Culture And Gender Roles In 'Princess Mononoke'

1081 Words3 Pages

In the movie Princess Mononoke, the prince of the forest village, named Ashitaka was protecting his village from a rampaging boar god. The boar-god attacked his right arm and cursed him, but Ashitaka managed to kill the boar-god. He then renounced his title as prince and went out to seek a cure for the curse by moving west, where the cursed boar-god came from. Leaving the village is known to be a taboo, so he could not return. As he traveled he met a monk named Jigo. They met for a little while, but he left in the morning to continue his journey. During his journey, he stumbled upon injured men and took them back home to Iron Town, which was ruled by Lady Eboshi. He later found out the town has conflict with the gods of the forest, ending with Jigo stealing the head of the forest spirit. In the end, Ashitaka was able to return the forest spirit’s head and stayed to rebuild Iron Town.
In the movie it had a lot of things that had to do with culture and society. Culture is the “collection of values, beliefs, knowledge, and material objects shared by …show more content…

The women played big parts in the town. The women were bold and confident in their town and abilities. “Gender roles are a set of social expectations regarding behavior and attitudes based on a person’s sex,” (Croteau and Hoynes, pg. 290). According to gender role stereotypes, women are known to be homemakers and hold a lower position of authority (Eagly and Stephen). In Iron Town the women were not defined by their gender. Lady Eboshi empowered that women can do anything just as well as men, but even without them they are still perfectly capable. Both men and women had jobs in Iron Town. According to the men’s perspective, the women were hard workers, but they were not housewife material. Because of Eboshi’s empowerment, the women were perfectly capable without men in any task, even defending the

Open Document