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Objectification of women in pop culture
Gender role and gender discrimination in society
Gender oppression theory
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According to Oxford Dictionary, gender role is defined as “set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture”. Gender role created an expectation of how each individual should act, talk, dress etc., based on their biological sex. Over many years, the issue of gender equality has tried to be eradicated but till now this issue still exists. Women, specifically are looked down upon in our society, while men are seen more powerful. Some individuals will argue that women are better off taking the traditional role and being inferior towards men. In this society, there are few women who have proven and destroyed views and perception of all females …show more content…
Also, the film revealed women empowerment and how superior they can be compared to men. While demonstrating sexual objectification, empowerment, there was also sexual exploitation of the women, shown through the film. Throughout this essay, gender based issues that were associated with the film character will be demonstrated while connecting to the real world and popular culture. A common trend in the entertainment industry today is the objectification of women in society. Sexualizing women are seen in media such as; movies, advertisement, television show and music video, where their main focus is providing the audience with an image of women as sexual objects rather than a human. This is detrimental to society since the media is producing social stereotypes for both genders, which can further result in corrupted social habits. Objectification in media are more focused on females than male, these false images of women leave individuals with the wrong idea of the opposite sex. As media continuously use sexual contents regarding women, the audience starts underestimating women. Specifically movies, it allows media to shape the culture’s idea of romance, sex and what seems …show more content…
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
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.
Mainstream movies are about men’s lives, and the few movies about women’s lives, at their core, still also revolve around men (Newsom, 2011). These female leads often have male love interests, looking to get married or get pregnant. Strong independent female leads are still exist for the male view, as they are hypersexualized, or the “fighting fuck toy,” (Newsom, 2011). This depiction has created a culture where women are insecure and waiting for a knight on a horse to come rescue and provide for her as well as the acceptance of women
Despite the fact that the character of Phyllis as the “tough as nails” perpetual, intentional aggressor is a valid attempt to obliterate the image of women as the oppressed, one interpretation of this role is that she ultimately seems to misrepresent herself, and females in cinema, anyway. Janet Todd, author of Women and Film, states that, “Women do not exist in American film. Instead we find another creation, made by men, growing out of their ideological imperatives”(130). Though these “power girl”characters are strong examples of anything but submissive and sexual females,the...
In conclusion, todays cinematic evolvement through being more accepting of sexual themes as well as representation of different sexual orientations, in both characters and audience alike, contributes to further objectifying people in an erotic sense to please different kind of spectators. Furthermore, it enables male characters to be subjected to erotic objectification and is therefore not a portrayal exclusive in portraying females. However, this remodels the way male and female characters are depicted as it in a sense equalizes them through the same kind of degrading portrayal as sexual objects.
Some people might say that these movies provide entertainment and transport families into the lives of princes and princesses. Many critics have said that the films have amazing soundtracks and have detailed and interesting plots. Still, however entertaining the films may be, the way women are viewed and treated outweigh any enjoyment that a viewer could have. The subliminal lessons young women learn from these films have lifelong repercussions and negatively affect the female
For example, when the documentary showed the band members and how they were symbolizing women. The band members had the woman against the wall with either no clothes or just undergarments on and throwing slices of meat at her. A lot of films and music portray this message that women are just a piece of meat and that they are only good for sexual experiences. Another example was Snoop Dog’s lyrics in his film, Diary of a Pimp, “you gotta break these hoes for Snoop” learning the lifestyle of a rapper and a pimp illustrating prostitution of women. Dreamworlds documentary also mentioned this when talking about the lives of women when a man is not present in their life. It illustrated scenes of sadness and loneliness. Women are not creatures who desire sex all the time and the purpose of the film was to teach us that how women are presented in music videos is not right. Women are more than just their bodies and do not need to continue to be objectified. Every media production should follow the Bechdel Test in communication of women and their actions. Women in music and films should not always be talking about men or living their life under the control of a man. Media acts as if women can’t be independent. If media continues to show women getting treating as objects and knowing that media influences society, then in society people will continue to think as if treating a woman as such is acceptable. Treating women as objects is not acceptable at all. However, what we see from media shows
Gender and the portrayal of gender roles in a film is an intriguing topic. It is interesting to uncover the way women have been idealized in our films, which mirrors the sentiments of the society of that period in time. Consequently, the thesis of this essay is a feminist approach that seeks to compare and contrast the gender roles of two films. The selected films are A few Good Men and Some Like it Hot.
Gender roles are often used in our own society to tie people to a certain representation for what is socially acceptable. These roles perpetuate gender inequalities because they often make the female end of the spectrum worth less than the male. One example is equating masculinity with strength and femininity with weakness. Because of this sayings such as “You run like a girl” become negative. Gender roles create a system where people are set to a different standard based off gender alone. In trying to follow what is socially acceptable based on gender people are forced into roles. There is a lower percentage of women in science than men because girls are taught at a young age that being smart isn’t feminine. These roles harm boys too, teaching them that they have to be hyper-masculine to be considered
The films message to viewers about gender and power is that women are meant to take care of the home and play the supportive role, while men go out to their jobs and provide. Men are strong and burly and women are naïve and domesticated. Women need men and men always come to the rescue to save women and give them a happy ending. Power is portrayed in the film both visually and through the film’s script and dialogue. The common idea that women are inferior to men is placed subtly in this movie throughout the plot and how these charac...
The past decade feminism and sexism has played a major role in the literature and movie industry. In both stories women are seen as being lower class. In the movie ‘’Alien” it demonstrate a heroic women and an alien slayer but on the other hand it greatly shows the feminism side of things. Along with “When I was Miss Dow” they expose the alien when transformed into a female as being a sex symbol and stereotype the negative side of females.
The world one lives in it happens to grasp that all humans are designed as equals. This is far-off from reality based on how this society is operating. The principle of equality does not imply that everyone is the same, nevertheless that everyone should be treated as equals unless special circumstances apply. When it comes to the two sexes, everything that comes in its bounds is either biased intentionally or unintentionally, either way it continues. A gender role is a set of societal norms dictating what is acceptable or appropriate for a person’s sex. One could be aware of the characteristics and factors of identity that enables others to treat another differently by analyzing the aspects of society through race, religion, language, sexual orientation, economic status and also the level of education. The theory of equality is somewhat understandable, but what about the female population? Where is their equality in this society?
The first studies relating to gender portrayal in the media developed in the 1950s with the introduction of Second Wave Feminism (Boyle, 2005). Mass media was a main concern for Second Wave feminists due to its oppressive illustrations of women in different genres. The subject of gender misrepresentations is still relevant in contemporary media studies. In 2011, a documentary dealing with the stereotypical r...
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 ...
Gender roles designate that women are not as able as men are. People who were raised during anytime before about 1980 were probably raised to believe that women were there to do housework and have kids, not to have a job and be successful. Now that the children who were brought up during these times are adults, they are bringing their objectifying views with them. They don’t see a problem with it, as it was so common before the United States and some other countries began to see how women were equal to men. These people will see treating others this way as okay, as it has been accepted for so long and it is what they were taught.
To begin with, gender roles are the social and behavioral norms that are generally seen appropriate for either a man or a woman in a social or interpersonal relationship. Gender roles that society has created today reflect the way that people have acted upon in the past. When the idea of gender roles in our society comes up, originally the first thing that would come to mind were the roles that were expected of women. Howe...