Female Empowerment In Buffy The Vampire Slayer

In the excerpt from “In Another Country”, Ernest Hemingway skillfully pulls the reader’s mind into the world of fall in Milan. Hemingway offers many rhetorical devices to his audiences, adapting each one’s mind too one of an Italian in this time and season. The author presents devices such as imagery, diction, and pathos.

In Hollywood film women 's roles have varied quiet considerably between genres, geographical placement, and period settings. These factors contribute to the different representations of women 's roles in the film they are present in. The roles are diverse going from the traditional maternal role to that of manipulative murderer. Women 's roles in movies can be almost equal to the male roles, and the co-stars are not given the majority of the acclaims just because they are male. Society has set certain standards that women are supposed to follow. The most common image of women is that they are very passive and try to avoid conflict in any situation. More and more in society women are breaking down the social barriers that confine them to their specific roles. The films Rear Window and Resident Evil show women in roles that are untraditional for our society. These two movies help to show how women are rebelling against social norms and that they are taking more active and aggressive roles. In film noir’s we can see women represented as the femme fatale, a woman whose mysterious and seductive charms leads men into compromising or dangerous situations. In action movies we see the heroine who is strong both physically and mentally, and has the ability to use weapons. Women seem to be more trapped than men because they are supposed to live up to society’s standards dealing with beauty and size, which are more physical characteristics. These specific guidelines have been set by

In the long legacy of DC comics there are two female archetypes who couldn 't be more different: one is a paragon of virtue and one is a psychopath. One has an abusive relationship with an insane criminal that defines her identity; the other encourages women and girls to fight for their independence. One has decades of historical canon and an inception full of purpose; the other was meant to be a one-off and a short amusement in a kids ' cartoon, but exploded into a phenomenon. Despite their many differences, they are both beloved the world over. They hold constant interest for fans over the years and, for many women, both mark milestones of feminism. To understand this phenomenon more we will take a closer look at the characters of

The most basic definition of propaganda is information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc (Propaganda).Anything that falls under misleading or biased falls into this category as well, including promotions that one doesn’t view as deceitful. Propaganda in United States’ history dates back as early as the Revolutionary War, but most Americans would argue that propaganda is of the past. Propaganda is alive and well, living in campaign platforms, advertisements, and news channels, attempting to contort their audience’s thoughts to mimic their own.

“It’s taken the fantasy genre decades to grow out of its image as a juvenile boys’ club obsessed with cleavage and crossbows” (Griner). Though science fiction has attempted to break the gender stereotypes against female characters, the genre still has a long way to go. Currently, the majority of female characters are still portrayed as over-sexualized, and dependent on male characters. When women are shown in heroic female roles, they are still belittled for not being a man. Seiter claims that “Many of the more stereotyped features of the portrayal of women…are also accurate reflections of the sexist reality of our society” (21). It is unfortunate that this claim is accurate, but it is. Science fiction is a fictional genre, providing an opportunity to break all stereotypes and create a world from scratch. But gender stereotypes have been ingrained into the world, making them difficult to break when producing fictional stories. Sexism has created a gender bias in science fiction that needs to be changed.

From Mina being completely independent to Lucy conclusively disregarding the ethical and social standards set for women, the females in the novel exemplify strong, impregnable figures that directly oppose the traditional, weak woman. In addition, the female vampire and her vast abilities demonstrate the potential that women can have if they attain the level of being the New Woman. By switching the gender roles in the novel of Mina and Jonathan, Stoker was able to exhibit that the female can be just as capable and accomplished as a man. Finally, Stoker constitutes that the females character be disparaged and devalued in order to show how crucial the transformation of women into a fierce figure is. All in all, this novel truly manifest the capability of the female. This is summed up beautifully by Gloria Khader when she states, “Women are always saying, 'We can do anything that men can do.' But Men should be saying, 'We can do anything that women can do” (Khader

