In Daisies and Superstar, each of the directors use their films to explore different sides to women, including political and life views, and the struggle that many women feel when it comes to their self-image. It uses different visuals styles as well as plots to critique standard gender norms and to get a new message across. In Daisies, director Vera Chytilova attempts to give her film a more political view by using humor and comedy to portray her government and society. The film focuses on two women experiencing various aspects of the world and learning to choose what they want in life. These women are trying to go against their rules of society in order to embrace life and understand why things are the way they are.
In Superstar, director Todd Haynes uses his understanding of the female perspective to create a semi-biographical movie about singer Karen Carpenter. It uses Barbie dolls as the characters to tell the story about her life, battle with anorexia, and struggles that the family faced daily. The film explores the idea of “who has control of a woman’s body?” As a pop star did her body actually belong to herself? Or did it belong to her manager or record label? The stress of her “perfect and ideal life” caused her to become anorexic in order to sustain her perfect body. By becoming anorexic, Karen
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In Daisies, you have two young women who have decided that since everything else in the world is going bad, then they should as well. They go around doing whatever they want and enjoying every moment while indulging in food, clothes, and more. Superstar shows a woman struggling with her self-confidence and the powerlessness she is feeling about her own body. By using Barbie dolls to portray the characters over real actors, the film shows how Karen Carpenter felt that she was a disposable “plaything” unable to choose anything for herself when it came to her domineering
Described within the vignette is a nineteen year old teenager named Brandy. Similar to girls her age, Brandy has difficulties dealing with her body image and self-esteem. For instance, she experiences hopelessness, isolation, sadness, and anxiety that all contribute to Brandy’s acknowledgement of her physical appearance. She completely overestimates her body size to the point of taking dieting pills then defaulting to purging. During the typical day, the meals are scarce but healthy compared to a bad day full of unhealthy snacking. Lastly, her family predicament is not a supportive one at that. Her mother was obese so she constantly dieted while Brandy’s father illustrated signs of sexual interest although he never physically touched her.
Courage is not simply about how well you deal with fear, how many noble deeds you accomplish, or how you overcome life threatening situations. Courage is the practice of determination and perseverance. Something like, an unwillingness to abandon a dream even when the pressures of society weigh down on your shoulders; society will make you feel tired, humiliated, broken, and confused. Actually, it can be effortlessly said that daily courage is more significant than bouts of great deeds. Since everybody undergoes demanding circumstances on a daily basis, and most of us will not be called to perform a great deed, courage comes from those daily struggles and successes. However, Kate Bornstein is one person who has been able to transform her everyday life into a brilliant deed of courage. She threw herself into an unknown abyss to discover truth that many others would never dare tread. Ingeniously combining criticism of socially defined boundaries, an intense sense of language, and a candid autobiography, Bornstein is able to change cultural attitudes about gender, insisting that it is a social construct rather than a regular occurrence, through here courageous writing.
...dia's position on the outside of everything forces her into a position of greater strength. Although hurt, the observations she makes mold her into being able to handle difficulties more easily. The loss of innocence which Claudia faces unintentionally is vital to the role she plays in society and in her life. Her thoughts hold a more realistic view of life and human behavior. She sees the pains and sorrows that life truly is constructed of. Claudia feels that she has missed out on so many opportunities and is not included the way others are. Her strong character generates a feeling of both isolation and separation, but, in reality, she tastes life more closely than most people are able to in a lifetime. Although Claudia's passion to be included is unrequited, she is filled with the strength, character, and pain that make her a more knowledgeable and resilient person.
