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Depiction of blacks in films
Misrepresentation of ethnicity in films
Essay of male gaze
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Recommended: Depiction of blacks in films
In the film “Just Go With It”, the depiction of the male, female, and the oppositional gaze point of view is demonstrated through several scenes. The male gaze is depicted through Danny, who is a successful surgeon. Katherine who is the surgeons assistant, depicts the female gaze. The oppositional gaze is depicted throughout the story in several scenes. The male gaze is depicted through the male protagonist by presenting him to be a rich and successful man that can get any woman he desires. According to the Male Gaze essay, by Shohini Chaudhuri, “woman plays a ‘traditional exhibitionistic role’—her body is held up as a passive erotic object for the gaze of male spectators, so that they can project their fantasies on to her” (The Male Gaze, Page 106). An example shown in the film is when Danny is determined to heal his broken heart by sleeping with beautiful woman and lying to them about being married. He then falls for a physically attractive.They present her attractiveness by showing the actress in a bathing suit as she gets out of the …show more content…
There is only one scene that presents a person of color and she is portrayed as a single African-American mother with a disobedient kid. I noticed not much had changed when watching this film, in ‘The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectatorship’, the author speaks on how women of color are devalued in media, she states, ”When most black people in the United States first had the opportunity to look at film and television, they did so fully aware that the mass media was a system of knowledge and power reproducing and maintaining white supremacy.” I believe it would have been best if the colored actor and the Palmer, would have switched roles, that way it would not have presented a stereotype. Presenting the film in this way would have made it more inspiring for women of color because they too, would have felt more of a connection with the main
It shows that there is no difference between white and colored people, but it’s so hard for people to get past the physical features to realize that we are all equal. Ethel was right when she said two colored men would help two white women, and those white men knew she was right. Those men knew Ethel had a point and now they had no choice but to help her and her friend. When Ethel was in the hospital, she had two doctors who mistreated her leg injury. Her wound was severely infected because the two doctors never helped her, and her leg could have been amputated.
The other ladies in the short film talk about how they thought that she had a “ real problem with [her] ethnicity like [she] had a problem with the fact that [she] was born African-American (Reynolds). This, along with the documentary on Lacey Schwartz, shows that a person’s sense of blackness is very much a product of what others around them define blackness as.
The views of African-Americans have changed drastically from the 1930s to 1980s and the film industry has been able to captures some of the more dramatic changes on film. Dating back to the 1930s, there has been films produced that depicted African-Americans as docile individuals who live to serve white families. As times changed and America made progress in integration of cultures, African-American rose to a new role on the big screen. Initially, African-Americans were introduced on the screen as closer equals to their white counter parts. However, these films did not accurately depict African-Americans as whites wrote the roles. America made greater strides towards equality in all areas, including the film industry that allowed for the development of new roles for African-Americans. This grittier and more intense approach was only achieved through African-Americans taking on the major behind the scenes. African-Americans were only to achieve a more accurate depiction onscreen as American’s perceptions of race were challenged over a 50-year period and African-Americans took on roles behind the scenes.
Have you realized how much the world plays a lot in racial background? Not everyone is the same, but isn 't that what makes all of us special? There are several movies that helped me to realize how important race is but the Imitation of Life spoke to me the most. Lora is a single white Broadway mother who met Annie and her daughter at a festival. Annie becomes the maid and a care taker of Lora’s daughter Suzie. Both mothers deal with motherhood and different ways. Lora wants to be famous and ruins her relationship with her daughter. Sarah Jane struggle with being black. Overall the purpose of Imitation of Life is to inform the differences between being black and white in America. When I think of motherhood the first thing that comes to my
African American representation in the film industry has always been a topic for discussion. Whether talking about character types and roles, the actors being cast or not cast, and the lack of diversity in front of and behind the camera. ‘The contemporary status of race in mainstream American culture is intimately bound to the process of representation within and through the mass media.’ (Rocchio, 2000, p. 4). Any role that was to be played by an African American kept in with the dominant stereotypes of the time of production; incompetent, child like, hyper-sexualised or criminal.
...xt of femininity on screen, we pay to see these women because they are truly lovely in every sense, “and to experience an inner radiance that may find its form in outward grace” (Entertainment Weekly 65).
Nationalities in society today have a stereotype that they are unfortunately characterized by. People assume that Asians are smart and good at martial arts, that the Irish swear too much and consume too much alcohol, that Americans are obese and lazy, and that African Americans are criminals into drugs and are in prison. These stereotypes make everyone of one nationality to be the same as individuals. There are, of course, people who fit the stereotype, which is how the stereotype came to be, but there is a large number of people who defy the stereotype of their race. The film industry helps to reiterate the stereotypes of certain races by matching the race of the actor with the character in the film for a certain effect. African Americans, specifically, in modern day films have been frequently seen to both
Although the novel focuses on equality based on skin color, I believe that feminism also plays a role in the equality throughout the book. For example, Sethe and her daughter, Denver, are both portrayed as being strong women who are fighting for their place in society not only because of their skin color, but also because of their sex.
