Star Wars Gender Roles

Throughout history the portrayal of gender roles have been maintained by a specific standard, specifically where the man is the main figure, and the woman is the submissive figure that is being acted upon. However, lately, specifically the last ten or so years, many movies have shifted this ideology. These movies in modern times show increasingly more women in positions of power, as well as in marriages where there is an equal amount of power between both the husband and wife. There are also more movies showcasing non-traditional relationships, such as, domestic partnerships and LGBTQ+ relationships. One movie in particular that showcases a shift in the status quo, in terms of the masculinity and femininity expected from individuals especially that of a relationships, is Tyler Perry’s

However in all her scenes she is talking to a man or giving water to the men who spend all night in a battle protecting her and her fellow CIA Agent’s lives. I was surprised this didn’t pass the test and not looked at as a feminist movie because she is placed in the role of an intelligent CIA Agent who isn’t afraid to speak her mind and she is not sexualized nor does she get with any of the male characters. But looking at the movie as a whole I see that this is a male dominating “army” movie. War movies are put into a male dominant category, therefore a woman would not be placed as a main

The title Miss Representation is significant because the documentary revolves around the representation of women in media and how their portrayals are oversexualized, placing a misogynistic lens over how women are represented. The argument that the title makes is that women are shown primarily as weaker, less cerebral, and more useful as physical objects than men, and therefore are highly misrepresented by TV shows, movies, and advertisements which focus only on the physical aspects of women and not on the academic or mental aspects. This is pervasive throughout the documentary, as seen through interviews with various women and young girls providing examples of the misrepresentation of women. One such example is when a young girl discusses the fact that

Disney as a brand has reinforced the binary view of gender. The gender binary view is “the belief that there are only two sexes based off of the biological aspect of gender, which in turn generates stereotypes and expectations based off of this binary” (Palczewski & DeFrancisco, 2014, 13). The Disney Princess films reinforce the binary view towards gender by upholding gendered expectations. This line started out as a marketing campaign for young girls to identify with the characters and purchase the associated products, but an unanticipated byproduct of this marketing strategy created a consumer market called “girlhood” (England, Descartes &Collier-Meek, 2011, p.556).

What constitutes “masculinity?” Sadly, the term has been defined so harshly that it is having detrimental effects on our society. The definitions of gender roles bombard us everywhere, from books, to advertisements, to movies, there is seemingly no place one can hide from these absurd standards. Canadian sociologist Aaron H. Devor points out in his article “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender,” that gender norms are learned early on in life, burdening children with these restrictions (388). This is what makes movies which clearly reject and mock gender roles, such as The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, so refreshing.

Ridley Scott’s 1982 ‘Blade Runner’ is a mysterious film set in futuristic LA in the year 2019. Technology is incredibly advanced and capable of creating robots called ‘replicants’, which are almost identical to humans. Replicants are stronger than humans, have limited emotions and a life span of only four years. It has been argued that the way Blade Runner portrays the female characters is sexist and outdated, especially as seen in 2017. The unfavourable treatment of the lead female roles is continuous throughout the film, especially since they are all replicants and therefor artificial.

There are a lot of females who give out the image of a strong female character for instead Hillary Clinton who is strong for putting up with the being in the political limelight, especially while she was running for president.

Next, many gender and sexual stereotypes are perpetuated in media, through the ways of movies. In fact, the movie Legally Blonde fits under the category of stereotypes exceptionally well, since it shows many stereotypes of women in the society. For instance, there is one scene in the movie, where Warner, the handsome boy is playing football with his friends, and Elle, the dumb blonde sits on the sidelines to study and distract the guys playing as she wears nothing but a sparkly bikini top under a furry shawl on her upper half. This example evidently portrays the serotype of being a blonde dumb. Throughout the movie “Legally Blonde” Elle is shown as a material sorority girl, who is a duplicate copy of barbie in real life.

Cover Girl and Disney Campaign Females, of all ages, are always being told that they cannot do something, for instance, they are being told that they are unable to do what the boys do. Unfortunately, females are allowing males to be the dominant gender and are accepting the roles that society has set in place for them. From birth, it is evident that the color for girls is pink and blue for boys. A nursey for a baby girl will be filled with stuffed animals, baby dolls, and everything in pink.

This is also true for female actors. They are often put into roles that typecast them as the “dragon ladies”, which is “a stereotype of East Asian and occasionally South Asian women as strong, deceitful, domineering, or mysterious”. They are the characters that can’t be trusted, very sneaky, exotic and are oversexualized. Movies like Kill Bill and Charlie’s Angels exemplify this type of stereotyping. She played a sort of female Asian warrior in both of these films.

For every positive female role model, two negative ones can be found” (Lavin 97). Women in comics portray a sexualized representation of the female body, with a strong focus on women as sexual objects rather than women. The trend of objecticifty women in comics has continued since the first superheroine Wonder Woman was first introduced in comics because it is profitable and it is

Zootopia is a disney movie that focuses on empowering females to go for their dreams. Judy Hoops is female squirrel,who wants to become the first female cop of her kind in her community. Everyone doubts her including her parents. They feel that her dreams are too dangerous of a job for a girl, and that she is better off growing carrots for their family business. As she tries to accomplish her dreams she faces difficulties that are meant to discourage her, but fail to stop her.

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

DISNEY SEXISM In society, there are gender roles which put each sex in stereotypical figures. These roles affect the way how we speak, dress and act. In general, women expected to behave feminine such as being polite and fragile and on the other hand men are expected to be aggressive and stronger. All these roles are over exaggerated in Disney 's women and men figures. When we look at the society, children are the ones who are more likely to being manipulated by elements such as media.

The female characters in films ‘reflect and perpetuate the status and options of women in today 's society ' and play an active part in creating female role models (Kord,