Movie Gender Roles

In the world of film, there is usually a stereotypical role for each gender. For example, the man is usually portrayed as the hero and the woman is in some sort of distress and needs to be saved. Women in movies are generally shown as weak and needing a man to survive. For example, in the Disney movie “Cinderella”, Cinderella lives a horrible and unhappy life until she meets Prince Charming. When Prince Charming rescues Cinderella, they fall in love, she becomes happy, and they live happily ever after. There are a few movies out there, though, which show the opposite. Both “She Done Him Wrong” and “Scarlet Street” are films that portray the main female characters, Lady Lou and Kitty March, as strong and independent women, both acting how

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.

When thinking about black actresses in the 1930s through 1950s, a few names may come to mind like Nina McKinney, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, and Hattie McDaniel. However, many other black actresses have graced the big screen including Suzette Harbin, Theresa Hams, Ethel Moses, Mae Turner, and Hilda Simms just to name a few. Many of these talented actresses differ in their career paths, but they all endured some form of racism and sexism which made it laborious for them to thrive in their careers. By the Way, Meet Vera Stark represents the hardships of black actresses during the 1930s through 1950s. The protagonist, Vera Stark, persistently tries to prove to the people around her that she has star quality for show business. However, she does not reach her potential because of her race. Although she obtains some gigs, the gigs demean black women during that time. The offensive parts for black actresses vary from mammy to slave woman to seductress. The following roles offered black actresses’ opportunities to one day acquire star making roles. Unfortunately, those roles did not apply to black actresses. Only white actors and actresses experienced that fortuity. By the Way, Meet Vera Stark exposes Hollywood’s misconduct of black actresses and further explains the lack of black representation today. Indeed, roles for black actresses have increased since the 1930s through 1950s; however the roles have become more stereotypical like the obnoxious black woman, the token black

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

The film industry has created the conventional gender roles of society into their movies; A majority of films have supported some of the male and female stereotypes. In the history of the film industry, the role of men is primarilythat of the stereotypical working class man or hero, while the roles of women are primarily portrayed as being somewhat inferior to men. In the 1930s through the 1970s, men held the leading roles in films while women played smaller roles. Men were typically employed, successful gentlemen, while the woman’s only job was a housewife. The film industry was mostly dominated by men. In terms of jobs, women were given mostly family roles and rarely were shown outside of their homes, while men had

Third, it challenges people to examine White women’s role in privilege, race, and complacency in America. It was a heavy scene that challenged stereotypes and ideologies.

From silent short films of the 19th century to full length films of the 1920s, women have played important central roles over time. Women have transitioned from submissive conservative roles to liberal something. A big part of this is due to the view of women changing in history.

Women have a small place in the film industry. Well, let me clarify, a VERY small place in the industry. The biggest role they have is in producing, which is getting a script, director, and team (this is the job for the people with enough money to sponsor a big part of the creation). It has little to do in the actual creation of the movie. They make up only twenty-five percent in film. That means that men, make up seventy-five percent, but that’s only the beginning. five men work in the industry for every one woman, and women only make up fifteen percent of all the writing done for movies. Even worse, for the job of directing, women make up a miniscule nine percent in comparison to the ninety-one that men take up, but one more thing. Cinematographers, the people that film the movie and make it immersive for us, is the worst place for women. They make, only two percent in the entire industry, meaning that the rest is made up of men. this stereotype of men being better than women at their jobs, whether it be directing, editing, filming is based on no true information but rather a stigma of women in the workplace. The public is less able to recognize this discrimination because they're exposed to it every day. But to have such discrimination even in the background and off-stage, without the attention of the public eye, is disgusting and an insult to

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

According to an article called, “How Horror Films Are Bringing More Gender Equality to Hollywood” it states that, “University of Southern California communications professor Stacy Smith, who researches depictions of gender and race in film and TV, found that of the 5,839 characters in the 129 top-grossing films released between 2006 and 2011, fewer than 30 percent were girls or women.” This explains that males still have a dominating place in movie character roles in this generation. In general male figures in the movie industry could be seen as the more ruling characters as they are more

By looking at the data we can clearly see that the stereotypical “women” jobs are filled by actresses and the “men” jobs are filled by actors. Directors don’t have to cast the actors and actresses this way but by not doing it this way they would be going against the norms of society. What’s shocking is that the movies are

This proverbial mold of what a woman is, usually determined by her status as being motherly and staying involved in their children’s lives. The societal norm is often represented by someone who goes to every PTA meeting, every soccer game, and cooks every meal. Hollywood often provides society with the golden standard of what a mother should be like. The movie industry further promulgates this typical mold by typically portraying women in parts similar to these not only their parts but also the genre of movies women normally participate in. According to the Hollywood Reporter in an article about how “Movies in 2016 Featured a record Number of Women Protagonists”. In this article, it even went into to the cold hard facts where female actors are more likely to appear as protagonists specifically the genre of movies. According to their statistics, women would be most likely to land a leading role in a Comedy with the highest percentage of female protagonists in this genre at twenty-eight percent. In an unsurprising turn of events, the genre of films with the lowest percentage of female protagonists was the actions film industry with a reported three percent. Often times characters in action movies need to be portrayed as though they are serious and strong. If this is the case the implications of not portraying women in a more serious genre like action movies. This exemplifies that society and particularly writers and producers of Hollywood have trouble viewing women in strong leading

Additionally, there have been numerous articles surfacing regarding racism and sexism within the film industry. Many individuals have come forward stating that they are treated differently because of their background and gender. With this in mind, films have begun to drastically improve the equality behind their products and bring to light the controversies happening around the world; this can be seen through movies like Moonlight (Petit, 2017).

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.

Although, I do not agree with this. I feel that there are many films today in which women play the biggest roles and are the main character. For example, Julia Roberts plays a huge role in all of her movies, being a very strong, independent women. Many people may agree that all 'chick-flicks' are women film based as well. Not only 'chick-flicks' have women that play important roles though. Angelina Jolie plays in plenty action packed, adrenaline rushing movies. For examples; Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Tomb-Raider, Wanted, and Changeling are all movies Jolie has played major roles in and been successful. She represents a very strong and independent women in each role she plays in all her movies, showing that she doesn't need a man to accompany her in her films to make them better.