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Changing cultural attitudes were also reflected in film. The films Carnal Knowledge and The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker represented women in roles that were harmful to them and illustrated the injustices women faced. Carnal Knowledge demonized men who objectified women; their objectification left them empty. The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker tells the story of a problematic marriage in which the main character becomes obsessed with voyeurism. Throughout the film women are continually objectified. There’s a woman in the film who has feminist ideas but she is quickly repressed. The couple reconciles with sex. These films are not an example of a perfect society but are critical of attitudes and actions in which women are objectified. The …show more content…
Carnal Knowledge is about sex without relationships or sex without eroticism; these are the only subjects the main characters interact over. This objectification and sexism in the film eventually lead to a meaningless existence for, the main characters, Sandy and Jonathan. Susan, a prominent character at the beginning of the film, has some sexual freedom but seemingly forgets her ambitions to be a lawyer and marries Sandy after college. She she isn’t an important character for the remainder of the film. The women in the film have little personhood and are only seen through the eyes of the men in Carnal Knowledge. Neither Jonathan nor Sandy is able to sustain relationships with women long-term. Both men objectify women; Jonathan calls women “ballbusters” and treats women as the lesser sex and Sandy puts women on a …show more content…
Both Carnal Knowledge and The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker portray dysfunctional relationships. Both films reflect poorly on the men in them. Sandy, Jonathan, and William are all self-destructive in the relationships they are in. Their objectification of women causes unhappiness and unfulfilled lives. They are examples of films that grapple with tough subject matter and shed light on societal issues. Alternative arguments posit that the women’s movement was a side effect of World War Two. Women needed to work when men were abroad fighting. Women entering the workforce could also be said to be a result of people’s realization of the American dream through two incomes (“The 1960s-70s American Feminist Movement”). In turn, this created the emerging upper middle
As many women took on a domestic role during this era, by the turn of the century women were certainly not strangers to the work force. As the developing American nation altered the lives of its citizens, both men and women found themselves struggling economically and migrated into cities to find work in the emerging industrialized labor movement . Ho...
When the war started, women had to take over the jobs of men and they learned to be independent. These women exemplified the beginning of change. Coupled with enfranchisement and the increased popularity of birth control, women experienced a new liberation. When the men returned from the war they found competition from the newly liberated woman who did not want to settle for making a home (Melman 17). This new class of women exercised a freedom that shocked society.
During WWII, women took over the work force, and had such inspirations as Rosie the Riveter. This created a generation of women who wanted more out of life than birthing children, and keeping a nice home for their husband. The end of the war, however, brought with it a decrease of working women. In the 1950’s the rate of working women had slightly rebounded to 29% following the post-war decrease in 1945. These women were well rounded, working outside the home, and still having dinner on the table by 5PM.
These men were so infatuated that other people thought so highly of them, that they never even considered any of the other factors involved In Status and Identity in Marital Interactions” Stets notes, “In adulthood, women are more likely than men to derive feelings of well-being from the “success” of their marriage…for men, feelings of well-being are tied to “success” at their job” (10). Both Mr. Doran and Armand put their social status as their first priority without ever thinking about the antagonists, Polly and Desiree or about how they felt with the situations they were in. Leaving them with no choice but to remove themselves from the heartbreaking decisions their mates had made without a second thought. Polly made it clear that she would “put an end to herself”, while Desiree packed up and left along with her baby. Although Polly did not actually put an end to herself, it was Mr. Doran’s selfish actions and thoughts that drove her to that point of wanting to kill herself. It is not clear what really happened to Desiree and the baby, it is implied that she took her own life as well as the
...lationships, but the husband did not change. This angered Carroll and she began to dislike her husband and feel he was mistreating her, which triggered revenge. Through this chain of events the couples miss the real experience of passion. This is all contributed to the innate wiring that is a natural feeling in a human when it is born into the world. This is a basic instinct that alerts a person to protect oneself when it senses something it fears. When couples use their intellect, and deduction along with psychoanalysis to determine love, it could be a bit disappointing. I do agree with Horney. Horney has touched some points, like trust and mistrust, confused emotions start from childhood. Love and power are mixed together and used to control relationships. It’s all a part of the power men want to have to dominate women.
