Meryl Streep, who critics consider “the greatest living actress” in entertainment, have played numerous roles in which mirrors the concepts Myrna Hant discusses in her article, “Television’s Mature Women: A Changing Media Archetype: From Bewitched to the Sopranos”.
One of the numerous points that Hunt deliberated in her article is the theory that older woman adopt the view that they are no longer the “male gaze”. For that reason, they desperately try to “pass” as young either through clothes, cosmetics or activities (Hant 5). This idea reflects in Streep’s recent role in the film Ricki and the Flash in where she plays an older women whom dresses and acts rather “young” for her age. This also slightly applies to her role in the film Death Becomes Her in where her character drinks a potion to rejuvenate herself for the purpose to attract her love interest and fame.This supports the idea that a women’s worst nightmare is reaching old age.
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These characters are independent and most importantly: visible. In The Devil Wears Prada, Streep plays an editor in chief of a fashion magazine. Although she may play a cold hearted woman, which Hant notes as a common “metaphor” for older women, her attributes of being icy and haughty are due to her success which makes her visible in the film (Hant 14). She does not fit the metaphor of being worthless or decrepit; she represents the opposite. She is a successful, astute women who every young woman wishes to work with. This also applies to her role in Mamma Mia! Her character was physically active, comical and in any way was she pictured as a ridiculous
The hit show "Sister Sister" aired between 1994 and 1999 starring Tia and Tamera two twins who were separated at birth and adopted by a different parent. The twins meet shopping at a clothing store in the mall; this encounter leads to the two families becoming one and living under one roof. Despite being fraternal twins, Tia and Tamera are completely different. Tia is extremely literate and from inner-city Detroit, while Tamera is mostly concerned with attractive males and comes from the Suburbs. The sister 's differences are magnified throughout the entire series. Typically, people expect those who come from well-educated and affluent households to be more literate, "Sister, sister, instead debunks this through challenging the influence of
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,
In American culture today, women continue the struggle of identifying what their roles in society are supposed to be. Our culture has been sending mixed messages to the modern day female, creating a sense of uneasiness to an already confusing and stressful world. Although women today are encouraged more than ever to be independent, educated, and successful, they are often times shamed for having done just that. Career driven females are frequently at risk of being labeled as bossy, unfeminine, or selfish for competing in many career paths that were once dominated by men. A popular medium in our culture such as television continues to have significant influences as to how people should aspire to live their lives. Viewers develop connections with relatable characters and to relationship dynamics displayed within their favorite shows. Fictional characters and relationships can ultimately influence a viewer’s fashion sense, social and political opinion, and attitude towards gender norms. Since the days of Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie, where women were commonly portrayed as being the endearing mischievous housewife, television shows have evolved in order to reflect real life women who were becoming increasingly more independent, educated, and career oriented throughout the subsequent decades. New genres of television are introduced, such as the workplace comedy, where women are not only career oriented, but eventually transition into positions of power.
She dresses up and expects that the prisoners would make cat calls her way. To her surprise, not one looks up. When this happens a second time, she expresses “Have I lost it?” because she used to be praised for her beauty and no longer is, it makes her realize that she has not aged beautifully making her hyperaware of her aging. She becomes very confused and lost and must reevaluate herself. What Lindsay is experiencing is a change in self-concept due to this realization. Self-concept refers to how people perceive themselves and their character, qualities, and their behavior all deriving from an assortment of self-perceptions (Hillier & Barrow, 41). Lindsay suffers from the idea that she must create a new self-concept when it comes to her attractiveness. This occurrence causes aging adults to have lowered self-worth and esteem. Though many people use cosmetic surgery, make-up, and what they wear to make them appear younger, ultimately they are still the age they currently are. Lindsay’s stereotype encourages ageism in that younger people will begin to think that people are no longer beautiful once they pass a certain age leading to adults feeling a loss of importance and that without beauty, they are no longer
It is often said that the media and the arts are an accurate reflection of any given community. This is especially true in American pop-culture, where television shows depict the various stereotypes attributed to men and women and the roles they play in society. House, a highly popular medical drama that revolves around Dr. Gregory House and his diagnostic team, is a particularly good example as it represents the true state of the traditional gender roles in American culture today by, both, redefining and reinforcing them over the course of the show.
This is due to the simple fact that “there’s an 18-34 demographic desirability locked into corporate America’s mindset” (Quinlan 53). As a CEO of an advertising agency, Mary Quinlan can identify very well with the lack of mature women in the media. She relates to us, “I’ve sat in too many casting sessions where I’d hear, ‘We need one older woman to round out these models.
Women and men are similarly not the same in the media advertisement. Therefore, in real life, ageing women seem to be getting the negative impacts with their looks when it comes to aging, whereas, in real life, aging is inevitable and is something that everyone will experience at some point in their lifetime. Another example of double standard ageing, is a society that labels women who have never married as old maids or prudish. Others suggest that women, habitually between the ages of 50-60, experience a "midlife astonishment" that is marked by a sudden awareness of the quickening of aging and a feeling of amazement and despair at perceived changes in physical and sexual attractiveness and other losses (Pearlman, 1993). Therefore, it seems, that once women have passed their reproductive prime or "when they outlive their ovaries" they are attributed to a number of superficially useless and unfounded pathologies and syndromes such as the "empty-nest syndrome" or labeled as "reproductive has-beens" (Coney, 1994).
Laura Madeline Wiseman’s essay on the unruly woman “Carnivalesque and Bifurcated Labels: Writing the Tale” explains how Madonna is viewed as grotesque in some way for her ability to do whatever she wants, whenever she wants. There is no in-between, and one woman can certainly not be both. Harry M. Benshoff’s America On Film noted that, “Cinema is yet another arm of the mass media that creates idealized visual images of women” (232). As an unruly woman, McCarthy finds a way to look past being looked on as just another pretty face. Take her character in The Heat.
Noted in Yvonne Tasker’s Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema, Goldie Hawn says this about women's role in the film business “There are only thee ages for women in Hollywood: Babe, District Attorney and Driving Miss Daisy” (1998, p. 3). While Haw...
She is portrayed in a sexualised way that empowers men and objectifies women. Again Baz Luhrmann has portrayed another woman as an object instead of an equal to men and has made the feelings of a woman less important than the desires of the
While all three archetypes and the characters that best portrayed them share iconic dresswork and glamour to spare, how that glitz is used can vary. Comparing Hepburn’s innocent free spirit to Kelly’s refined debutante or to Stone’s narcissistic hustler reveals a world of difference in how filmmakers use fashion to code certain aspects of female behavior. Whether it represent the highest virtues or the basest vices, high-end fashion has always made for an eye-catching method of giving moral texture to a character and the world they
course the way a female is seen in eyes around the world. Television itself dates back to the 1920’s
Making the older women in the film look cruel and deceiving holding onto what little life they have left to abuse the younger
Socialization of people has been occurring through family, public education and peer groups. However in recent years, the mass-media has become the biggest contributor to the socialization process, especially in the ‘gender’ sector. The mass-media culture, as influential as it has become, plays the most significant role in the reproduction process of gender role stereotypes and patriarchal values. It is true that a family model of nowadays is based rather on equality than on patriarchal values and women have more rights and possibilities on the labor market. However, mass-media still reflect, maintain, or even ‘create’ gender stereotypes in order to promote themselves.
Portrayal of Women in the Media Gender is the psychological characteristics and social categories that are created by human culture. Gender is the concept that humans express their gender when they interact with one another. Messages about how a male or female is supposed to act come from many different places. Schools, parents, and friends can influence a person.