The Matrix, Mad Max: Fury Road

426 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Depiction of women in movies

Women have been seen as weak and submissive throughout history in society and that is reflected in many films and movies. These are the feminine qualities that have often been associated with being a woman, which results in the role of women being overlooked and seen as weak or sexualized. They are either in the scene to look pretty or as the one in need of a savior. It is rare for them to fall out of their feminine categories of being motherly or sexual. However, there are more recent films that challenge the singular role women seem to always have. Examples of these are the films, The Matrix (Lana and Lily Wachowski, 1999) and Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015). The films bring rise to a more progressive view of women that are reflecting

Show More
Related

  • Napoleon Dynamite Stereotypes

    833 Words  | 2 Pages

    Movies are a new edition in today’s culture. They are a new form of art medium that has arrived in the late 1900s and were a new way to express ideas and viewpoints of the time. A good example of this is the movie The Manchurian Candidate. The movie had a simple plot a man is kidnapped after the Korean war and is hypnotized to work for the communists and take down the U.S. This movie showed the American public’s fear of communism at the time. If a movie like this can easily portray the fears of the American people at the time then it can easily portray stereotypes of gender. There have been thousands of movies where the male protagonist is a rough tough dude but there is one movie that has that stereotype is broken. That movie is none other than Napoleon Dynamite.

    Read More

  • Movie the Matrix and Octavia Butler's Dawn

    1552 Words  | 4 Pages

    When I first announced to my parents that I was going to marry my current wife, the first words out of my father’s mouth were, “But she’s from another culture.” My father and mother, although being generally good people, are the products of an older system of beliefs. It is the matrix I was raised with, and that dictated my earlier learning experience. Fortunately for me, I chose to risk alienating my parents, and told them that if they ever mentioned “different cultures” to me again, it would be the last time we would be on speaking terms. I chose to ignore the matrix I was presented with, and the happiness and peace of mind that came from that decision have shaped my life ever since. I share this example because it is the key point of what I want the reader to understand from the comparison in this paper. It is a comparison between two choices made by two different primary players from the movie The Matrix and Octavia Butler’s novel Dawn.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Dolly Parton

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    " Hollywood producers influenced by the backlash trend in the media, created a series of movies that pitted the angry career woman against the domestic maternal "Good woman"."

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in Screwball Comedy Films

    4993 Words  | 10 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Masculinity In Bound

    1619 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 1996, the Wachowskis wrote and directed the noir crime thriller, Bound. In this film, the directors turned some of the archetypes of film noir on its head. Most notably, the role of women in film. Film theorist, Laura Mulvey, claims that the main role of women in film is to function as a source of pleasure, to be objectified, to be passive and at the command of male fantasy. This relationship of looking and being looked at causes each gender to have a particular presence within film; the male is active and the female is passive (Mulvey, 1975). However, in Bound, the character Violet, who is obviously objectified by the gaze of the male characters, does not hold a passive role within the film itself. Violet is a force that acts upon the narrative, manipulating events and scenes to her favor, along with actively controlling male gaze and using it to her advantage. Film theorist, Tania Modleski argues that there are passive and active roles within films that have connotations with “femininity” and “masculinity”, but these roles do not have to apply to the gender or outward appearance of characters that they align with. Modleski focuses more on the actions, not the outward appearances, of the film

    Read More

  • Miss Representation Summary

    1350 Words  | 3 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • A Few Good Men Film Analysis

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Women In Ava In Ex Machina

    1825 Words  | 4 Pages

    In fact, these movies are in two different time zones. A reoccurring theme in the movies is that women are identified by sex. Each robot in the films have one thing in common, they manipulate men through sex using their feminine appearance, regardless of their masculine attributes. In fact, Kathleen Richardson believes that these depictions of women robots through AI are just movies knit picking human women. To elaborate, in the movies, the robots do not represent a woman as a whole entity, only certain characteristics (Richardson). This speaks against society, as if society is trying to insinuate that women as a package are not that great, but women with the characteristics that coincide with societal expectation are the perfect specimens. In this case, the perfect specimen is the robot in the AI movies. More so, the robots in the film regardless of their evil nature; for instance, in EVE of destruction, even though she is purely evil and wants to destroy, the robot itself is very sexual. The robot can be depicted as strong, smart, etc. but each robot tends to have this attractive body and face. The movies of the past times, such as Videodroma, have set the precedent for movies to portray women as objects and limit their role in society by disguising the women as robots to impose certain societal

