The Fundamental Representation Of Women

The sexualisation of women in advertising has become a very prominent and controversial issue in today’s society. Many brands, products and campaigns we are presented with portray women as being available and willing sexual objects, who exist to cater to the male gender. Gucci is one such brand that does this, focusing on emphasizing the sexual appeal of the female gender in order to sell their products, because as advertisers know: ‘sex sells.’ This new cultural shift can however, be seen as politically regressive for women, as the ideology it brings negatively impacts how women are viewed by society and how they view themselves.

The purpose of this critique is to analyse the influence that gender has on the characters and the storyline of James Bond’s Skyfall (SOURCE). To understand the influence, a constructivist perspective on gender will be incorporated. The constructivist theory explains gender to be learnt patterns of behaviour which are influenced by cultural norms (SOURCE). As a result, the critique will examine how the depictions of gender and crime in Skyfall incorporates the western attitude towards gender roles and violence, as well as making reference to the relationship between gender and power.

Throughout history women have been depicted and treated as an inferior to the male all aspects of life. It is without debate, that to this day, like many other countries, the United States of America is a patriarchal society, valuing men over women and using various tactics to oppress women by constructing gender roles. These gender roles are thrust upon people before birth and are reinforced through society within the media. This object here is to provide an overview of the portrayal of women in magazines from the late 1800’s to present day. As the years progress, so do the number of women’s rights. While women are still fighting for equality, the birth of feminism has done much to close the gender gap. Mass media, magazines in particular, facilitated in fostering a stereotype which became the standard, and continues to be, used by society. A society that continues to oppress and suppress its women. However, as the mass media has the capability to demystify, or to bring down and/or destroy a particular group or person, they also have the ability of mystification, or emulating a person or group into society’s graces. I plan to review how women were portrayed since this country’s inception with an analysis of how gender equality might be possible today.

Women have their own rights and the power to do everything as men do. They earn incomes to show it off with their appearances. For example, the grandmother lives a life of a lady like Bailey, who lives in freedom, but with her selfishness, she brings up the deaths at the end. Even though she tries to encourage and convince the Misfit not to kill her since he has a good heart and is a good man, “You’ve got good blood! I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady!

The constant portrayal of women as an assistant or helper in prominent is the popular James Bond films. The main goal for “bond girls” as they are called is to “distract, tempt, or assist,” Bond in whatever his mission may be. It is important to note that there had been Bond

Women often have a stereotypical role in our society. Whether it is today or back in the 1800’s. Women are to cook, clean and take care of the children at home. The fact is, women can do more than that. They deserve more respect than what they get. Sex nor race does not define who someone is. It is what is on the inside that defines what they are capable of.

Have you ever wondered what the lifestyles of Nineteenth Century women were like? Were they independent, career women or were they typical housewives that cooked, clean, watched the children, and catered to their husbands. Did the women of this era express themselves freely or did they just do what society expected of them? Kate Chopin was a female author who wrote several stories and two novels about women. One of her renowned works of art is The Awakening. This novel created great controversy and received negative criticism from literary critics due to Chopin's portrayal of women by Edna throughout the book.

To begin with, Maggie Greenwald’s Josephine Monaghan is the classical oppressed woman in western films. She is kicked out by her own family for having an illegitimate child with her family’s photographer and labelled a ‘whore’ by her own father. This reflects the traditional gender roles assigned to females since birth. After the attempt of prostitution by strangers in which she miraculously escapes from, Josephine’s goal is to simply survive. The decision Josephine makes after the series of unfortunate gender-based experiences reinforces the idea that even for a manly woman, Hollywood’s classical representation of women is still relevant.

In the film, Bond is confronted with a high stakes game of poker in which he single handedly beats his opponent, winning a car in the process. He then proceeds to sleep with his adversaries’ wife and then, in a very gentlemanly style, leaves her, before she is eventually slaughtered for the act. Casino Royale gives males a brief look at what Hollywood believes the effects of accepting a women in your life as more than an accessory would be like, and promotes the idea that women are only distractions from the man’s rise to power and

The gender representation in the James Bond franchise are displayed quite differently throughout time. The 1964 Goldfinger, written by Ian Fleming, portrayed women as sexual objects that were there for one plain and simple reason: amusement. Whereas in the modern 2015 Spectre film, directed by Sam Mendes, women are presented with a lot more empowerment and strength, which was absent within the 1964 film. Women in Goldfinger were objects that were used for Bond’s entertainment. On the other hand, women in Spectre were different, and they became strong characters who had a clear purpose in the film.

