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Essay on the portrayal of women in mass media
Female stereotypes in media
Essay on the portrayal of women in mass media
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Women As Commodities: Pretty Woman and the Ideology of Pop Culture Representations of Femininity
Pretty Woman; the story of the prostitute finally getting her Cinderella happily ever after. Though just as castle doors hide reality, there is a truly problematic message depicted throughout the film. Broadcasting a patriarchal view, the film portrays Vivian as property to be bought, sold, and owned. Vivian embodies the most stereotypical norms of femininity that are internalised in women in our society. She exudes a sense of childlike innocence; her beauty is unselfconscious; she is frivolously abandoned, waiting to be rescued and redeemed. It is made glaringly obvious that superior power lies in the role of Edward, a businessman who hires Vivian to be at his beck and call for a week. During the film, we are continuously examining Vivian and assessing her worth and potential as she changes and conforms with the conservative lifestyle.
One of the most blatant examples of femininity being favoured in the film is the shopping scene. When at first Vivian enters the store wearing her usual attire, she is given cold stares by all three shop assistants. Collectively as an audience, we see she doesn't belong there, based on the preconceived notions of what is feminine and what is deemed socially unacceptable. The following clip will show you the impact of stereotypes in the modern world. As you can see in the clip, she is given disapproving, judging looks before even entering the store - from both people on the street, and the store mannequins which are shot looking down on her. When you compare this to the second shopping scene, you see an immense contrast in the way she is treated; in the store and on the streets. Conservative busine...
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...ively works to represent a world that doesn't exist, portraying enslavement as entertainment.
We will now look at the last twenty seconds of the film, where the happily ever after setting is topped off with the promise that our dreams will too come true. Portraying Hollywood as the land of dreams, Edward rides in on his 'white horse' to rescue 'Princess Vivian' from her own personal tower, resulting in our involvement in the manipulation of the myths delivers to us. This shot also serves purpose to distract us from the devious way that consumerist culture moulds our conceptions. We may blind ourselves of viewing the real issues of the film, but we can not erase the fact that in pleasurably consuming Pretty Woman, we have participated in reinforcing constructs from a culture that subjects women, a culture that degrades women - a culture that is anything but pretty.
The scene where Danielle rescues Prince Henry from the gypsies is one of the paramount scenes within ‘Ever After’ that conveys sublime elements of feminism. Throughout the scene, the subversion of gender roles and Danielle’s contrasting attributes pertain and challenge the notion of femininity in the traditional Cinderella story. At the beginning of the scene, Danielle is depicted in her undergarments and remains this way when she returns to the ground to confront the gypsies. In the traditional story, no such events were detailed as prudency and morality were obligatory traits for women, and anyone who was to revolt would be shamed. On the contrary, Danielle shows minimal concern for her lack of clothing, but rather enforces self-empowerment
To elaborate, Scott argues that as a picture interpreter, we must make a distinction between the “ideal and the real,” to understand the true meaning of an image. She argues how the Gibson Girl and the American Girl were two idealised visions of modern beauty and femininity which made women to try to be like them. These two girls became markers of their decade, ...
The film, Ever After is an adaptation of the Brother’s Grimm fairy tale adaptation, “Aschenputtle.” This film reflects a feminist attitude on the traditional view of the “damsel in distress” character which is present in the Grimm’s adaptation. Unlike Aschenputtle from the Grimm’s tale, the protagonist from the film, whose name is Danielle, does not hold true to the stereotype that all women should be well mannered and well behaved at all times. Additionally, Danielle is a more independent character with a stronger voice, as opposed to Aschenputtle who really does not speak up for herself. Lastly, the Prince’s focus is not solely based on looks in the film; he cares about brains as well, where as the Prince in Aschenputtle cares far more about appearance.
In Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, she presents a number of very interesting facts regarding the ways that the sexual imagery of men and women respectively are used in the world of film. One such fact is that of the man as the looker and the female as the looked upon, she argues that the woman is always the object of reifying gaze, not the bearer if it. And “[t]he determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. In their 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 be connote to-be-looked-at-ness” (487). Mulvey makes the claim that women are presented and primped into this role of “to-be-looked-at-ness”. They are put into films for this purpose and for very little other purposes. However, this argument cannot be incorporated with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; the existence of women in the film is extremely insignificant to an extent that could be considered absent. “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance,” male serves as the dominant figures with which the viewer can identify, women only appear in the film for a very short moment of time. For instance, the appearance of women is only shown when Howard rescues the ill child in the village and his return to the village for hospitality reception...
Most individuals overlook or basically don 't recognize these sexual orientation contrasts. Women were constantly delegated being weak in their relational unions, legislative issues, and the workforce. Likewise being seen as subordinate to their spouses and are not deserving of deciding. Seen as simply a "mother" to stay at home and go to her kids throughout the day, while the spouse attempts to bring home the bread. Gender stereotyping, gender roles, and power is seen all through everything, for example, relationships, workplaces, or at home. The way she represented herself and her spouse accurately and deferentially then she was seen as dutiful and a decent wife. Despite the fact that there were ladies developments to change these sex ideas and generalizations, it has not disposed of the thought. This thought is still inserted into numerous men 's heads. Society still advances the thought of women being short of what a man is through motion pictures, media, workforce, advertisements, and games. Movies delineate men as being effective and ladies as frail. This all ties into Zora Neale Hurston 's novel and how men and ladies were pushed off due to their sex. This is the reason why Zora sets up her female characters as being frail and feeble and men as predominant and influential. Zora Neale Hurston uses the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God to
Since the beginning of time, women have been seen as different from men. Their beauty and charms have been interpreted as both endearing and deadly to men. In the Bible, it was Eve’s mistake that led to humanity’s exile from the Garden of Eden. However, unlike in the Bible, in today’s world, women who drive men to ruin do not do so through simple mistakes and misunderstandings, they do so while fully aware of what effects their sexuality can cause. One thing remains constant through these portrayals of women, and that is that they are portrayed as flawed creations and therefore monstrous. It is a woman’s sex drive and sexuality that can lead to her monstrosity. The femme fatale is an enticing, exquisitely beautiful, erotic character who plays the ultimate trick of nature: she displays her beauty, captures the man and goes in for the kill. Films such as Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction and stories such as Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale, and Sir Gawain the Green Knight use the femme fatale as a means of making a woman into a monster; the femme fatale can never win in the battle of the sexes. But what is it that makes the femme fatale such a dangerously character for the hero as well as the readers or viewers?
Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina; Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind; Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. Upon first glance, these classics of literary legend appear to have nothing in common. However, looking closer, one concept unites these three works of art. At the center of each story stands a woman--an authentically portrayed woman. A woman with strengths, flaws, desires, memories, hopes, and dreams. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, Mitchell’s Scarlett O’Hara, and Williams’ Blanche DuBois are beautiful, intelligent, sophisticated women: strong yet fragile, brazen yet subtle, carnal yet pure. Surviving literature that depicts women in such a realistic and moving fashion is still very rare today, and each piece of that unique genre must be treasured. But unlike those singular works, there lived one man who built a career of writing novels that explored the complex psyches of women. Somehow, with each novel, this author’s mind and heart act as a telescope gazing into an unforgettable portrait of a lady. Through the central female characters in his novels Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence illuminates dimensions of a woman’s soul not often explored in literature.
