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1950s america conformity and conservatism
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Mona Lisa Smile. Dir. by Mike Newell. Columbia Pictures, 2003.
In the movie, Mona Lisa Smile directed by Mike Newell, a new art history professor at Wellesley College teaches her female students alternatives to their seemingly preordained futures as wives and mothers. In this paper we will examine women's roles in the 1950's through Mona Lisa Smile and compare this film to actual experiences of Wellesley collage graduates.
In 1953, a time when women's roles were rigidly defined, free-spirited, art history professor Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) begins teaching her dream job at Wellesley College. Wellesley is an all-female campus with a prestigious reputation for academic excellence, however, despite its name it is an environment where success is measured by 'how well' the students marry. Katherine, who recently left her husband (first strike against the non-conformist), taught liberal views that were out of place in this conservative 50s college. Encouraging these women to strive for a more open-minded future, Watson challenges the administration and inspires her students to look beyond the image of what is, and consider the possibilities of what could be. Besides butting heads with college administrators who object to progressive ideas, she also pushes the conservative students who firmly believe a woman's only role is to be a wife and mother.
The girls were more interested in nabbing a good husband than achieving scholastic and intellectual growth. The main characters were; catty but well brought-up Betty (Kirsten Dunst), potential graduate student Joan (Julia Stilies), insecure Connie (Ginnifer Goodwyn) and campus slut Giselle (Maggie Gyllenhaal). All of the women in the film were defined by their relationsh...
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...essor of Italian in the movie).
Mona Lisa Smile is like a medley of '50s ideological disgraces: A school nurse gets fired for dispensing birth control, a teacher refers to Lucille Ball as a "communist", Betty's prayers are answered when she gets what every woman dreams of
a washer and dryer. The message that the film tried to deliver, a critical insight into '50s culture, became mumbled in the drama of bad relationships. In the end, Watson's unorthodox teaching style and emphasis on modern art influenced the faculty and earned her students' respect. She represented the many "so called" free spirited, non-conformist, feminist, liberal women in the 50s who pictured a different world among men.
Works Cited:
Burros, Marian. "Critique From 50's Wellesley Grads." The New York Times 29 Dec. 2003.
Mona Lisa Smile. Dir. by Mike Newell. Columbia Pictures, 2003.
Donna’s father is angry when he finds out and automatically assumes it means she’s going to have sex with many men. This example is representative of the double standard held between men and women. It wouldn’t be an issue if one of the boys had multiple partners or used birth control, but as soon as one of the females does, it is frowned upon. When Jackie hears that Donna is on the pill, she exclaims “you’re going to be so popular,” which implies women can only be well-liked if they please men. Then, Eric’s parents give him “the talk” and while Kitty mentions that foreplay is important, Red disagrees. This implies a woman’s pleasure is not important, as long as men are taken care of. While Laurie is home, Eric finds out that she is failing classes, perpetuating the “dumb blonde”
Susan Faludi unfolds a world of male domination and its interrelationships within its confines and places women in the center of her story. Indeed it truly took an extremely self-confident woman to even entertain the idea of entering an all-male academic college like the Citadel, whose front gate practically reads like that of a young boys fort that makes the bold statement, “No girls allowed they have coodies.” Shannon Falkner was a strong willed woman with an immense amount of confidence to completely omit her gender on the Citadel application to enter this college. As if gender was not an issue, or should have never been an issue in
Next they go into further detail about the history of the painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer. They say that it was described as the “Mona Lisa” of the Austrian people to whom it belonged to.
Women have spent a large amount of time throughout the 20th century fighting for liberation from a patriarchal form that told them that they must be quiet and loyal to their husbands and fathers. For the duration of this essay, I will be discussing how the “Modern Woman” image that appeared through the Art Deco style — that emulated ideas such as the femme fatale and masqueraded woman, and presented new styles to enhance women’s comfortability and freedom — is still prevalent and has grown in contemporary art and design since. Overall I will describing to you how fashion, sexuality, and the newly emerged ‘female gaze’, and how these tie in together — in both periods of time — to produce what can be described as powerful femininity.
Moran, Mickey. “1930s, America- Feminist Void?” Loyno. Department of History, 1988. Web. 11 May. 2014.
