Halloween Movie Gender Roles

633 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Depiction of women in movies

Movies like "Halloween", "300", and "Frozen" all portray a similar perspective on demolishing gender stereotypes. From feminism to homosexuality, these movies break the boundaries that women cannot be independent and that gays cannot posses masculinity. They show an entire new concept of gender roles and additionally create a very positive aura. The criticism used in these movies would be best described as "gender studies and queer theory" (Mays 1325).
The movie "Halloween" gives women the sense of superiority. Typically, horror films will make women appear fragile and weak. They make the women scream and cry for help. Films usually make them vulnerable to the attacker and more than often a male character will come to the rescue. This happens because there are "a set of social ideals that identif[y] white women with self-sacrifice, nurture, and the home, and white men with autonomous individualism and the world of capitalist commerce" (Hausman 579). Therefore, women are …show more content…

There is this massive war occurring between Persia and Greece. There's a ton of fighting, abuse, and killing that takes place in this movie. The masculine roles are completely fulfilled in this film, even though most of the characters in this movie commit actions that are not necessarily considered straight. There are numerous homosexual references like same sex hand holding and touching, and there are even some lines in this film that containsexual tension between men. This, along with many other elements, gives the movie a homosexual feel. Nevertheless, these men defeat the stereotypes of gays. Vatican states "gay men have not reached 'affective maturity' and so cannot 'relate correctly to both men and women' (Heck). This movie proves him wrong. These men are not light-hearted nor sensitive. They are mudering people with no remorse. "300" allows the opportunity for gays to be seen as equal as straight

Show More
Related

  • Friday Night Lights Gender Analysis

    1442 Words  | 3 Pages

    The media is a powerful tool and has the ability to influence and change one’s overall perspective of the world and the position they play in it. Although Television shows such as Friday Night Lights are seen as entertainment by consumers, its storyline contributes to the social construction of reality about class in the United States.

    Read More

  • Gender Bias in Cinema: Women's Dependence on Men

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout time, women in movies and other similar texts are shown to be generally focused on men. This might make sense if every movie ever made was set in a time where women had absolutely no rights but of course, that is not the case. Older and more modern depictions of women in media, both show women whose lives revolve around men. Even movies that market their female characters as strong and powerful are still shown to be dependent on the male leads and puts them first. Also, since women in movies have more of a focus on men, female to female relationships suffer in the same films. There are very few exceptions to this unfortunate truth.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In Night Of The Living Dead

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the century gender roles have changed dramatically. During the 60s roles were given to certain genders. Stereotyping them to play the action of what their gender was expected to do. One may believe that a man or women should have a specific role, but as the years came, certain genders stuck up for themselves, making a statement that they are just as capable to do anything anyone else does. The 1968 drama film Night of the Living Dead directed by George Romero is full of gender discrimination. This movie shows the typical actions of how women and males were supposed to act during the 60s; however, the roles played in this film have changed majorly over the years. Women and males have every right to play any role they want in today’s world. Romero may leave the audience angry with how he judges gender roles in

    Read More

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

    1123 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Erotic Objectification: Equally Degrading

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    This essay sets out to distinguish how male characters can be portrayed in the same fashion as their female counterparts, and therefore become subjected to the same erotic objectification. This will be researched under the circumstances that the production revolves around gay characters and the assumed audience is exchanged from a homogenous crowd of heterosexual spectators, to a homogenous crowd of homosexual spectators. To support this claim there will be references to a segment from the American remake of the television series Queer as Folk (USA, dev. Ron Cowen, Daniel Lipman, 2000-2005) where Brian Kinney (Gale Harold) and Justin Taylor (Randy Harris) first meet.

    Read More

  • Media Portrayal of Gender and Cultural Stereotypes During World War II and Current Times

    1131 Words  | 3 Pages

    Smith, Jeff, and Chloe Beighley. "Normalizing Male Dominance: Gender Representation in 2012 Films." Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy. N.p., 12 Feb. 2013. Web. 1 Apr. 2014.

    Read More

  • Gender And Gender Roles In The Movie Pleasantville

    745 Words  | 2 Pages

    Pleasantville is a film set around two teenagers who happen to fall into the predictable 1950s’ black and white sitcom, Pleasantville. The show represents a very stereotypical image of what American culture was known for in the 50s’, in regards to gender roles, segregation of races, and basic societal standards. With a society, so bland, David and Jennifer bring along their personalities that influence new ideas and innovation, keenness for knowledge and most importantly a display of freedom. As the citizens of Pleasantville became exposed to new experiences and opportunities, an eruption of “intense” emotions took over the town, which led to the outburst of the symbol of colour. These abrupt changes to the society’s norms highlight the uneasiness

    Read More

  • Napoleon Dynamite Stereotypes

    833 Words  | 2 Pages

    Movies are a new edition in today’s culture. They are a new form of art medium that has arrived in the late 1900s and were a new way to express ideas and viewpoints of the time. A good example of this is the movie The Manchurian Candidate. The movie had a simple plot a man is kidnapped after the Korean war and is hypnotized to work for the communists and take down the U.S. This movie showed the American public’s fear of communism at the time. If a movie like this can easily portray the fears of the American people at the time then it can easily portray stereotypes of gender. There have been thousands of movies where the male protagonist is a rough tough dude but there is one movie that has that stereotype is broken. That movie is none other than Napoleon Dynamite.

