Stereotypes In Rear Window

Stereotypical Gender Roles

Gender roles are norms that are expected from men and women. These norms were mainly established after World War II, when all the men returned from the war and resumed working and the women were usually the home care providers. Today, although this is a different era, people are fixated on these norms turning them into stereotypes. After such stereotypes arose, multiple filmmakers adapted this idea into their films. One of the biggest portrayal of gender roles was depicted by Alfred Hitchcock in his 1950 film Rear Window. Although the main plot of the movie revolves around the main character’s, L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies, attempt to solve a murder; the director successfully manages to illustrate the idea of gender roles

Hitchcock uses point-of-view and eyeline matching to shot the majority of the movie, which was done in Jeff’s point of view. A point-of -view shot is when a shot is taken with the camera placed approximately where the character eyes would be, showing s exactly what the character would see. Eyeline matching, on the other hand is when the character is looking at a certain object, or another character and the director cuts the shot to show what it is they are looking at. Moreover, because this movie is in Jeff’s point-of-view, most of the characters are portrayed through his perception of them and are given corresponding names. Hitchcock has a unique approach for the portrayal of his characters and the majority of it can be seen through Jeff’s eyes. Ms. Torso’s first appearance through Jeff’s eyes, for starters, is presented through an eyeline matching shot combined with a point-of-view shot and a shot/reverse shot, which is when the camera alternatively cuts from one character or object to another. During the layout of this shot, Jeff is on the phone with an unknown character, presumably his boss, talking about his job, while in the next cut people see Ms. Torso practicing her ballet skills stating her profession as a dancer. “Women love to sing and dance.” As Hitchcock uses his eyeline matching shot technique, Jeff talks about his adventures on the job while Ms. Torso continues to be his form of entertainment. This symbolizes the stereotype that men are expected to do more adventure-related and outdoors type job “Men enjoy outdoor activities.” On the other hand, a profession of being a ballet dancer would fall under the category of the jobs women are expected to have. A similar type of editing is used when Ms. Lonelyhearts is introduced as well. People see the first appearance of her through Jeff’s eyes where she is shown to have an