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Feminism theory and movies
Feminism theory and movies
Feminism theory and movies
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The Alien franchise is full of scary creatures, guts and space. It is also filled with sexual imagery. Throughout each of the Alien films, there are heavy images or actions relating to sex, usually the woman’s body, or innuendos about birth and the circle of life. The Alien films feature a strong female lead, who is tough, manly looking and typically saves the day, Ellen Ripley. Newton initially describes Alien as "a utopian fantasy of women’s liberation, a fantasy of economic and social equality, friendship, and collectivity between middle-class women and men." (Newton) Her character breaks the stereotype of women in everyway. In each film she comes face to face with an Alien species, and although this film may seem like just another science fiction …show more content…
The first film Alien (1979) directed by Ridley Scott is where it all begins. Ridley and her crew are returning to Earth after a mission, but have to stop off on the way after a distress signal goes off. While outside the crew discovers a ship and go inside, doors that very much resemble a vagina now surround them. The crew discovers some sort of Alien breeding ground covered with eggs, while investigating a creature jumps out of one of the eggs and wraps around Kane’s face. Going against Ripley’s wishes the crew brings Kane’s body onboard where they discover the Alien is keeping Kane alive, this is also where they discover that the blood of these Aliens acts as an acid. Eventually the Alien leaves it’s host and dies, Kane later regains consciousness. Later on Kane starts choking and soon enough an Alien is birthed from his chest. The Alien that was attached to Kane’s face had impregnated him; one might even consider it rape. Not only does this scene resemble a birth, but also the Alien looks like male genitalia. The alien and aliens
In the film, Thandie Newton (Christine Thayer) Her gestures, facial expressions, and voice are so unique to her character and really help the audience feel her struggle as an African-American woman who had been treated unfairly. She stats her feeling through nonverbal behavior. she appears her aggression. For example, Christine comes off as very aggressive towards her husband after their run-in with the police. when they come back to their home, she begins fight, she wanted to fight. She is very self-confident of herself and goes against the many categorizes given to her through her race. When she is in bedroom, she become strong and simple. she unclothed very dramatically. In the film, her appearance was that of style. she shows as wealthy,
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.
The most important events of this film all revolve around the female characters. While there are some male charac...
The film Blade Runner (1982) directed by Ridley Scott depicts women in a negative connotation. Blade Runner is considered a popular science fiction film and is seen to have shaped the genre, however, the film displays women as sex symbols and secondary characters, who are unimportant to the storyline. The film is centered around strong male leads who use their authority and power to abuse, belittle and sexualize women. The film’s misogynistic point of view gives the impression to the audience that this treatment of women is acceptable, which is offensive and completely inaccurate.
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).
RaStereotyping is a way of thinking about groups of people. It ignores the differences of the group, while emphasizing its similarity. One belief, that is a stereotype, is that red-haired people are hot tempered. Another belief is that Scottish people are stingy. Such thinking ignores many even-tempered redheads and generous Scottish people. Stereotyping emphasizes many differences between groups while ignoring their similarities to other people. It ignores that many blond and brown-haired people also lose their tempers. Stereotyping overlooks the fact that many American, Brazilians and French people are stingy.
Native Americans would need to infuse the diversity of their own cultures into such image making; they need to become more outspoken when it comes to the elements that represent their own culture and traditions. This will require a lot of patience, since the task is to counter generations of distortions that have been accepted by the mainstream as truth.
One falls for another band member but can't tell her his. gender, and the other has a rich admirer. Alien 3 is about Lt. Ripley. She escapes from an alien planet but The ship then crashes onto a remote and inhabited ore refinery. She must stay there until she is rescued by her employer. While she is There, she discovers that her chip crashed because of an alien.
and many more. These films have shaped the behaviors and characters of both the feminine and masculine species in the society.
In the movie, Jenny Field represents for a new and open-minded generation of women. Her characteristics fit perfectly in the idea of
The sci-fi epic Interstellar is set at a nebulous point in the future when global crop failures threaten humanity with extinction, so a team headed by Cooper a pilot and a farmer explores exoplanets through a mysterious wormhole near Saturn. Through this wormhole, the team of explorers investigate exoplanets in hopes of finding one that could or perhaps already support life. However, Interstellar is unique that this sci-fi film is surprisingly very scientific that Kip Thorne, a renowned theoretical physicist, served as an adviser and executive producer on Interstellar. In fact, the collaboration between Thorne and the Interstellar visual effects teams were so successful that it will extend into technical papers for the astrophysics and computer-graphics
Far more than men, women are exploited in media to indorse sales of goods and services to create desires and interests. The use of women’s body parts such as; breast, butt, lips, stomach are used in media to convey unrealistic messages about women. Media uses provocative images of women to sell and attract consumer to buy their goods. In the movie, Spring Breakers, the gang leader, Alien, bailed the girls out of the jail using his power and money for the purpose of them working for him in return. Alien knew that the girls were in a tough and vulnerable position, and the gang leader was aware that he was capable of getting the girls out of any trouble with the money and power he had. The girls have done one rebellious act and Alien knew they were willing to do more, if it meant that it would benefit him in any way. This shows how in the movie, the gang leader would be able to manipulate the girls to do anything he wants, because of the power that he had and was willing to share with the
(4) Conventional is easy. Whenever an idea is generally perceived by society as standard or traditional it becomes very easy to display to the public without the raise of an eyebrow. This is the basis on which stereotypes appear in films. You’d think in the 21st century where what once were radical notions like same sex marriage and recreational drug use are being legalized that something uncalled for like the constant portrayal of character stereotyping would come to an end. Alas, stereotypical characters continue to emerge in film and unfortunately have become a staple of Hollywood because they’re simple and straightforward, requiring little effort on the part of the writers or thinking from the audience.
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 ...
Women have made progress in the film industry in terms of the type of role they play in action films, although they are still portrayed as sex objects. The beginning of “a new type of female character” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 1). 41-47) in the world of action films began in 1976 with Sigourney Weaver, who played the leading role in the blockbuster film ‘Aliens’ as Lt. Ellen Ripley. She was the captain of her own spaceship, plus she was the one who gave out all the orders. Until then, men had always been the ones giving the orders; to see a woman in that type of role was outlandish.