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Misconceptions of gender roles in mass media
Gender representation in mass media
Gender representation in mass media
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Safe Haven is a romance film about a young woman named Katie Feldman who decides to move to a small town in North Carolina to escape a dark and abusive past with her husband. Katie tries to keep a relatively low profile life in this town, and eventually ends up falling in love with the people and affection that fills and accompanies this town, and more specifically with a widower named Alex and his two children. Thanks to Alex and his kids, Katie learns to not only lose her constant fear of emotional and physical pain but also to love again. Throughout the movie, questions begin to rise about her past and Katie continuously finds herself struggling to maintain her secret hidden. This movie depicts and embraces certain gender roles that are …show more content…
commonly seen in romance films. Throughout the history of visual text creation, women and men have had very specific and stereotypical roles. Women are normally viewed as weak and broken when it comes to romantically inclined films, and men are expected and seen as either the saviors or the villains. Society has subconsciously led us to accept certain roles that most of the time we do not consider strange or untrue. Why do we not question this? Why do we so easily accept these restrictions and limits that are created because of these films? In Safe Haven, Katie represents the weak, feminine role who seems to be asking for help and looking for an escape from her inner fears. She regularly struggles with her insecurities and lack of trust due to the extremely harsh circumstances she has encountered throughout her life. This movie leads us to believe and understand that Katie needs someone to save her not only from her husband but also from herself. We as a society lower her capability of surpassing her challenges on her own. Instead, we conclude that she needs someone and more specifically a male figure to help her conquer these obstacles. Because of all she’s been through, we obviously do not easily expect her to be able overcome her difficulties. In real life, when a women goes through an abusive relationship like Katie, we do not regularly expect her conquer her fears alone. But that is what we expect as human beings who have been taught that women are not capable of defeating such circumstances by themselves. By constantly being told that we cannot, we tend to believe it. If we started to produce more movies that convey women who are strong enough to conquer their fears, maybe women in real life will begin to understand how capable they are of doing anything. Alex and Katie’s husband represent the stereotypical male roles in romance films.
Katie’s husband portrays the abusive, drunk husband that thinks he owns his wife. He physically and emotionally abuses Katie to the point of almost killing her. This specific role he plays, although a stereotype, is one that should be played in movies to raise awareness of these types of abusive relationships. But it should not be necessarily a male. Although more common, we have become too accustomed to the idea that only a man could abuse a women, which leads us to shift our attention away from all the women who hurt men in the world. From their youth, men have constantly been reminded that they are men, and that a characteristic of masculinity is hiding feelings and concealing their emotions. But in reality, everyone should have capacity of portraying their emotions without being considered weak or less manly. Alex’s role also illustrates a stereotype. He is the prince. The ever so common savior who sweeps the princess off her feet and serenades her with his love. Although an exaggeration, Alex represents the prince we see in Disney movies. He has been through his own list of difficult circumstances after losing his wife and the mother of his children to cancer, but even through all that he still ends up falling in love with Katie, and saving her from her own dark past. Similar to the stereotype created by Katie’s husband, Alex’s stereotype should not be confined to only men. Movies should depict a princess saving her prince, more often. Women have the capability of saving and men sometimes have the necessity of being saved. We should imagine and embrace how the world would be if gender roles were not such a powerful concept in
society. Overall, Safe Haven contains some of the most common gender roles in visual texts. Although it was an enjoyable and suspenseful movie, we should start making movies that place women and men in opposite gender roles. For once it would be nice to see a woman who overcomes her fears alone, a man that needs help with his fears, and a woman sweeping the man off his feet.
