Rosina Lippi-Green's Argument

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.” Said and written in one of Alice Walker’s novels, Possessing the Secret of Joy. The novel encompasses the impact of having culturally controlled gender roles and brings awareness to how women feel powerless in their society. Her quote shows how quickly ignorance in humanity stunts the growth of empowered people. Moreover, this quote can represent the relationship between power and women, which, consequently, is discussed in the documentary, Miss Representation. Alice Walker’s wise words appear in the first shot of this film. Miss Representation persuades its audience to agree that women portrayed on television and advertisements negatively affect women's ambition

Hollywood films have influenced our values and beliefs of socio-cultural groups within a film. In the context of race and gender the films Cowboys and Aliens (2011) and the searchers (1956) both share similarities. These two successful films are 55 years apart the both convey the perspectives of race and gender through the reflection of American Indians in these films. The films The Searchers and Cowboys and Aliens show that Hollywood has changed the way we see the status of Indians. In the earlier film the Indians are represented as killers and mongrels as in this current day and age we have grown to accept them and appreciate their culture. This is done prominently through both films as they feature the interaction between white Americans and Indians. The searchers depict the Indians as the villains who capture the girls from the white American families and are seen as a risk to the community. In the

In Linda Christensen’s (2001) work, “Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us” she explains, “We are not only taught certain styles of violence, the latest fashions, and sex roles by TV… We are taught more than anything else, how not to rebel” (p.8). Disney movies and literature help to maintain subsisting power even if we do not understand that concept as children. For example, as a child, I longed to be cast the role of Belle in the Disney musical “Beauty and the Beast”. When auditions were just around the corner, I decided not to audition because I came to the conclusion on my own that I would not get the part simply because in the movie Belle is caucasian and I am Mexican. Therefore, I kept myself in “my place” and was upset feeling that I would never fit in because there are no Latina princesses. Kenya, a freshman quoted in the Christensen article, argued that, “Women who aren’t White begin to feel left out and ugly because they never get to play the princess”

As feminism and gender equality are becoming more important to society, the way gender roles are depicted in literature and media are shifting to conform to society’s views. This usage of gender roles can be seen in two popular contemporary animated movies: Frozen and Spirited Away. Both of these films are geared for younger audiences and attempt to teach important life lessons, like friendship and growing up. Through closer examination of how each film portrays gender, however, Frozen appears to not be as egalitarian as many have come to believe. Comparing both films, Frozen is not very feminist as it continues to perpetuate traditional gender roles and fairytale tropes, such as love at first sight and damsels in distress, whereas Spirited

The Little Mermaid which was produced in 1989, was the first Disney movie to challenge the traditional gender roles, for the fact that Ariel wanted to explore, and was more independent and assertive in her desires than the earlier princesses of the 1930’s and 50s films. Also the prince in The Little Mermaid went against traditional gender roles as well, simply because he was more affectionate and loving than his prince counterparts in other Disney films. “Both the male and female roles have changed over time, but overall the male characters evinced less change then the female characters and were more androgynous throughout.” (Descartes & England, pg.566). Disney movies have been for a long time a strong media target for children, and can serve as a way to address stereotypical gender roles (Leaper, 2000). These studies suggest that children observe gender stereotypes at an early age unintentionally. Since children’s brains are constantly soaking in new information about the world around them, they have to do so in a way that they are seemingly most comfortable. Studies show that children are most comfortable learning from people who are actively in their lives and attractive movie and TV

“Ex boyfriends are just like off limits to friends. I mean that’s just like the rule of feminism” (15:15). This famous saying said by Gretchen Wieners from Mean girls is widely known and most of the time ridiculed by people. Mean Girls is a movie that portrays the stereotypical American high school life. The movie has a main focus on the girls of high school, rather then on the boys. It centers on females and how they act at that certain age. The four mean girls, Regina George, Gretchen Wieners, Karen Smith and Cady Heron represent the stereotypes of the popular girls of high school. The role of gender plays an important role in the movie. The movie discusses the aspects of how a “typical” teenage girl should be, in order for her to fit in.

Gender roles have been noticeable in Disney films especially the Disney Princess series. Women are typically portrayed as a princess, homemaker, or queen while men are portrayed as strong, dominant and authority characters. The portrayal of the prince or knights in the movies usually highlighted with the strong and powerful characteristic, whereas the Disney princesses are weak, vulnerable and being protected. According to Tiffany, gender stereotypes and behaviours illustrations are very common in Disney culture and their depictions have become sophisticated over the years especially those of female characters.

