At the opening of the film we see Erin struggling: as a single mother, as a human being with potential, courage and individuality, and as a sexual being as well. Erin is a St. Joan of the white underclass, a Green Guerrilla, Mother Jones and Madonna all rolled into one. Unlike the image of second wave feminism which distanced itself from any robust sexuality it felt to be reductive at best or degrading at worst, Brockovich's iconic status is post-"third wave" feminist, that is, eroticized, as it borrows heavily from underground Grrrl culture, aware of being both a body and a mind, and utilizing both to their fullest. When we see her at the beginning of the film, she is filmed against a city using the imagery of 1970s U.S. realist cinema, and the explicitly socialist poetics of Ken Loach or the early Mike Leigh in the UK. Erin's allegedly outspoken comments express what many (women) in the audience feel, and her quips act as so many asides in the Brechtian sense.
Throughout the film Erin explains how Capital functions. She needs to eat and take care of her children, and she wants to contribute to society. Unlike the characters in many a milquetoast Liberal film, she is a rather static character. She is not radicalized and her consciousness is not raised. She starts the film off as a radical. Her radicalness comes from her unique synthesis of theory and practice in a Leninist sense; her practice is her real, material situation; and her theory is her ability to translate that situation in ways that connect her to the victims of toxic industrial polluting as she organizes them.
Everything Erin says onscreen from beginning to end is true, although a bit hyperbolic, which gives the film its distinctive, epigramatic wit. The one time...
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...pital's usage and coopting of a newly emergent and naively compliant (to be fair, for reasons of survival, not to mention dignity) woman's movement to accomplish the job. Erin Brockovich uses a surface narrative of battling the polluters in order to coyly get at its real subject, which is class. In other words, money and the lack of it.
This is Erin's story, and money is, after all, what she needs. The rest is up to the audience if they will be so moved by a didactic film to organize amongst themselves. That possibility remains to be fulfilled. Meanwhile, the victims' health hangs in a life or death balance. Erin Brockovich is a rare film that shows how our lives are as much at stake here as those of the characters. It is a guiding light towards critical thinking, not only about what precisely is at stake, but how the state of affairs was produced to rig the stakes.
The movies Erin Brockovich and A Civil Action were in my opinion extraordinary, in regards to the law and public health perspectives shown. Both films were very similar on the subject of water pollution and the effects on the human body. These films dealt with issues that are still occurring in today’s society because of the neglect of multi-billion dollar companies. These companies show no appreciation for the innocent residents in their immediate area of pollution.
In The Awakening, Edna is constrained culturally by the gender roles of 1890’s New Orleans, and throughout the book, she makes advances towards becoming free of these gender roles, and consequently, her constraints. Chopin writes, “Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life—that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions” (Chopin 18). The excerpt above is a direct example of Edna’s dual life. The duality of Edna’s life is extremely constraining because the gender roles of being a woman in southern society in 1890 force her into submission: she has to carry herself a certain way on the outside, or risk being excluded from “polite society”. Edna is aware of this, and in result, her inner personality is much more stifled in relative to her outward personality. Throughout the book, the way people view her changes greatly, as her deviant inward personality starts to triumph over
When her husband and children are gone, she moves out of the house and purses her own ambitions. She starts painting and feeling happier. “There were days when she was very happy without knowing why. She was happy to be alive and breathing when her whole being seemed to be one with the sunlight, the color, the odors, the luxuriant warmth of some perfect Southern day” (Chopin 69). Her sacrifice greatly contributed to her disobedient actions. Since she wanted to be free from a societal rule of a mother-woman that she never wanted to be in, she emphasizes her need for expression of her own passions. Her needs reflect the meaning of the work and other women too. The character of Edna conveys that women are also people who have dreams and desires they want to accomplish and not be pinned down by a stereotype.
