Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Douglas Sirk’s 1959 drama ‘Imitation of Life’ is a drama that explores being a woman in a patriarchal society. He explores women beyond their sex, he explores women in the roles as mothers, women as widows and beyond that he explores what it’s like being a woman, widow, mother and POC in a white, male dominated society. Racial identity plays a big role in the narrative and development of the film which focuses on the difficulties that two very different women face, when trying to live an independent life whilst raising their children.
Sarah Jane, who is portrayed as a teenager by Susan Kohner, is a young black woman passing as white. In my opinion Sarah Jane is both a victim and a hero in this narrative, she suffers through the rejection
…show more content…
The film has several scene’s that a modern audience would find very shocking, however for an audience watching the film back in 1957 this sort of language would have been more common place i.e. the sequence between Annie and Sarah Jane when Annie comes to say farewell. The tension in this scene builds from the moment Annie enters the scene, it comes to a climax as they both express their love for each other and then in enters her co-worker. The blocking of the frame puts up a wall between Annie and Sarah Jane yet again as she inches away from her mother to not be recognised as being her daughter.
During this instance her co-worker assumes that Annie being black must therefore be the maid, assuming women of colour can only work low paying jobs and that there is no other reason for Annie to be in Sarah Janes room. Ultimately Annie set’s her daughter free by explaining she once looked after Sarah Jane, a story that seems plausible to her co-worker simply because Annie is black.
Going back to the framing of this scene, from the very instance Annie enters the room there is a block between Annie and Sarah Jane that generates a visual boundary, enforcing the emotional boundaries that are between mother and daughter. Sirk is very clever about how he composes and shoots the film, each shot has different meanings that express how the characters are feeling – without the use of
Sarah Grimke, who grew up in a wealthy, white family, had always seen, been aware of, and against racial inequality. Sarah personally knows the effects of inequality, for she has both been a witness and a victim to it. For example, throughout the book Sarah has a speech impediment, which was brought on by a traumatizing event that happened when she was little. She
...(Bloom, 486). As a class, men exploit them for personal use, both economically and sexually. They do everything they can to keep women in an inferior position. This repression is so pervasive that it is even found in the language of the women themselves. Correcting this problem is not a matter of changing individual relationships within the society. As the manifesto says, "the conflicts between individual men and women are political conflicts that can only be solved collectively"(486). In order for things to improve, there must be some change in society at a base level.
Both texts demonstrate the consequences associated with patriarchy, and extend to show that equality, and proper treatment of women can only be achieved in a non-patriarchal society.
From an early age Jane is aware she is at a disadvantage, yet she learns how to break free from her entrapment by following her heart. Jane appears as not only the main character in the text, but also a female narrator. Being a female narrator suggests a strong independent woman, but Jane does not seem quite that.
It may seem that the male characters in classical cinema are given power and control over female characters, but the relationships between characters in Billy Wilder’s 1944 noir Double Indemnity and Michael Curtiz’s 1945 drama Mildred Pierce are complex and do not conform to specific gender roles. Rather, both of these films feature female characters that are both controllers and the controlled. The characters Mildred Pierce and Phyllis Dietrichson hold both of these roles in their respective films but are inverses of each other: Mildred acts strongly and independently but is actually controlled emotionally and financially by others, while Phyllis is presented as submissive but is the grand manipulator. As such, these two films present different images of the “independent woman,” both of which are destined for failure.
‘Women and men are different. Equal treatment of men and women does not result in equal outcomes.’ (Corsten Report, 16: 2007) According to Covington and Bloom (2003) numerous feminist writers have demonstrated and documented the patriarchal nature of our society and the variety of ways in which the patriarchal values serve masculine needs. ‘Despite claims to the contrary, masculinist epistemologies are built upon values that promote masculine needs and desires, making all others invisible’ (Kaschak, 11: 1992).
