Introduction
The rise of feminism in the 19th and 20th centuries brought along a deeper understanding of the inherent perceptions of masculine and feminine societal roles. Typically, the audience’s interpretations of a film, either consciously or sub-consciously, is often influenced by their gender. This affects how the presentation of gender in fictional works, either conforms, or diverges, from the societal gender expectations. By viewing the silent German film, Metropolis directed by Fritz Lang in 1927, we are able to see the contemporary ideas of gender roles and understand the concept of femininity in Weimar Germany. Through the themes of corruption and the characterization of the two protagonists, Lang is able to introduce and portray
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With the raise of women and technological advancement taking place, masculinity in Weimar society was threatened. As stated previously, women’s role were changing and was seeping into the previously male dominated labour force. Through the film Metropolis, Lang combines the fears of femininity predominance in society with the fears of technological advancement by creating the character robot Maria. Moreover, technology and machinery does not possess any humanity; similarly according to Wright, in Weimar society a woman’s distinguishing characteristic is just appearance with no true identity (Wright 588). For men to create a “woman” from a machine, Lang shows the male fantasy of creating life without a mother, thus is able to replace the role of women entirely. Undoubtedly, Lang chose to represent robot Maria as a literal representation of the masculine belief that women are essentially “empty” objects and are just for sexuality and reproduction; symbolically stating that femininity provides nothing particularly important for society. Additionally, Wright’s article claims that men during this time period wanted to eliminate women from power and sexuality altogether, “[…] not merely to master woman in the sex act, but rather to eliminate her from it altogether. In this way, man can free himself from this last remaining form of dependence on woman” (Wright 590). Connecting this with the film Metropolis, Lang depicts a parallel to society; by removing the aspect that makes a women a female, Lang draws on the belief that women had removed what makes a man a male in
The female characters in Young Frankenstein and One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest are, stereotypically, satiric and parodic renditions of oppressed or emotionally unstable feminine personalities. The theme of the treatment of women is not only played out in the external relationships the women interact within but also in the basic mentality and roles they embody within their personality. The women of Young Frankenstein add a comical element to the film which a direct contrast to the insignificance of the female in Mary Shelley’s novel. The women of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest are either almost terrifying when thinking of the potential evil lurking just beneath the surface or effectual props in the healing of those who need it.
American commercial cinema currently fuels many aspects of society. In the twenty-first century it has become available, active force in the perception of gender relations in the United States. In the earlier part of this century filmmakers, as well as the public, did not necessarily view the female“media image” as an infrastructure of sex inequality. Today, contemporary audiences and critics have become preoccupied with the role the cinema plays in shaping social values, institutions, and attitudes. American cinema has become narrowly focused on images of violent women, female sexuality, the portrayal of the “weaker sex” and subversively portraying women negatively in film. “Double Indemnity can be read in two ways. It is either a misogynist film about a terrifying, destroying woman, or it is a film that liberates the female character from the restrictive and oppressed melodramatic situation that render her helpless” (Kolker 124). There are arguably two extreme portrayals of the character of Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity; neither one is an accurate or fare portrayal.
Fritz Lang's Metropolis is a very powerful movie with various underlying meanings that allow the viewer to determine for himself. The movie itself is extremely difficult and hard to follow, although the essay "The Vamp and the Machine: Technology and Sexuality in Fritz Lang's Metropolis" written by Andreas Huyssen provided many helpful insights to aid in understanding the movie. Many of Huyssen's idea's are a bit extreme, but none the less the essay is very beneficial. His extreme views include ideas of castration and how it relates with the female robot, and sexulaity and how it relates technology. Although these ideas are extreme he does also provide many interesting ideas.
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.
Ruppert, Peter. “Technology and the Constructions of Gender in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.” (2000) [Accessed 18 December 2012]
How does the composer Fritz Lang represent contextual issues and concerns in his film Metropolis? Fritz Lang’s 1927 didactic film Metropolis explores the ramifications of mankind’s hubris and hunger for power, and its consequences on humanity. Fritz Lang excoriates Weimar Republic Zeitgeist; its industrialised and capitalist values: humanity’s willingness to sacrifice basic human rights (e.g. personal freedom) in exchange for power and materialistic wealth, and Weimar’s dictatorial totalitarian regime. Lang emphasises the requirement for equilibrium between the working class and the elite to prevent a cataclysmic milieu, based on observations of his own Weimar epoch.
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).
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.
Women were represented in different ways throughout the movie Metropolis, but the underlying theme was women were seen as purely sexual. Maria was seen as the nurturer in the film, but also as a sexual object. She was the one who preached for peace and harmony down in the catacombs to the workers. Maria was also the nurturing maternal figure that was seen walking into the garden with all of the poor children. The vamp, on the other hand, was portrayed blatantly as a sexual object. This whole movie was seen through the eyes of the male perspective, which usually portrays women as sexual objects, and robs them of any identity. Lang shows Frederson as having fear of femininity which involves women's emotion and nurturing.
Metropolis Film Critique Written by Austrian-German filmmaker and screenwriter, Fritz Lang (Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, M, Fury), and his wife, German screenwriter and novelist, Thea von Harbou (The Rocket to the Moon, Spies), Metropolis (1927) is one of many German expressionistic films released in the early 20th century. Placed alongside films such as Nosferatu (1922), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), parallels can be drawn between various moods and themes; however, Metropolis’ courageous counterculture take on not only cinema, but Germany’s culture as a whole, pushes Metropolis to stand out for reasons far more complex than a decent plotline. Of course, with being the first in any industry, there
In Se7en, female characters are hardly displayed or played in a clearly constructed role that ideological society planned for them: supporting the man. In “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, Laura Mulvey states “Psychoanalytic theory is this appropriate here as a political weapon, demonstrating the way the unconscious of patriarchal society has structure film form” (837). By looking at the three looks associated with cinema: the camera, the audience, and the characters at each other she discuss the constructed gender roles within society’s ideology. “Woman then stands in patriarchal culture as signifier for the male other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live out his phantasies and obsessions through linguistic command by imposing
In his novel, women did not represent any authority in contrast with men. A “Brave New World” depicted women in a typical role in which men have a lot of women around them. In the Utopia that Huxley described, women are victims of discrimination because of their physicals appearance. It follows into the pattern of today’s society, like sexist stereotypes and women 's body image. Sexism in the novel is very visible. Men only valued women for their appearance, rather than for their intelligence. Huxley developed and gave more importance to male characters than to female characters. Female characters were undervalued by the author. Huxley changed many aspects of the female experience. Although Lenina did something as amazing as falling in love, it was not permitted in Utopia. The author should have developed Lenina as a stronger and more courageous
This article will discuss how rise of feminism influence the portrayal of female
Women‘s roles were changing along with the social transformations. Film became a powerful tool to portray women‘s images in that certain period of
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 ...