Nicole Sacks Professor Shannon Readings in Humanities 12 October 2012 Gender and Power in The Epic of Gilgamesh When looking back throughout history, it is clear that women have had to face an enormous amount of opposition and prejudice in their pursuit of gender equality. While there is no denying that things have changed in recent years and women have begun to receive more rights under the law and gain more acceptance in high powered roles. However that women in America have gained an enormous amount of freedom under the law since the country’s inception in the late 18th century, but are things truly equal between men and women? There seems to be this underlying notion that women are inferior to men, which has somehow
The view if a woman’s value in society has changed greatly from the 60’s to mid 80’s. This was highlighted in the different representations of women and their importance in the narrative of two movies; “Dr No” (1962) and “Aliens” (1986). In these time periods there were very different views on gender equality and a woman’s importance. The significance of women in each of the films greatly differs from one another; in Aliens, the protagonist is a strong female and in many ways dominant over the men in the film, however in Dr No, women play very little importance to the narrative and are simply represented as either sex objects or dominated by men in the workforce. These differences reflect the views society had regarding the roles of a women at the times the films were made.
How authentic are these actresses that NOW endorses, Fazzone questions. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sarah Michelle Gellar plays the lead role with her take-charge attitude who can dominate both genders, yet her promo photos show off the cleavage of her bra less self! Outside of their “innocent” TV shows, it is clear that these actresses are being marketed for their sex appeal, and not their wholesomeness. These actresses do not meet NOW’s criteria of portraying authentic women,
Topic: Compare the portrayal of females in Othello and Frankenstein. To what degree are female characters in each work dominated or oppressed by a patriarchal society? How prominent roles have they in each work? A Comparison of the portrayal of females in Othello and Frankenstein The female characters play dominant roles in both Othello and Frankenstein. Though, when actually examined, the females portrayed in both literary works do show signs of bravery and rebellious spirit, which represents the actual mind of authors, they are still oppressed by the patriarchal society to a large extent.
The role of women differs drastically from the poem to the movie version of Beowulf, and it says a lot about what we value as a society, and what the Anglo-saxons valued. While in the epic, the few women that are named in the story are powerful and influential, those same women, along with others that are exclusive to the movie, have nearly no influence on the men at all other than sexually. When analyzed, it can be seen that the role women play in the movie is drastically smaller, and in some ways disappointing, in comparison to their roles in the epic. Arguably the most important woman in the entire story if Beowulf, is Grendel’s unnamed mother. Depending on if viewed in the light of the epic or the movie, she is either an ugly and gigantic water demon, or a seductive humanoid.
In some cases, women are now considered equal to men instead of being someone that can be ruled over or given orders to, they are making decision and their opinions and suggestions are being taken into account. Women are climbing the ladder of success at a very high speed but this growth is not being appreciated enough by the media, women are underrepresented in the news (Smith, Analysis of Harmful Representations of Women in the Media, 2011). This observation led me to my research question. 2.2 Research Proposal Why are women in the media, television and film industry underrepresented
Women and men have been viewed differently throughout history. Men have been seen as dominant, strong figures while women have been seen more feminine and timid. Throughout history, many women have changed the narrow view to prove that women are equal to men. In “The Magic Lantern” by Jose Tomas de Cuellar, women of the nineteenth century are seen a little more prim and showed in a narrowed view. They are shown to be women of stature worried about their appearance and clothing.
How does the Mise-en-scene in Sunset Boulevard help to shape the representation of Gender? Gender has always been a prevalent factor in cinema, especially in the American film industry and Hollywood, of which seems content on portraying women as being forever youthful. Richard Barsam and Dave Monahan in their book looking at movies, an introduction to film describe older actresses in the American film industry as scarce, sighting “ audiences show little interest in women older than forty-five” and the notable actresses that have been able to appear in films past middle age “ have taken roles as stereotyped eccentrics, where the camp value of their performance translates into the triumph statement, ‘I’m still here!” However, when this is applied to Gloria Swanson’s portrayal of faded star Norma Desmond, Swanson’s overdramatic acting is all the more poignant as she herself was once one of the greatest stars of the silent era. Indeed Sunset boulevard is at it’s a core, a comment on the coldness of the Hollywood system, most notably it’s ability to move on and leave stars like baggage, especially actresses. Throughout Sunset Boulevard, the mise-en-scene constantly plays with ideas of gender stereotypes offering a reflective look at a patriarchal Hollywood that disposes of stars as quickly as it makes them.
(Pollitt 545) We have come so far from that, we now have T.V. shows that have main charters that are females and are strong charters. From Wonder Women to Lala loopsey, all of which are geared toward young girls. We still do have a long way to go but have made great strides toward stronger female cartoons and other shows. The newest movie that has came out The Hunger Games has a very strong female charter, it does have male supporting roles but they are just that supporting.
Transgenderism as Seen in The L Word In today’s popular media, most relationships between characters tend to be cisgendered and heteronormative in nature. Although the presence of heterosexual characters is becoming more apparent in modern media, Transgenderism is generally disregarded. However, in the Showtime drama The L Word, a female-to-male transgendered individual is one of the most popular and influential characters within the series. The character, altering their name from Moira to Max, comes to terms with their identity and begins the gender transitioning process in hope of permanently altering their sex from female to male. By televising the struggles of members of the transgender community with scenes of transgender prejudice, the female-to-male transitioning process, and the separation of sexual orientation from gender, The L Word is able to move beyond the confines of stereotypical gay television characters and is able to create a fairly accurate representation of conflicts that may arise for those within the transgender community.