A Psychoanalytic Analysis of Pretty Woman
In the introduction to his book, The Sublime Object of Ideology, Slavoj Zizek acquaints readers with his book’s tripartite aim. He plans, among other things, to illustrate concepts fundamental to Lacanian psychoanalysis – an intention which will serve to further his more ambitious goal “to reactualize Hegelian dialectics by giving it a new reading” in the light of Lacanian psychoanalysis – and “to contribute to the theory of ideology via a new reading of some well-known classical motifs” (7). In this broad category of classical motifs associated with the theory of ideology, I have isolated both fetishism and the commodity-form and intend to briefly illustrate some of these concepts against
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Technically his book, The Sublime Object of Ideology, was published in 1989, so one can only wonder about whether Zizek would have included commentary on the quasi-Cinderella romantic comedy, Pretty Woman, released in the following year. It certainly warrants a more exhaustive study, but focusing briefly on a few key points in the movie – particularly in the light of theory concepts such as ideology, fetishism, and the commodity-form – should prove equally interesting. While some critics attacked the movie's fantastical plot – charming hooker/heroine Vivian Ward, played by Julia Roberts, is “picked up” and essentially “rented” by troubled corporate mogul Edward Lewis, played by Richard Gere, with the pair eventually falling in love and living “happily ever after” – it was a complete box office success. The film has brought in 178 million dollars since its release in 1990, placing it among the top 50 grossing movies of all time (Internet Movie Database Ltd.).
Pretty Woman displays our fascination of “fetishism” of the commodity-form on multiple levels. We have the relatively straightforward case of prostitution, for instance, where sex and the woman's
Today’s filmmakers have three areas to focus on: the event or theme of the film, the audience who will be watching the film, and lastly, the individual characters and the roles they play and how they are portrayed and interpreted. Many of these films bottom line objectives are to focus on the “erotic needs of the male ego.” The focus on fetishistic scopophilia tend to slant the view such that we see the world as being dominated by men and that woman are
It can be argued that men notice girl’s bodies before anything else, however, it becomes creepy when that is all the man focuses on, such as in the case of Sammy and the others in the store. These facts beg the question, are girls really just pieces of meat to be devoured, objects to be observed, or pieces of art to be cherished? On the other hand, these girls did not help themselves much by walking into the store in nothing but their bathing suits. In fact, as Robert Pultier stated, “They are young, but they are also sexual beings, proud, in that often confused way that teenagers are, of their sensuality. They are aware of Sammy watching them and are half self-conscious and half exhilarated by his attention”. These girls seem to be embracing their new role in a man’s mind.
This genre is typically modern, perky and upbeat, but the common narrative in all of them is that it features a woman who is strong and she overcomes adversity to reach her goals. There is also a message of empowerment that also struggles with a romantic predicament and using comedy to poke fun at the male characters. Industries are still producing soppy romantic comedies for the female audience but the divide between the standard chick flick and romantic comedy is slowly disappearing. Similarly to the beginning of this essay it is evident that institutions are moving in the direction of women’s place in culture in relation to this film genre; women are usually shown as the super power since they are made to appeal to the female audience. However
In the history of literary texts, many original tales have often been appropriated decades later with a different message or purpose in the mind of the creator. The ideas, values and plotline are redefined in a new context to appeal to a different audience. Like all texts, both Pygmalion, written by George Bernard Shaw and Pretty Woman, directed by Gary Marshall, reflect values, beliefs and attitudes of the time, nearly 80 years apart.
To do so, Levy turns to the experiences of several young women whom she interviews. From her interpretations of these experiences, Levy reaches the conclusion that these women’s sexual nature revolves around their need
Feminist ideas are used throughout this story in both explicit and implicit ways to help describe the gender roles placed upon females in the 1950s. “That figure was a garish blond showgirl, a Hollywood ‘sexpot’ of no interest to intellectuals”. (Page 79) The author explicitly includes the
In the essay Women, Cheesecake, and Borderline Material: Responses to Girlie Pictures in the Mid-Twentieth-Century U.S., Joanne Meyerowitz writes about the history of mass media representations of the female body and their interaction with women, both past and present. However, what’s particularly interesting in regards to the subject of this essay is Meyerowitz’s interest in how popular culture continues to help define sexual conformity. In the case of cheesecake photography, the commodified sexual representation of women plays in tandem with Katz’s discussion of how the development of a consumer culture redefined sex as an act of pleasure and consumption. Even as magazines and pin-ups showcased scantily-clad women in an overtly sexual manner, it is covertly supplementing societal constructions of heterosexual attraction, as well as societal definitions of what a woman ought to be for a man
Have you ever seen immoral films? I have. According to the dictionary of American English (4th Ed. Longman), Immoral is defined as morally wrong, and not acceptable by society. Pretty Woman and Breakfast at Tiffany’s are two very immoral movie pictures. Although, they have a lot of differences; however, they are similar in three specific ways: their attraction, their poverty, and their transformation
The film that I chose to write about is a Paramount Pictures presentation titled Mean Girls, starring Lindsay Lohan and also featuring a handful of Saturday Night Live cast members, including Tina Fey the author of this picture. The reason behind choosing this film is because it has a unique style of introducing characters, transitioning between scenes, and various tools to help spice up the film. Being one of my personal favorites, Mean Girls is a comedy about a home schooled teenage girl who enters high school for the first time. She tries to figure herself out by where she can fit in and who she needs to become friends with.
