Women's Real Life Problems in Thelma and Louise and Shirley Valentine
Throughout the history of film actresses have always received the worst roles in which to portray women. Women are often featured as lovers or prostitutes, backstage roles that support the power and domination of men. Hollywood has always been dominated and ‘run’ by the influence of male actors and directors. Statistics have shown that 71% of male actors are given major roles compared to women who receive only 29% of centre stage roles.
Thelma and Louise and Shirley are two films, which change that. They portray woman in a positive role, showing them in a positive light against male oppression. Although Shirley Valentine is a
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There are many similarities as well as differences in both films and the storylines are varied, yet both films still feature woman who overcome the typical stereotype that they are nothing but sexual objects for men to abuse.
Thelma and Louise a road film featuring two women who are trying to run away from the law because Louise has shot a man who was trying to rape Thelma. Throughout their journey they go on a quest of self-discovery realising the mistakes they have made in life and finding their true identity among the ravages their partners have made of their character.
Shirley Valentine similarly features a woman who goes on holiday to discover that she has lost herself, the person she once was ‘Shirley Valentine’ and become a slave, a typical housewife that always fulfils her husband’s wishes. She realises she has no importance in her families life anymore and is no longer needed by her children. Her whole life has been used up fulfilling the desires of her husband and children and destroying her own. This is one way in which women viewers can relate to the story she is telling. Many women
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We see from Shirley’s viewpoint the way in which her life is progressing. This allows women to sympathise and feel compassion for her situation.
In both films Shirley and Thelma go on holidays due to the persistence of their friends, in Thelma’s case Louise and in Shirley’s case Jane. This is the only way in which they find the courage to get away from their current lifestyle. This shows viewers how much their husbands have dominated over them. However, although Thelma and Shirley go on holiday they are unable to find the courage to tell their husbands and therefore leave a letter. This shows the audience how badly the woman have been treated that they haven’t got enough courage to tell their husbands they are going on holiday.
In both films’ there are also love interests who use the women. In Thelma and Louise, Thelma falls for a man called JD. At first JD wins Thelma over with his polite manner and impressive stories. He then robs
I did my paper on the movie Pleasantville. This is about a brother and sister who get trapped inside the 50’s television show, Pleasantville. The movie starts off in color until they get to Pleasantville where their world suddenly turns to black and white. Pleasantville is a perfect society where husbands come home to a beautiful wife and children and a home cooked meal ready on the table, and everything and everyone works together to make the community a perfectly functioning society. When the siblings, David and Jennifer, become part of Pleasantville’s perfect society they immediately have a strong influence that changes it substantially. As the people of Pleasantville start breaking their community’s norms, color starts to appear
Although A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, and A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, appear to be very different plays, there are some great similarities. Ruth, from A Raisin in the Sun, lives with her immediate family and her sister and mother-in-law in the Southside of Chicago. However, Stella, A Streetcar Named Desire, has left her family behind and moved to New Orleans. Although these two women come from very different backgrounds and are characters in very different plays, they have surprising similarities. Therefore, Ruth and Stella have similarities and differences in their overall lifestyles.
The Relevance of Gender Roles In Michelle Bachelet’s words, “Gender equality must become a lived reality” she expresses that equality between two genders should be a reality rather than something that is simply wished upon. In his novel The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck brings her quote alive by suggesting that when survival is at stake, gender roles become less relevant for the common good. Men become less concerned with the gender barriers when hard work is given out. An example of this is when Jim Casey takes over Ma’s job of salting the pork. “‘Leave me salt down this meat’ he said.
Victoria Marks’ most recent contemporary dance pieces all were fascinating, but the two that drew me in the most were “Men” and “Mothers And Daughters”. Both of these pieces made in the spring of 2014, focus on the idea of celebrating the life you have been given, leaving your mark on the world, and getting the most out of every opportunity you have to be with someone you care about. Victoria Marks is a dance professor at UCLA, who also choreographs dances for the stage, and films. “Marks’ recent work has considered the politics of citizenship, as well as the representation of both virtuosity and disability. These themes are part of her ongoing commitment to locating dance-making within the sphere of political meaning.” Marks in both films “Men” and “Mothers And Daughters” believes that , "Your Dancing ability does not matter because we are all differently-abled", which is why she used both trained and untrained actors to create these two pieces of art.
