In her essay, “Women's Cinema as Counter-Cinema”, Claire Johnston proposed a path to creating Women's cinema to counter the numerous dominant male-oriented mainstream films. In it, she argues that you must first understand the ideology that is found in mainstream movies, and the ways that women are portrayed within it. She determined that there were two principle concepts to understand: how women are visually represented, and the effect that women have upon the creation of meaning within the film. The how refers to all the film techniques used in the creation of the image: lighting, hair, makeup, choice of lens, choice of wardrobe, and the framing of the camera shot are some examples. These are often done to increase the attractiveness of the female character, and creates a sign for the audience to accept and decode. The effect of the female character is limited to her physical traits and the impact that her presence has on the male protagonist, typically to send him off on an Oedipal journey. Molly Haskell's From Reverence to Rape:The Treatment of Women in the Movies was a landmark in establishing reflection theory. In it, she assumes that the way that women are represented on screen is reflective of the way that society treats women. She also asserts that these representations are distortions of the reality of what women 'really are' and what they 'truly want'. She then chronicles the history of the depiction of women in film from the silent age through to the 1970's, focusing on the character archetypes that were most common in Hollywood films. These ranged from innocent virgins to sex bombshells, which are contrasted to examples of real-life women. Her work laid the foundation for future feminist film critics. Another impo... ... middle of paper ... ...tire mess of wires out of the torpedo. This succeeds both in disarming the bomb and in denigrating Carol's skill in her field of expertise. When Admiral Marcus attacks the Enterprise in order to kill Kahn. Carol bravely faces her father, using herself as a human sheild for the crew of the Enterprise. Her attempts are quickly quelled by her father by him forcibly teleporting her onto his ship. She remains in their custody until three men, Kirk, Kahn, and Scotty, arrive to take over the ship, saving her. Once the men have effectively saved her, she is allowed to hit her captor once in retribution. This moment is fleeting, as she is quickly relegated back to being defenseless as Kahn ignores her pleas on her father's behalf. Kahn then proceeds to throw her to the floor, then stomps on her leg, breaking it. This is the last notable action that Carol is seen taking.
The documentary, “Miss Representation,” is a film about how women are perceived in the media. It is written, directed, and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. She is an actress and a film maker who advocates for women. In the beginning of the documentary, Newsom discusses her struggles as a young woman surrounded by the pressures of looking a certain way. This film is targeting mainly women of all age that has experienced her struggles. Jennifer Siebel Newsom effectively convinces the audience of “Miss Representation” that the media has molded women in a negative way through statistics, celebrities’ and younger generation’s testimonies, and clips from the media.
she uses her brains to mastermind a plan to cleverly sneak her way behind enemy lines and
In conclusion, todays cinematic evolvement through being more accepting of sexual themes as well as representation of different sexual orientations, in both characters and audience alike, contributes to further objectifying people in an erotic sense to please different kind of spectators. Furthermore, it enables male characters to be subjected to erotic objectification and is therefore not a portrayal exclusive in portraying females. However, this remodels the way male and female characters are depicted as it in a sense equalizes them through the same kind of degrading portrayal as sexual objects.
He introduces Lone Star to the power known as the Schwartz which he later uses to defeat Dark Helmet. Vespa is once again captured and her dad, King Roland ends up giving the code. With the code Dark Helmet unlocks the shield and transforms his ship into “Mega Maid”, a giant robot with a vacuum to suck out all of the air from Druidia. While all this happening Lone Starr and Barf continue to try to rescue Princess Vespa as well as destroy Mega Maid. In comparison to “Star Wars” there is a critical light saber fight between Dark Helmet and Lone Starr due the prevention of Lone Starr getting to the self destruct button for the ship. Lone Starr looses his saber but still defeats Dark Helmet by using the shwarts. Lone Starr races back to the ship that is occupied by Barf, Princess Vespa and Dot, before the ship self destructs. As they escape in a nick of time the people of the ship frantically pack into the escape pods except for Lord Dark Helmet, President Skoob, and Colonel Sandurz. They get blasted into space along with the remains of the
Gender and the portrayal of gender roles in a film is an intriguing topic. It is interesting to uncover the way women have been idealized in our films, which mirrors the sentiments of the society of that period in time. Consequently, the thesis of this essay is a feminist approach that seeks to compare and contrast the gender roles of two films. The selected films are A few Good Men and Some Like it Hot.
First, the film is associated with the concept of gender, which emphasizes the physical, behavioral, and personality traits that are considered to be appropriate for men or women. Males are expected to be strong, aggressive, and competitive while females should be beautiful, emotional, and especially sexually attractive. Many girls and women feel deeply depressed when comparing their bodies to the unrealistic models’ bodies on advertising which is edited by Photoshop in many hours or even in many days. Those female characteristics presented in daily TV shows, movies, advertising, video games have become normal and widely acceptable. Also, the film associates with the concept of patriarchy which believe in male dominance. According to the misrepresentation of female role on mass media, women often see themselves in the roles of mothers, workers, models, or gold diggers. Women are valuated via their beauty and sexuality rather than their capability. Conversely, the appearance of males in heroes, executives, or political leaders in mass media makes men more powerful than women. The media generates the gender stereotypes and makes people believe in their gender roles. Finally, the sociological relevance of Miss Representation is that the media plays an important role in shaping male and female’s belief in their role and value. As the result, it is understandable for gender behaviors and gender inequality in the
Carol represents a group of people that are the destruction of the higher education system. Their complete disregard for societal structure cost a good teacher his job and his home. It seems that today, when we are unable to get what we want by earning it, we have to destroy and tear down the barriers in our way. This is exactly what Carol does, and the manner in which she executes her plan would leave most students to wonder: why even try?
In Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Mulvey states that, “Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either side of the screen.” (Mulvey 40). A woman’s role in the narrative is bound to her sexuality or the way she
In this research report I aim to explore the way in which gender roles have been represented in films through time and to analyse if the representation of each gender role has changed. More specifically I would like this report to acknowledge, in particularly, if women’s representations have changed over the years, and if so why or why isn’t this. I want to explore how these representations can affect the viewers of these films by the stereotypes that they create.
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).
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.
The media today is overflowing with idealistic representations of modern life; society’s hunger for excellence is reproduced in every detail of the media we consume. Reality, in contrast, is a poor substitute for the fairytale world of film, where good beats evil and stories end with a happily ever after. Arguably, women are often the “victims” of motion picture’s perfect perceptions, and feminism’s persistent test is to challenge these impractical representations. The female princess characters show an example of inaccurate feminine fulfillment.
As more people are claiming their rights and being accepted by society, the media is forced to reach the obedience in a modern way. Women are fighting for they equal right and starting to play leading role in movie and TV shows. For example, not so long ago, I watched “She’s the Man” a movie played in 2006 by Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum. Byrne’s character, Viola been playing soccer in place of his brother who didn’t want anything to do with soccer or any other sports for that matter. Bynes is really good at soccer and loves sport. She didn’t let herself brake by the tough guys in her team who think she was a man. She subsequently shows the absurdity of gender biases by being the best at what she loves. This type of movie prove there is nothing abnormal to our behavior and it do not make us less of a person when do not conform to norm of