think why it didn’t work out between him and Amy? It is because Amy could not live up to the ideal women he needed her to be. Amy completely changed from the girl she was at the trailer park, which I believe was her true self, to a very delicate and sophisticated woman. Another reason why I believe Amy did not want to be with Desi was because she could not as easily manipulate him as she had done with Nick and her first boyfriend. Nick had even said to his sister Margot that he was only Amy’s puppet. In the bar when Nick met with Amy’s first boyfriend, the boyfriend had stated that he was getting tired of Amy because she was controlling him too much as
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
This essay argues that the film Bridesmaids transcends traditional representations of feminine desire that exhibits women as spectacles of erotic pleasure, through the symbolic reversal of gender identity in cinematic spaces. By discussing feminist perspectives on cinema, along with psychoanalytic theory and ideological narratives of female image, this essay will prove Bridesmaids embodies a new form of feminine desire coded in the space of the comedic film industry.
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.
These movies allowed female characters to embody all the contradictions that could make them a woman. They were portrayed as the “femme fatale” and also “mother,” the “seductress” and at the same time the “saint,” (Newsom, 2011). Female characters were multi-faceted during this time and had much more complexity and interesting qualities than in the movies we watch today. Today, only 16% of protagonists in movies are female, and the portrayal of these women is one of sexualization and dependence rather than complexity (Newsom, 2011).
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.
The Ugly Truth, a film which was released in 2009, displays many particular stereotypes and gender issues which we find within American society. Gender is made up of socially constructed ideas which are reinforced by society in regards to what it means to be masculine or feminine. We first learn gender from our parents; however they too had to first learn it from their families and society. Within the American society, the media takes on a large role in creating gender norms. The media is made up of films, magazines, television programs, and news papers. The Ugly Truth, although a funny film, perpetuates these stereotypes and ideas of gender provided by our society.
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.
For the past few decades, women’s positions improve significantly due to feminist movements, which can be presented through contemporary films. Instead of focusing on male-only heroes, an increasing number of filmmakers tend to create female heroines. Nevertheless, women have not yet achieved reproductive rights. In other words, different from men, who can freely express themselves, female’s actions are still limited by societal norm. Thus, female characters, as a reflection of contemporary females in society, demonstrate the fact that females are attempting to challenge gender stereotypes under societal pressures. Katniss, the heroine in Hunger Games, is presented as a role model. However, Marieme, the working class girl in Girlhood, seems
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.
The image of female sexuality in our society has been corrupted in Levy’s opinion, tainted by the countless industries profiting off of the sexualization of women, who are the main driving force behind our current day raunch culture. Take Girls Gone Wild (GGW from henceforth), GGW is a perfect example of how the younger generation of women is effected by our current day raunch culture. GGW often targets women whom they see as the average looking girl, “the girl next door” so to speak. They are often college students ...
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.
I spent the afternoon revisiting the movie Stepmom starring Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts. When the movie first was released, it was Christmas 1998. I was the stepmother to 2 stepdaughters and one stepson. In addition, I had added to our brood by becoming a biological mom to a daughter (3 years) and a baby boy (4 months). I had the crazy notion that maybe this would be a perfect movie for me to see with my two stepdaughters, Danielle and Nicole over the Christmas break from school. Both resisted, and I recall that I never did see the movie in the theaters. I ended up renting it and watching it alone on VHS several months later.
The movie Sicko evaluates the medical services and shows the U.S. government 's role in policing the medical profession. Before I watched this movie, I thought that living in America was living the American dream. However, this American dream is only a façade or an illusion that takes my mind away from some of America 's flaws. In this documentary, the director and writer Michael Moore exposes the dysfunctional health care system in the United States, which sacrifice essential health services in order to maximize profits and insurance companies, which pay bonuses to employees who are successful in denying coverage and claims. They are in the business of finding reasons not to spend money. Health insurance does not protect you from not paying.
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 ...
From the beginning of the movie it’s a shown that Amy’s childhood was appropriated. Her parents had a successful children’s book series that turned once simple Amy Elliot into Amazing Amy. The problem with the real Amy and Amazing Amy was that, the real Amy was typically always one step behind her fictionalized