300 - a Gender Analysis Essay

"Gender equality is achieved when women and men enjoy the same rights and opportunities across all sectors of society, including participation and decision-making." Gender equality has been an issue for decades, from not being allowed to vote to being paid less than a male even though they're doing the same job. In the film industry, it is noticeable that men dominate in being the lead protagonist, with only 22% of women being lead roles. There have also been cases of men and women both being lead parts however there have been some instances where the male appears to be paid more than his female counterpart. Asides from that, there is lack of females who actually direct or produce a blockbuster themselves, with studies showing that 19% of those behind the scenes are female. Even if a female is playing the lead role, there tends to be some traits which are stereotypical, such as them being emotional and incapable to be tough or think rationally in difficult situations. In relation to these stereotypes, there are also examples of the way women are exploited in films and often made out to look like an object, and the way they are portrayed in films.

Medea attempts to gain control over her fate and although her actions may not be socially acceptable, she surely proves to be a hero. In the Greek society, women had power through their husbands or another manly figure. When Medea feels helpless before a disloyal husband and a tyrant king, she decides to turn to her abilities and take control of her fate. Her violent resistance symbolizes the struggles of women in the male-dominated Greek society. During that time women were discriminated against because of their intellect. However, Medea does nothing to eliminate such discriminations and she instead adds to it when she commits

Moving onto gender roles and ideas, these characteristics in genders are needed in any sort of story to suit the values and attitudes of the people of that time. Gender stereotypes are a major piece to the puzzle of a film. Women are generally seen as less dominant, pushovers, the cares of everyone and that they have no independence. Whist men are seen as the more dominant, masculine, heroes, brave and courageous. This is across all genres of movies, the girl is the damsel in distress and the boy ends up saving her at the end of it.

Women are also presented very effectively throughout the film, specifically the character of Queen Gorgo, Leonidas wife. Early on in the film Queen Gorgo is insulted by a persian messenger for offering advice on a political matter, he believes she is ignorant and should not be able to voice her opinion just because she is a woman. The free speech expressed by Queen Gorgo accurately represents the role of women in spartan society, they were encouraged to speak their minds and be themselves as well as participate with men in things such as sport and

The female gender is viewed as docile and inferior compared to the male gender in the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, thus the main suspect within the play is portrayed as person who is unlikely to be convicted of murder without sufficient evidence but is also not given the opportunity to explain her story. Mrs. Wright a woman found inside the house with her murdered husband is immediately suspected of murdering her husband as her story is unlikely to be true as it is very improbable that she has stayed asleep while someone murdered her husband. However, the reader only hears Mrs. Wright’s alibi and story through Mr. Hale, a man who more than once throughout the play has been misogynistic toward his wife and Mrs Peters by repeatedly laughing

Stereotypical Roles of Women in Films Films reflect and reinforce the dominant ideology of how life should be, and this applies to how women are shown in films. Although half of the population is female, they are underrepresented in films. Most leads are men. Along with this issue of underrepresentation is how the women are shown, cast stereotypically in traditional roles. Some of the most common stereotypes women play are materialistic, desperate, catty, unintelligent, weak, broken, and so forth.

Coming in to this class I didn’t know half the things I know now about gender studies and social justice for women. I knew the basic topic in gender studies but couldn’t go into depth if asked. Taking this allowed me to gain an insight on different topics that go on in the world dealing with women’s and men’s social justice rights. I was able to learn how women lack equal rights. This course taught me to think historically on issues surrounding women and equal rights. Since I am a female, I can think historically and put myself in other women shoes and attempt gain the perspective of what women faced in the early 1900’s to the late 2000’s.

