Misrepresentation In Film

“Miss Representation” is a film released in January 2011, which shows the various ways the media represent women. In the short trailer it starts by showing quotes, various statistics, and input of various influential women, on how women are misrepresented in our society. Some statistics include on how women are vastly outnumbered by men in leading positions in the workplace and in government. It also claims that the media only uses women’s sexualized image for money, not because it is what consumers want to see in advertisements. For example, in a video explaining oversexualizing in young children Geena Davis comments, “…in G-rated animated films the female characters wear the same amount of sexually revealing

Consequently, in film, women do not describe the world from their point of view. Instead, women learn to “submerge or renounce” their subjectivity; they find their own identity in the desires of the men to which they are attached (654). Therefore, Devereaux concludes, the issue is not whether it is a male or female who is doing the looking. Rather, the question is whether a patriarchal way of seeing the world triumphs regardless of who is behind the camera. In this sense, the discussion of the “literal” gaze becomes a discussion of the figurative gaze (654).

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

The issue of female representation in Hollywood is one of the biggest issues in the film industry. Sexism, discrimination, and a lack of jobs for female filmmakers has been a problem in Hollywood since its early days, and recently this problem has been analyzed using many different genres. The Women of Hollywood Speak Out is an editorial written by Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. It is about difficulty for female filmmakers to break out and direct big budget films for Hollywood. Celluloid Ceilings: Women Directors Speak Out is a video created by Bloomberg about the issues with sexism and discrimination that female filmmakers have faced. These two pieces will be compared to discover how this topic can be discussed using different genres

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

In the contemporary context, when one tries to analyze the idea about women from previous decades being an audience and not the crew of a film industry, one wants to question and ask: why were women only an audience or, actors? Maybe there were some culturally held values and beliefs with respect to their contexts? However, with the passage of time, cultural and professional values improved. Technology began to improve and so did the mind-set of professional groups along with the audiences. Film industry has had an impression of providing first entertainment and, second education. Hence those working for the films might have had hurdles in choosing working for films as their career or vocation. At different times in the history, women in different cultural contexts have worked for certain film industries. I want to explore the idea about women and their talent in the film industry. Since I am primarily a viewer of the Bollywood industry and an occasional viewer of the Hollywood cinema, I want to compare the cultural and professional values of those who work for films in different settings. Since the course readings provided information with respect to certain cinema contexts, I wanted to add some ideas providing a comparative analysis of the women talent in diverse film settings.

This is the thesis set out by "Miss Representation", a documentary directed and produced by actress, activist and documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The documentary gives a good perspective on why the representation of women in the media is so important in our society. The message the film gets across to viewers is that the way women are often portrayed is damaging- to media consumers of all genders and ages. The way the media treats women is the cause of soaring numbers of women who develop eating disorders, the sexualisation of, and violence against women.

Afro-American woman are one of the most under represented groups in Hollywood films. They face double underrepresentation not only on screen but also behind the camera and it is because they are woman and black. Since the very beginning, Hollywood film industry has been dominated by white male producers, writers, directors and executives (Smith, 780; Covington, 21) that empower their own race and gender hierarchies. The Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA carried out a study of the top 200 Hollywood films in 2013 and found that leading characters are 74.7% male and 25.3% female and according to race, 83.3% are white in contrast to 16.7%, which consists the minorities. Behind the camera, regarding the gender of directors,

Today’s filmmakers have three areas to focus on: the event or theme of the film, the audience who will be watching the film, and lastly, the individual characters and the roles they play and how they are portrayed and interpreted. Many of these films bottom line objectives are to focus on the “erotic needs of the male ego.” The focus on fetishistic scopophilia tend to slant the view such that we see the world as being dominated by men and that woman are

Miss Representation, directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom and Kimberlee Acquaro, is a documentary that discussed the misrepresentation of women in America. The film has gathered a whole cast of empowered women from the media including Katie Couric, Gloria Steinem, Margaret Cho and many more female journalists, authors, directors and actors. The purpose of Miss Representation is to expose the unfair depiction of women and hopefully make a change in the way we look at the media. The film shows stories of both famous and non famous women and how the misrepresentation of women in the media has affected their lives.

Throughout the years, the film industry has developed in numerous ways. Now the real question to be discussed is does the film industry provides enough positive gender representation? The answer cannot be answered by a simple yes or no because the film industry is developing and changing yearly. However, movies created before the 1970’s are known to show less gender equality and feminism than movies created after the 1970's (CITATION). Gender equality and feminism are closely related considering they both advocate equality between both sexes.

Since the 1940’s, movies have predominately portrayed women as sex symbols. Beginning in the 1940’s and continuing though the 1980’s, women did not have major roles in movies. When they did have a leading role the women was either pretreated as unintelligent and beautiful, or as conniving and beautiful: But she was always beautiful. Before the 1990’s, men alone, wrote and directed all the movies, and the movies were written for men. In comparison, movies of the 90’s are not only written and directed by women, but leading roles are also held by older and unattractive women. In this paper I will show the variations and growth of women’s roles in movies from the 1940’s though the 1990’s.

Studies regarding gender roles in media show that the feminine essence tends to be depicted as inferior, with women often being marginalized, disempowered and humiliated through a status that is based on their youth and looks; whilst men tend to be portrayed as superior with higher and longer lasting careers

In society, women are often perceived as the weaker sex, both physically and mentally. In modern times women have leveled the playing field between men and women, and feminism is a highly discussed topic, but for years, women faced discrimination and prejudice both in life and in the workplace, due to their sex. This way of thinking flooded into the world of film. In their works, the authors of each of the various sources address the limitations and liberations of women both on and off the screen in nineteenth century Film and Cinema. Not every source is completely filled with information related to the research topic, but they do cover and analyze many of the same points from different perspectives. Prominent points addressed in each