But when the “Women’s Movement,” is referred to, one would most likely think about the strides taken during the 1960’s for equal treatment of women. The sixties started off with a bang for women, as the Food and Drug Administration approved birth control pills, President John F. Kennedy established the President's Commission on the Status of Women and appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as chairwoman, and Betty Friedan published her famous and groundbreaking book, “The Feminine Mystique” (Imbornoni). The Women’s Movement of the 1960’s was a ground-breaking part of American history because along with African-Americans another minority group stood up for equality, women were finished with being complacent, and it changed women’s lives today.
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).
In the 1960’s women were still seen as trophies and were beginning to be accepted into the work industry. They were still homemakers, raised the family, and made sure their husbands were happy. That was the social norms for women during that time period. They were not held to high work expectations like men were. But something amazing happened that would change women 's lives for centuries; it was the 1970’s. The 60’s put the equality movement in motion but 70’s was a time of reform where women were finally able to control their own paths. Not only was the 70’s a historical marker for the fiftieth anniversary for women suffrage, it was also a marker for the drastic change of different social norms, the changes of the American Dream, and the
...ereotypes and patriarchal norms (Annie baking, Helen being a rich step-mom, the wedding itself), it also undermines patriarchy at the same time. At one point or another throughout the film all of the female characters go against the common conception and portrayal of women being proper and passive. They can be raunchy, drink, use vulgar language, and show they aren’t that different from men.
The Wolf of Wall Street reveals important information on human nature and the state of today’s capitalist world. It looks at greed and indulgence and how this taps into humans desires for wealth and pleasure-seeking activities. This film reveals infidelity is a byproduct of gender and power.
Gender is set to a certain image in this film. Jake Gittes has everything in front of him to solve the murder of Hollis Mulray, but he has a hard time putting it all together and when he does it is too late. Also what I noticed is that men are being cheated on by their wives. The men are victimized a...
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 ...
Feminist theory was derived from the social movement of feminism where political women fight for the right of females in general and argue in depth about the unequality we face today. In the aspect of cinema, feminists notice the fictitious representations of females and also, machismo. In 1974, a book written by Molly Haskell "From Reverence to Rape: The treatment of Women in Movies" argues about how women almost always play only passive roles while men are always awarded with active, heroic roles. Moreover, how women are portrayed in movies are very important as it plays a big role to the audience on how to look at a woman and how to treat her in real life due to the illusionism that cinema offers. These images of women created in the cinema shapes what an ideal woman is. This can be further explained through an article 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' written by a feminist named Laura Mulvey in 1975. She uses psychoanalysis theories by Sigmund Freud to analyze 'Scopophilia' which is the desire to see. This explains how the audience is hooked to the screen when a sexy woman is present. In a bigger picture, where Scopophilia derives from, 'Voyeurism' is also known as feeling visual pleasure when looking at another. Narcissism on the other hand means identifying one's self with the role played. It is not hard to notice that in classical cinema, men often play the active role while the women are always the object of desire for the male leads, displayed as a sexual object and frequently the damsels in distress. Therefore, the obvious imbalance of power in classical cinema shows how men are accountable to moving the narratives along. Subconsciously, narcissism occurs in the audience as they ...
Women were drawn into the work place in the 1960's when the economy expanded and rising consumer aspirations fueled the desire of many families for a second income. By 1960, 30.5 percent of all wives worked and the number of women graduating from college grew. (Echols, 400) Women soon found they were being treated differently and paid less then their male co-workers.
Then there was the woman’s movement and women felt they deserved equal rights and should be considered man’s equal and not inferior. The man going out to work, and the wife staying home to care for the home and the children would soon become less the norm. This movement would go on to shape the changes within the nuclear family. Women deci...