Great pieces of architecture like The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy are important to Byzantine and Islamic Art. Both structures were not just places of worship, but showed the power of the men behind them and the growth of the culture at this time. San Vitale which was constructed under the Bishop Ecclesius around 540 to 548 A.D. and was erected to show the power and achievements of Emperor Justinian. The banker Julius Argenteus provided the funds for San Vitale, and it was dedicated to Bishop Maximian. The Dome of the Rock was built in Jerusalem by Caliph Abd al-Malik “to mark the triumph of Islam in Jerusalem on a site sacred to Muslims, Christians, and Jews”(Gardner and Kleiner B: 285). It is

Horror movies throughout history have been known to have their cheesy storylines or continuous bad acting. Especially horror movies. People nowadays could easily spot the flaws in a film and judge them drastically in reviews. Yet, little do people notice the ongoing discrimination between genders. Horror films tend to portray males and females substantially differently because of stereotypical views. There seems to be a pattern in which each gender takes a certain role in a movie continuously. Females are shown to be “objects” such as sex and emotional symbols, while males are shown as strong or powerful and moreover as the main bad guy. Although some of the newer edition films of the horror genre are displaying each gender more and more equal throughout the ongoing years, the gender discrimination dilemma still exists and can be seen by the statistics in the movie industry in general.

Joss Whedon is a writer of many successful TV shows. One of the reasons that his shows have gained so much attention is because he likes to use them to present his views on controversial topics. Joss does this by switching gender roles and using powerful symbols. You can see this in both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse. You can see this in both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse. He does this in order to change societies views on woman in society. To prove this I will give a few powerful examples from each show that makes it perfectly clear how Joss feels on the matter. Also, I want to talk a little about some of the speeches Joss has made on television where he talks about his work and why he does it.

Feminism and Patriarchy Feminism and Patriarchy are two opposite topics; feminism giving the power to a female and patriarchy giving the power to a male. While one can affect the other, both concepts show up in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight. Buffy, the vampire slayer, has superior strength over her vampire boyfriend and all other vampires too. Whereas in Twilight, Edward is seen as the controlling and powerful figure in his relationship with Bella displaying a form of patriarchy. Bella is the typical "girl in love" who alloys her boyfriend take control over her and cannot protect herself.

Since the inventions of television and film, media influences have become extremely important in modern society with people constantly being inundated by images and messages that come from film, television, magazines, internet and advertising. Researchers and theorists such as Carol J. Clover and Jean Kilborne believe that the fact that people are going to be affected by the media is absolutely unavoidable. Films can act as guides to how people, particularly women, should act and look. Women in horror are typically shown as the ‘damsel in distress’ and are usually attacked by the killer after committing a sinful act like having sex or misusing drugs or alcohol. The females are

Frequently, most superheroes in cinema are portrayed by male characters rather than women, creating a distinction between gender roles. Indeed, through the passage, “These results may suggest to viewers that women are less important, knowledgeable, and capable than men – and less likely to be a hero” (Miller et. al) women are much less likely to be featured as the hero within the film, and more likely to be featured as the “damsel in distress” of the story. Furthermore, women are much more likely to be depicted in a sexualized fashion, even when displayed in the role of hero. This feature of women with a lack of dominance defies feminism, as they lack roles in superhero films and they are portrayed with the sole purpose of boasting

Throughout the world women are depicted to be oversexualized among forms of media such as video games and comic books. The idea of oversexualization towards female characters is that they have been often drawn and animated in hypersexual ways. Even going as far as viewing them as a sex object, their revealing body images are eye candy through the eyes of men. Hence women found in comic books and video games are frequently emphasized by their excessive physical appearances, objectification, portrayal, and character role.

Books, plays, and movies that depict culture and social life often make statements about social issues such as gender roles, racism, and class distinction. Stories set up a context in which characters relate, often representing “stock” characters chosen from society and placed in situations where their stereotypical behaviors—and sometimes their breaking of these stereotypes—are highlighted. As feminism became a popular movement in Western countries in general and the United States in particular, female voices were naturally heard through fictional characters. Social and political issues commonly fuel entertainment; feminism, racism, and classism—recurring themes in entertainment through the 20th Century and into the modern day—have

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