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Female Representation in Films: An Analysis of Hollywood Superheroes

female representation in films

&NewLine;<p>In her article for the New York Times&comma; Laurie Frankel uses the example of her six-year-old child &lpar;born male&rpar; wearing dresses to school to discuss the issue of traditional gender roles in society&period; Frankel expounds on her fears that her &lpar;then&rpar; son would be ridiculed by their classmates for wearing &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;female” clothing&period; As it turned out&comma; Frankel’s child was actually transitioning into a girl&comma; as opposed to being a boy &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;just playing dress-up&period;” In any case&comma; Frankel’s honest portrayal of a daughter’s difficult decision to wear non-gender-conforming clothing in the face of adversity highlights the power that conventional gender roles have over everyone — even a young child preparing to attend the 1st grade &lpar;<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;nytimes&period;com&sol;2016&sol;09&sol;18&sol;fashion&sol;modern-love-transgender-child-identity-parenting&period;html" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">Frankel<&sol;a>&rpar;&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Traditional gender roles generally command that girls wear pretty dresses and boys wear functional pants and t-shirts&period; This way&comma; girls can grow up to be the sexy objects of the male gaze&comma; while boys can grow up to be the decision-makers and drivers of action in life&period; It’s difficult to determine if life imitates art or the other way around&comma; but suffice it to say that productions like <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B07P76GTJR&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B07P76GTJR&amp&semi;linkId&equals;2b6b53b2ac8ef9e29560e069c4dbd649" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">Captain Marvel<&sol;a><&sol;em> and <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B08V8B8TQT&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B08V8B8TQT&amp&semi;linkId&equals;b4eae7fe6365dcf1ff93fe77cee7d9d3" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">Wonder Woman 1984<&sol;a><&sol;em> do little to move society away from these antiquated conceptions of gender and the existing female representation in films&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In the era of &num;MeToo and increased awareness of gender inequality&comma; many people are questioning the purpose of traditional gender roles&period; Why do gender roles even exist&quest; Are they a reflection of our basic human nature or a mere invention by powerful societal forces throughout history&quest; It’s difficult to say with absolute certainty&comma; but one thing’s for sure&colon; Hollywood loves them&period; From romantic comedies to horror films&comma; Hollywood narratives and characterizations almost always reflect traditional gender roles to help meet audience expectations and even reinforce these roles in daily life&period; This is especially true in the superhero genre&period; Past superhero films often relied on the white male protagonist saving a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;damsel in distress&period;”&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>However&comma; more recent Hollywood films have given in to public pressure by ostensibly <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2014&sol;04&sol;04&sol;reversing-traditional-gender-representations-in-the-contemporary-zom-com&sol;">reversing gender roles<&sol;a>&comma; putting female superheroes in the driver’s seat&period; While some would argue that the increased prevalence of female-centered superheroes in Hollywood is a good way to promote progressive female representation in films&comma; the heroines and narratives still rely heavily on conventional gender roles&period; In this essay&comma; I will argue that the only possible solution to the issue of female representation in film is to provide more financial and structural support to filmmakers &lpar;particularly female&rpar; working outside of the Hollywood system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>Captain Marvel<&sol;em> and <em>Wonder Woman 1984<&sol;em> Reinforce Traditional Conceptions of Gender<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;06&sol;wonder-woman-1984-1024x602&period;jpg" alt&equals;"feminism in superhero movies" class&equals;"wp-image-2281"&sol;><figcaption><em>Wonder Woman 1984<&sol;em> &lpar;2020&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In the past&comma; feminist film critics like Laura Mulvey argued that women in cinema only served as objects of the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;male gaze” and rarely — if ever — drove the action of the plot&period; In her seminal essay&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;asu&period;edu&sol;courses&sol;fms504&sol;total-readings&sol;mulvey-visualpleasure&period;pdf" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema<&sol;a>&comma;” Mulvey uses psychoanalysis to argue that&comma; historically&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the unconscious of patriarchal society has structured film form” &lpar;Mulvey&rpar;&period; Within this viewpoint&comma; women become the objects of the heterosexual