Women Find It Harder to Be an Individual - Manchurian Candidate and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

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Women have come a long way in society but there still is inequality between the genders. In today’s society females are obtaining more dominate roles in society but the percentage of female to male in managerial jobs is still very small. Even if women are in the same position as a male, the females will generally have smaller salaries compared to males and will also have worked harder to get to the same position, due to the perception that females are not as suited as males for the managerial positions offered. Ken Kesey’s novel; One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest and Jonathan Demme’s film; The Manchurian Candidate, both show a woman as the antagonist leader, and through point of view and symbolism the women are portrayed as evil, manipulate and deceitful. In Ken Kesey’s One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest, all women, with the exception of the prostitutes, are characterised as evil, sexless, threatening and terrifying figures, which is supportive of the argument that women find it harder to be an individual by highlighting the way woman are viewed and portrayed in society. The novel’s portrayal shows them as either control freaks that emasculate the men around them, such as Nurse Ratched, and Billy Bibbit’s mother, or as objects for sexual gratification, such as the two prostitutes Candy and Sandy. The patients refer to Nurse Ratched and the other female characters within the ward as “Ball cutters” highlighting that they believe women are intent on dominating men to the point where they feel castrated, like their manhood has been taken away and they have no freedom or individuality, whereas the prostitutes are dedicated to pleasuring men and doing what they are told and so are praised and encouraged by the male patients of the ward, further dirtying the image of women in society and telling women that they will only be accepted by men when they allow themselves to become a

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