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The social construction of gender roles
The social construction of gender roles
The social construction of gender roles
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Gender roles. The specific roles assigned to genders by a patriarchal society have evolved over time; however, for a long period of time, women have been assigned the role as a helpless, homebound nurturer by men: “women had many domestic responsibilities, including caring for children, preparing food, and tending livestock” (Bovie n.p.). Shown repeatedly through Buttercup, her role as a female character was defined by the role assigned to her. The damsel in distress archetype, explicitly shown throughout The Princess Bride, illuminates the role of woman that is conceived by men in the film which proves that the film should be considered art.
This film is based around a pair of people who are in love-- Buttercup and Westley. However, after
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Westley’s supposive death, Buttercup was chosen to be Prince Humperdinck's bride against her will. As the plot unravels, Buttercup finds out that Westly is alive, and the pair come across many obstacles to be together again. Throughout the film, the damsel in distress archetype has a constant appearance in the plot. After Buttercup is kidnapped by Westley, they are forced to travel through a dangerous swamp to evade Prince Humperdinck and his soldiers. There is a part of the swamp where fire erupts sporadically through holes in the ground. During this scene, Westley picks up Buttercup because she is unaware of the placement of the holes. The fact that Buttercup can not walk independently is an example of her role as a woman. Westley forcefully picks her up without asking to carry her which shows how men have implemented women’s role in society. The idea that Buttercup is incapable and defenseless to protect herself is conceived by Westley. His assumption of Buttercup’s weakness leads her to accept the idea that she is indeed defenseless against the swamp. The assumption of her weakness to defend herself parallels to the role of women in a patriarchal society beginning in early agricultural societies: “Agricultural civilizations were characteristically patriarchal; that is, they were run by men and based on the assumption that men directed political, economic, and cultural life” (“Patriarchal” n.p.). The aspects of a normal patriarchal society, that is based on the common belief of women’s inferiority, are enforced by Westley’s actions to help his helpless lover. After the pair encounters the fire holes, they encounter an oversized rodent that attempts to kill them. At first when Westley gets attacked by the rodent, Buttercup does not attempt to help even though Westley is bitten. The reluctance to act depicts the construct of Buttercup’s role as a female character. The idea that she is powerless to protect herself or others is reinforced by her actions. The idea that Buttercup is defenseless was sprouted from men who applied the role to her. Soon after Westley fought off the rodent, it began crawling toward Buttercup. Due to the monster crawling towards her, Buttercup screamed, “Westley” (The Princess Bride, n.p.). Once again Buttercup is unable to defend herself making her the damsel in distress. The inability to independently respond to the immediate danger is an effect of the helpless role applied to her. Buttercup defenselessness is facilitated by the men in the film who generate the idea that she can not help herself; thus, it causes her to believe it as well. When Westley stops the rodent from attacking Buttercup, she picks up a log. Buttercup looks as if she is going to use the log as a weapon to stop the attack; however, Buttercup refuses to use the log, and she stands still watching the ordeal. The refusal to use the log as a weapon of defense corresponds to Buttercup’s lack of self respect to redefine her role. The repetition of the idea that Buttercup is defenseless has caused her to believe that she is unable to help herself. The self fulfilling prophecy, caused by the repeated implementation of the weak role, reoccurs throughout the film illustrating the damsel in distress archetype. Later in the film, when Prince Humperdinck and his soldiers finally captured Buttercup and Westley, Buttercup was placed in the castle in preparation to marry the prince. Buttercup was unsure of what happened to Westley, but she strongly believed that he would rescue her before the unwanted wedding. Buttercup repeated her believe that Westley would save her: “My Westley is going to save me” (The Princess Bride n.p.). Repetition is used “to signify the act of repeating something (actions, words, objects) as well as the result of this act – the repeated action, word, or object” (“Repetition” n.p.). The repetition of this phrase signifies the engraved idea that woman have a helpless nature. Shown earlier in the film, the repeated actions of Westley defending and saving Buttercup causes Buttercup’s idea: Westley will, once again, safe her from marrying Humperdinck. By Buttercup becoming dependent on Westley to save her, she is consequently making herself the damsel in distress, and she becomes helplessly reliant on a man to save her. Buttercup deeming herself as helpless is a result of Westley continuously saving her which creates the idea that she is incapable of defending herself. Archetypes are used to illustrate the universality of ideas: “An archetype is a typical character, an action, or a situation that seems to represent such universal patterns of human nature” (“Archetype” n.p.).