male gaze&period; Films are designed to please heterosexual male fantasies&comma; with women’s bodies functioning as the objects of those fantasies&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>For example&comma; when a woman enters a scene in a James Bond film&comma; she does not directly drive the plot forward&period; Instead&comma; she functions as a fetishized object on which the camera can linger for the pleasure of heterosexual male viewers&period; Alternatively&comma; it is the men of the film &lpar;like James Bond&rpar; who have the power to move the plot forward&period; Additionally&comma; the male characters often double as the intrinsic &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;point of view” with which the viewer is meant to identify&period; Thus&comma; even female viewers are meant to adopt the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;male gaze” while watching a film&period; This&comma; in turn&comma; reflects two of the most fundamental elements of traditional gender roles&colon; women as objects of sexual desire and men as decision-makers and drivers of action &lpar;Mulvey&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Within the last few years&comma; public demand has helped increase the prevalence of female-centered superhero movies like <em>Captain Marvel<&sol;em> &lpar;2019&rpar; and <em>Wonder Woman 1984<&sol;em> &lpar;2020&rpar;&comma; yet many of the same feminist criticisms of decades past still hold true&period; In <em>Captain Marve<&sol;em>l&comma; the titular heroine &lpar;known as Vers&rpar; must recover her memories and embrace her power to help the native people of her home planet&comma; Hala&period; While some critics praised the film for evading the male gaze and providing a new self-empowered female superhero&comma; the film is not without fault when analyzed within the frame of Mulvey’s original argument&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;06&sol;captain&lowbar;marvel&lowbar;jude&lowbar;law&lowbar;brie&lowbar;larson&lowbar;pals-1024x637&period;jpg" alt&equals;"female representation in films" class&equals;"wp-image-2283"&sol;><figcaption><em>Captain Marvel<&sol;em> &lpar;2019&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>More specifically&comma; throughout the majority of the film&comma; the lead character acts as the subject of the film&comma; but not necessarily the driver of the action&period; Instead&comma; many of the male characters around her help drive the plot forward while Vers attempts to regain all of her lost memories&period; Though the original character was created by Stan Lee&comma; the film was co-directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck&comma; with the script written by Boden&comma; Fleck&comma; and Geneva Robertson-Dworet&period; Kevin Feige worked as the executive producer&period; The mix of male and female writers&comma; directors&comma; and producers helped lessen the dependence on &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the image of the castrated woman to give order and meaning to &lbrack;the film’s&rsqb; world” &lpar;Mulvey&rpar;&period; However&comma; it did not completely eradicate traditional gender roles in the film’s narrative&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>To look at another example&comma; <em>Wonder Woman 1984<&sol;em> proved to be far less resistant to the traditional gender roles of Hollywood cinema&period; In the film trailer alone&comma; one can see a scantily-clad female superhero &lpar;played by Gal Gadot&rpar; running around&comma; ostensibly saving the world&period; Her male love interest remarks&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Diana&comma; look at you&&num;8230&semi;it’s like not one day has passed&period;” This immediately puts the focus on Gal Gadot’s appearance&comma; specifically her beauty and youth&period; Meanwhile&comma; Wonder Woman’s nemesis comes in the form of a mousy&comma; frizzy-haired woman &lpar;played by Kristen Wiig&rpar; who wants to get back at the world for not seeing her as beautiful as Gal Gadot&period; Thus&comma; not only does <em>Wonder Woman 1984<&sol;em> depend on the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;male gaze” to attract more heterosexual male viewers &lpar;likely the bulk of superhero movie fans&rpar;&comma; but the narrative reinforces traditional gender roles and heteronormative relationships&period; Like <em>Captain Marvel<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Wonder Woman 1984<&sol;em> features a production team of both men and women&comma; with Patty Jenkins as director and one of three screenwriters&comma; alongside Geoff Johns and David Callaham&period; The film’s six producers are evenly split between men and women&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">Female Representation in Films and the Future of Gendered Cinema<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;06&sol;ReviewWonderWoman1984-1024x632&period;jpg" alt&equals;"female representations in superhero movies" class&equals;"wp-image-2282"&sol;><figcaption><em>Wonder Woman 1984<&sol;em> &lpar;2020&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While films like <em>Captain Marvel<&sol;em> and <em>Wonder Woman 1984<&sol;em> offer female &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;heroes” for young boys and girls to look up to&comma; they do nothing to promote non-traditional