Women as Sexual Objects in Metropolis
In the film Metropolis, I feel women are basically represented as a sexual object. Also in my opinion certain male figures were the dominant images throughout the whole movie. Some may believe that at one point, the robot-Maria was a dominant figure but I believe the robot was just a technological advancement to increase the view that women are seen as sexual objects.
Why was the robot created in Metropolis in the form of a woman? This is a question that is portrayed in Huyssen's article. In my opinion, Rotwang wants to create a woman robot so he can have complete control over her actions. Huyssen even states, "After all, Rotwang creates the android as an artifact, as an initially lifeless object which he can then control." In creating a woman robot, Rotwang figures he can use her sexuality in order to receive the attention of the male workers. Power and dominance is what Rotwang wants and he found away to achieve it by the use of his creation. There are other males who display these dominant ways just as well as Rotwang does. Take the Master of Metropolis for instance. He orders Rotwang to create a robot in order to replace the human workers. He also has the control of all the workers because he is their employer.
Now let us look at where sexuality and technology come into play in this movie. In the first part of the movie, Jon Frederson (the son of the Master of Metropolis) sees Maria for the first time. By the way he looks at her, you can see that he is having sensual feelings for her. Huyssen also expresses this idea in his article. In my opinion, Frederson does not really see her as the saint she is suppose to be playing, but only as an object that he desires and would like to pursue. As the movie progresses, Rotwang decides he is going to capture Maria and take her as a prisoner in his home. He does this so he can create a robot that exactly duplicates the features of Maria. As a result of this creation, technology is now mixed with the sexuality that Maria had inside of her in order to obtain control and power. The robot-Maria, uses her sexuality to obtain the attention of all the male workers.
How does the film support or negate tgis point? In Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Mulvey states that, “Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side of the screen.” (Mulvey 40). A woman’s role in the narrative is bound to her sexuality or the way she draws attention away from the narrative.
Wendy McElroy in “A Feminist Defense of Pornography” argues that degrading is subjective to each women and it’s up to them to define it. As much as that is true, does it mean that there shouldn’t be a standard to the word “degrading”? Take for example, pain is subjective, the same papercut can feel painful to me yet not to another person. There are even people who suffer from congenital analgesia (the inability to feel physical pain), But does this mean that it is right to inflict physical pain on those people? The law is the standard for defining physical pain and so the term “degrading” should also has its standard as it will cause harm to others.
Throughout the entire movie there is an underlying theme of men always controlling women. The world of technology has always been seen as being all men while the women were standing on the outside looking in. For example, Rotwang creates this vamp to satisfy his own sexual desires, and to be able to control and dominate her every move. Woman has been constructed by man to serve her master, be completely dependent, and meet his needs. Lang invents his females as technological objects that come to life at the hands, and visions of their male masters. This is clearly seen when the robot, disguised as Maria, is put on the stake to burn.
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
In the show “Mad Men” men are depicted of having dominate roles at work and in the household. Men at that time thought of masculinity as having particular traditional qualities that is common in men, such as having dominance, bringing home the money, driving, being tough, and etc… Femininity means to acquire female qualities, such as being motherly, taking care of the house, nurturing, taking care of the children, producing children, cooking, and etc… (Oxford University Press.) The men in the show believe that the women desire men to be happy emotionally and physically. For example Don says “The choice between being a Jackie Kennedy or a Marilyn Monroe.” (Mad Men) Don is saying that women are either a whore or a perfect wife and women cannot be both. Even though the advertisement they make about bras can make women both a perfect wife and a whore. Even in the show two of the women coworkers (Joan and Peggy) are complete opposites and they provide evidence of what Don is trying to say that one is a whore and the other would be a perfect wife. (“Mad Men: Gender, Race...
During the late 19th- and early 20th century, the nature of society forced the working class women of America to take advantage of any means to support themselves, including prostitution. Each woman had to decide herself which work option best supported her financially.
To begin with, feminism started off as a social movement in England, which sought to achieve equality between the sexes by extending the rights of women. Feminist theory is an outgrowth of the general movement to empower women worldwide which is the belief that women should have equal rights to men. It can be defined as a recognition and critique of male supremacy combined with efforts to change it. Feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms. The goals of feminism are to demonstrate the importance of women, to reveal that historically women have been subordinate to men and to bring about gender equity.
George Gissing’s New Grub Street reveals a paradigm of culture changes happening during the Victorian Era in England. Females in the novel either represent those who follow the female model set out for them or the New Woman model. Amy Reardon earnestly seeks to provide a comfortable household for her husband and son but is unable to due to her husband not earning any money. Meanwhile, Marian Yule and Dora Milvain want something more out of their lives. While Marian Yule must compose material, for which she will never receive recognition, she ultimately branches out from societal norms by becoming a rural librarian. In comparison, Dora Milvain branches out of her own social class and moves down in society against her brother’s wishes. The independent
what is normal and usual; that it is not usual to be able to describe
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Good morning/afternoon Ms Pritchard and 10B English, today I will be exploring two of the same scenes from different film versions of Romeo and Juliet. Each film was directed by different but equally professional directors to allow the audience to understand the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. The scene I am going to analyse is the party scene when Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time. The first film being discussed was directed by Baz Luhrman in 1996; an Australian director who loves to spice up his films to keep the audience on their feet. The second film was directed by Carlo Carlei in 2013; an Italian master mind of directing who prefers to stay true to his films and become one with the audience and the story being told. Both directors
“We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges.” This quote by Gene Wolfe provides insight to the idea of symbolism. Most of the characters in John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, are given metaphorical names. Curley’s wife, Slim, and Candy do not only have representative names, but are also symbols of their own beings during the Great Depression.
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 ...
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...women suffer discrimination because of their sex, that they have specific needs which remain negated and unsatisfied, and that the satisfaction of these needs would require a radical change (some would say a revolution even) in the social, economic, and political order. But beyond that, things immediately become more complicated. " (Mitchell and Oakley). Throughout this play the social and economic order shown to be areas that women are discriminated against. The book What is feminism? also states, "In the writing of feminist history it is the broad view which predominates: feminism is usually defined as an active desire to change a women's position in society" (Mitchell and Oakly). This is the definition that works the best for all forms of feminism, but to clarify in this play specifically it is the economic and sicial roles of women that are actively changing.