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Portrayal of women in society
Women's role in movies in today's society
Portrayal of women in society
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Throughout the film American Beauty directed by Sam Mendes, different social problems take place in Lester Burnham’s personal life as well as the personal lives of his family and those connected through them. Some of these social problems include that of social class and keeping up the reputation that comes with it, sexuality, and gender.
The film centers on Lester Burnham, who lives a middle class life with his wife and daughter, and he begins experiencing a sort of breaking point in his life where he then decides to give up his normal suburban husband lifestyle and responsibilities he would typically adhere to. He quits his job and reinvents himself to be seen as more care-free and basically acts as a teenager would, which ends up disrupting
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Near its beginning, Lester sets eye on Angele, his daughter’s best friend, at a cheerleading performance and suddenly the fire within him that felt so far gone was rekindled. Angela embodies what the world sees as the all American girl- young, thin, and of course blonde. She constantly spoke openly about her sexuality and her experiences, and was pleased with the idea that compared to other girls she was ahead of the game sexually and in a sense preparing herself for the real world. This mindset Angela had reminded me of the article My first time twice by Ariel Levy, in that the perspective was of a girl who wasn’t concerned with the act of enjoying having sex, but more so concerned with just getting rid of her virginity, which would in turn make her less of a child and put her “…, ahead of everyone else’s schedule.” As the film continues, every encounter he has with Angela turns into some pleasure filled fantasy that Angela herself encourages, which in turn makes Lester decide to change himself physically to find a way to get her attention and please her. In doing this, Lester doesn’t realize the extent to which he is upsetting his daughter for trying to hook up with her best friend. He was letting his sexual desires replace any issues his daughter was facing. Carolyn also had her own sexual encounters in secret with Buddy Kane. He rekindled a fire in her just as Angela had done for Lester and …show more content…
Carolyn, Lester’s wife, is a real estate agent and seems as if she is the one that “wears the pants” in the household. She tells her husband how to act with her in public, and is the only one to choose what music is to be played at dinner. When Lester tells of quitting his job, she sarcastically yells about being the sole provider of things now because of it, which further diminishes Lester’s role in the family. In no way do Lester’s actions help because soon after he has left his job, he buys himself a sports car and begins buying drugs he can’t afford from neighbor, Ricky, which isn’t expected of someone who had just got out of a job. As explained in Gendering Bodies, it is the stereotype of the husband to be seen as the strong provider, and the wife is typically seen as the one who should be at home doing whatever duties there is to do there. In this case, both Carolyn and Lester were both the providers in the household, and now Carolyn would be even more so, which breaks the stereotypical gender roles. However, in Ricky’s home these stereotypes seem to be followed. In the scenes where his mother is present we see her either working at the stove or concerned with the cleanliness of the home, while also being in her introverted state. His father on the other hand is most likely at his own job or concerning himself with whatever masculine
In the beginning of television series with childless couples, the wife was the one that stayed at home, cleaned, cooked, and did the laundry. The husband was the one that made the money by going to work. Television series always portrayed women as the weaker characters. “Women in the early 1950s family were weak, secondary characters, and as such were usually dominated by their husbands and their own conceptions of marriage” (Hastings, 1974). Certain episodes of these shows always tried to prove that women should stay at home. When I Love Lucy came out with a woman as the main star, they still had her stay at home, cooking and cleaning, but still made her seem useless. “Women characters frequently were shown as less mature and less capable human-beings and their husbands often took a quasi-parental role by...
The movie revolves around the sometimes love hate relationship between Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara and how she will do whatever it takes to survive. It over romanticizes the old south and how the plantations were run and deals with topics such as slavery, reconstruction of the south and has a strong feminist survival theme to it.
The film chronicles the histories of three fathers, and manages to relates and link their events and situations. First is Mitchell Stephens and his relationship with his drug-addict daughter. Second is Sam, and the secret affair he is having with his young daughter Nicole. He is somewhat of a narcissistic character because of his preoccupation with himself and pleasing himself, and his lack of empathy throughout the film for the others in the town. Third is Billy, who loves his two children so much that he follows behind the school bus every day waving at them. Billy is also having an affair with a married woman who owns the town’s only motel. On the exterior the town is an average place with good people just living their lives. But, beneath all the small town simplicity is a web of lies and secrets, some which must be dealt with in the face of this tragedy.
This movie focused on teenagers and family life because the ideal image of the 1950s family was a perfect family consisting of a mom and dad with two children. Everything with the family appears to be great and full of happiness. The father went to work and provided for the family, while the mother stayed at home and tended to her children and maintaining the home. This thriving period can be described as the golden age of family because the 1950s stereotype of the perfect family life instigated this suspected boom of happiness of the American family. However, A Rebel Without A Cause expresses that the times were not as perfect as they were depicted. Dysfunctional families that led their young adults to rebellion shape the movie.
This movie is a wonderful production starting from 1960 and ending in 1969 covering all the different things that occurred during this unbelievable decade. The movie takes place in many different areas starring two main families; a very suburban, white family who were excepting of blacks, and a very positive black family trying to push black rights in Mississippi. The movie portrayed many historical events while also including the families and how the two were intertwined. These families were very different, yet so much alike, they both portrayed what to me the whole ‘message’ of the movie was. Although everyone was so different they all faced such drastic decisions and issues that affected everyone in so many different ways. It wasn’t like one person’s pain was easier to handle than another is that’s like saying Vietnam was harder on those men than on the men that stood for black rights or vice versa, everyone faced these equally hard issues. So it seemed everyone was very emotionally involved. In fact our whole country was very involved in president elections and campaigns against the war, it seemed everyone really cared.