The book Unequal Childhoods, 2nd edition, written by Annette Lareau, I will be focusing on social issues such as class and race that had a major part to do with the book. The book contains an overview of how social class in the white and African-American families, structure their parenting styles. After the original researches on the families were done, Lareau revisited with the families to examine, their social class transitions into adulthood. Studies have shown that the social class and race of a child’s or parents they belong to, matters for future references. Ultimately, It matters for school, sports progress and occupational success.
Shirley Valentine, a story about a middle-aged house-wife whose life couldn’t be more mundane; she has no one but the wall to talk to. Shirley Valentine, written by Willy Russell, is one of his most famous screenplays. This essay will look at how Russell invites the audience to sympathise with Shirley through his use of language, ideas and themes, the effects of dramatic devices and characters in the play.
Throughout “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Ken Kesey builds up a feud between Randle McMurphy and Nurse Ratched to establish the novel’s climatic attack, a sexist exemplification that powerful women must be subjugated. Women are depicted as emasculators and castrators. The male patients seem to agree with Dale Harding, who states “We are victims of matriarchy here” (56). The patients correlate matriarchy with castration and mutilation, illustrating the dullness and repressiveness of the hospital as a result of a female dominator. The majority of the men in Nurse Ratched’s psychiatric ward have been damaged by relationships with dominant women. For instance, Chief claimed his mother became “Bigger than Papa and me together” (188). Similarly, Billy Bibbit was so afraid of his mother discovering that he engaged in sexual intercourse with Candy that he commit suicide.
When thinking of the year 2017, now, the thing that comes to mind is usually that it is the year Donald J. Trump became our president. The year of many people becoming famous for no real or good reason, famous because of vine, instagram, for being well endowed, and for disrespecting parents; yes, I am talking about that “catch me outside” girl. However, when it comes to the early 1960’s American suburbia it is all about drive-in restaurants, movie theaters, shopping malls, and radio music. Well, in the case of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates there is more than that.
In Pleasantville (Ross 1998), women have expectations of doing all the cooking, cleaning, and keeping their priorities focused on their husband. George Parker comes home from work expecting a warm greeting from his wife and food that is ready for him to eat. Betty Parker learns from Jennifer, David, and Mr. Johnson that women do not need to fulfill these roles and men do not need to have dominance over women in a relationship for it to be successful.
Ordinarily, Valentine’s Day conjures up images of exchanging flowers, chocolates, cards, and so on and so forth for most people, except Carol Ann Duffy, who buys her lover’s Valentine’s Day gift in the produce aisle of her local grocery store, an onion. In her poem appropriately titled, “Valentine,” she challenges her lover to adopt her what she deems a realistic notion that if one has true love for another, romance can be found in any gift, even something as unromantic as an onion. In order to convey the message that gifts of love are subjective and do not have to align with tradition; she uses an extended metaphor to compare her love to an onion throughout the poem.
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’s roles in movies have changed dramatically throughout the years. As a result of the changing societal norms, women have experienced more transition in their roles than any other class. During the period of classical Hollywood cinema, both society and the film industry preached that women should be dependent on men and remain in home in order to guarantee stability in the community and the family. Women did not have predominated roles in movies such as being the heroin. The 1940’s film Gilda wasn’t an exception. In Gilda, the female character mainly had two different stereotypes. The female character was first stereotyped as a sex object and the second stereotyped as a scorned woman who has to be punished.
In Margaret Atwood’s short story, “Happy Endings” she establishes a meeting between a man named John and woman named Mary. She lets the reader choose between six hypothetical situations that could occur after their initial meeting, but she notes that that option A is the one to try if you prefer a happy ending. In Option A John and Mary are the “perfect couple”. They both have good jobs, they marry and then have kids when they can afford it, they retire and both find meaningful hobbies and then they die. The other five options are paralleled to option A however Atwood’s portrayal of the women in the options provides an alternate meaning of the story.
When comparing the works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Betty Friedan, and Bell Hooks, I assert that both Gilman and Friedan stress that college educated, white upper- and middle-class women should have the incentive to fight against and alter the rigid boundaries of marriage; however, Hooks in her piece From Margin to Center argues that Friedan and other feminist writers during the second wave had written or spoke shortsightedly, failing to regard women of other races and classes who face the most sexist oppression.
For the past several weeks Lulissa had been on the run. Ever her little ‘incident’ at her college football field she had been away from her family and was on the lam running away from the law. She was happy that she found a way to revert back to her normal self on her own, but she felt that she was branded for life as a criminal, or worse a monster.