Representation of Women in Action Films

1748 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Women's roles in world war 2

Throughout time much has been said about the film roles of women. Everyone from scholars to bloggers has an opinion on the significance in society of how women on the big screen are portrayed. For me all of this debate only detracts from what the true focus of a film should be; an artistic expression of a story that reflects the values of the time in which it is written. Pauline Keel a respectable critic for the New Yorker once said “Movies of the past are like samples-swatches of cloth-of the period in which they were made” (Kael). The purpose of this essay is to analyze lead female roles in one action film from each decade starting in the 1940’s up to today to see if they do in fact reflect the current ideas of society.

1940’s

The 40’s was a pivotal decade in the rethinking of the American woman. With all the men gone to war the country counted on woman to take up the slack and perform not only their designated roles of mother and housewife but also as a good percentage of the workforce. This is the beginning point where traditional ideas of the roles of woman were questioned and society started to understand that women were capable of doing much more than originally thought. However this new awareness did not reflect in most of the movies portraying women in the 40’s. Most of the roles were either maternal dramas or showed woman as the desire (or fear) of the male protagonist (A. S. Walsh). Of course let’s not forget the film noir style of dark shots and undertones of mistrust, cynicism, and despair. Although film noir depicts women as dangerous, manipulative, and needing to be exterminated it still confines them to the traditional roles and their behavior is a display of them rebelling against a situation forced on them by a...

... middle of paper ...

...wer Point.

THE SAGA OF THE VIKING WOMEN AND THEIR VOYAGE TO THE WATERS OF THE GREAT SEA SERPENT. Dir. Roger Corman. Perf. Abby Dalton. 1957. Online.

Velding, Victoria. Gender & Society in the Classroom: Media Representations. 2012. Web. 09 April 2014.

Walford, Michael. Women & Film: the Representation of Women Today. 23 September 2007. Web. 09 April 2014.

Walsh, Andrea S. Women's Film and Female Experience, 1940-1950. New York: Praeger, 1984. E-Book.

Walsh, Kenneth T. The 1960s: A Decade of Change for Women. 12 March 2010. Web. 09 April 2014.

Wilson, Natalie. Hollywood’s War on Women. 15 May 2012. Web. 14 April 2014.

Wloszczyna, Susan. Film females join the fight club. 07 July 2012. Web. 24 April 2014.

Wonder Woman. Dir. Vincent McEveety. Perf. Cathy Lee Crosby. 1974. Online.

Zurko, Nicholas. Gender Inequality in Film . 25 November 2013. Web. 09 April 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Jackie Kennedy: Women's Lib Predecessor

    1266 Words  | 3 Pages

    Salisbury, Joyce E. and Andrew E Kersten. “Women in the United States, 1960–1990.” Daily Life through History.ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.

    Read More

  • Film Noir Analysis

    1737 Words  | 4 Pages

    A female in film noir is typically portrayed in one of two ways; she’s either a dependable, trustworthy, devoted, and loving woman, or she’s a manipulative, predatory, double crossing, and unloving temptress. Noir labels the cold hearted and ruthless woman archetype as a Femme Fatale. A femme fatale is walking trouble, and she’s aware of it. This woman is gorgeous, refined, eloquent, and commands the attention of any room she’s in. When the femme fatale desires something, she pursues it. If there’s an obstacle in her way, she overcomes it. If she can’t handle it herself, all she needs to do it bat her eyelashes and the nearest man is all too willing to take care of it for her. In essence, the most dangerous thing about the femme fatale is her

    Read More

  • 1. In what ways did the 1950s suggest tumultuous times ahead?

    1417 Words  | 3 Pages

    The era of I love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver and Father knows Best, brought about a time where family values were necessary, family life was wonderful and no one was worrying about politics and the Cold War. These families had the molds of women constrained in the home, men bringing home the bacon and all in the homes of white middle class families. Women in the 1950s were often depicted as dependent on men and were encouraged to get married young. (Bloom and Breines, 6) It took large media input from movie stars like Marilyn Monroe, to influence many women to join the workforce and reject the “traditional feminine roles”. (Bloom and Breines 6) This mold would be challenged by the introduction of the Birth Control pill in 1954 and the growing unhappiness of women who would seek to break the walls that trapped their mothers. (Bloom and Breines, 5) More women would venture out of the homes and into the workplace between the two decades, “from 25 percent in 1950to 32 percent in 1960”. (Bloom and Breines, 5) The introduction of the Birth Control pill allowed for women to avoid unwanted pregnancies or even marriages and encouraged the sexual liberation that would be seen in the sixties.