When observing television shows and movies, many stereotypes of women commonly exist such as a mother, a dutiful wife or a sex object. Many of these movies and television shows display women as prize for men to compete for by generalizing their abilities and feelings. While it is typical for a woman to play a lead role in a romance film with some sort of fairy-tale ending, Bridesmaids defies the typical by portraying women as main characters in a comedy. Bridesmaids, the movie, focuses in on the struggling life of the maid of honor, Annie, who is competing with another bridesmaid, Helen, for attention from the soon to be bride, Lillian. Annie’s life happens to also be spiraling out of control after losing bother her jobs as a baker and a jewelry
Once Orlando returns to the world of civility, boarding a ship to London in her new dress, she reflects upon the duties of a woman. She remembers that, as a man, she thought women were to be “exquisitely apparelled” but also “chaste year in and year out” (251). This upsets her as she is overwhelmed by the large effort she will have to put into her appearance only to get no reward. Orlando’s dilemma has been one that women have always faced: the balance of sexuality and modesty. Her society places heavy emphasis on marriage, wherein daughters vainly alter their appearance in hopes that they will use their beauty to attract a man of status. Consequently, they must also show modesty, not making a man want them too much, in order to preserve their image of purity. After losing her ability to be sexual, Orlando realizes that she faces many problems that she didn’t have as a man. In coming home after a long trip, Orlando returns to countless lawsuits because her sons are fighting for a property she can no longer own. Although Orlando “remained precisely as [she] had been” (220), her memories and ability the exact same, society deems her incapable of owning property. Orlando’s society would rather take everything from her than admit that her sex changed very little else about her ability and personality.
The obedience curse in Ella Enchanted and the desire for beauty in Fairest are reflective of the expectation imposed by the gender norms of society and the obsession with appearance. The young female heroine in The Paper Bag Princess defies the social norms of women by courageously saving her prince. Much like Lady Wendylyn in The Knight Who Was Afraid of the Dark faces her fears to help Sir Fed the brave female roles stand out as more than the damsel in destress or the needy princess waiting for her prince to sweep her off her feet. The plots of all four of these books present the reader with a strong female character and a non-conventional spin on the gender norms we expect to read in a
...n by naming the title of the movie after the main female protagonists. Just look at the Little Mermaid, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and even Beauty and the Beast. All are movies about the females being damsels in distress and having a male come to their rescue. Charles Perrault’s original version portrays the perfect version that children all around the world should be watching. Children are already very impressionable and what they watch when they are younger is how they eventually will act. How they grow up rests on the children movies and books of that generation. Those movies and books are what form the future leaders of our countries and for one very impressionable company, such as Disney, to be favoring one gender more than the other can result in chaos. Overall, Charles Perrault’s feminist lens in his story can lead girls to an empowering high self-esteem.
Women in these fairy tales are young and beautiful. In all reality not every girl in this world is truly considered beautiful by our society’s terms. In today’s society the term beautiful is often used to describe a women who is a size 0, tall, flawless skin, and dressed nicely. Haven’t you ever seen princesses that are in all these fairy tales, our society’s description of beautiful describes every single one of these princesses?
...nt the Victorian jilted bride aim to subvert certain Victorian stereotypes and represent them through the postmodern view. My purpose in this chapter was to examine Emily as another Miss Havisham, because I believe that animated films are even more successful than adaptations, since they parody and subvert certain Victorian stereotypes in a subconscious level. Burton manages in Corpse Bride to reveal traditionally criticized issues about Victorian society and especially its attitude towards unmarried women. As it happens in Burton’s films, the social messages always reach the audience through witty songs, dark humor and fairy-tale elements. In contrast to the rest of the films discussed in my thesis, I believe that it is exactly this non-aggressive strategy of animation that helps us digest the film’s point about the fate of unmarried women in the Victorian period.
...ereotypes and patriarchal norms (Annie baking, Helen being a rich step-mom, the wedding itself), it also undermines patriarchy at the same time. At one point or another throughout the film all of the female characters go against the common conception and portrayal of women being proper and passive. They can be raunchy, drink, use vulgar language, and show they aren’t that different from men.
The Damsel has spanned throughout history as a popular archetype in literature, movies, and music. Through these forms of entertainment, The Damsel is portrayed as naïve, innocent, and feeble. In media, she eagerly awaits to be rescued and protected by a handsome prince, and live “happily ever after.” The Damsel has potential for greatness, yet only realizes it when guided by a prince. In addition to the naïve feebleness of The Damsel, the archetype originally symbolized purity, kindness, and an immunity to the taint of evil. In relation to romance, the light attributes of The Damsel encourages her to rely on herself, and recognize the qualities of a healthy romance. The shadow attributes of The