Carl Jung argued that an archetype is in the collective unconscious of mankind; therefore, archetypes show common themes of life (“Archetype” n.p.). Since an archetype displays common themes of mankind, the damsel in distress archetype enables The Princess Bride to be considered art due to its universal aspect: gender roles apply to everyone. The universality of unequal gender roles is seen by the unequivalent statuses of women through history. The inequalities of gender roles originate in ancient times: “Within the Roman empire, for example, women had a role defined by staying at home and staying out of politics. The Greeks may have invented democracy but they didn't give women the vote” (McKeown n.p.). The unequal roles of men and women were prevalent in ancient times and continued into modern times. Inequalities span from unequal treatment to uneven pay: “IWPR’s report on sex and race discrimination in the workplace shows that outright discrimination in pay, hiring, or promotions continues to be a significant feature of working life” (“Discrimination” n.p.). Unequal gender roles are common throughout history. Because the damsel in distress archetype shines a light on the universality of misogynistic gender roles, The Princess Bride should be considered a piece of
art. The Princess Bride illuminates the common inequalities of gender roles. The knowledge of these prevalent injustices will help society acknowledge our problems and work to fix them in the future.
The Princess Bride is a cliche love story movie about two lovers and their tale that tells how they became separated and found each other again. It tells this story using archetypes all throughout the movie. One of the most important of the archetypes being the magic weapon. Overcoming obstacles and and achieving goals becomes much easier with the help of a magic weapon.
In Princess Bride, Westley's quest is to return to his true love, Buttercup, whom he has loved since a young worker on her family's farm. With no money to marry, Westley decides to strike out for his fortune but is taken prisoner; he is mistakenly reported as dead to Buttercup, who is promised to Prince Humperdink as his bride. In his quest, Westley must first survive being taken prisoner by the Dread Pirate Roberts which he is able to do by showing no fear when Roberts announces daily "Tomorrow you will die" (Princess Bride n.p.). Roberts in fact is so impressed that he retires and names Westley as his successor. Upon
Westley is of a humble origin- a farm boy working on Buttercup’s farm. He loves her and she loves him. Whenever Buttercup ask Westley for a favor he replies with “As you wish.” He really means, I love you. However the mystery remains of what had happened to his parents, was he an orphan or did he leave his family. Westley had set sail in the seas to seek out his fortune to have enough money to marry Buttercup. His ship was attacked by Dread Pirate Roberts, which is why everyone assumed Westley was dead for five whole years. Since the love of his life was kidnapped, Westley set off to save Buttercup and on the way he encountered struggles/ trials, helpers, thresholds/tests and helpers along the
“As you wish,” said by the Farm boy,westley, a main character who ties the story of love,romance,and action together. The book The Princess Bride by William Goldman is a story of two lovers, Buttercup and Westley. After Westley dies on a boat by The Dread Pirate Roberts, the King of Florin, Prince Humperdinck, started searching for love. After a visit from the count and countess they decide that Buttercup is worthy of being the queen. Even though Buttercup says she will never love The Prince, she still agrees to the marriage. Soon after Buttercup is introduced to Florin she gets kidnapped by the Turk, the Sicilian, and the Spaniard. They all figure out that they are being followed by the man in black, which leads to the adventure part of the story. In The Princess Bride, William Goldman uses many different archetypes like the damsel in distress, the task, and the magic weapon which are archetypes that have been used for centuries and renders them new to make the story flow together and more interesting.
Westley’s dedication to Buttercup motivated him throughout the story. He admitted the following to her: "I have taught myself languages because of you. I have made my body strong because
The Princess Bride is an example of how typical gender roles were defied by people even back then. Then even everyone wasn’t the same, everyone didn’t act they same way or even conform to a stereotype. It is a modern fairy tale set in a typical fairy tale setting: a kingdom before a lot of
Gender roles are society’s concept on how men and woman should behave. In The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hamlet by William Shakespeare, gender roles are evident in how characters act and distinguish each other.
