Feminism In The Crime Film Genre Essay

Women’s roles in movies have changed dramatically throughout the years. As a result of the changing societal norms, women have experienced more transition in their roles than any other class. During the period of classical Hollywood cinema, both society and the film industry preached that women should be dependent on men and remain in home in order to guarantee stability in the community and the family. Women did not have predominated roles in movies such as being the heroin. The 1940’s film Gilda wasn’t an exception. In Gilda, the female character mainly had two different stereotypes. The female character was first stereotyped as a sex object and the second stereotyped as a scorned woman who has to be punished.

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

The magazine article describes the stark contrast in the portrayal of female sexuality between pre-Code and post-Code movies. Pre-Code movies are flagrantly sexual; although some contemporary film critics believe that women were simply embracing their sexual freedom through these pre-code films, the marketing for many of these brazenly sexual films often included derisive comments from males, suggesting that the intent of overt sexuality in films was more crude. Post-code films often used screenwriting strategies to stay within bounds of the Code. Denby argues that this censorship actually created a net benefit for women, who were given stronger personalities and more interesting plot lines instead of simply being sexual objects. The article suggests that censorship led to the inception of the screwball comedy genre, which was forced to “create sex without sex.”

In conclusion, the film She’s the Man shows the audience how gender gets represented in films. It shows the traditional femininity as well as the traditional masculinity. This illustrates that gender has impacts on power and gender relations to contribute gender inequality. Gender norms are enforced in films which maintain the power inequality difference between both genders. These issues confine the way modern films represent gender and gives a direct effect to the

Among the common peculiarities of film noir, the distinct division between the male characters and the different representations of women reinforce notions of masculinity and gender roles. Furthermore, in the 1940’s film noir was Hollywood’s way to illustrate a world in where pessimism and suspicion dictated people’s lives. Mostly presented as detectives or a lone wolf, the men are portrayed as cold-hearted, disconnected, and cynical to show their hopelessness and disillusionment of the society they lived in. Along this depiction, multiple women are placed into different roles, to either play the seductress and/or a menace to the male protagonist. In the The Maltese Falcon film noir, the male protagonist is characterized as a typical male

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

Despite women taking huge steps towards equality, the entertainment during the 1960’s was still an awful representation. Many of the topics in my 1950’s journals discussed the treatment of women in media during the fifties. I assumed as another decade passed, women would be portrayed more respectfully and accurately in many forms of entertainment. I assumed incorrectly. In a majority of what we analyzed, women were still treated like crap. Haskell Wexler’s film, Medium Cool, follows a news cameraman named John Cassellis. This character makes women look like they are just there for men to walk on and completely disrespect. Not only did he seem to be in a relationship with over 3 women, he was extremely disrespectful to them as well. John

According to John Fiske, “Television as a culture is a crucial part of the social dynamics.” Indeed any television genre is based on apparent similarities, differences and on expectations as well as assumptions shared by the viewers. It is also a cross-cultural translatability as it is understood in a diversity of contexts and markets. According to Graeme Burton (2000), the genre study leads to understanding of audience pleasures and revelation of cultural myths. Also an understanding of finance and marketing within television and finally an understanding of intertextuality and postmodernist forms of television. However audiences are aware of the codes and conventions that distinguish one genre product from the next. Genre has to be what

The Screwball comedy is a film genre that found its way onto the screens in the early 1930s and lasted till the early 1940s. They were a consequence of the newly adapted censorship law in 1934 that restricted addressing adult content on screen. They therefore incorporated more comedic and creative ways of symbolizing topics such as sex and homosexuality. Screwball comedies were mainly based on plots that had conflict between social classes as their many premise and always had a happy ending which was almost always marriage. This consistent maintenance of the status quo of marriage is a major aspect of feminism depicted in screwball comedies (Heather 26). While advocating for marriage, screwball comedies highlighted the shift in the

There is a certain image with women in film. Women were and still highly sexualized and have a certain illusion that is consistent among them. Women often appear as an object to be looked at and acted upon. The male protagonist has a more active role within the narrative. They are seemed to be the more superior character while the women have a much more supporting role. The same is true to the 1940 comedy His Girl Friday and the 1958 thriller Vertigo. In both films, the image of the woman is important, as well as their role in the film.

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The images of women approach is an approach that sanctions us to examine the female characters in a film and determine if they are a positive or negative representation of authentic women. The main focus of the female roles in She’s the Man is an unaccepted female soccer player and gregariously approved debutante. She’s the Man is a modern-day representation of Hollywood film demonstrating the images of women approach through a social aspect.

“ You cannot talk about genre without talking about gender.” Initially, this would appear to be a simplistic statement. On closer analysis, however, one fact becomes evident. It is the representation of gender which informs the genre of the text. Ismay Barwell , in her essay ‘ Feminist perspectives and narrative points of view’ states that “ Every text is gendered since every act of narration…..involves a process of selection….and the nature of that selection implies certain values” ( p.99). She makes the point that “ The desires, attitudes and interests which guide any choices made must be either male or female”( p.98 ). It is within this frame of reference, that the two texts will be analysed.

The final project will compass research from the two varying fields of media study: quantitative and qualitative – the quantitative, which has been analyzed for the purposes of the semester’s first research proposal. For much of the qualitative approach, I will utilize multiple feminist film theories in conjunction with sex research in order to find a theoretical lens for The To Do List as well as identify the lack of studies/work pertaining to female sexuality in media. This study will corporate the ideologies of Laura Mulvey, Kathleen Rowe Karlyn, Mary Ann Doane, and a small range of other research pertaining to feminism and its intersection with sexuality.

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).