Discrimination And Sexism In The Movie Hidden Figures

Hidden Figures is a film based on a remarkable true story about three colored women in the 1960s. The movie follows the lives of Dorothy Vaughn, Mary Jackson, and Kathrine Johnson. These women used their intellect at NASA to contribute to the launch of the first American into space. Hidden Figures also represents the contribution of these women to society. They helped put a man in space, yet they didn’t receive the proper appreciation during their time. Hidden Figures helps give those women gratitude for all that they did for NASA and the United States. Even though this film acknowledges their achievements, it recognizes the hardships the women faced while working for NASA as well as the hardships of all other African American women in the workplace. A few of the hardships they faced were sexism, discrimination, and ageism.

The film ‘Hidden Figures’, directed by Theodore Melfi, follows the story of Katherine and Mary, two African American women who work at NASA, but are stopped from achieving their goals because they are ‘coloured’. Melfi uses props, dialogue and music to manipulate the audience to think that racism takes effort to resolve and that we are all human. Melfi does this to influence us to change the way we think and feel about people.

The film Hidden Figures is based on a true story and adapted from the book ‘Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race’ by Margot Lee Shetterly. The movie is centered around a trio of African-American women who worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and played an essential role in sending John Glenn to space amidst a burgeoning Space Race between the United States of America and Russia. Based in Hampton, Virginia in the 1960’s, film depicts the deep racism and sexism prevalent in the United States at that time. The film provides a glimpse of the stark realities that black women faced at the time. From the segregated bathrooms and

Adapted from the book by Margot Lee Shetterly and directed by Theodore Melfi, Hidden Figures is a film based on the true stories of three black women (Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, & Katherine Johnson) working for NASA in 1960’s. Dorothy Vaughan, played by Octavia Spencer in the film, was a programmer and Mary Jackson, played by Janelle Monae in the film, was an engineer. Dorothy passed away in 2008 and Mary in 2005. Katherine Johnson, a mathematician played by Taraji P. Henson, is now 98 years old and still resides with her husband Corporal Jim Johnson in Hampton, Virginia where the film is set. These women collectively played a pivotal role in sending the first American into space and eventually to the moon. A critical analysis of the film reveals the history and dynamics of racial domination institutionally and interpersonally as well as prejudices and challenges faced by women in particular.

Hidden Figures, an extraordinary film that shines light on women existence and their intelligence. The women, Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, Dorothy Vaughan used the power of their intelligence to decipher complex math calculations, computer language to build rockets that other could not see. Throughout the movie racial descrepancies were vividly clear, but these eager women had something to stand for. They dared not let the words of bitterness deter them of their worth.

The 2016 historical / drama film, Hidden Figures directed by Theodore Melfi explores the themes of racism and sexism in America during the 1960’s. These themes expresses Theodore Melfi’s intention of this film is displaying that sexism and racism is hard to abolish. Melfi uses visual and verbal features of dialogue, costume and symbolism to contribute to the director’s intention.

Hidden Figures, directed by Theodore Melfi, is a movie set in the 1960’s which follows the story of three African-American women who face discrimination amongst their society. Furthermore, Twelve Angry Men, set in the 1950’s, written by Reginald Rose, creates an injustice against a poor slum boy who is discriminated and face prejudices due to his low social class. Through these texts were able to see the prejudices society has placed among us and in order to improve this we need to speak up and fight these discriminatory concepts to create change. Both texts are set in a time of segregation and discrimination which causes a regression against the underprivileged, so we need to demolish these prejudices in order to advance and progress as a society. Minorities need to speak up for change as their voices are better suited to help other minorities fight for a change rather than the majority fight for them all the time. For a change to be created we need to be firm and unnerving about the change we want to create, to construct progression, because, to devise change in society we need to create it ourselves and declare the change we want in society.

