Gender Representation in Film

G revokeer Representation in pictorial matterGender is a signifi mountaint reflection in develop custodyt. Through it we stinker analyze how tender norms and office staff structures turn on the lives and opportunities accessible to diverse groups of men and women. Gender analysis explores the way power is distri buted between women and men, how it function, who uses it and for what reasons.In descent to men, women control less both economical and political resources, such as property, employment and traditional positions of authority. This uneven distribution of sexuality relation of power is also represented in the media.Media, as a framework for explanation and a message in the contemporary society, can have an urgent role in promoting or even obstructing gender equality, both at bottom the working environment and in the representation of women and men. Women and men be oftentimes stereotyped and depicted unevenly by the media. Women and girls ar positioned in disad vantaged situations, for instance in passive and grovelling roles whereas men and boys are visualized to be more possessive in their occupations and more probable to thrive. consort to Ferguson, the studyity of fe mannish characters in the mass media holds and uses private power as wives, brings, partners (Ferguson, 1990). Accordingly, traditional gender roles and power relations have been profoundly internalized in publics sub consciousness through the mass media which take a hop the progress of both hu gay personalities and social equality. Visual images especially, are coherent in a way that have the power to stir beyond the entertainment and evoke emotional responses by having a immense influence on our state of mind (Alcolaea -Bangas, 2008). As Berger (1992) pointed out Like fish, we swimming in a sea of images, and these images help chequer our perceptions of the world and of ourselves.An indwelling derivate of visual images are picture shows which are adhered image s together in order to induce a story that transmit certain ideologies or ideas and has an impact in peoples lives. As Gerald Mast, a train scholar, affirmed, there are fewer pagan products more influential in contemporary life than conducts. Thus, those ideologies also shape our e actuallyday perception of women. According to Dutt, Hollywood films portrayal of women sticked to the patriarchal structures, but later on, have veiled these messages under the faade of fe manly potency and independence (Dutt, 2014). According to many criticism power is at the exchange of a patriarchial society. Foss describes patriarchy as a system of power relations in which men dominate women so that womens interest are subordinates to those of man and they view themselves as inferior to men (Foss, 1989). The portray of women can be seen in the way of how a film is constructed. Male characters sportsman an active role and are shown as mentally and physically powerful. They are plethoric guardi ans looking to gaze at women. On the other progress to women are passive, dependent and in need for support. Furthermore a major criticism from feminist perspective has been towards the male gaze. Laura Mulvey use this excogitation to show the gender power assymety in film. Mulvey states that female are objectified in film because heterosexual men are in control of the camera. Thus, the man becomes as the dominant power inside the created film fantasy. The woman is submissive to the active gaze from the man. The use scopophylia, sexual satisfaction through viewing, to fade adds an element of patriarchal system and it is regularly viewed in iIIusionistic narrative film (Mulvey, 1989).A very controversial representation of women can be traced in the early beginning of Hollywood era. Film Noir, is a term which is used to describe Hollywood crime dramas in 40s and 50s with cynical attidues and sexual motivations. During these era the concept of femme fatale flourished. The archetypal femme fatale of film noir use her sexual attractiveness and merciless manipulation to trick men in order to achieve power, money, or independence, or all of them at the same time (filmnoirstudies, 2008). Femme fatale re immingles the conventional roles of devoted wife and cautious mother that importantstream society set down for women, and in the end her disobedience of social norms leads to her own distruction and the destruction of the men who are attracted to her (filmnoirstudies, 2008). Film noirs depiction of the femme fatale, jibe to film noir studies, aims to sustain the actual social order and especially its strictly delimit gender roles by creating the powerful, independent woman, only in the end to penalize her.Later during the period of 70s and 80s, in Hollywood, we had the muscle obsession. Blockbusters such as Rambo, Terminator, Leathal Weapon were produced where masculinity was over queered. A dominant ideology of that time were the masculinist figure of gender t hat characterizes masculinity regarding the male warriorwith the attributes of great strenght, effective use of force, and military bravery as the main expressions. As Susan Bordo articulated muscles have mainly symbolized and maintain to symbolize male power as physical potency, regularly operating as a means of coding the naturalness of sexual difference. (Bordo, n.d). Genres as well process in preserving stereotypes in cinema (Gledhill, 2012). For example, war, action, spy films are considered male film genres, and romantic, comedy film are female genres with a female protagonist. However, in the 90s we saw the surfacing of some female actions heroes defined by a quality of masculinity. Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, confronted those cultural norms. She was putted as Judith Butler would call a gender performance where she was involve to perform the stereotypical masculinity as a strong and dominant warrior. Tasker (1998) articulates this as an enactment of a muscular masculinity involving a display of power and strength over the body of the female performer (Tasker, 1998).Nowadays, referring to Dutt, in most of the films women are obliged to in incarnate everything. They must be knobbed and aggressive but also beautiful and sexy. This is the empowered woman of corporate consumer society (Dutt, 2014). For example in the film The Devil Wears Prada, women and power are main themes throughout the film. Female power relationships examined in the film shows how women exemplar power effectively to race in the world of business. The film is a good illustration which shows how a women shatter through traditional gender stereo-types and exercise a leading type associated with masculinity. The protagonist Miranda Priestley, is depicted as a powerful women often associated as the devil boss who is ruthless, demanding and very hard hard to please. The film prehending the way gender relations with leadership is practiced in the work-place.On the other hand, Juno, an i ndependent non-Hollywood film gives a more realistic representation of womens. The film is about a early girl who becomes pregnant during the high-school by his teen boy-friend. According to Dutt her character allude an rising cultural formulation of girl hood that have as a attribute independence and strength (Dutt, 2014). Juno is someone who is unconventional and unbiassed with her appearance. She doesnt care what others think of her and takes the decisions for herself. For instance, she doesnt listen to her mother and fellow and decides to keep the baby. As Dutt points out, her agency marks a considerable furtherance for female portrayals in films. She embodies the visual characterization of newly emerging constructions of girls that fuse particular aspects of traditional femininity and masculinity(Dutt, 2014).ReferencesAlcolea-Banegas, J. (2008). Visual Arguments in Film.Argumentation, 23(2), pp.259-275.Berger, A. (1991). beholding Is Believing An Introduction to Visual Co mmunication.The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 49(1), p.101.Bordo, S. (1999).The male body. New York Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Dutt, R. (2014).Behind the curtain womens representations in contemporary Hollywood. MSC. London take of Economics.Ferguson, M. (1990). Images of power and the feminist fallacy.Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 7(3), pp.215-230.Filmnoirstudies.com, (2008).Film Noirs Progressive characterisation of Women A Film Noir Studies Essay. online Available at http//www.filmnoirstudies.com/essays/progressive.asp Accessed 12 Mar. 2015.Foss, S. (1989).Rhetorical criticism. Prospect Heights, Ill. Waveland Press.Mast, G. (n.d.).How to watch movies intellegently. online Bluffton.edu. Available at http//www.bluffton.edu/mastg/Watchingmovies.htm Accessed 10 Mar. 2015.Mulvey, L. (1989).Visual and other pleasures. Bloomington Indiana University Press.Tasker, Y. (2002).Working girls. London Routledge.