The film The Princess Bride, directed by Rob Reiner, is describe as “Thrilling, exciting, very funny and absolute magic”. No wonder the film has entertained audiences since its release in 1987. While its entertainment value in generally agreed upon, The princess Bride is not precisely inventive, nor original. Westley, the hero, fits closely the profile of the Classic Hero. Similar, the film’s plot mirrors the path followed by the classic hero, across thresholds and into a fantastic adventure. And, like the Classic Hero, Westley must undergo a series of ordeals before he can achieve his goal, to rescue “Buttercup”, and prove true love can overcome all obstacles. The Princess Bride, like most contemporary fantasies, is a retelling of the Heroic
“: You hungry, Gabe? I was just fixing to cook Troy his breakfast,” (Wilson, 14). Rose understands her role in society as a woman. Rose also have another special talent as a woman, that many don’t have which is being powerful. Rose understands that some things she can’t change so she just maneuver herself to where she is comfortable so she won’t have to change her lifestyle. Many women today do not know how to be strong sp they just move on or stay in a place where they are stuck and unable to live their own life. “: I done tried to be everything a wife should be. Everything a wife could be. Been married eighteen years and I got to live to see the day you tell me you been seeing another woman and done fathered a child by her,”(Wilson, 33). The author wants us to understand the many things women at the time had to deal with whether it was racial or it was personal issues. Rose portrays the powerful women who won’t just stand for the
As a society there are a lot of qualities that men have been socialized to uphold when it comes to how they act or react, what they support, and what they suppress. This movie produces a harsh critique of male socialization early on and continues
“This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona” discusses the physical and mental journey of Victor, a Native American man in the state of Washington, as he goes to Phoenix, Arizona to claim his father’s remains and his savings account. While on this journey, Victor learns about himself, his father, and his Indian culture with the help of his estranged friend, Thomas Builds-the–Fire. The author, Sherman Alexie, plays on the stereotypes of Native Americans through the characters of Victor and Thomas. While Thomas is portrayed as the more traditional and “good” Native American, Victor comes across as the “bad” Native American. Through the use of this binary relationship, Alexie is able to illustrate the transformation of these characters as they reconcile with each other, and break out of these stereotypes in the process.
In individual searches to find themselves, Frank and April Wheeler take on the roles of the people they want to be, but their acting grows out of control when they lose sense of who they are behind the curtains. Their separate quests for identity converge in their wish for a thriving marriage. Initially, they both play roles in their marriage to please the other, so that when their true identities emerge, their marriage crumbles, lacking communication and sentimentality. Modelled after golden people or manly figures, the roles Frank and April take on create friction with who they actually are. Ultimately, to “do something absolutely honest” and “true,” it must be “a thing … done alone” (Yates 327). One need only look inside his or her self to discover his or her genuine identity.
Not all characters get a happy ending, and a particular character’s husband turned out to be someone much different than who she believed to be marrying. Through dishonesty, confusion, and chicanery, each character had a helping hand in dishing out each other’s fate, but nonetheless, the relationships that resulted in a law-binding marriage beat destiny and overcame every hardship standing in the way of love and happiness.
Many stories talk about relationships, especially the ones between man and woman as couple. In some of them, generally the most popular ones, these relationships are presented in a rosy, sentimental and cliché way. In others, they are presented using a much deeper, realistic and complicated tone; much more of how they are in real life. But not matter in what style the author presents its work, the base of every love story is the role each member of that relationship assumes in it. A role, that sometimes, internal forces will determinate them, such as: ideas, beliefs, interests, etc. or in order cases external, such as society. In the story “The Storm” by American writer Kate Chopin and the play A Doll’s house by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen I am going to examine those roles, giving a special focus to the woman´s, because in both works, it is non-traditional, different and somewhat shocking, besides having a feminist point of view.
“Like a river flows so surely to the sea darling, so it goes some things are meant to be.” In literature there have been a copious amount of works that can be attributed to the theme of love and marriage. These works convey the thoughts and actions in which we as people handle every day, and are meant to depict how both love and marriage can effect one’s life. This theme is evident in both “The Storm” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman; both stories have the underlying theme of love and marriage, but are interpreted in different ways. Both in “The Storm” and in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the women are the main focus of the story. In “The Storm” you have Calixta, a seemingly happy married woman who cheats on her husband with an “old-time infatuation” during a storm, and then proceeds to go about the rest of her day as if nothing has happened when her husband and son return. Then you have “The Yellow Wallpaper” where the narrator—who remains nameless—is basically kept prisoner in her own house by her husband and eventually is driven to the point of insanity.