Gender Matters is a collection of various essays on feminist linguistic texts analysis, by Sara Mills. Mills develops methods of analyzing literary and non-literary texts, in addition to conversational analysis based on a feminist approach. The author draws on data from her collection of essays gathered over the last two decades on feminism during the 1990s. The essays focus on gender issues, the representation of gender in reading, writing, and in public speaking. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of feminists’ analysis of sexism in literature and the relation between gender and politeness. The article is informative for my research paper, as my topic is going to cover language analysis of the text and who women reading and writing differs according to the discourse analysis within linguistic, psychology, case studies audiences and surveys. The book would be helpful, particularly the last three essays that discusses gender, public speaking, the question of politeness and impoliteness in public speaking. Mills’ analysis is not complete without including the idea of global notions of both women and men, to see whether women and men write and read in the same way globally. Therefore, an update would enrich the book’s discussion section. Although, Mills addresses the class and race theme in language and public speaking, I will only look into the role of language that plays a part in doing or reducing gender in literary, non-literary texts and in conversation.
The movie Bridesmaids defies the stereotypical role of women by showing the unseen manner-less and crude side of the gender throughout multiple scenes of the film. In each scene the main characters, Annie, Helen, Lillian, Becca, Rita, and Megan, act in obscene ways that are not socially acceptable for women. They all come from different social classes but are forced together for the wedding of Lillian. The gender role of a woman is a very traditional, narrow, and specific idea that does not allow women to be open and crude as they are in this film. The film shows the crude, vulgar, lusting characteristics that are not normally highlighted and acknowledged in films. Scenes like the dueling speech, food poisoning in the dress shop, and the morning after, are all examples of ways this film defies the stereotype and the divide of class by money between the women.
There is a quote that goes "behind every successful man there is a woman”. This implies that the sexes are not credited equally, and gender shadows over success. Men and women are separated not only physically, but in other aspects. A male-dominated culture exists although women are capable of performing just as well as men. There are different situations where men overpower women. There is a stereotype that divides the sexes, ultimately harming both genders. Literary works brush upon the subject of men versus women, touching these components as storyline progresses. There is not a black and white division among the sexes; however, novels such as Geek Love by Dunn and Maus by Spiegelman expose the underlying power struggle among the genders,
The Barbie is a plastic, man-made female toy, which has perfect facial symmetry, unnatural body dimensions, and perfectly unblemished white skin. In Chris Semansky’s Overview of “Barbie Doll,” he explains that the Barbie “is invented to show women have been socialized into thinking of their bodies and behavior in relation to a male-controlled idea” (Semansky). The title directly alludes to the Barbie toy, which represents a design of a man-made construction of the female image that shows an unnatural human form that could only exist inside the imagination of men. Throughout both “Barbie Doll” and “The Birthmark” you will find the female protagonists seeking an ultimately perfect form, free of the characteristics that those around them see as unworthy. It is as if they are chasing the blueprint of perfection that is present in the Barbie. The original Barbie came with three outfits a bathing suit, a tennis outfit, and a wedding dress (Semansky). Her outfits clearly symbolize restrictions forced on female privilege, identity, and autonomy, where “she embodies the ideals and values of her middle-class American community” who expect her to “spend her days at the country club and her afternoons cooking dinner for her husband” (Semansky). This is directly similar to the “outfits” those around the women in “Barbie Doll” where the girlchild is born
In the Disney movie Life-Size, actress Tyra Banks plays the role of Eve, a Barbie-like doll, who is "perfect in every way," come to life. Later in the movie, the once-very popular Eve doll's sales decrease dramatically, and the company stops the production of the Eve doll not realizing what they are doing wrong. Distressed, Banks, the "life-size" Eve doll, turns to her owner Casey and learns two valuable lessons—that perfection is boring and unrealistic, and it is okay to make mistakes. Casey tells the life-size Eve that the Eve doll is too "goody-goody" to be real, and girls need more realistic role models—heroes—with personality, inner struggles, and mistakes. Almost everyone likes heroes from Spiderman to firefighters to Dad who inspire the young and keep them motivated; however when the heroes' lives and beliefs are fabricated to fit a stereotype, these humans regress into nothing more than a boring ideal. Heroification with cognitive dissonance blind students to the reality of this world and limit their ability to view controversies objectively.
