Sunday, December 2, 2012

21st Century




               This picture is depicting a scene from the medical drama House M.D. It’s from the episode “House’s Head” (2008) in which Dr. House is having vivid hallucinations. In this picture, his hallucination is of his superior Lisa Cuddy, doing a striptease for him while simultaneously trying to help him solve a case. In this picture, two stereotypes of a “woman” are met. The severely altered schoolgirl outfit and the striptease outfit both show the classic “submissive” role of women.
               The outfit of a schoolgirl represents the innocence of a young girl simply going to school. The role Cuddy has taken as a pole dancer represents her as being simply the “object” of House’s entertainment. Combine both of these aspects, and we have the sex fantasy of House without taking any consideration for who Cuddy really is. She is dumbed down to this submissive role which is the complete opposite of who she truly is—House’s boss.

Reference

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/polls/154000/154165_1229325938843_full.jpg
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               The woman in this clip is Natasha Romanoff—AKA Black Widow—from the movie The Avengers (2012). Yes, she’s tied up. But that was her intention. She utilizes the image of the helpless, vulnerable woman to feed into the feeling of superiority and authority these male thugs think they have over her. By feeding into it, she is manipulating them into giving her the information she needs. However, she does interact with another man, her fellow agent—Agent Coulson—over the phone who informs her that someone close to her has been compromised.
               As a result, Natasha frees herself and fights off all three thugs single-handedly. Two things are shown in this instance. One, Agent Coulson waits for her on the phone, knowing exactly what is going on, and acts like it’s another day at the office. He shows know shock at how she is acting; he knows who she really is. Second, this scene shows that Natasha is willing to break her façade when she is so close to getting her information because someone she cares about is in trouble. This shows that Natasha is neither a helpless damsel, nor a cold-blooded spy. She cannot be defined by any stereotypes, which is an important idea to consider, especially as independence in women is becoming a very common theme in present day.
                                                                                                                      
Source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw4G9mIKQyE

                                        __________________________
The people in this picture are the characters from the 2003 TV Series “Firefly” and the 2005 movie “Serenity”. From this picture, it’s already established that both the men and the women in this story are held on equal ground. Each and every one of them holds their own in intellect, fighting skills, will, and every other way a human being holds their own. Some of them are soldiers, guns-for-hire, and even a companion (high-class prostitute) who must learn to fight to defend herself in her line of work.
               It is on this equal ground that these women defy the traditional sense of fragility and submissiveness expected of them. They’ve been through trials, hardships, and as a result they are able fighters. They are qualified in scientific, medical, and philosophical fields. The girl in front is an intellectual and athletic prodigy. They do not stand in the shadow of the men, but instead hold their own. The men understand this and respect it. The equality is so innate in the series that people don’t even think about possible sexism or any other kind of “ism”. This ability to watch a show without drawing something offensive from it is something that modern television and film is headed towards. Characters will be held on equal ground despite their age, sex, race, etc. And it will become such a common thing to view people as human instead of woman or black, that the traditional roles from the past eventually won’t even be used anymore. Characters are being judged on their persona as human beings, not any other factor. Hopefully, this practice in television and film will continue far into the future.

Reference:

                                      ____________________________
This movie, The Help (based off of the book by Kathryn Stockett), revolves not only around the roles of gender, but the roles of race as well. The theme of submission is a heavily thought of quality of both women and African Americans in the time this takes place; the 60s. Yet the women in this story defy this expectation and so much more. They have beliefs and they have personalities. The decisions they make are entirely their own. Even if their approach and beliefs are questionable, their independence is still evident.
In this movie, boundaries are broken. A white girl from a “proper family” decides to help the African American Help speak out. A conniving female leader of the community fights back completely of her own volition. And the African American protagonist herself in the end finally tells the conniving woman off, referring to her as a “godless woman”. Boundaries are cut down in the name of doing what a person truly believes in. These women’s true colors come out, and they aren’t tamed by the expectations of their gender or race. Once again, the theme of “the person” comes into play. In the end, it’s not their color or gender that defines these women, but their choices and what they are willing to do in the name of their beliefs. And someone watching this movie does not judge the character because they are speaking out of turn; in the end, they are judged by their decisions, which is a recurring theme in movies and television.

Reference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_ajv_6pUnI

                      ______________________________________
“There is a town in Maine. Where every story book character you’ve ever known is trapped between two worlds. Victims of a powerful curse. Only one knows the truth and only one can break her spell.

Once Upon a Time revolves around Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison), a 28-year-old bail bonds collector that has been supporting herself from when she was abandoned as a baby. Things change for her when her son Henry (Jared Gilmore), who she abandoned years ago and gave him up, finds her and tells that he needs her help. He tells that she is really from a different world where she is really Snow White's (Ginnifer Goodwin) missing daughter. He shows that in the fairytale books, Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) and Snow White sent her away to protect her. The Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) cast a spell that trapped the fairytale world. Emma doesn't believe them and take Henry back to Storybrooke.