Women are seen powerless in many instances and Marilyn Frye details the accounts where women are viewed as second to men in “To see and Be Seen.” Frye uses a metaphysics approach to better understand how people come to power. She gives a metaphysical understanding of how the world has been determined by people of power, which throughout history has been men. Men have been in authority throughout history and have come up with society’s conceptual schema. Frye alludes to people in power don’t want to see people who are submissive. Men fit into the conceptual schema, women are excluded but are allowed in the schema in certain ways and lesbians are not included. Lesbians are seen as unnatural and are not recognized in the schema. Their perspective on society is not taken into account, whereas women are recognized but their own perspective on society is completely erased.

I chose to explain my overall theme of women as a representation of a gender for reasons connected close to me. I am a female firefighter. Although I have not faced discrimination, harassment or pre judgment, there are tons of stories of women who have. The Fire Department is just one of the numerous jobs that have a male dominated work force. Any employee should be treated as a professional. Women do not need to be subject to boorish, egregious, sexist, and discriminatory behavior by coworkers. Yes, we can joke around and have fun, but the line is drawn when the target of your “jokes” says to stop, you need to stop. Remember, we all have mothers and some of us have daughters and you would not want your family treated in this fashion.

Idealized as the symbolic figure for obedience and domesticity, the power of society’s gender expectations has dictated a woman’s identity. A dominate belief held throughout American history, these traditional femininity norms were and still are reinforced by immigrant communities today. Nonetheless, what often goes unacknowledged are the stories of those female immigrant youths, Pachuca’s or female gang members, who have rejected societies beliefs to construct new identities centered around hyper-masculine subcultures. Alienated and labeled as hypersexualized or masculine, both Catherine Ramirez’s novel The Women In The Zoot Suit and T.W. Wards ethnographic study “Gangsters Without Borders” explores the erasure and double standards present for young immigrant women in a matriarchal world (2009, 2013). Moreover, the authors highlight how immigrant female youth’s identities are used as a form of oppression in both the public and private spheres. Whether women conform to being obedient housewives or decide to break gender and racial boundaries, the Pachuca’s and female gangsters consciously chose to make a critique of American gender expectations.

The challenges and struggles that females consistently endured in the nineteen century has progressively gotten better in the early twentieth century, as was described in the story. This story is about “The Portrayal of the Female Consciousness,” relating To Room Nineteen, by Doris Lessing, from the book of Women and Fiction, edited by Susan Cahill. The story has covered the difficulties in the Rawlings’s marriage based on intelligence, the responsibility of children, and the female emotional stability. In fact, the story tells how this female has the desire to raise her children in a strong and intelligent married life.

Imagine a world of endless wonder, where historical artifacts actually contain powers beyond our control. If something like this were to occur who would you picture protecting said artifacts? Most people would say men because in our society men are deemed the protectors and leaders. In SyFy’s Warehouse 13, there are powerful artifacts but in season one out “of the six principle characters, four of them are women, including the boss” (Atchley, 2014, para. 4). In the show “masculine attributes are given to women and feminine qualities are given to men” (Atchley, 2014, para. 4). Overall the characters are treated as just people. Gender is more often than not thrown aside unless it is something that only that specific gender goes through, such as ovarian cancer. In fact, “all of the women are presented as intelligent, strong and more capable than their male counterparts” and the same goes for Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer (McMillian, 2010, para. 6).” Which is why the females in Warehouse 13 are not only great feminist characters but also highly influenced by Buffy. Because of this, in this paper I will discuss why these female characters in Warehouse 13 are feminist along with the similarities between them and the characters in Buffy followed by a discussion on why Warehouse 13 is important to science fiction programing. This essay draws from Stephanie Genz’s Singled Out (2010), A. Susan Owen’s Vampires, Postmodernity, and Postfeminism (2010) and Sharon Ross’s