Analysis Of Whedon 's ' Joss Whedon '

Gender roles have been a hotly debated topic in the most recent years, especially the role of women in society. Women have had set expectations that they are believed to conform to, which is shown in many pieces of film and literature. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald describes the life of a man in the upper class in the 1920’s, as well as women in the 1920’s. The movie The Princess Bride, written by William Goldman, visually explains the treatment and expectations of women, and especially focuses on the “damsel in distress” stereotype.. Roxane Gay’s “Bad Feminist” explains the stereotypes against women and ways women can come together and fight these constraints. Based on these sources, societal expectations take away from each individual’s identity, forcing women to conform to society's standards. In order to fight against these expectations, women have banded together and formed movements against these standards.

The role of the patriarchal society and its impact on the oppression of female characters

According to a quote by The Atlantic, America is still a “patriarchal community” (Cohen 1). The majority of humans live in a society influenced by men and have little to no understanding of a matriarchal society because it is not around. For centuries, women have fought for equality and it is a reoccuring theme in literature. This theme can show how people critique and analyze many works of art. Countless people can read a text and depict it differently, from the beginning to end. This depends on what critical lens they view it from, allowing people to comprehend the different ways literature is written. There is many different critical lens to choose from. An example of one of the critical lens is the feminist viewpoint. The feminist theory, analyzes the nature of gender equality. This approach shows how women can compare to men. This can be done politically, socially, or economically. In William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, he can be seen going against the feminist theory. This lens will affect Hamlet’s two main, female characters Gertrude and Ophelia. While viewing Hamlet through the feminist theory lens, many male characters can be seen as being, aggressively, dominant; creating the women to have many stereotypes.

Women are held to different standards than men. Our culture is encompassed by prejudices concerning women in society, especially in regards to social gender roles of men and women. In Victorian society, it was a socially accepted concept that women were inferior to men in all aspects with the exception of childbearing and raising. A woman’s personal choices were and are still subject to the review of modern society, and women are continually ostracized for veering from what is considered socially acceptable. This criticism severely restricts what a woman is “allowed” to and “not allowed” to do. This can be seen in works of literature dating back to the Victorian era, such as Brahm Stoker’s Dracula as well as Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

What is gender? The answer to that is not so simple. "Gender is what culture makes out of the ‘raw material' of biological sex," (Unger and Crawford, 1995). Also, there is a difference between what is gender identity and what is a gender role; a difference which seems to be even more difficult to differentiate between than the words "gender" and "sex". Media and other parts of our culture seem to believe they know the difference, yet up until a certain period in time, the same stereotypical characters were portrayed and used as role models for others in most media. Women characters being the helpless victims, while the strong men would come to save them (including

For example, in the workplace, woman have been and still are stuck in lower ranking positions. Today it has become very common for woman to speak up and get the recognition that they deserve. This is much like what Lucas does. Granted, Lucas does not openly speak out, he does fight the position he is put in. The women are able to abide by the rules of their societal roles while also staying moral.

It is said that Joss Whedon’s work is not just to entertain his audience but he is also looking towards sending out a message. Generally, when people look deeply into his text they can find that he is usually sending a message to society about how gender roles and it is common for him to play with them. In these three shows Dollhouse and Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, and Firefly he takes gender roles and moves them around at will.

In our HWOC class, there were a great deal of references to sexism in the major works we studied. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout’s older brother Jem says, “‘Scout, I 'm tellin ' you for the last time, shut your trap or go home—I declare to the Lord you 're gettin ' more like a girl every day!’" (24) His comment implies that being a girl is a bad thing, and that Scout is not allowed to play with them if she continues to act scared and “girly.” Jem believes having feminine qualities is unacceptable, whereas Walter, in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin In The Sun, believes that it’s okay if women want to be feminine, as long as they remain in their place. He tells his younger sister, Beneatha, “Who the hell

Reflecting upon their role in society, women in literature are often portrayed in a position

Both Gwyn Symonds’s article and my first episode of Buffy have addressed these concerns. Symonds discusses the sharing of gender roles as opposed to gender role reversal through the characters of Buffy and Spike. Rather than Spike adopting purely feminine traits and Buffy adapting traditionally masculine traits as a means of empowerment, the two share characteristics and tropes that can be found in both genders. Symonds indicates that these “are tentative

The main character of the series is a young woman who is named Buffy Summers. Buffy's character is summarized rather neatly by Elana Levine in her essay, “Buffy and the 'New Girl Order”. Levine

Slaughterhouse-Five, a novel written by Kurt Vonnegut, tells the story of the devastating effects of war on a man, Billy Pilgrim, who joins the army fight in World War II. The semi-autobiographical novel sheds light on one of history’s most tragic, yet rarely spoken of events, the 1945 fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany.

Feminists would argue that while the characters of Little Women do maintain traditional roles at times, they also are presented in a modern way which lifts the constraint of traditional gender roles.

Without a doubt this show is directed towards women viewers, not only with its exceedingly handsome actors, but with its insatiable story line. The Vampire Diaries is post-feminist and the network is notoriously known to target young to middle aged women for a majority of their television series. The CW network mentions that it prides itself on being “the only network targeting women aged 18-34” (cw.com). Generating slogans that are specific for this demographic such as “Free To Be” and “TV Now” have helped intrigue that specific audience. “The way the CW network is postfeminist is in line with scholars such as Yvonne Tasker and Diane Negra’s use of the term, characterized by a kind of

In 1990 Judith Butler first published her book Gender Troubles, where she questions gender roles. Butler theorizes that gender, as in male and female, is a type of societal/gender colonialism created to keep people who do not fall within the gender roles from being part of the mainstream society. In her 1999 preface, in which she addresses the impact her book had in the decade since its original publication, Butler expresses the concern she had with the “heterosexual assumption in feminist literary theory (61).” Butler utilizes the works of other feminist philosophers to further demonstrate the inconsistency, and disconnect between fighting for women rights and fighting for human rights. Judith Butler makes an interesting argument on the failure to recognize the spectrum of gender, however, she makes a compelling argument on the use of language perpetuating a patriarchal society.