The Sheik: Gender Stereotypes In Hollywood

Hollywood film has always been an influential phenomenon within the people of the United States. Many films have started enormous trends within cultural and social movements as well as political ones. Examples of this can be seen from the genesis of Hollywood film. As films became more popular, and more developed, the ideas that were presented within film reflected the changes that were occurring within The United States. The role of film, thus became even more important because it was source of entertainment, but also a source of propaganda that would influence gender stereotypes and expectations. The ideas that films present are usually very reflective of the time in which they were made, making them benchmarks for what was to be accepted

In the film, repeatedly Valentino’s character forces himself upon the female character Diana. Throughout the film, he kidnaps her, orders her about, rapes her, and essentially emotionally manipulates her to love him. In a 1920s magazine what was said about this rape scene was “violence is acceptable to them only if it is described sparingly, if it is controlled carefully, or if it is clearly traceable to the passion or jealousy of the hero”(Studlar 190). It is obvious that the people, especially women of the 1920s thought that this type of violence is acceptable. This kind of justification of violence can also be seen in the film The Public Enemy (1931). James Cagney plays a gangster Tom Powers. Gangsters notoriously are violent. This film include gangster stereotypes such as reacting to conflict with physical, gun, and verbal violence as well as blackmail. This film has the iconic scene where Tom, pushes a grapefruit into her girlfriend, Mae West’s face, as well as the scene in which Tom shoots their childhood entertainer’s in cold blood as he is playing the piano. In the book, Manhood in America: A Cultural History, the author notes “The men and boys of the Great Depression who responded to Cagney’s performance, and the women too, were drawn not merely to the violence, but to the actor’s portrayal of the complex personality that lay behind it. Cagney’s playfulness and humor partially redeemed his gangster character, made Tom Powers, vivid, likeable, and pathetic in his own violent end” (Kimmel 34). Tom’s negative attributes that are categorized as the pinnacle of 1930s masculinity are all somehow deemed as not only likeable, but audiences are able to somehow feel pity for