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Stereotypical Portrayal Of Gender Roles

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Stereotypical Gender Roles
Gender roles are norms that are expected from men and women. These norms were mainly established after World War II, late 1940s to mid-1950s, when all the men returned from the war and resumed working the jobs they had left in order to join the army and the majority of the women became home care providers, while some started working jobs, such as teachers, secretaries etc…. Today, although this is a different era, people are still fixated on the norms that emerged through the previous eras turning them into stereotypes. A stereotype is a fixated idea about a particular person or a thing. An article by Holly Brewer called the “List of Gender Stereotypes” gives the readers an indication of some of the stereotypes that are still believed to exist and used to describe gender roles today. After such norms arose in the 1950s, multiple filmmakers adapted this idea and conveyed it into their films. One of the biggest portrayal of gender roles was depicted by Alfred Hitchcock in his 1954 film, Rear Window. Although the main plot of the movie revolves around the main character’s, L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies, attempt to solve a murder; the director successfully manages to illustrate the idea of gender roles stereotypes that had emerged during that era through his style of making this film, which is broken down into four categories. Hitchcock uses his editing, mise-en-scene, sound, and cinematographic style to show the stereotypical gender roles in this movie.

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