The Awakening sheds light on the desire among many women to be independent. Throughout the novel Edna conducts herself in a way that was disavowed by many and comes to the realization that her gender prevented her from pursuing what she believed would be an enjoyable life. As the story progresses Edna continues to trade her family obligations for her own personal pleasures. This behavior would not have been accepted and many even criticize the novel for even speaking about such activities. Kate Chopin essentially wrote about everything a women couldn’t do. Moreover, it also highlights the point that a man is able to do everything Edna did, but without the same
The film focused on young women who were fighting for the right of future generations of womens to vote and run for political office. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns were the two main women who started the Congressional Union; they put their lives in danger, sacrificing their health to help American women have the right to vote and take office. These two women held peaceful, nonviolent protests in order to revolutionize the women’s suffrage movement. Some of the women involved in the non-violent protests against Woodrow Wilson ended up being imprisoned. They were force-fed and treated poorly. In the end, most of the women were able to see the results of the hard work that they put into the women’s suffrage
One of the sociological theories is conflict theory. The conflict theory deals with people's level on wealth, or class. The conflict theory says that social change is beneficial, contrary to focuses on social order. In the story of the woman and her children, the conflict theory plays a big role on the situation. Police of higher class are threatening the homeless woman. The conflict theory is a constant struggle of people of higher class over powering people of lower class, or the weaker. The police are trying to over power the woman by telling her to leave. Even though the woman and her children were doing nothing wrong, the police used their power to tell her to leave. Also the people of the area showed their conflict theory by telling the police officers to come. They must have felt embarrassed to have a woman of such lower class to be around them. They used their power of class to have the woman removed from their community. The woman wants to be there because she has no home and it is a good community to be in, but the people look at it as an embarrassment to them because it makes their area look bad for someone of such lower class to be around them. The conflict theory is unique to all other theories because it separates people into categories determined by their wealth and standards. Their status is the element that categorizes them, weather it is class, race, or gender. The conflict theory do not always use class, race, and gender all at once. In this situation race and gender is not a main issue, although gender could be a reason, but it would fall under the feminist theory. This story is mainly dealing with class. Through all this conflict the woman feels over powered and domina...
...urassic Park exemplifies the fact that the female gender is the epitome of feminist qualities. Though the gender politics demonstrates a woman’s passivity against the heroic male, the film proves that the female gender is associated with nature. Through a comparison of Ellie and the natural surroundings of the park, it illustrates that women are contrasted to nature as a means of procreation and at the same time, the female gender is associated with the monstrous. So perhaps the film is right. Maybe women are an entirely different species.
“I’m famous for falling…” Jenni Rivera was a strong independent woman. Jenni Rivera had many struggles that helped her rise to the top and change the music industry.
Kaye Gibbons, the author of the novel Ellen Foster, believes that a quote from the Emerson’s “Self Reliance” is connected with Ellen’s struggle to survive and find her way in the world. The first line of this quote says, “Cast the bantling on the rocks” is related to Ellen herself. A bantling is an abandoned child. Ellen is a bantling even though she was not abandoned, she was deprived of a normal childhood. Her life as a child was extremely hard, physically and emotionally. She never had a mother or father take care of her through her entire youth. You could say that her childhood was “cast on the rocks”. The last line reads, “Power and speed be hands and feet”. This reminds me of how Ellen ran from her problems at home and stayed away from her house as much as possible. The line also represents strength and Ellen was a strong person. She dealt with losing a mother, father and grandmother within one year. She never even had a good relationship with her father or grandmother. The short inscription to “Self Reliance” is almost a short summary of Ellen’s character. In it, a child without parents is raised by someone that is a lot different than she is. After Ellen’s mother died, she is unwillingly left with her alcoholic father who mistreats her. Ellen spent a lot of time at her friend, Starletta’s house and at the house of her grandmother. Life with her grandmother was no better than life with her father. She did not want to be in either situation. After living with her grandmother, Ellen’s struggle to find a suitable, comforting home comes to an end. For the second time in her life, a family member has died right next to her, basically in her arms. Ellen is able to overcome this, even as a
...tionship she had until she was left with literally no reason to live. Throughout the novella, she breaks social conventions, which damages her reputation and her relationships with her friends, husband, and children. Through Edna’s thoughts and actions, numerous gender issues and expectations are displayed within The Awakening because she serves as a direct representation of feminist ideals, social changes, and a revolution to come.
