Representations of Women in Dr No and Aliens

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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. Both films use technical and symbolic codes such as clothing and camera angles to emphasize the contrasting ideas of woman’s role. The way in which woman are represented in both “Dr No” and “Aliens” demonstrates the attitudes towards women at the time. The 1960s were a time of change; minority groups were beginning to demand equal rights. This meant that in some ways “Dr No” took into account what the audience wanted to see by including women in the workplace to demonstrate the emergence of equality between the sexes. However they were still not valued equally to men and were in positions of inferiority that were simple and not essential to the workforce such as secretaries. This representation was constructed through a range of symbolic and technical codes. The composition of men towering over women in shots within the office, such as Bond sitting on the arm rest of Ms Moneypenny’s chair making him higher up, immediately tells the audience that males are in charge and the women are subordinate. Women in the workplace are also very femininely dressed in heels and skirts, sending the message that

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