Hidden Figures is a 2016 film that recounts the story of three incredible black women in NASA history: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. The film largely sheds light on the experiences of these three women working as computers for NASA during 1960s segregated America. Public restrooms are separated between the whites and coloreds, the white male patriarchy dominates the field, and as always, racism is alive and well. During the film, the political unrest of the country is present and very much of conversation, and as these three women navigate their way throughout society with positions no one expects them to hold, they quite literally make history through their groundbreaking work, history

Hidden Figures is a movie that focused on three women and the space race. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson played a main role in helping NASA with the space race. All three of them worked to help for John Glenn’s flight to orbit the earth. The behind the scenes that lead up to Mercury-Atlas 6’s blast off was acknowledged in the movie Hidden Figures. 1961 is when all of the major change that lead to today’s history started to happen inside of NASA.

From the beginning of the movie, the smart mind of Katherine Johnson; she was a real genius that humanity needs. After finishing school, she applied to work for NASA. She could solve the math problems that the white men could not solve. When she first came to work at the Space Task Group, which is calculating the coordinates of takeoff and landing for the spaceship, she got none of the respect from her white colleagues, especially Paul Stafford, but she was not discouraged. She gained the attention of her boss, Mr. Al Harrison. One day, Mr. Harrison couldn’t find her in the office, when she got back to her work, Mr. Harrison was mad at her and ask:” Where has she been?” Then, she replied that she has to walk half miles away from the office, where she was working on the building that has a bathroom for colored peoples. After that, Harrison went to the building that Katherine has to walk half miles every day to go

Katherine Johnson proved to be an intelligent and an intrepid character. She was proud to be negro and was quiet, yet when provoked, she stood up for herself and expressed her thoughts. These attributed were showcased many times throughout the film Hidden Figures. As the main character, she fulfilled that role and had a hard-working mentality. Such as staying behind at work and working overtime. Her extensive knowledge of mathematics proved that dark-skinned women are worthy of going to college and working in a society where all people are treated equally.

Progression in technology comes with progression of education. The movie “Hidden Figures” highlights the opportunities involved when intelligent, courageous women take strides to create the math to send astronauts to the moon. This movie is about three historical African American women who worked as “human computers” at the NASA Research Center in Langley, VA in the early 1960’s. Katherine Johnson (fellow mathematician), Dorothy Vaughn (programmer) and Mary Jackson (engineer), contributed to NASA space program to successfully send John Glenn, the first man to orbit around the earth, Project Mercury and later Apollo II mission. The film is a powerful reminder of the destructive consequences of discrimination. It holds important career lessons about how to manage and excel at work even under challenging circumstances.

The movie Hidden Figures is about 3 African American women who work for NASA during the 1950’s.The three women are Katherine Johnson,Dorothy Vaughn,and Mary Jackson.Katherine Johnson had a hidden talent that most of the people that worked at NASA didn't know she had , she was a master with the numbers.Dorothy was the manager of NASA's segregated West Area Computing Unit and she was also good with the numbers,just not as good as Katherine.Mary Jackson was an American mathematician and aerospace engineer that worked at NASA,along with the other three girls.Many African American women worked for NASA they just don't receive much recognition but these three women seem to have changed the game for everyone.

The men and women in Hidden Figures led very differently. They did not lead differently due to their gender alone; they lead differently based on their positions of power and socializations. According to Wren, “the focus on masculinity and femininity suggests significant innate or ingrained socialized differences between the sexes. Research does show some differences between males and females; however, there are far fewer differences than is commonly believed.” This movie takes place in a time when there was an even greater disparity between men and women and between white people and black people. Just because someone is not in power does not mean they cannot be a leader. That is what the women in Hidden Figures displayed. They lead through action and inspiration rather than power. Some of the white men that are in power in Hidden Figures are not great leaders despite the fact that they are in power. Gender definitely effected power in our society in the 60’s and still does today. It is important and necessary to examine how this gendered power effects leadership so we can learn to be better leaders no matter how much power we are in.

Katherine G. Johnson, the main character in Hidden Figures, looked beyond through working long hard hours and easily tackling problems due to the color of her skin. Despite these obstacles, this woman strikes the viewers by constantly enjoying every second of her journey and remaining respectful to those who don’t return it. Johnson’s powerful dialogue discloses the confidence within herself and how content she is with her actions. Katherine Johnson knew who she was clearly stated in her line,” I don’t have a feeling of inferiority. Never had.