The next film in which Parton had a leading role was a musical comedy called The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, released in 1982. The film tells the story of a madam, played by Parton, who runs an illegal brothel in Texas and has a love affair with the town sheriff, Burt Reynolds. The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas was adapted from a play of the same name and both productions are based on a real-life brothel in La Grange, Texas known as the Chicken Ranch. The films controversial aspects, prostitution and overt sexuality (sometimes interpreted as gay symbolism), reflected the pressing political issues of the 1980s Moral Panic. In 1982 the number of prostitution arrests, both male and female, in the United States increased by 13%. The increased …show more content…
While her acting and musical talents were safe from disparagement, her weight and changing body were not. The tabloids avidly chronicled her weight loss prior to the film and her weight gain after, and claimed that she had had extensive plastic surgery as the dimples on her cheeks were no longer noticeable. The media also frequently commented on the size of her breasts. One month the tabloids would say she had had a breast reduction, the next month she had had breast implants put in that were so large they were detrimental to her health. The media’s conflicting treatment of Dolly during this time reveals an important contradiction in the media’s perception of southern womanhood. When the conversation centered around Parton’s career or personality, the media focused on her as a businesswoman and praised for her charm and wit. For instance, the casting announcement for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas described the female lead as “a super lady played by Parton with all her accustomed humor, warmth and charm.” This type of praise indicates that mainstream media perceived the southern woman to be strong, independent, intelligent and in possession of other qualities that transcended earlier characterizations of them as gossiping housewives. However, when the conversation turned towards Dolly’s physical appearance she was reduced to a sexual object and treated without the respect she had previously earned. Thus, the media’s paradoxical treatment of Parton reveals that the press’s conceptualization of southern womanhood in the 1980s sharply separated a woman’s identity from her physical body. The bodies of southern women were objects of public display to be inspected and judged without dignity, while their identities was viewed as complex, powerful and worthy of
Being that media is a major factor in this dilemma of old country versus modern country. All former country music artists such as Hank Williams Junior and Senior were not portrayed as “Sexiest Man/Woman Alive” and they were not advertised by overly sexualized l...
The documentary, “Miss Representation,” is a film about how women are perceived in the media. It is written, directed, and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. She is an actress and a film maker who advocates for women. In the beginning of the documentary, Newsom discusses her struggles as a young woman surrounded by the pressures of looking a certain way. This film is targeting mainly women of all age that has experienced her struggles. Jennifer Siebel Newsom effectively convinces the audience of “Miss Representation” that the media has molded women in a negative way through statistics, celebrities’ and younger generation’s testimonies, and clips from the media.
The Alamo portrays the historical battle between Santa Anna controlling the Mexican Army and the Texan Defenders who are defending The Alamo, a mission located in San Antonio, Texas. The film is heavily concentrated on the year 1836, specifically the months February and March, and the year 1835. The film stars Dennis Quaid as Sam Houston, Billy Bob Thornton as David Crockett, Jason Patric as Jim Bowie, and Patrick Wilson as William Travis. The Alamo is a historically accurate movie that involves history, war, and immense amounts of drama.
In this paper I argue that self-objectification is created and perpetuated by the mass media through the critiquing of mainstream films and television shows: Clueless and Gossip Girl. These forms of media glorify the dominant culture’s forms of capital that produce the thin, white, rich, feminine female protagonist. I will analyze how mainstream white male producers prioritize the white narrative and exclude girls of color from mainstream media through the internalization of the thin white image.
In Rereading America excerpts by Jean Kilbourne’s “Two ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”: Advertising and Violence” and Joan Morgan entitled “From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hos,” both authors focus on gender inequality in America. In doing so they are trying to explain to the audience about the status of women in the men dominated society. Both articles discuss the violence and exploitation of women and demonstrate the power of media and the entertainment world based on our attitudes that influence our behavior as men and women. Both selections also make readers think about the current status of women in the society and the media’s role in a way of effective gender roles among society. Kilbourne and Morgan provide the different examples in their own ways to support their selections and ensure to make their essay successfully persuasive by demonstrating their point of view, while still reaching the same conclusions. Kilbourne takes a calm approach to explain to the readers how the objectification of women in advertisements constitutes a form of cultural abuse, while Morgan adopt a very aggressive way to express her point of view. Comparing Morgan’s tone with Kilbourne, Morgan’s aggressive approach might leave readers disinterested to read her selection.