How are women objectified in The Wolf of Wall Street based on the ‘Male Gaze’? In this essay, I am going to be analysing how women are objectified in the 2013 Hollywood film, ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ (directed by Martin Scorsese). I will be analysing how women are objectified using a theory produced by feminist film critic Laura Mulvey. This theorist is a British professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck in London.
There are many companies in the world today that put an idea of this perfect female body into the heads of women. These images lead to a faulty standard men hold of women and their bodies and that women strive to become. Margaret Atwood addresses the issue of the way men view the female body by writing her essay in the viewpoints of a male so the reader can better understand how the expectation men have of the female body is unrealistic. First, she uses an allusive comparison to show the male expectation of the female body and how it is objectified as if it were a doll that comes with accessories. Next, she uses an anecdote with defamiliarization to show how the way the father views a Barbie doll and the way it portrays the female body to young girls is hypocritical. Lastly, Margaret Atwood uses insidious diction to talk about how men not only view the female body as a product but how they also use the female body as a product which can be sold amongst businessmen. In The Female Body, Margaret Atwood uses many rhetorical devices to convey how the female body is viewed through the eyes of men.
Since its humble beginnings in the later years of the nineteenth century, film has undergone many changes. One thing that has never changed is the filmmaker’s interest in representing society in the present day. For better or worse, film has a habit of showing the world just what it values the most. In recent years, scholars have begun to pay attention to what kinds of ideas films are portraying (Stern, Steven E. and Handel, 284). Alarmingly, viewers, especially young women, are increasingly influenced by the lifestyle choices and attitudes that they learn from watching these films (Steele, 331). An example of this can be seen in a popular trope of the “romantic comedy” genre in this day and age: the powerful man doing something to help, or “save” the less powerful woman, representing a troubling “sexual double standard” (Smith, Stacy L, Pieper, Granados, Choueiti, 783).
The Traffic in Women: The “Political economy” of sex by Gayle Rubin is an exploration of the origin of women’s oppression. Rubin’s main objective is to arrive at a more fully developed definition of the sex/gender system, otherwise referred to as “mode of reproduction” and/or “patriarchy”. She further develops her definition through the analysis of the work of Levi-Strauss and Freud from a marxist perspective. Rubin provides the following preliminary definition of the sex/gender system “A set of arrangements by which a society transforms biological sexuality into products of human activity, and in which these transformed sexual needs are satisfied.” (159) She attempts to add to her definition of the sex/gender system through the analysis of the overlapping work of Claude Levi- Strauss and Sigmund Freud. Despite implications with their work, Rubin believes that both Levi-Strauss and Freud provide conceptual tools in describing the sex/gender system. Rubin looks at a Marxist analysis of sex oppression, as well as, Engels theory of society which integrates both sex and sexuality. Furthermore she incorporates aspects of each theory addressed into her own working definition of the sex/gender system. By shifting between Marxist, structuralist and psychoanalyst explanations of sex oppression, Rubin is able to construct a multi-dimensional definition of the sex/gender system that is not only inclusive but also provides a basis of which to build from.
Since the 1940’s, movies have predominately portrayed women as sex symbols. Beginning in the 1940’s and continuing though the 1980’s, women did not have major roles in movies. When they did have a leading role the women was either pretreated as unintelligent and beautiful, or as conniving and beautiful: But she was always beautiful. Before the 1990’s, men alone, wrote and directed all the movies, and the movies were written for men. In comparison, movies of the 90’s are not only written and directed by women, but leading roles are also held by older and unattractive women. In this paper I will show the variations and growth of women’s roles in movies from the 1940’s though the 1990’s.
> Directed by Garry Marshall, Pretty Woman is a romantic comedy and a modernized Cinderella. The story involves the evolution of the relationship between the two protagonists, Vivian (Julia Roberts) and Edward Lewis (Richard Gere). In the film how a business arrangement between a business magnate and a prostitute quickly becomes a genuine loving relationship. In addition to their complex business relationship, Edward’s lawyer Phil (Jason Alexander) is one of many obstacles to the desired “fairy tale ending.” Edward and Vivian are two broken individuals. Vivian is prostitute who is dealing with the vicissitudes of life and Edward is a divorced man who recently broke up with his girlfriend. Vivian and Edward bring out the