    Read More

  • Esther Greenwood in Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    Winner, Lauren F. "Still under the Bell Jar: What has really changed for women since the fifties?" Books & Culture May 2002: 25+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.

    Read More

  • Women's Rights

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    By the 1950’s, women had gained some rights, but had a long way to go before they had the same rights as they do today. Working women were rarely seen in 1950’s film and television. Professional jobs were still largely closed off to women. The average woman only made 60 percent of what men did. In some states, women could not make contracts. They also could not sell or buy property for themselves. For married couples, rape did not exist and there were not ma...

    Read More

  • Gender and Sexuality in Hollywood Films

    1553 Words  | 4 Pages

    Noted in Yvonne Tasker’s Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema, Goldie Hawn says this about women's role in the film business “There are only thee ages for women in Hollywood: Babe, District Attorney and Driving Miss Daisy” (1998, p. 3). While Haw...

    Read More

  • Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess

    2633 Words  | 6 Pages

    Williams, Linda. "Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess." Braudy and Cohen (1991 / 2004): 727-41. Print.

    Read More

  • Essay On Klute By Laura Mullvey

    1316 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Women's Movement Of 1960's

    1213 Words  | 3 Pages

    But when the “Women’s Movement,” is referred to, one would most likely think about the strides taken during the 1960’s for equal treatment of women. The sixties started off with a bang for women, as the Food and Drug Administration approved birth control pills, President John F. Kennedy established the President's Commission on the Status of Women and appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as chairwoman, and Betty Friedan published her famous and groundbreaking book, “The Feminine Mystique” (Imbornoni). The Women’s Movement of the 1960’s was a ground-breaking part of American history because along with African-Americans another minority group stood up for equality, women were finished with being complacent, and it changed women’s lives today.

    Read More

  • Miss Representation Summary

    1350 Words  | 3 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • Male Gaze

    1788 Words  | 4 Pages

    A challenge that faces both Canadian cinema and women’s cinema is the idea of the male gaze. The film industry is a phallocentric institution that since its inception has always faced the problem of objectifying women.

    Read More

  • Women In The 70's Essay

    1385 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the 1960’s women were still seen as trophies and were beginning to be accepted into the work industry. They were still homemakers, raised the family, and made sure their husbands were happy. That was the social norms for women during that time period. They were not held to high work expectations like men were. But something amazing happened that would change women 's lives for centuries; it was the 1970’s. The 60’s put the equality movement in motion but 70’s was a time of reform where women were finally able to control their own paths. Not only was the 70’s a historical marker for the fiftieth anniversary for women suffrage, it was also a marker for the drastic change of different social norms, the changes of the American Dream, and the

    Read More

  • Women’s Roles in Classical Hollywood Cinema

    2563 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Representation of Women in Action Films

    1897 Words  | 4 Pages

    Women have made progress in the film industry in terms of the type of role they play in action films, although they are still portrayed as sex objects. The beginning of “a new type of female character” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 1). 41-47) in the world of action films began in 1976 with Sigourney Weaver, who played the leading role in the blockbuster film ‘Aliens’ as Lt. Ellen Ripley. She was the captain of her own spaceship, plus she was the one who gave out all the orders. Until then, men had always been the ones giving the orders; to see a woman in that type of role was outlandish.

    Read More

  • Feminism and the Movie Industry

    1785 Words  | 4 Pages

    Feminism is a movement that supports women equality within society. In relation to film, feminism is what pushes the equal representation of females in mainstream films. Laura Mulvey is a feminist theorist that is famous for touching on this particular issue of how men and women are represented in movies. Through her studies, she discovered that many films were portraying men and women very differently from reality. She came up with a theory that best described why there is such as huge misrepresentation of the social status quos of male and female characters. She believed that mainstream film is used to maintain the status quo and prevent the realization of gender equality. This is why films are continuously following the old tradition that males are dominant and females are submissive. This is the ideology that is always present when we watch a movie. This is evident in the films from the past but also currently. It is as if the film industry is still catering to the male viewers of each generation in the same way. Laura Mulvey points out that women are constantly being seen as sexual objects, whether it is the outfits they wear or do not wear or the way they behave, or secondary characters with no symbolic cause. She states that, “in traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote it-be-looked-at-ness.”(Mulvey pg. 715). Thus, women are nevertheless displayed as nothing more than passive objects for the viewing pleasure of the audience. Mulvey also points out through her research that in every mainstream movie, there is ...

    Read More

More about Representation of Women in Action Films

Open Document