Society has evolved significantly from its initial gender stereotype of the black and white images of the hard-working husband and the loving, domestic housewife. According to Raewyn Connell in his book Gender (2009) he says that men are or at least should be the ‘producers or breadwinners’ and that women should be the ‘consumers’. However, it was around the middle of the 20thcentury during the onset of the feminist movement when the idea of the perfect woman was featured by glamorous magazines and television. Yet, there has been much controversy about the ways in which the mass media represents women and how they have been affected by these images. In the patriarchal society of the period, there was a decrease in strong women being emotionally and mentally stable, intellectual and sexually attractive. Building on that premise, this paper will examine and analyse the different stereotypical roles the female characters of Desperate Housewives portray, how they are viewed by the audience, and what impact these gender constructions have on society.
The short story “Petrified Man” by Eudora Welty is about two women—Leota, a beautician, and Mrs. Fletcher, her customer—who spend the entire story gossiping in a beauty parlor. The story is told in a limited third-person point of view, where the psychic distance of the view places the reader right next to Mrs. Fletcher and Leota, hearing and seeing only what someone present in the scene would. Their gossip tells the reader the stories of this piece, that of Mr. and Mrs. Pike and of the Petrified Man. However, this is not the main focus. Welty uses this short story to comment on the appearance obsessed, judgmental, and flighty nature of people, especially southern women. This is done through Mrs. Fletcher’s comments about what Mrs. Pike must
Women have been facing crisis of body image since the dawn of man, for competition in breeding purposes, however women came under great scrutiny because of this. Often through history, they have been at the same level of livestock, treated poorly. Creating a rise in the early 1900’s to create the movement about pushing for the equality of women in the United States; it was after then when media first started adopting an ideal image of women in American culture, when marketing research found the use of images of ideal women in their campaigns made for higher sales.
The way a woman was perceived as beautiful has changed so much even over the last 50 years as I have discussed previously. If we look at Marilyn Monroe and compare her to Tyra Banks, who has made it her passion in life to stretch the definition of beauty (Pozner, 2013) the difference is uncanny. Marilyn Monroe is the most acclaimed sex icon of the 1950’s and she was not astonishingly slender. Meanwhile Tyra banks up until a couple years ago had always been immeasurably skinny. Women nowadays are required to be excessively skinny, toned, tall, and have flawless skin if they want to fit into the “most beautiful” column. Although Tyra Banks presumably believes that she is an exceptional advocate for young girls in the media, she is also delivering a skewed image of self-love through her show, America’s Next Top Model (Pozner, 2013). Every woman on that show either fits the media’s standard of an ideal woman, or they are ridiculed/questioned. The media is making it impossible to achieve such high standards. Even for black women, there is the stereotype that they have to have huge behinds and appear to be super ghetto like Nicki Minaj; even she received cosmetic surgery to enhance her bust and rear, as well as slimming her waist. She did all these things to appease her viewers. It is impossible for women to achieve these different standards
Imagine it – all the rules you were raised to follow, all the beliefs and norms, everything conventional, shattered. Now imagine It – Clara Bow, the It Girl. The epitome of the avant-garde woman, the archetype of the flapper, was America’s new, young movie actress of the 1920’s. Modern women of the day took heed to Bow’s fresh style and, in turn, yielded danger to the conventional America. Yet Bow’s contagious and popular attitude came with its weaknesses - dealing with fame and the motion picture industry in the 1920’s. Despite this ultimate downfall, Clara’s flair reformed the youth and motion pictures of her time.
You can see in the media in almost all occasions women being sexualized. From beer to burger commercials women in the media are portrayed as sexual beings. If they are thin and meet society’s standards of beautiful they are considered marketable. Over the...
This essay argues that the film Bridesmaids transcends traditional representations of feminine desire that exhibits women as spectacles of erotic pleasure, through the symbolic reversal of gender identity in cinematic spaces. By discussing feminist perspectives on cinema, along with psychoanalytic theory and ideological narratives of female image, this essay will prove Bridesmaids embodies a new form of feminine desire coded in the space of the comedic film industry.
The title Miss Representation emphasizes that the way we portray women in the media is a
Women’s roles in movies have changed dramatically throughout the years. As a result of the changing societal norms, women have experienced more transition in their roles than any other class. During the period of classical Hollywood cinema, both society and the film industry preached that women should be dependent on men and remain in home in order to guarantee stability in the community and the family. Women did not have predominated roles in movies such as being the heroin. The 1940’s film Gilda wasn’t an exception. In Gilda, the female character mainly had two different stereotypes. The female character was first stereotyped as a sex object and the second stereotyped as a scorned woman who has to be punished.
Film’s power to enforce social order is revealed in Pauline’s trips to the movies. She is drawn to the physical beauty and therefore taught to value beauty above anything else in society. Pauline receives an “education” from the movies. “It was really a simple pleasure, but she learned all there was to love and all there was to hate” (Morrison 122). Pauline learns how to order her world though film. She is taught to love beauty and hate ugliness. Film, however, also teaches her to hate herself because of her ugliness. At first Pauline identifies with the beautiful white women she sees in the movies. ...