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Gender Stereotypes In The Movie Chicago

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Frustrated by the verdict on both Annan and Gaertner’s cases, Maurine Watkins quit reporting and studied screenwriting at Yale where she wrote a play directly based off of these events. They play quickly grew in popularity, and inspired a silent film, a musical, a 1942 movie titled “Roxie Hart” and eventually, the 2002 musical movie “Chicago”. (Eig) In the classic tale, Roxie Hart must fool the jury into declaring her not guilty after she kills her boyfriend. Due to the fact that it was based off of a true story, the movie has an obvious correlation with historical events. However, the portrayal of gender stereotypes, crime and prohibition were also accurate. The movie Chicago plays with the idea of women empowerment and subtly incorporates them into the movie. While vaudeville plays a role, and many references are made to vaudeville in its musical numbers, women’s new position in American society was less obvious throughout the movie. However the smaller allusions to the changing times of the 1920s create a clear message one can translate into history. For example, Roxie dreams of being the ideal young girl of the roaring 20s. She is tired of …show more content…

Despite the movie’s dramatic rendition of real-life events and ideas in regards to women in crime, it gets the point across by using Roxie and Velma’s femininity win the “innocent” verdict. Although it only displayed a one-sided and underdeveloped prohibitionist argument, it was still factual in its portrayal, and the prohibition movement is vital to her case. The final topic, women empowerment, had the most authentic yet subtle portrayal from the symbolism of the puppet in “They Both Reached For the Gun” to the setting if Chicago. Each of the topics can be considered, to some extent, history. Although they’re understated, the themes are still there and contribute a historical side to the film that is important to the plot and

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