    Read More

  • Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess

    2633 Words  | 6 Pages

    Film scholar and gender theorist Linda Williams begins her article “Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess,” with an anecdote about a dispute between herself and her son, regarding what is considered “gross,” (727) in films. It is this anecdote that invites her readers to understand the motivations and implications of films that fall under the category of “body” genre, namely, horror films, melodramas, (henceforth referred to as “weepies”) and pornography. Williams explains that, in regards to excess, the constant attempts at “determining where to draw the line,” (727) has inspired her and other theorists alike to question the inspirations, motivations, and implications of these “body genre” films. After her own research and consideration, Williams explains that she believes there is “value in thinking about the form, function, and system of seemingly gratuitous excesses in these three genres,” (728) and she will attempt to prove that these films are excessive on purpose, in order to inspire a collective physical effect on the audience that cannot be experienced when watching other genres.

    Read More

  • Women In Horror Films

    1377 Words  | 3 Pages

    What are the main roles that female actresses typically portray in horror films? Maggie Freleng, an editor of VitaminW, a website that contributes toward the female empowerment movement, expresses her belief that women are cast in “poor and stereotypical representation of women in the horror genre.” Some roles that many women portray that are seen as stereotypical is the sexually promiscuous women and the saved virgin, evil demon seductress, the overly liberated woman, and the most common role the damsel in distress. The possible reason that women are cast with these roles is because of the belief that women are seen as too dimwitted, overemotional, uncoordinated, weak, and incompetent to survive in a situation much like those in horror films. Anne T. Donahue, an author of Women in Horror: The Revenge an article in The Guardian verifies the belief of the females portrayed as the damsel in distress stereotype with the statement, “We see them [women] waiting for a man to save them, we see them running, bloodied and terrified, we see them tied and cut up,

    Read More

  • Film Analysis Of Carol Clover's 'Men Women And Chainsaws'

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    Too many horror films provide scares and screams throughout their respective cinemas.  Not many viewers follow what kind of model the films follow to appease their viewers.  However, after reading film theorist Carol Clover’s novel, watching one of the films she associates in the novel “Halloween”, and also watching the movie “Nightmare on Elm Street” I say almost every “slasher” or horror film follows a model similar to Clover’s.  The model is a female is featured as a primary character and that females tend to always overcome a situation at some point throughout the film.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Barbara Creed's 'Horror And The Monstrous-Feminine'

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to Creed, there are seven possible faces of female monstrosity in the cinematic language: archaic mother, monstrous womb, vampire, witch possessed monster, deadly femme castrator, and the castrating mother. These elements of the female form in cinema help Creed’s definition of the female body as alien and an oppressive realm that provokes feelings of disgust. Creed states that “Horror emerges from the fact that woman has broken with her proper feminine role as she has ‘made a spectacle of herself’ and put her unsocialized body on display” (46). She goes on to relate this to the film The Exorcist (1973) and the young girl’s gradual possession, “with its emphasis on filthy utterances and depraved acts, seems so shocking… mockery of all established forms of propriety, of the clean and proper body and of the law itself define her as abject.Yet, despite her monstrous appearance and shocking utterances, she remains a strongly ambiguous figure.” (46). Creed also makes another fascinating point that highlights the films use of male and female characters. Besides the mother and daughter in the film The Exorcist all law enforcement, doctors, healers, archaologists, and priests are

    Read More

  • The Normality Of Queer And Gender Characters, By Tennessee Williams

    1875 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout various mediums, queer and gender portrayals are not shown in the best light. Majority of media show clear negative connotations of homosexuals and queens while constantly being a target of discrimination and ridicule. Though as time went on many writers decided to speak up and gain awareness for queer and gender biases by incorporating messages of societal discrimination in their plays. Much of their ideals were that of how sexual/gender identity portrayal, lifestyle stigma, and preconceived notions of the homosexual community. These ideals were combined in what is called gender studies and queer literary theory. Some of these concepts and ideas of queer and gender theory can be seen throughout the play

    Read More

  • The Influence of Disney Films on Society

    1284 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some of the films that bring out the gender roles in our society include; Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, The Princess and the Frog, Aladdin, Hercules,

    Read More

  • Feminism and the Movie Industry

    1785 Words  | 4 Pages

    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 ...

    Read More

More about Halloween Movie Gender Roles

Open Document