Minutes after her performance, celebrities started declaring themselves as feminist and what it meant. Beyoncé doing this led the conversation to a social movement that needed to occur. This leads girls of all ages to get involved in the discussion that is happening over women’s rights as a whole. Women of all ages listen to Beyoncé and for this she reaches an audience that most do not. Third -wave feminism focuses on reaching all groups of people that may other-wise be culturally divided. Lorber (2012: 305) says, “It emerged (third-wave feminism) in the 1990’s and it built on multiracial/multiethnic feminism, standpoint feminism, and postmodern feminism.” Beyoncé being a women of color she reaches a community that is otherwise ostracized for not only their sex, but also because of their color. Third -wave feminism focuses on these women. Lorber (2012:306) states, “…African American third-wave feminist want to be like them—strong, active, political, and confrontational.” After reading this section I knew that third-wave feminism was something that I was a part of because it teaches anyone to be resilient not just
During the late nineteenth century, the time of protagonist Edna Pontellier, a woman's place in society was confined to worshipping her children and submitting to her husband. Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, encompasses the frustrations and the triumphs in a woman's life as she attempts to cope with these strict cultural demands. Defying the stereotype of a "mother-woman," Edna battles the pressures of 1899 that command her to be a subdued and devoted housewife. Although Edna's ultimate suicide is a waste of her struggles against an oppressive society, The Awakening supports and encourages feminism as a way for women to obtain sexual freedom, financial independence, and individual identity.
In the novel The Awakening, by Kate Chopin the critical approach feminism is a major aspect of the novel. According to dictionary.reference.com the word feminism means, “The doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men.” The Awakening takes place during the late eighteen hundreds to early nineteen hundreds, in New Orleans. The novel is about Edna Pontellier and her family on a summer vacation. Edna, who is a wife and mother, is inferior to her husband, Leonce, and must live by her husband’s desires. While on vacation Edna becomes close friends with Adele Ratignolle, who helps Edna discover she must be “awakened”. Adele is a character who represents the ideal woman. She is loving, compassionate, and motherly. Throughout the novel Edna seeks something more from life than what she has been living. Also, she is unhappy with her marriage, and all through the summer falls in love with Robert Lebrun. Furthermore, Edna attempts to become independent, free, and in control of her own destiny. During this time period the Feminist movement was taking place. The Feminist movement was a time when women fought to prove themselves equal to men. Women fought for the rights to vote, have jobs, and go to school. The late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds showcased the power the women had to prove their equality. According to the excerpt, “Women of Color in The Awakening” by Elizabeth Ammons, “… The Awakening is its heroine’s break for freedom.” Ultimately, this shows how most women, especially Edna Pontellier, try to break free from the burden of society. Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, showcases the feminist critical approach through women’s roles, women characters, influences, and in...
“Sometimes we say context is what determines meaning: to know what this particular utterance means, you have to look at the circumstances or the historical context in which it figures.” (Culler 65). Someone who read the novel The Awakening that did not know when it was written or in what time period it was written would have interpreted the text completely different than someone who did know. The reading of a work is not interpreted through the authors point but instead, the readers. During the time it was written, The United States was undergoing critical changes. The urbanization and Industrialization that followed the Civil war brought Americans into a new social identity. More importantly, woman’s rights had begun to be explored. Before this time woman had been fighting for equal rights. This new idea of women was called ‘New Woman’. This new woman “was intelligent, educated, emancipated, independent and self-supporting” (Diniejko). In the novel The Awakening, Edna portrays this image of a New Woman almost perfectly. Edna represented what these women had been striving to be for years. We can see that this act of bravery was far from normal during that time. Edna is a character that completely went against what society expected of her. This allows the reader to gather a better understanding of why this text was written and what it meant for Edna to do what she did. Anyone who completely goes against what society expects of them is frowned upon. Edna was going through a constant battle to do what she wanted and to do what society wanted her to