Aristotle once claimed that, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Artists, such as Louise-Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun and Mary Cassatt, captured not only the way things physically appeared on the outside, but also the emotions that were transpiring on the inside. A part no always visible to the viewer. While both artists, Le Brun and Cassatt, worked within the perimeters of their artistic cultures --the 18th century in which female artists were excluded and the 19th century, in which women were artistically limited-- they were able to capture the loving relationship between mother and child, but in works such as Marie Antoinette and Her Children and Mother Nursing her Child 1898,
The Depression Era was chaotic and detrimental to most Americans, but it was also a time of growth in some ways. Women playing major roles in movies during this time period was becoming more and more common. Women were viewed in many different ways though. In “Room Service”, women were viewed as hard-working, influential individuals, but they were also very invested and dependent on love. In “The Public Enemy”, women were viewed as something that could be thrown away when they were of no more use, and finally in “Gold Diggers of 1937”, women were viewed as sneaky, smart people who would to whatever they had to do to accomplish their goals. These conflicting views of women show depth and diversity in a dark, dreary time period.
Whitney Chadwick, Women, Art, and Society 3rd ed. (NY: Thames & Hudson world of art, 2002), 153-160.
A college education is something that women take for granted today, but in the 1800’s it was an extremely rare thing to see a woman in college. During the mid 1800’s, schools like Oberlin and Elmira College began to accept women. Stone’s father did a wonderful thing (by 19th century standards) in loaning her the money to pay for her college education. Stone was the first woman to get a college education in Massachusetts, graduating from Oberlin College in 1843. Her first major protest was at the time of her graduation. Stone was asked to write a commencement speech for her class. But she refused, because someone else would have had to read her speech. Women were not allowed, even at Oberlin, to give a public address.
...locaust Girlhood Remembered. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2001. Print.
Images of women throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have both shaped women’s outlook on their lives in the workplace, at home, and in politics, and have also encouraged change for them as individuals. While often times women are seen as weak individuals that have minor influence on society, artistic evaluations and various writings throughout history have successfully proved otherwise.
"Whilst some feminists have argued to be included in 'male stream' ideologies, many have also long argued that women are in important respects both different from and superior to men, and that the problem they face is not discrimination or capitalism but male power." (Bryson, 2003, p. 3). The feminist art movement is unclear in its description because some describe this movement as art that was simply created by women and others describe it as art with anti-male statements in mind. For the focal point of this paper, the goal will be to analyze several female artists and their works of art who influenced, and who are said to have made powerful influence both in the feminist art movement from a political and societal perspective, then and today. With that being said, we will start with the female artist Judy Chicago and a quote from her that calcifies her position as an artist. "I believe in art that is connected to real human feeling that extends itself beyond the limits of the art world to embrace all people who are striving for alternatives in an increasingly dehumanized
Solomon, Barbara. "In The Company of Educated Women, Women and the Modernizing of Liberal Education."
...thing her mother told her, and took her beliefs very seriously. Giselle even talked about her parents splitting up after her father returned from the war. She explained that things just were not the same. Society was going through a tremendous change, and affecting the lives of everyone. “Mona Lisa Smile” is a great reminder of what it was like to live when a woman did not have a voice. However, if this movie were to take place on a campus today, society would not have played a factor in the movie. Both women and men would be equal on campus, and their educations would be held of equal value. In today’s society, it is very important for a female to educate herself and to have a career. We are a feminist society in that all people should be treated equally however, sometime we could all use a Katherine Watson in our lives, as a reminder that women do have a voice.
Women have played many roles in societies since the dawn of time ever changing with time and from society to society. Each society hold a special place and role for women good and bad. Freedoms and equality of women has varied from opression to freedom. I will discuss some specific pieces of art and explain how the art shows the role of women in a specific society. I will tell you of their paril and achivements through time. Giving you a glimpse into the lives of women and how they were percieved by males and society. Some have have reveared women and some have disrespected them but through it all women have found a way to perservear. Women hold a place in history from culture to culture, and we see this in many pieces of art. From the art we can have a glimpse into a culture view of women and how they were treated in society.