“We had to speak out and tell the truth about us as it is. It’s hell living like a pair of angels” said Karen Carpenter (“Patay”). Karen was a battler of anorexia nervosa. She didn’t bring attention to it like others. She was famous around the world because of her big hits in the nineteen seventies. Karen thought that should be perfect. Although, there are many risks.
June, wearing a very feminine outfit, dances to the song of “Let Me Entertain You” while Louise has a more masculine appearance. This gender division continues in the dance, as June seems to be more elegant then Louise. This is a clear example of Frye’s definition of sexism, as both June and Louise are buying into the gender binary. Extrapolating from how June and Louise are contributing to the gender binary, it can be assumed that June and Louise’s guardian also does the same, which is not the case. Rose, their mother, comes onto the stage to critique the children and make it apparent to the director that her kids deserve the part. The dedication and strong will Rose elicits when talking about her kids is empowering, and contrasted by the other stage moms who emphasize the binary by being pushed around and rushed off the stage. Uncle Jocko emphasizes this strength of Rose’s character in his comment “Decisions, Decisions, Decisions” when Rose is talking about the technical parts of the act, implying that he is actually listening to what she has to say (4:50). Rose is different and refuses to fit into this normal feminine category that allows them to be pushed around and get told what to do. This ambiance of individualism is inspiring, but starkly shows how she does not imbue these values on her
In the article, "Vera Chytilova for beginners" Grey discusses how many of Chytilova's films were attacks on a patriarchal society, but she never considered herself as a feminist and did not want to associate herself of her work with the term. In the essay, "Doll Fragments," Lim writes, "My counterreading reading of the film discerns, beneath Daisies's apparent condemnation of its heroines, a feminist allegory in which the doll metaphor is retooled as a celebration of female recalcitrance." Throughout the essay associates Daises as a feminist response to a patriarchal society. Lim also discusses Chytilova's struggle to create the film during a period where the film industry was controlled and financed by the state. In response to the problems
“Girl” written by Jamaica Kincaid is essentially a set of instructions given by an adult, who is assumed to be the mother of the girl, who is laying out the rules of womanhood, in Caribbean society, as expected by the daughter’s gender. These instructions set out by the mother are related to topics including household chores, manners, cooking, social conduct, and relationships. The reader may see these instructions as demanding, but these are a mother’s attempt, out of care for the daughter, to help the daughter to grow up properly. The daughter does not appear to have yet reached adolescence, however, her mother believes that her current behavior will lead her to a life of promiscuity. The mother postulates that her daughter can be saved from a life of promiscuity and ruin by having domestic knowledge that would, in turn also, empower her as a productive member in their community and the head of her future household. This is because the mother assumes that a woman’s reputation and respectability predisposes the quality of a woman’s life in the community.
...reedom by going out with other men without being fearful on what the repercussions would be. The filmmaker of Daisies did the best to show change by their film that showed Jarmila and Jezinka rebelling against the society that entrapped them. The movie was successful and displays how women can participate in important work and move forward in careers that were unseen at the time such as expressing themselves creatively. Ultimately, the films show how women were living in unsatisfactory conditions that were contradictory by declaring to be equal when women were seen as inferior to men. The women who took action towards society by leaving a relationship or rebelling against how society wanted them to act shows the lesson that women should not be subjected to abuse or inferiority in relationships or any other aspects of life that was suggested by patriarchal societies.
meaning behind all of this is that this movie focuses on vanity and how the Evil Queen leads her
Judith Butler makes the argument, in her most influential book “Gender Trouble,” that She also creates the theory that sex is seen to cause gender which is seen to cause desire. Also,gender is a performance; it 's what the gender do at particular times, rather than universal standards of gender, which creates gender. This philosophical difference between universal and performance at particular times and how universal specifications are unsuccessful in capturing the true existence of gender, a philosophical difference that by Samira Sasani and Diba Arjmandi states, “by this view, she regards body as a way of practice of norms through repetition, which has led to the false, misleading and permanent belief of body while still this false belief