Analysis Of Taymor And Shafika As A Chick Flick

945 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Role as a woman in Egyptian society

Taymoor and Shafika as a Chick Flick.
Chick Flick films are mostly appealing to female viewers, they discuss issues that are relevant to women, and they have a female protagonist. However, slight changes exist depending on the origin of the film. Egyptian films are more determined on setting gender binaries than Hollywood films. Upon looking at an Egyptian Chick Flick from a Women’s Studies’ student’s point of view, it is way more engrossing, hence it is full of the standard chauvinistic ideals held by the Egyptian society. “Taymor and Shafika” is a fine example of the remarkably patriarchal works produced by the Egyptian film industry.
Shafika, a young PHD holder, and Taymor, a hardworking police officer, are in love with each other ever …show more content…

If a woman is vocal about demanding her rights, it will not lead anywhere and she will eventually give in to the patriarchal order. It’s as if a woman abandoning her future for a man’s sake is like natural order. “A woman is predestined to her husband and her home” Shafika’s mother tells her this at some point. The romantic narrative in the film is played out as the only narrative of value for Shafika. No matter how successful Shafika becomes, her relationship with Taymor is the central theme in her life. Technically, Shafika is more successful than Taymor but that does not change their gender roles in the film. In Nawal El Saadawi’s essay “Writing and Freedom” she says: “The creative man has a wife who delights in his success and feels happier as he becomes more successful. The creative woman has a husband who gets depressed when she succeeds, and gets increasingly more depressed as she becomes more successful.” This concept is screened by the script writer Tamer Habib and reshaped in a way to make Taymor’s dissatisfaction with her success be seen as merely a result of his jealousy and possessiveness of

Show More
Related

  • Sexism In The Women's Swimming Pool By Nawal El Saadawi

    926 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both el Saadawi and Al-Shaykh both show how perception and expression are both affected within the confines of politics, social opportunities, and male privilege depicted in their stories. Whether the reader is a follower of the feminist movement or not, it is very clear and easy to see that these women are not being treated with the respect that any human being deserves. The misogynistic stranglehold on society, especially in this part of the world, is excessive and avoidable in today’s world but it is very likely that the traditional, conservative ways of the past will continue to control and inhibit women from being able to be fully treated as equals for many years to come, perhaps even after this generation has

    Read More

  • Implications of the Masculiune Gaze in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Women in Film as Portrayed in the Movie, Double Indemnity

    1123 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women and Film.

    Read More

  • Erotic Objectification: Equally Degrading

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Another Evening At The Club By Alifa Rifaat Summary

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    It revolves around the issues of gender oppression, sexual assault, and importance of social status. Alifa Rifaat manages to express her opinions towards these themes by writing about a typical Egyptian marriage. She puts in focus the strong influence that a patriarchal society has. She also manages to prove how important social status is in society. The uses of literally elements such as theme and irony help express this view. It shows that in a typical Egyptian society women are commonly oppressed by all males in society

    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

  • Essay On Klute By Laura Mullvey

    1316 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    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

  • 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

  • Lad Flicks: A Hybrid of Buddie Movies, Romantic Comedies and Chick Flicks

    2008 Words  | 5 Pages

    ‘Lad flicks’ or ‘lad movies’ is a type of film genre that emerged in the late 1990s. They are defined as a “‘hybrid of “buddy movies”, romantic comedies and “chick flicks”, which centre on the trials and tribulations of a young man as he grows up to become a ‘real man’. ‘Lad flicks’ respond in part to the much-debated ‘crisis in masculinity’” (Benjamin A. Brabon 116). This genre of film explored what it meant to be a ‘real man’ in the twentieth century and in order to do so, they would have to grow up and leave their juvenile ways behind to enter the heterosexual world. Gender relations in ‘lad flicks’ portray masculinity as a troubled, anxious cultural category hiding behind a humorous façade and also rely greatly on a knowing gaze and irony. The two ‘lad flicks’ that will be analyzed are The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Judd Apatow 2005) and Role Models (David Wain 2008).