The media has long been recognized as important source of gender related information, television and cinema specifically influences its audience in a considerable way. (Denmark and Paludi 2008). With regards to the concept of gender cinema can offer a space where ambiguities of identities are played out; understanding the play of the categories of femininity and masculinity is very important in evaluating our own understandings of gender and how we react to different representations of it (Tasker 2002).If a film can show different individuals and we can recognize how social forces shape and constrain the individual according to classifications of gender it narrates an experience where we experience the film as gendered viewers. Film reflects and generates out own experience of gender over and above out own recognition and observation of it. (Pomerance 2001). Gender itself is a very complex concept to understand and portray onscreen, the concept of gender performativity was introduced by Judith butler in her book Gender Trouble: Gender Performance and Performativity.

I would also agree with the acknowledgements made by the authors, Sesame Street does include other important elements that make it everyone's favorite, nevertheless that does not justify and make the sexist profiling okay. Philip Cohen wrote "The Trouble With Disney's Teeny, Tiny Princesses", exploring other big companies that include gender profiling and sexist stereotypes. With the increase of animated children's movies, the exaggerations made between female and male characters to differentiate them are excessive. It's obvious that males are usually built bigger, and stronger than women but like "they almost always promote the same image of big men and tiny women" (Cohen). According to Cohen, the male characters hands are typically three to four times bigger than the women's, notwithstanding in reality, males wrist are only about 15% larger than women's. For instance, in the movie Frozen, Anna's hand is not only tiny compared to Hans', but her eyeball is also wider than her wrist. Female features are enhanced, while the bodies of male are enlarged. Cohen believes with all the concentration on the small differences between males and females, it tends to be forgotten that the similarities outweigh the differences. The choices made by producers or artist give us a view into important cultural dynamics. There is a lot of debate between the roles that men and women play but we must learn to see that men and women can share the same abilities, physically,

I remembered when I was young, there were plenty of movie that has girls play dolls and boys play football. These movies were popular amongs children that day until now, girls were meant to be soft and boys were meant to be powerful and strong. Then one day, I’ve watched a movie that has a girl play in the football team and I were supprised because it’s the first time that I’ve seen a movie that shows girl can be both femininity and masculinity. This movie has a huge impact on young children behaviour and has influenced childrens in constructing gender roles in the society.

Throughout history, the equality of women to men has been regarded as a social taboo. It was a universal understanding that women were always subordinate to their dominant males. Pre Modern Greece expressed these views through their social expectations, hierarchical structures and general lack of acceptance. This ubiquitous truth for this society was challenged in Homer’s The Odyssey, with his strongly developed and diverse female cast. Each female character possesses a unique personality and faced internal as well as external struggles that rivals the complexity of the male characters. Despite the inequity that these females face, they overcome it by showing themselves to be strong in the face of adversity and work to be unmoved by even the

Amanda Putnam’s essay, “Mean Ladies: Transgendered Villains in Disney Films”, is a compelling piece on gender portrayal and views in Disney films. Putnam opened the essay with a personal anecdote about her daughter. Her daughter wanted a Disney movie without a “mean lady”, as in most Disney films the villains are scary, evil women. The real life evidence strengthened her claim that children are noticing the characterization of female villains in Disney films. The antidote was brought fill circle when she referred back to her daughter in the final paragraphs of her essay. Putnam explains that when her daughter asks questions about gender norms (boys having long hair, etc...), she knows that this is because of influences like Disney that establish and reestablish ‘correct’ gender standards in many of their films.

The movie October Sky does an outstanding job of conveying what life was like in the year 1957 and in doing this the audience gets a fairly clear insight into the ins and outs of the society back in that time period. The movie begins in October of 1957 just shortly after Soviet satellite, Sputnik I, was put into orbit. Seeing Sputnik zip across the sky of his home town Coalwood, main character Homer Hickam is inspired to build a model rocket. Homer brings together a group of friends, both old and new who join him on his quest to build a successful model rocket. Throughout the movie a multitude of societal standards are displayed, things such as the roles of males and females, social hierarchy as well as hiding poor conditions are all well displayed

I remembered when I was young, there were plenty of movie that has girls play dolls and boys play football. These movies were popular among children that day until now, girls were meant to be soft and boys were meant to be powerful and strong. Then one day, I’ve watched a movie that has a girl play in the football team and I were surprised because it’s the first time that I’ve seen a movie that shows girl can be both femininity and masculinity. This movie has a huge impact on young children behaviour and has influenced children in constructing gender roles in the society.

In most parts of the world, females have always been the victim of oppressive patriarchy and male chauvinism since ages. This problem has been represented by many people through various forms of creations be it art, literature or films. Films are the most popular visual mediums of entertainment through which a large segment of people can be approached. Like literature, a film is also a work of art which mirrors the society, it also depicts the reality of the society though it has some fictionality in it. Being a visual medium of presentation, a film creates an instant, direct and more convincing impression on its audience fulfilling its dual purpose of entertaining as well as sensitizing the audience. A lot of movies based on social issues are now being made to create awareness among people about the issues besides entertaining the audience, which is perhaps the foremost purpose behind the making