Cultural Identities : Gender, Race, And Media

Moreover, few women have leading roles in films especially in ones that are comic based, because the majority of the audience consists of heterosexual males that want to see women in passive roles. Portraying attractive women that abide by cultural norms satisfy most men’s desire for dominance and masculinity. Solomon and Maasik imply in “Heroes and Villains: Encoding Our Conflicts” that economically movie industries consider female lead movies as losses because the safest way to make money is by appealing to adults and children who have already approved of successful cartoon series and books (444). Movie industries are more concerned about making money, so their agenda is to go with what already works and maintain the safest profile. However

Before the 1920’s, women’s attire was considered fairly modern. Women would have worn clothing with more of a silhouette than clothing that was loose and flowy. The length of their dresses never revealed more of their leg than just their ankle. Women received bad reputations when showing their knees or even their calfs. Women in the 1920’s also had a different ideal figure than most women do today. The body types women wanted to achieve also transformed into a more feminine look. This look consisted of low bust lines, higher hems lines, and showing off more curves than ever before. These women became unapologetically fearless.

The woman’s role in society had many changes during the era of WWII to the baby boom era. It went from the strong independent woman that can work in a factory to a house wife that takes care of the family to the final slightly dominant, but still dependent female. All of these different feminine mystiques were changed because of society and through indirect propaganda in TV shows and

In contemporary film women's roles in films have varied quiet considerably between genres, geographical placement, and between

The role of women in the household and workforce was changing dramatically. Before this time period, women aspired to marry a successful and rich man so that they could live comfortably. Marrying a well-endowed man would ensure the wife with a steady income source and pleasurable life. This idea changed because women were starting to gain independence and strived to make their own money from jobs other than prostitution. Even women 's idea of modesty changed. They would usually dress modestly and wore their hair up as to not look prudish. This idea was thrown out the window, and women started dressing for

“The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of a women begins when the doctor says, ‘It's a girl!’” Women are forced to conform to a set place in society, and the pressure they feel to conform starts when they are born.

Government campaigns stressed the message that women needed to sustain their “feminity” so they provided beautiful posters of feminine women who were nicely groomed as nurses, volunteers, or factory workers. Additionally in Europe as well as the United States, “Attempts were made to maintain the boundary between masculinity and femininity.” In the United States and Europe many women stepped in opened occupations, media affected women greatly, and even though women were raised in a feminine way they still entered the workforce and volunteered for military service.

Women, or the female human being as defined in the dictionary, have been the discussion for so many ages. They have defended their sexuality, rights and had to fight for their equality with men. In the public view, we see that the image of women in the west differ from the east or that is what have been known for years. The image of women in the west is outgoing, free, and equal to men. While in the east, women as published in media, news, etc is dying of poverty, sexual violence, and being overpowered by men.

The history of women during the 1900’s was a very stereotypical, C N Trueman states in his

As time went by women were stepped on century by century, society didn’t accept them into the world as individuals. Men were seen as the stronger sex and as if they were intelligent, courageous and determined. Women, more governed by their

This ideological representation as brought about inferiority complexity in women which have negatively impacted on their roles in the society. For example, they have been made to be unsure of their abilities, and their self-worth has been reduced. They have less belief in themselves, and they seem to depend on the guide and direction of men in everything. Feminism feels men treated women as inferior ideologically. The ideological impact on women from the narrative is felt in the economic, political and cultural worlds.

Before the 1920’s, women’s attire was considered fairly modern. Women would have worn clothing with more of a silhouette than clothing that was loose and flowy. The length of their dresses never revealed more of their leg than just their ankle. Women received bad reputations when showing their knees or even their calfs. Women in the 1920’s also had a different ideal figure than most women do today. The body types women wanted to achieve also transformed into a more feminine look. This look consisted of low bust lines, higher hems lines, and showing off more curves than ever before. These women became unapologetically fearless.

Filmmakers use traditional gender stereotypes to produce characters audiences can easily identify with by portraying conventional images of a person with identifiable characteristics. In previous years, the dominant representation of a women in film has been the passive, subjugated protagonist. However, through the development of female empowerment and added feminist representations of film, the female heroine transformed to become strong and independent women in her own right, as an individual character.

Society’s Influence Fashion and the film industry are two huge influences on societal expectations that women display their bodies sexually. The sexual revolution liberated women from the Victorian of modesty but also demanded a commitment to diet and beauty.  Doing Gender

The presentation of women on screen is another highlighted issue in many of the gathered sources. Because men were ultimately in control of what went on the screen much of what the audience perceived were women from the male imagination or fantasy. Bernard Beck elaborates in his article Where the Boys Are: The Contender and other Movies about Women in a Man’s World that, “…women have been used to dress up a male story or motivate a male character” (Beck 15). Women were often insignificant and trivial characters. Although, Kathe Davis disagrees to a point. In her article, Davis offers a dissonant opinion to the fore-mentioned insignificance of the female character. She instead describes many female characters as “predators,” and analyzes the roles of lead women in three prominent films of the nineteenth century. In each film, she finds parallels and similarities of cases of “female emasculation” and instances where “women are turned into objects of male desire” (Davis 47-48). Davis does not perceive female characters as being insignificant, just stripped of their power and misrepresented. She discusses how females of power are often portrayed as crazy