This means that these women have less privileges than black males, because even though both of them share the same race, male as a gender is generally ranked higher than women. Similarly, black men have less privileges than white men, because the white race is ranked higher in society. These universalizing assumptions rely on the essentialist way of thinking, therefore blocking the fact that women’s lives are much more diverse, as each woman has different, multiple life experiences and personality traits. This idea of the power-dominated group of society is known to be rooted from the other oppressive structures such as Eurocentrism, heterosexism, transphobia, and ableism. For example, Eurocentrism is “a view that Europe is the centre of the world and “civilization”, and everything must be measured against this standard.” (56). This ideal standard is creating oppression towards members of society who are not necessarily white, male or heterosexual, thus, allowing inequality to take place and unearned privilege towards this group of “power-dominated” people. From children’s Disney movies, kids witness masculine and feminine stereotypes from a very young age. These reinforced stereotypes teach children how men and women should act, look and behave. For example, in the movie “Hercules”, a delicate and gentle princess finds love with the big, muscular, and ‘manly’ hero named Hercules. As these films describe that men are the complete opposites of
In the Princess Bride the author William Goldman decides to kill off Wesley the main character of the romance comedy. But when he does he has a strange drawback and has the sudden realization of what he had just done. He mourns, grieves, and finds himself in his very own “Pit of Despair.” Yet how can this be, he had never experienced such a tragedy himself, but in his writing of a fictional fantasy character he is overwhelmed with these genuine emotions. Sentiments and actions are easier to access and put into writing if one has already experienced the event. Skilled authors can write pieces without experience by using similar emotions and merging them to create what one would expect to feel. The more believable the world that is conjured is to the audience the more they will be impacted by tragedies and trials in a story. A true
An expectation of how fairy tale stories should be and how typical characters should act is deeply engrained within all of us from childhood. It all begins with classic stories like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Snow White. Sometimes though there are stories that completely turn around our view of how things should be. The Princess Bride by William Goldman is one of these stories. In it, our normal view of a princesses, heroes, and villains is greatly changed.
In conclusion, gender role in Elizabethan era is very complex with respect to women’s role. Men are the masters of the home and society; they preside over every aspect of life. They are however, expected to take care of their family and also be actively involved in politics, war, and they inherit their father’s properties. Women role varied a according to their social status. All women were raised to be subservient to men. Unlike upper class women, lower class women were denied any kind of education. And all women are expected to get married and bear children. The qualities Shakespeare gave Beatrice are very significant because it contrasts traditional Elizabethan theater. Gender role has evolved over time, especially women’s role and it will continue to evolve as long as there are women like Beatrice around.
Buttercup acts as the damsel in distress almost drowning in quick sand and faces a large rodent only to have a brave Westley never giving up his devotion for her. Buttercup and Westley make it out of the forest only to encounter Prince Humperdinck and Count Rugen waiting for them. This moment is important because the separation of the two of them brings out Westley’s true determination to be with her. Rugen brings Westley to an underground torture chamber .This is the lowest part in a hero’s journey, where Westley is losing hope of his survival and fulfillment of his promise to Buttercup. He is in the depths his despair, but ultimately faces death by Prince Humperdinck. The hero must come back to life as his goal is not complete so he gains unexpected allies, Fezzick and Inigo. They take him to Miracle Max a wizard that provides them with a concoction to bring Westley back to life. Although he now faces part paralysis he is determined to take siege on the castle working together to stop the wedding between Humperdinck and Buttercup, his love for Buttercup fueling him. Succeeding with his journey for true love he defeats Humperdinck claiming Buttercup as his
In multiple instances throughout the film, female characters violate gender norms by acting as both warriors and leaders because they are adapting typically masculine traits. In the film, women are the majority of the labor force at iron town. The men are merely there to do the labor that needs the most physical power. “Americans oversimplify Japanese women as demure, submissive, and oppressed” (Kyu Hyun, 2002, 38). This quote shows that the stereotype of women in Japanese culture had been just like the western perspective where they were below men. This quote also shows that Princess Mononoke reverses the gender role from being submissive to being above men. Another quote that supports that women were not submissive says that “the young unmarried women in Japan have become a powerful group, demographically and economically” (Kyu Hyun, 2002, 39). The women who were in the upper class society of Japan had time on their hands and we know this because they had time to write literature. “Most of the canonical work from this period was produced by women of the upper social class” (Varner, 2005,
Disney and old fairytales threaten gender politics and ideal women roles by giving certain stereotypes for domestic and personality traits. Fairytales that have turned into Disney productions have sculpted domestic roles for women that consist of cooking, cleaning and caring for the children. Disney has also created these princesses with personalities that are shy, passive, and vulnerable. The cause of these stereotypes are making individuals obliterate their own identities and becoming clones from the mold that was prepared for
Gender roles seek to put a person into a mold of what someone else sees them to be. For example in "Keep Within Compass," it is obvious that a man drew the plate because the woman is depicted to be genteel, sedate, and almost air headed in appearance, with no voice of her own. This is a prime example of the despicable properties placed in gender roles. Girls cannot play football and guys cannot be cheerleaders. The gender roles are defining what is right and what is wrong within society. For example, in the "Keep Within Compass" plate, the woman is wrong if she does not conform to the ideal of society.