The movie is all about the Joad family and their pursuit to find the American dream. They are a very poor family who lives during the great depression. They decide to leave their home that gets demolished and move to California in order to hopefully get some work, make some money, and eventually one day own land of their own again. The main themes of this movie were the pursuit of the American dream, and how it can be completely different depending on the people. The Joad family when compared to Jay Gatsby or The Buchanan family. They did not want everything, they just wanted to be fed and have a place to call their
Gender roles and stereotypes can many times intertwine because of our western culture has taught us since the first radio broadcast show, “Father Knows Best” which was based on the father, Jim who was the ruler of the household and the wife would do whatever he said. Gender roles in the 1950’s were that the men worked hard, brought home the money, and had all the power in the home. Women were seen as the homemakers who can’t make their own decisions and are portrayed as a week. According to an article called Gender Roles in 1950’s America, “men were expected to be strong, masculine, and good decision makers, which served as a natural counter-balance for the feminine and maternal role of women” (White, Retrieved
Directed in 1999 the movie “America Beauty” by Sam Mendes takes the viewer to an average suburb community. Here, we meet the protagonist Lester Burnham. Lester is married to his wife Carolyn, and he has a fifteen-year-old daughter named Jane. Lester is portrayed as ordinary and unmemorable especially at his job. Thr...
Every film can be related back to socially significant issues that occurred during the time it was released. It’s a snapshot of the issues during that time period. Film is not created in a vacuum. As described in our textbook, film “Conveys “the temper of an age of a nation” as well as that of the artists who produces it” (Belton 22). Films tend to reflect current society, country ideals or beliefs in order for the audience to relate. Some of those techniques used include, the American dream, family, corruption, divorce, and crime. If a director decides not include current social issues than it becomes harder for an audience to relate to the film because they will not be able to connect to the characters and get into their shoes. One film that encompasses all of these current social issues is American Hustle (David O. Russell, 2013). This film is a melodrama because of the context and social issues this film deals with. American Hustle has a social significance to today’s current culture, society, beliefs and social issues through the use of the American dream, corruption, divorce, crime and family.
The critically acclaimed film, American Beauty has been a topic of conversation since it debuted in theaters in 1999. The film currently sits at the 63rd spot for best movies on IMBD along with 8.4/10 stars and a 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was produced by Dreamwork Studios, written by Alan Ball, and directed by Sam Mendes. As if the title did not give it away; the film was made and filmed inside the United States and takes place in a residential neighborhood in California for the most part. The movie managed to win five Oscars on eight nominations; these include awards such as Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Director, Best Writing Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, and Best Cinematography
My Mise-en-scene analysis is on American Beauty on page 217: number 1(The dinner scene). The frame itself is a very closed, tight shot; there is no way for the characters to escape and they're left with only confronting each other in this very little space. The shot of the camera isn't necessarily far away or close either. It's neutral, and we can see the full action of the family's dinner conversation happening right in front of us. My eyes were immediately attracted to the bright, white table and then my eyes focused on the faces of the family. The scene's texture is slightly fuzzy, and is not very detailed. But the character's faces are still recognizable. The foreground of this scene is the table with the man and woman sitting at each end; the middle is the girl-who is
The concept of beauty and racism in modern western society is held to the highest of standards for all of it’s members; including celebrities. The perfect woman is described by Odette (2013), as solely for men’s pleasure and domination. If we look on the cover of any popular magazine, the women are usually: light skinned, slender, and tall. Men on the other hand must be tall and powerfully built. Our culture is valued on the basis of how men and women are perceived by their image, making it impossible for the average man or women to achieve the high beauty standard expected in society. Celebrities play an influential role in the way people view themselves, making the need to look like our favourite celebrities all the more desired. A person's
The human body is one of the most complex and yet beautiful things on the earth. We live in a time where our perception of the way we view the body is driven my social stereotypes. In todays world we are supposed to live by the standards of this unwritten code. All of this affects the quality of life we live in. It ranges from the workplace; our personal relationships to the way strangers perceive a person. At this very day in age we are categorized due to being born male or female and things that should be talked about are considered taboo to others.
This can be seen in the movie, as the protagonist conquers his depression by embracing the meaninglessness of life and freedom, by taking full responsibility of his own life, avoiding being constrained by the other. The actions that Lester takes correlate with Sartre’s arguments, which suggest that an individual has its own freedom and therefore that individual has the responsibility to find meaning in his life, by taking action and making choices as he pleases. Some of those choices portrayed in the movie are: quitting his job, buying a sports car, working out in his garage, and loosing respect for his wife. The opposite can be seen in Lester’s wife, Carolyn, who does not understand how meaningless life is, since she continues to measure how successful she is based on how good she does in her job. Therefore Lester’s wife is not an authentic being, since she does not exercise the freedom of making her own choices. Thus Carolyn sees herself through the other, which both Sartre and Heidegger would argue that it is wrong. Meanwhile both of the existentialists would applaud Lester for becoming an authentic individual that lived for-itself and who did not go into bad faith, therefore he had the pleasure of enjoying
There are over seven billion people on earth and every single one looks different. No matter how much people say that being different is unique, they are wrong. Society has set a beauty standard, with the help of the media and celebrities, that makes people question their looks. This standard is just a definition of what society considers being “beautiful.” This idea is one that mostly everyone knows about and can relate to. No one on this planet is exactly the same, but people still feel the need to meet this standard. Everyone has two sides to them; there is the one that says “you are perfect just the way you are”, while the other side puts you down and you tell yourself “I have to change, I have to fit in.” There is always going to be that side that cares and the one that doesn’t.