gender roles or subvert viewer expectations&period; At its core&comma; a superhero movie offers a fun escape from reality&period; The average viewer does not want to go to the movie theaters to be confronted with their own biases or the inherent ills of society&period; Instead&comma; they want to see exciting action&comma; sexy people&comma; and — to one degree or another — values that align with their own worldview&period; With how pervasive conventional gender roles are in society&comma; it’s hard to say that anyone can completely escape the parameters in which men and women are bound&period; Thus&comma; viewers go to superhero movies expecting&comma; perhaps even hoping to see traditional gender roles reinforced in the narrative and form of the film&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>So&comma; where does this leave film producers&comma; writers&comma; and directors&quest; At the end of the day&comma; Hollywood studios design blockbusters to make huge profits&period; Pleasing the viewers &lpar;and critics&rpar; is a vital part of ensuring the success of any big-budget film&period; Rather than making films that break down barriers or subvert expectations&comma; Hollywood filmmakers just want to make films that break box office records&period; This is particularly true in the superhero genre&comma; which has brought in more cash in the last 10 years than most other genres combined &lpar;<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;bbc&period;com&sol;news&sol;business-27637292" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">Yueh<&sol;a>&rpar;&period; In the end&comma; whether male or female&comma; the makers of Hollywood blockbusters focus more on appealing to mass audience expectations than changing the way we view gender in film — or the role of film in shaping our society&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Based on these examples&comma; it seems that the only plausible way to subvert traditional gender roles in female-centered superhero movies would be to provide support to writers&comma; directors&comma; and producers working outside of the Hollywood film industry&period; As exemplified in the films above&comma; both male and female filmmakers have the capacity and obligation to reinforce traditional gender roles when creating big-budget films inside the Hollywood system&period; So&comma; what’s the solution&quest; Plenty of films that subvert conventional gender roles are produced every day&comma; but they don’t usually appear in theaters across the country&period; These films are almost always created by independent filmmakers who are not beholden to larger investors demanding substantial results at the box office&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>To look at an example from abroad&comma; the French government provides substantial support for independent artists to produce films&comma; without the need to meet quotas or reinforce traditional gender roles&period; Moreover&comma; France has recently provided further incentives for women filmmakers to break into the industry &lpar;<a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;nytimes&period;com&sol;2018&sol;09&sol;21&sol;movies&sol;france-film-industry-subsidies-to-hire-women&period;html" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">Nayeri<&sol;a>&rpar;&period; This has helped the French film industry — one that was dominated by men for decades — to produce more <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;06&sol;gender-and-female-sexuality-in-breillats-fat-girl&sol;">independent&comma; female-driven films<&sol;a>&period; Thus&comma; the only clear solution in the United States is to provide support and financial backing to indie artists &lpar;particularly women&rpar; working outside of the Hollywood filmmaking machine&period; With financial support and decreased financial obligations&comma; artists would have greater freedom to produce films that reject the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;male gaze&comma;” subvert gender-related expectations&comma; and promote non-normative relationships&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">Conclusion<&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>For well over two decades&comma; Marvel and other large production companies have been creating male-centered superhero stories&comma; with little regard for female representation in films&period; These films&comma; along with most other mainstream Hollywood films&comma; have promoted traditional gender roles&comma; made ample use of the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;male gaze&comma;” and rejected more progressive modes of filmmaking and storytelling&period; Though many hoped that the latest wave of female empowerment would transform films for the better&comma; the changes that have occurred thus far have only been superficial&period; Superhero films like <em>Captain Marvel<&sol;em> and <em>Wonder Woman 1984<&sol;em> show that female-driven stories don’t necessarily subvert gender norms&semi; they just reframe them&period; As a result&comma; people&comma; organizations&comma; and even government agencies must put more money and structural support behind independent artists who are willing to completely undo traditional gender roles in new and interesting ways&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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