Dr. P was an accomplished singer, a gifted painter, and a teacher. It was while teaching at school that the first onset of problems began. Dr. P would sometimes not recognized students faces when they presented themselves, although he was able to discern who was who by hearing their voice. Dr P. increasingly failed to see faces, and even saw faces that were not there. Initially, Dr. Sacks did not understand why this charming and educated man had been referred to him, although there was something rather odd with the way Dr. P oriented his eyes while addressing him. It seemed that, while talking and looking at Dr. Sacks, Dr. P focused on individual features—like his ears, nose, or chin—instead of looking at his face as a whole. It was while performing a routine neurological examination that the first queer experience took place. Dr. P made the strangest of mistakes, confusing his foot for his shoe. Dr. Sacks continued examining Dr. P. His vision seemed fine but he had rather curious responses to certain images presented to him. He picked up different individual features like a shape or color, but could not see the image as a whole. However, what bewildered Dr. Sacks was when Dr. P, suddenly assuming the session was over, grabbed his wife´s head and tried to put it on. He had apparently mistaken his wife for a hat!
There have been many twists and turns in the ways in which the black experience was represented in mainstream America cinema. But the repetition of stereotypical figures, drawn from ‘slavery days’ has never entirely disappeared (Hall, 1997). A Stereotype can be described as a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing (Oxford University Press, 2014) and can affect the target by getting hold of a few simple, vivid, memorable, easily grouped and widely recognised characteristic, about a person and reduce everything to the specific traits and exaggerate them (Hall, 1997). One of the most well-known stereotype has to be the ‘Black-stereotype’ which can be seen in all media productions ranging from news, film, music videos, reality television and other programming and forms of entertainment. Beginning around 1830, the history of African-Americans is a centuries old struggle against oppression and discrimination and because of these major issues, popular representations of racial ‘difference’ during slavery, has caused two main themes that are seen as blackface stereotypes today.
A significant part of the examination and approach in feminist studies of men has been critical of men 's forcefulness and brutality, however there is a space where men are indicating sustaining abilities and eagerness to take part in the domestic obligations with the women in their lives (Lorber, 2012, p.271) For instance, in the film Mrs. Doubtfire, Robin William 's character Daniel is unable to see his kids. In order to connect with them he is compelled to dress as a lady, and becomes employed in an occupation where a male figure would not be utilized. The involvement in the child’s life aids to reclaim fatherhood and help alter the view people have on men in general. Moreover, men themselves have already begun the push to alter masculinity. For example, a video shown in lecture demonstrates, men in Japan, transforming masculinity through herbivorous ways. Instead of conforming to the stereotypical male – aggressive, tough, strong – they change the way in which they act focusing on the ways in which they look in terms of their fashion etc. thus undermining hegemonic masculine ideals. It highlights many Asian women’s dissatisfaction with conventional male roles/behaviours while likewise signalling a growing desire in Asian men for a less aggressive and corporate lifestyle (Talahite – Moodley,
The purpose of the film was to show that no matter what skin color you are what only matters is who you are on the inside. The movie fails in this attempt to display a political statement in a comedic manner in the sense that in reality it depicts that people need to be aware that we should be equal regardless of skin color but it makes a mockery out of the fact that we are not equal in a non-hysterical manner. This movie is not a comedy in the sense that the jokes are funny because they truly are not funny especially for those who face these discrimination issues daily. The movie is basically promoting conformity in the idea that we all know that equality is a far stretch and that we are not there yet so let us just deal with it and turn it into a mockery.
This movie has the potential to fall into all of the stereotypes we have come to expect from black and white comedies. There is a little of that: Kutcher’s character is goaded into telling black jokes at dinner with Theresa’s family that includes her racially intolerant grandfather and Mac’s character lies about his daughter’s boyfriend to an employee describing him as a black man named Jamal who lives in Atlanta, plays basketball and went to Howard University. However, while poking fun at the problems of inter-racial romance, the movie reminds viewers that discrimination and stereotypes are still alive and well in the new millennium.
The second character I chose to focus on was Hilly Holbrook, she is a member of the high-society women in Mississippi. Mrs. Hilly is ignorant of African-American culture and it is evident throughout the movie that she could not care less to learn about them. Mrs. Hilly’s outlook on the African-American community was that they were carrying multiple diseases and they held seemingly no compatibility with the whites. This perspective was, unfortunately, a common one during the 1960s. A majority of the time this unjustifiable thought of African-Americans originated from forefathers and was passed down through
Mulvey explains narcissistic visual pleasure with the help of Lacan's concepts of ego formation and the mirror stage. Both, Ego formation and cinema is formed by imaginary functions. She added that cinematic identifications are built around the sexual difference by presenting the male hero as the more perfect, more complete, more powerful ideal ego' and female character as the passive and powerless, making the spectator is actively identify with the male rather than with the female character in