A Doll House, by Henrik Ibsen, and A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, both have central themes of search of self-identity within a social system. This is demonstrated by women characters from both plays breaking away from the social standards of their times and acting on their own terms. In most situations women are to be less dominant than men in society. These two plays are surprisingly different from the views of women in society and of the times and settings that they take place in.
Both stories show feminism of the woman trying to become free of the male dominance. Unfortunately, the woman are not successful at becoming free. In the end, the two women’s lives are drastically
After watching this video, it became clear to be that my views on traditional masculine and feminine traits will be influenced. I understand the pressure that is put on both males and females to conform to society and the gender roles that accompany their culture. I will make a conscious effort to encourage males to act outside of the image they believe to be masculine. I will let them share their feelings and provide them with emotional support when they need it. I will also look at feminism differently. Before watching this video I believed that feminism was a good thing— now I believe that the idea of it is good but that is should change its objectives. I think that women should focus more on equality and less on the superiority of women. My thoughts regarding gender roles will be influenced after watching this movie.
Pauline Hopkins’ novel “Of One Blood” was originally published serially in a magazine called Colored American, from 1902-03. Within this novel Hopkins discusses some of the prominent racial and gender oppressions suffered by African Americans during this time. Following the Emancipation Proclamation of 1849 which resulted in African American freedom from slavery, but unfortunately not freedom from oppression and suffering. One of the minor characters, and the only dominant female role, within the novel is Dianthe Lusk. Within the novel Dianthe has many identifiers, which limits not only the readers but Dianthe’s understanding of her identity. Some of these identifiers include: women or ghost, black or white, sister or wife, princess or slave, and African or American. However, the most prominent of these juxtapositions in the novel is the racial identity. This paper will argue that the suffrage of Dianthe through her experiences with racial identity and rape serve to locate racial identity as an agent of politics, rather than of one’s color.
Members of this society must learn what the appropriate way for them to behave is and what to expect of themselves and others. Growing up, gender roles were set on me as I played with fire trucks and cars, and my sisters played with Barbie's. The types of movies we watched were different and the types of books we read were also different. It would be thought of as bizarre for me, a male, to cry during Titanic, or to read Cinderella.
Males have always fiddled with the lives of women for years, they play it well and society is the audience asking for an encore, it is society that says it’s okay. They take advantage of their circumstances and the other gender has to endure the harsh results from that. Janie, a black woman in Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God and Edna, a white woman in Chopin’s “The Awakening” live in two
He gives little credibility to the "not all men statement, addressing that while informative on an oppositional attitude, it does not do anything to address the sometimes toxic aspect of growing up as a man. The two stories are alike in the sense that people agree men can be, and sometimes are, violent. There are certain expectations placed upon a man as he grows and strives to be masculine. However, the stories diverge on a course of action.
...f intelligence, we do not travel to different planets as boys and girls, nor are we from different planets, as some recent books have suggested. We are created and born (on Earth) for distinctly different purposes, with a specialized aptitude for the fulfillment of those purposes. Both sexes will be happier, families will be healthier, and communities will be more prosperous and connected when they endeavor to discover and embrace their differences and specific gender roles. To admit that there are differences, subtle or obtuse, in cognitive and physical ability is to simply recognize our diversity, the often touted, uber-value of this new age. And this precious diversity is not and should never be a hindrance to equal opportunity or equal rights in society, but the sweet complementation present in both the male and female roles that completes the other.
The Imitation Game is a phenomenal film that takes place during World War II in 1952, which won Oscar for best writing-adapted screenplay. It serves as a tribute to the life of Alan Turing, a great mathematician who worked with fellow mathematicians through the British Intelligence MI6 agency to crack the Enigma Code. That’s not all there is though, this story brings you a profoundly odd man who has many secrets who is supposed to be solving the secret code to stop the war. When looking at this movie through the lens of social conflict, we can analyze how society is an arena of conflict as well as change that looks at how the individual is affected. So in this case we can look how the main themes: sex & sexuality, deviance, along with gender causes conflict in Alan Turing’s life as well as other supporting characters.