Film has always been a part of society since it’s popularity in 1920s. The influence and effect it can have on people through the roles men and women played on film is ever growing as the roles evolve into several categories for both genders through time. But many filmmakers take advantage of that notion by portraying images of some of the stereotypes that have been posted on women and men to present to audiences so that they can recognise and relate to it. Throughout film history, women and men have mostly been type casted to a societal role. This applies more accurately to women than men, as men have the ability and luxury to be portrayed as a dominant force in the film such as a hero or a villain, all whereas women were mostly given the

Movies played a critical role in how men and woman viewed their social roles. Society is a woven fabric which is driven by roles and classes. The balance needed to advert chaos and anarchy is very finite. How genders behave and interact within society paves the very basic fundamental stepping stones we live by. Woman were typically stereotyped as being homebound and domesticated. Even though this time frame in our history is well known for being the instrumental time of woman’s rights. Men on the other hand were expected to be the bread winners and carried the burden of upholding the financial end of the domesticated life. Men saw themselves as the superior gender and were motivated by dominance and masculine pride. These gender specific roles were well defined and reinforced in the media through films which demonstrated socially expected roles. The use of charismatic actors such as Humphry Bogart and Claudette Colbert emphasized these gender relations. The entertainment industry carried

The gap between men and woman have always been around, and it is also implied to the very thing we all love, film. I have come find that it all has to deal with stereotypes, on and off screen. A woman's role in the early years of film was such of script supervisors, and as little as producers. They’re greater impact were in makeup, wardrobe, and set

For this assignment, an analysis of a clip from the popular movie The Ugly Truth will take place. I held the notion of this clip as fascinating. I have viewed this film before and overlooked the gender inequality but when reviewed again it was extremely apparent. In this clip Gerald Butler administered four rules to Katherine Heigel to follow. These four rules are what he believes all women need to follow in order to get a man.

The cinema conveys representations of race, gender, and class that indicate the development and cultural ideologies of society. Motion pictures illustrate and are depicted from real life settings, and it is for this reason that the cinema plays a vital role in shaping and sustaining cultural normalcies. Socialization of gender and identity are mirrored through sexist media depictions that convey the relative positions of women and men in modern western democracies. There are substantial quantities of motion pictures that ascribe traditional gender roles to both men and women that continue to perpetuate social constructs of inequality. Contemporary media places men and women in defined categories, and

In my original personal gender theory paper, I discussed how differences between genders are not innate. Instead, it is society that creates differences between men and women. Society tells people what they can and cannot do, based solely on their gender. This leads to boys and girls behaving in different ways. My current personal gender theory is the same, but with more evidence to back up my beliefs. I mentioned how men tend to stick more to stereotypical gender roles that revolve around acting tough and masculine. While girls are more likely than boys to stray away from stereotypical feminine stereotypes. When women stray away from being stereotypically feminine, then they are not treated as well. Lorber (1993), mentions how once women demonstrate their physical strength, they are no longer feminine. Tennis player Serena Williams is constantly called manly because of her muscular physique. From what I have seen on social media, multiple men have called her body type undesirable and how

Moreover, let’s take the correlation women and prostitution in a gendered socialization point of view. On one hand, prostitution can be directed in multiple ways such as by not legalizing prostitution is a violation of human rights. Therefore, it is logical to undertake that prostitution should be accepted and legalize do to the fact that everyone has their own rights to establish and practice whatever they desire. The problem here is how do we know if these so-called prostitutes are free exercising rather than being subjected to prostitute themselves and they happen to be women? According to the European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context, (2011), it argues that from a prohibitionist point of view, prostitution is conceived in

Male dominance in Hollywood cinema was still very clear in films, but at the same time, many films with women in the lead roles started to emerge most noticeably in the 20th century. These roles were of real lead characters who represented real women. With contemporary films like Twilight, Hunger Games, Gone Girl, Maleficent and Divergent, it’s evident that female protagonist films are successful in today’s era. Box Office Mojo compared the box office gross from top 25 films from 2006 to 2015, showed that films with women in casting grossed $126.1 million and films with men in casting grossed $80.6 million. However, this does not necessarily mean that the roles of women are of protagonists: In 2014, only 12 percent of leading roles were female