The fatale woman archetype has been used in films since the beginnings of the film industry. Mystery is the key word related to her, but we also know that she is dangerous, deadly and she brings no good. Yet she has an attractive power and men cannot stay away from her. The archetype has been interpreted and reinterpreted numerous times and it is interesting to observe how a writer or a director can play with this figure. For this analysis I have chosen Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct and I wanted to talk about the similarities and differences of the two, focusing on the powerful female character, the male protagonist and the female gaze.
Along with being sexualized women are also portrayed as submissive, week, desperate, psychotic, emotional, or gentle and affectionate while men are aggressive, independent, ambitious and self-confident. If a woman’s role is to play the characteristics of a man she would most likely be considered cold, crabby and a few other not so nice words. Much work needs to be done to improve the status and portrayal of women in films. In the film Norma Rae and TV show, Roseanne we are able to see two aggressive, ambitious and confident women as well as affectionate but the roles of working class women like Norma Rae and Roseanne are rare, “contemporary American audiences are simply unaccustomed to seeing interesting, strong and resourceful working-class women. Whether ordinary or extraordinary, working-class women of all races and backgrounds, need greater representation”(Johnson, 2014) Too many times, working class is thought of as lazy, unproductive failures of society who are going nowhere instead of hard working women who struggle by the unfair and unequal social, educational, political and economic
This dehumanization of women is what provides men with sexual arousal for the reason that the women who are being portrayed are often being dominated, overpowered and abused by men, giving the consumers, who are mostly men, the feeling of power and control over women. This domination and abuse creates the perception that women are less than persons because women in pornography are the individuals who are being dominated, overpowered and abused, which then creates the view that women are weak, vulnerable and helpless and therefore they are not entitled nor deserve the same level of respect as men. The treatment and perceptions of women in the pornography industry transfers to all women as a class because the more women who are depicted as being weak, vulnerable and
I believe this a great example and show power and control over women; this can be classified as sexist gender roles and of the reinforcement of male hegemony and female subservience. It also shows how sex sells, the commercial ends right as the women approaches him. This commercial is
We see that the theme of sex seems to play quite a significant role in this biblical story of vengeance and manipulation. In the text of Judith, we see a beautiful, widowed woman who seeks liberation for her fellow Israelites. We also see an army full of masculine warriors who have to spend a lot of time together and are desperately seeking women for their sexual pleasure. The leader of this particular army was Holofernes, a greedy and despicable man. Holofernes uses sex to keep himself and his fellow warriors happy.
Her unhealthy self-love can be seen in her relationships in which she uses sex to control men and always appears to have a hand on them, especially turning to sex when the man gains any sort of will or power to insult or leave her. Because of this narcissism she is extremely self-centered, trusting no one and even attacking her family when they disrupt her perfection. Her damaging and corrosive psyche was likely caused by the pressures of the movie industry in which she claims to have worked her up form nothing. The pressures of competition and treachery have caused her to from extremely egotistical defense mechanisms that prevent her from normal interaction with other people, even her own children. As for her insecurities and ensnaring of men for her own benefit it is possible that she may have had an abusive father or a domineering mother who was likely divorced, abandoned, or abused, obsessing her with the need to have power over men either as compensation for her powerless childhood or as a result of her mother’s teachings and distrust of men.
Anatomically, women are the weaker vessel, but in this ad, everything this woman portrays is symbolizing that she is stronger than a man and she will beat him. She is letting everyone know that women are capable of challenging men at a fun game The rhetorical concept used in this ad is pathos. Pathos is when you have an emotional attachment to something visual or verbal that an advertisement could use to persuade you to buy their product. An Xbox ad normally appeals to the guys, but this one would be effective in making a female want to play a video game console such as this one to beat a guy. It’s a favorable ad that shows equality between men and women.
It states that many women’s focus is on her wardrobe so they can impress the opposite sex as they feel useless if they fail to impress, they also argue that fashion is a more female dominated area, they show that most of the top fashion designers are male ruled and that Radical Feminists such as Germaine Greer believe that all key societies (including fashion) have been found on patriarchy (ruled by men). They believe that men are the enemy and that they bring out clothes that result in the oppression of women and cause them to be exploited for sexual purposes only. They argue that the fashion industry segregate sexes with many popular singers exposing their body for money, this can be the case for Miley Cyrus; where she obtains money by exposing her body. Feminists view this as them doing this to please men and that women are exploited in this sexual way in order for men to find pleasure. They argue that the fashion industry promotes the women’s expressive role of doing the housework, looking after the children and not going out to work while they are used as a sex tool by the fashion industry making clothing which shows many body parts of women’s bodies such as their legs which males will like to look at.
She has no identity beyond that of an object to be gawked at by an intended male audience. In the twentieth century, this idea is maintained. Sexualized images of women are continually circulated via mass media. In the form of pin ups - usually well-known personalities, but like earlier depictions of women they were presented as sexual objects, their sole purpose was to flaunt their sexuality for men. Tired of being misrepresented as subjects and overlooked as serious artists, women artists revolted during this feminist movement with a kind of art that had an undeniable presence that was too shocking to be ignored.
Advertising has now reached the point where companies are no longer afraid to exploit women to sell their products. Advertising has associated itself with sexism, often discrimination against women; making them an object inferior to men. The women presented in advertising are often stereotypical in that that have the desired figure, look and attitudes expected by a male target audience. Two advertisements that demonstrate these representations of women are the print advertisement LYNX Jet “Get-on, Get-off” and the TV advertisement LYNX Pulse “The girls are ready”. The LYNX campaign relies heavily on the AIDA principle, which aims first to attract the male target audience attention, hold their interest to create a desire for the product which in-turn persuades the intended to purchase LYNX products.