Portrayal of Women in the Movie (Film), Metropolis

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Portrayal of Women in the Movie (Film), Metropolis

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.

The robot was seen as a creation of technology and femininity and sexuality through the male imagination. This creation of the robot was to reflect the fear that men have of women and of technology. Women, machines, and nature raise fear in men because they threaten the male dominance and control. The female robot rose fear about threatening male control because of the idea that technology could become so large and advanced that it would go out of control of man and destroy humanity. Maria also posed as a threat to Frederson because of her emotions and nurturing. As seen in the movie, the scene where Rotwang leads Frederson down to the catacombs to watch Maria preach about peace is a direct depiction of the male fear of femininity. This fear comes from Frederson not having any control over this situation because he did not know about the catacombs, which scares him. Men need to control these women because of these insecurities about their own dominance.

Throughout the entire movie there is an underlying theme of men always controlling women. The world of technology has always been seen as being all men while the women were standing on the outside looking in. For example, Rotwang creates this vamp to satisfy his own sexual desires, and to be able to control and dominate her every move. Woman has been constructed by man to serve her master, be completely dependent, and meet his needs. Lang invents his females as technological objects that come to life at the hands, and visions of their male masters. This is clearly seen when the robot, disguised as Maria, is put on the stake to burn.

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