    Read More

  • Mad Max Fury Road Essay

    841 Words  | 2 Pages

    Out of all the 12 female characters in Mad Max, varying from young girls to old ladies, has their own dialogue. In typical films, the hero and heroine will always fall in love, even though it may be an action movie. Female characters only exist to push the story or be an appendages of men. But in this film, they only talk about “One man, one bullet.” Female characters are fighting for their own life and freedom. Splendid, a pregnant wife of Immortan Joe, pull the chian on Max's neck when Max and Furiosa are fighting for the vehicles. Even more, she is brave enough to use her body and her unborn baby to threaten Immortan Joe by getting out of a high speed vehicle. Women are weak, tenuous, even don’t know how fight, but they are trying to resist and willing to take the risk for freedom. In contrast, Imperator Furiosa and “Many mothers” show the strength of women. They are brave and , their battle skills are higher than man. Their spirit is not only about gender, it’s more about how human looking for

    Read More

  • The Film The Matrix

    1368 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the film The Matrix (1999) in the scene “The Two Pills” help characters and relationships are developed and continuation of the films narrative through various components of cinematography and mise-en-scène. Most notable in The Matrix is the use of costuming, sound effects, props, setting and camera movement. Through the use of these techniques the audience becomes more involved in the narrative as Neo meets Morpheus for the first time and is given the opportunity to learn the secrets of the matrix.

    Read More

  • The Impact Of Sexualization And Objectification Of Women In Society

    1471 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Inequality In Amelie

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the past women have suffered from inequalities where women have been stopped from achieving their goals and dreams. One can argue that this is not true, they can simply say it was a different time period, a different set of social norms, different traditions, but the reality is that women back in the days compared to today are still facing many issues with inequality it can also be seen in the way female characters are displayed among television and film. For instance, in the film “Fifty Shades of Gray” Anestia is a female character that is portrayed as a female who has no voice for herself and has to learn how to be submissive just so she can remain by the side of the man she claims to love which is Christian Gray. Anestia eventually learns to not have a voice as to what she truly wants and desires from him, and becomes okay with the idea of following his orders. This film has sent a message to young females that it is okay to not take a stand and not have a voice for themselves with situations they are not happy with. This film is a perfect example to demonstrate how female inequality is still being persuaded among our society through films and television. But films like Amelie are changing females life into encouraging females to take action and follow their

    Read More

  • The Role Of Women In Resident Evil Retribution

    1880 Words  | 4 Pages

    For example, Judith dies in the film previously stated and a number of other female characters are male controlled. However, this was because the movie was made in the late 1970’s. Therefore, traditional stereotypes have been used. Moreover, the movie Resident Evil Retribution was made in 2012. The representation of female shows a dominant role. For example, Alice shows her characteristic as strong (although this was rare). It was highly recognised for subverting the stereotype. This is because it had appealed to a high number of audiences.

    Read More

  • Feminism and the Movie Industry

    1785 Words  | 4 Pages

    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 ...

    Read More

  • The Representation of Women in Action Films

    1897 Words  | 4 Pages

    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. 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. This was an astonishing change for the American industry of film. Sometime later, in 1984, Linda Hamilton starred in ‘The Terminator’, a film where she was not the leading character, but a strong female character as Sarah Connor. She had a combination of masculine and feminine qualities as “an androgynous superwoman, resourceful, competent and courageous, while at the same time caring, sensitive and intuitive” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47). These changes made in action films for female’s roles stirred up a lot of excitement in the “Western society” (Starlet, 2007). The demand for strong female characters in action films grew to a new high when Angelina Jolie starred in ‘Tomb Raider’ in 2001 and then in the sequel, ‘Tomb Raider II: The Cradle of Life’ in 2003 as Lara Croft. Her strong female character was not only masculine, but was also portrayed as a sex object. Most often, strong women in these types of films tend to fight without even gaining a mark. At the end of each fight, her hair and makeup would always be perfect. The female characters in these action films, whether their role was as the lead character or a supporting character, had similar aspects. I...

    Read More

More about The Matrix, Mad Max: Fury Road

Open Document