    Read More

  • Thelma And Louise Patriarchy Essay

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Brenda Cooper’s article “Chick Flicks,” she argues, the film, Thelma and Louise employs mockery as a narrative tool, and functions to produce a defiant narrative which fiercely confronts and denounces patriarchy. Societal norms are able to create a kind unconscious compliance, resulting in self-imposed coercion and oppression. A film like Thelma and Louise brings consciousness to women’s own complicity in social norms like patriarchy, so they can no longer blindly follow these norms. This leaves women in either a state of denial and resistance or a state of evolution and change. Through mockery this film sheds light on accepted norms, and in some, causes a defensive response, as it

    Read More

  • Snow White And Cinderella Gender Analysis

    1427 Words  | 3 Pages

    The media today is overflowing with idealistic representations of modern life; society’s hunger for excellence is reproduced in every detail of the media we consume. Reality, in contrast, is a poor substitute for the fairytale world of film, where good beats evil and stories end with a happily ever after. Arguably, women are often the “victims” of motion picture’s perfect perceptions, and feminism’s persistent test is to challenge these impractical representations. The female princess characters show an example of inaccurate feminine fulfillment.

    Read More

  • Romance Movies Essay

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    Romance movies have this weird love that goes on in them. Some characteristics include; sex scenes, lovey dovey affection, hate (sometimes) that ends up in love, marriages, divorces, new found love, and really anything that can happen between a man and female, female and female, man and man, whichever someone prefers. Romance movies are often seen as “chick flicks” while some may agree, others disagree. The ONLY reason they are considered “chick flicks” is because it’s a romance and theirs sappy love. There is no real evidence of it being labeled as a “chicks only flick”, men actually prefer to watch some of those movies. It doesn’t make them weak, homosexual acting, a pansy, or anything else men might call other men. Romance movies and novels are highly bought in stores. Who knows? It may be bought by your future husband or wife. And, since this paper is describing the differences, parents might look at this and decide whether or not to show the kids these types of

    Read More

  • The Novel Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi

    1221 Words  | 3 Pages

    The novel Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi and the article “With Tasers and placards, the women of Egypt are fighting back against sexism” by Laurie Penny can be connected both internally in regards to the text and outwardly to the time and place surrounding the novel and article. Although Woman at Point Zero provides a fictional journey, one that is at heart and by inspiration very genuine, the ideas incorporated into this novel are just as authentic as those provided by the first hand account given by Laurie Penny. Woman at Point Zero follows the story of one woman, Firdaus, who is forcibly raped on numerous occasions. Firdaus later finds security by means of prostitution, which leads her to be targeted on a more authoritative scale. Ultimately Firdaus finds strength to retaliate against the men who have harmed her, as can be seen when she defends herself, killing her pimp. Penny documented her experience at a women’s march in Egypt, after interviewing after obtaining views of the social injustices occurring in this region. The very similar infrastructure for these texts allows one to easily draw connections. Both article and novel can be connected through the familiar settings of the authors, the techniques used to convey the situation of Egypt, and the direct intentions that the authors held and ultimately saw into fruition.

    Read More

  • Violence in Cinema

    1585 Words  | 4 Pages

    The representation of violence exacted upon women in cinema is inextricable from being projected upon all women. To provide a scene that objectifies the female is to reduce the feminine form to its non-dual state, e.g., a sexual object providing a vessel for male gratification (hubris and sexual) rather then being defined by its duality of sentient and physical forms. Those who construct scenes of violence against women are bound to a moral responsibility to subjectify the woman’s perspective, thus reestablishing the female as a victim rather then an object and rendering the act of violence intelligible (deplorable, open to interpretation).

    Read More

More about Analysis Of Taymor And Shafika As A Chick Flick

Open Document