Feminism In Cinema

"Rise of the Strong Female Protagonists - Representation of Women in Contemporary American Cinema"

Cinema has always been an integral part of a culture and has been presenting various ideals of the time such as gender roles. American Cinema has been abundant of gender representation and through many years the roles of men and women have been presented according to the formulaic stereotypes. For a long time up to the present, men have dominated the movie industry and have been depicted as saviours and protectors while women have often been presented as the weaker sex, objects of desire or just as the support of male characters. Even though it is not diffucult to enumerate a few movies such as Avengers, X-men, Fantastic Four, and Guardians of Galaxy in which women are strong, males still outnumber them, the plot is not fully focused on females and they are treated more like supporting characters. Considering other movies from the last few years such as Non-Stop or The Wolf of Wall Street it is easy to spot that men and women are still often presented in a typical gender manner. Nevertheless, recently the representation of female characters has also been improving, women are gradually becoming more prominent in the movie industry. In Hollywood, there was a certain rise of casting women as the main characters who take matters into their own hands and are no longer waiting for men to save the day. By making female protagonists as strong and independent, the