Patriarchal Hurdle of Feminism

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The Patriarchal Hurdle of Feminism in Films The three articles share parallel views, essentially echoing how the portrayal of women within performing arts, particularly in films, has evolved over time. Films produced prior to 1970s frequently contained prominent sexist biases, stereotyping women to their traditional submissive roles and portraying them as subservient to men. Films produced after the 1970s, however, were observed to gradually contain greater and more positive representation of women within the social hierarchy, with women sharing equivalent if not greater autonomy compared to men. Despite such trends reforming the sexist stigma, progress has been and still is impeded by a deep-rooted patriarchal ideology. It is largely due to this hereditary social ideology that feminist movements face their limitations. Traditional gender portrayal has always been evident in our society, especially in popular culture. England supports this with examples of Disney, which since its inception to the world, has relentlessly depicted its characters to have traditionally associated gender stereotypes. As England (2011, p560) pointed out from her studies, the least commonly found traits that male characters in Disney possess were traditionally feminine traits (such as tending to physical appearance, being shamed, and collapsing to cry) and the least commonly found traits for female characters were masculine (such as being unemotional, being a leader, inspiring fear, and performing a rescue). This created a strong notion to its audience that gender roles were stereotypically traditional in Disney Princesses’ films. Jordan supports this argument by pointing out the gender inequality in Hollywood films as they were directed mainly by men, thus reinforcing this belief by portraying men as naturally conforming to masculine roles and women as “tamers of men’s

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