Once in the little town, she is strangely drawn to him and the town of Storybrooke. She is concerned and starts to see that Storybrooke is not what it seems. The longer she stays in the town, the more she suspects that the members of the town are not who they say they are. Even though the townspeople don't remember that they too were part of the fairytale, including Henry's foster mother who was once the Evil Queen, they slowly start to realize who they once were. The battle commences and if Emma wants to win, she is going to have to embrace who she once was and can be again. From the Creators of Lost, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz have outdone themselves with a fairytale type story that comes in real life.” –TV Rage

This television show—started in 2011—plays on classic fairytales, but makes these classic characters three-dimensional. More importantly, they pull away from the stereotypes of fairy tales, including damsels-in-distress. In this story, Snow White’s daughter is the savior for, The Evil Queen is powerful enough to bring Fairy Tale Land to our world, and Snow White fought the Evil Queen, saved her true love, and sacrificed her only child to save her world. And even when there is a woman who cannot fight with a sword, they are still steadfast in their morals and intellect. However, it must be mentioned that the heroes are not without flaws and the villains are not without relatable sides.
               The same goes for the men, who are not brought down by these powerful women, but simply held in equal esteem to them. Even the children, despite their age, are heavily featured in the story. Emma’s son brings her to save them. Children such as Hansel and Gretel and the Mad Hatter’s daughter keep a steadfast loyalty to their parents even through the toughest times. With their loyalty, they manage to even teach their parents how to be better people. In this show, gender, class, age, or any little difference doesn’t matter. It all comes down to your choices and who you are as a person. And in a lot of films and tv shows today, it seems that it’s the person that matters, not what physical factors define them. And along with the independent woman, the theme mentioned in the prior sentence is becoming more and more common in modern day.

Source:

http://www.tvrage.com/Once_Upon_a_Time





1990s


Sex in the City


The hit sitcom show Sex in the City aired in the 90’s and became an icon for its realness of revealing and showcasing a variety of different gender roles. This show became a mirror to women who face similar complex issues in their lives. Through the four main characters, they portray and illustrate their individualness of being a single woman. This deals with creating identification. These women represent a form of independence where we see them taking on jobs, men, and above all the world. They experience different sexual awakenings, which are “finding themselves.” Many episodes, we see that these women are like real life women when they question themselves as being a “damsel in distress” or just a plain old “damsel.”

Full House
http://fullhousemania.blogspot.com

This popular TV show circled around the time of the 90’s when it was very family orientated back then. But this family orientated show had a slight twist. The “typical” family setting was opposite of what many might think. Not like many shows back then, it did not have a mother figure. The family was run by three dad figures; Danny Tanner (father), “Uncle” Jessie, and “Uncle” Joey. This show really put a spin on gender roles because it made the typical male personas to be loving and a nurturer provider for the children. While people might be used to seeing the mother in the kitchen making snacks for the kids when they got home from school was placed upon the “dads.” These differences of identification drew in different experiences of different family dynamics and placed men into a more feminine position.

The Simpson’s

            The Simpson’s is another TV show that started out in the 90’s and circled around a family. This hit cartoon illustrates a family dynamic where the father figure, Homer is portrayed as a lazy, slightly over weight bum who needs a helping hand from his wife Marge every so often. Marge of course takes on the mother role, taking care of the house, kids, and husband. Even if this is a cartoon, many can relate to this situation. It reveals the typical family household and how each member performs their “expected” duty like being the head of the household and the perfect housewife. 


1980s


Breakfast Club


In this famous 80’s movie, The Breakfast Club shines a light on so many defining roles of society. The movie introduces us to very different characters whose portrayals are the typical high school social groups. Each of the five characters has a very defining role throughout the film. We meet Andy the “jock”, Claire the “princess”, Allison the “loner”, Brian the “brains”, and Bender the “criminal.” In the beginning when they all meet in detention, they clash. Because of their different social standings and diverse cliques, they make it seem that they are un-relatable when in reality they really do have many things in common. This movie engages us to think who makes these social groups and why do we put each other in them. For example, the movie makes it seem so obvious that the character Claire gets put into the “pretty popular girl” category because of her looks, how she dresses, and her family’s money. This makes it easy for the other characters to make an assessment without even getting to know her.
            The real question is, “how do we fall under these groupings?” It’s so typical of us to think that we can separate ourselves into “classes” which creates a separation between people. Because this film touches upon the multiple axes of difference such as class, we can conclude that by having these groupings it makes people feel like they belong somewhere. It is how these characters identify with themselves and each other. 

Charlie’s Angels

            Charlie’s Angels TV shows, movies, products were a huge hit in the 80’s. It personified three main women who fought, caught bad guys, and kicked butt while looking cute and not a hair out of place. These advertisements basically showed three beautiful girls as crime-fighting sex symbols, which was thought of “every man’s fantasy.” Even if these women took on a larger than usual role it still appeared