Almost every movie today is about the hero getting the girl. The concept has been overused and has now become a stereotypical ending for most films. It is creating a society that thinks true love will come and sweep everyone off of their feet “just like in the movies”. Looking into the past, examples of these types of movies are still present. The movie, The Princess Bride, conforms to the concept that the villain turns into a hero, and always gets the damsel in distress. “It’s a love story, a slap-stick comedy, and even a little action.” (Mac) As You Wish: Westley and Buttercup in The Princess Bride) It illustrates a basic love story with a similar ending, making it an unoriginal film.
Each couple goes through a different scenario that affects marriage during their retreat and individual life journey. Through the scenarios, the audience can tell that money, lack of trust, closed feelings, and cheating breaks marriages apart; Tyler Perry’s writing about these problems creates a message for his audience. Tyler Perry’s combination of comedy and melodrama displays an unexpected climax leading to a soothing or a sad ending for the characters (Hale). This leaves the audience gasping to know what happens next; it introduces new drama for the characters. In addition, The plot structure focuses on “emotional affairs, domestic abuse, near-nervous breakdowns, cancer, and death” (Robeldo). In summary, Tyler Perry’s writing displays the connection between him and the audience, sharing a common lesson learned from watching the
Many short story writers have written about the gender and role of woman in society. Some of these stories express what Barbara Walter calls, “The Cult of True Womanhood” meaning the separation of both man and woman in social, political and economic spheres. In order to be considered a “true woman” woman were to abide by the set of standards that were given to her. Women were expected to live by the four main principal virtues - piety, purity, submissiveness, and domestication. In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Storm,” Calixta the main female character breaks away from “The Cult of True Womanhood” when she has a sexual encounter with her past lover Alcée. The storm goes through many twists and turns that tie with their adulterous actions. Although she breaks away from the four main principal virtues, she in the end is considered to be pure innocent of heart because the action in which occurred happened instantly, and as white as she was, she was taken away from her innocence.
New experiences shock and captivate readers consequently prompting a reassessment of their perceptions of respect, truth and friendship. Tim Wintons short story “Neighbours” confronts individual stereotypes through exploring the multicultural context in which the story is set. Winton explores the transition of a “young couple” into a new phase of life by describing their move to a lower socio economic suburb full of “European migrants”. The composer does not name the characters, rather calls them the “Macedonian Family” and the “Polish man”, in order to show their cultural differences and highlight multiculturalism. Through the development of the short story, Winton shows how the young couple transition and develop their societal perspectives
Everyone knows and loves the enchanting childhood fairytales of magic, princes, and princesses, but very seldom are privy to the detrimental impacts of “happily ever after” on the developing youth. Fairy tales are widely studied and criticized by parents and scholars alike for their underlying tone and message to children. Peggy Orenstein, feminist author, mother, and fairy tale critic, has made it her personal mission to bring these hidden messages to the surface. In the article, “What’s Wrong with Cinderella?” Orenstein dissects the seemingly innocent tale of love and magic, and the princess many know and love, and points out its flaws and dangers. Fairy tales, Cinderella in particular, are not suitable for children because upon deeper evaluation,
Storytelling has been a common pastime for centuries. Over the years it has evolved into different styles containing different themes. Kate Chopin, a well-known author of the 20th century, wrote stories about the secrets in women’s lives that no one dared to speak of. Her work was not always appreciated and even considered scandalous, but it opened up a world that others were too afraid to touch. In Chopin’s story “The Storm,” a woman has an affair that causes an unlikely effect. The story’s two themes are portrayed greatly through an abundance of imagery and symbolism, along with the two main characters themselves.
Today, romance is one of the most popular genres to watch on television. Unlike most, romance is a genre where the plot revolves around the love between two main characters as they experience the highs and lows of love. “Common themes that revolve around romantic movies are kissing, love at first sight, tragic love, destructive love, and sentimental love” (Taylor). These themes appear in many historical films and the pattern still continues in modern films as well. Watching romantic movies has a giant negative influence on the viewer's analysis of what love and relationships should really be like. These films give the wrong impression of reality when it comes to dating, marriage, having children, and even how to manage a relationship in the first place. Even though romantic movies are commonly watched, there are many effects on personal real-life relationships after watching these types of films.