Beauty and the Beast

I recently watched Disney's Beauty and the Beast which is about a young girl who agrees to live with a beast in order to save her father's life. The beast treats her badly and constantly is yelling at her. However, she somehow finds the good in him and eventually falls in love with him. This movie shows the typical interpretation of how Disney princess are expressed. Belle is portrayed as a beautiful girl who gives up her life for a man. Although the beast does not treat her well, she still gives him a chance to be a gentlemen and ultimately returns to be at his side and save him from being killed. This movie displays women as being damsels in distress and as being afraid to stand up to men. The women's life goals are to find a husband and live happily ever after. Belle ultimately achieves this when she falls in love with the beast and he turns back into a prince.

Gilmore Girls

I watched an episode of Gilmore Girls the other day starring Alexis Bledel. The episode was about leaving college and how the one girl had realized that she had had no love life while in her freshman year. All her friends made fun of her because girls her age are expected to have a boyfriend or are at least expected to be dating people. This episode shows how most people believe and expect girls to have a love life of some sort and are expected to be trying to find "Mr. Right." The girl Rory, is then forced to go out on a date set up by her grandmother and she ends up having a terrible time. The grandmother forced the boy on her because she felt that her granddaughter needed to get out more. Rory then explains and says that she can live her own life and who she dates is her choice. She shows how some women are independent and live their own life first without having to have a guy. This shows that women are not always dependent on a male and can live fulfilled lives through their own success.

300

I just saw the movie 300 for the first time this past week. This movie is about 300 spartan warriors who leave their lands to go and defeat the great emperor. Within this movie gender is depicted in traditional ways as it was in medieval times. The men are depicted as macho, touch and all powerful warriors. The women are shown to be more timid, compassionate and obedient. All women are meant to obey and answer to their husbands. The main woman in the movie appears to be strong but still does what her elders and husband tell her. The spartan men prove to represent masculinity and toughness as they defeat many armies and they do not answer to threats. They also refuse to surrender even though they are greatly outnumbered. This movie proves to represent how gender roles were depicted in ancient societies and how they have not changed much in today's society.

Taken

I recently went to see the movie "Taken" starring Liam Neeson. It is a movie about a man's daughter who gets kidnapped while on a trip to Paris for the summer. She is kidnapped by men who have a business where they kidnap women, drug them and make them become prostitutes. It is portrayed that these men make money off of these women and these women are their slaves. The man does everything he can to find his daughter and bring her back to the United States. He finds his daughter as she is being sold to the highest bidder at an auction. This movie portrays women as objects that men can sell or do what ever they want with them. The movie portrays this in a negative light and shows that certain parts of the world treat women horribly. Society in these parts of the world allow women to be treated this way. The movie shows how this is not right and that women should be treated as equals. Women should be treated with respect.

The Women

I recently watched the movie "The Women" starring Meg Ryan. It is about a group of four friends that all go through various problems with men and work. There are no men shown in this movie. The star, Meg Ryan finds out that her husband is having an affair and doesnt know what to do about it. At the beginning the movie portrays women as being weak, timid and always putting their man's life above their own. The star constantly puts her husband's needs first and neglected her own career. However, through the help of her friends and by going to a camp she comes to gain her own confidence and take back her life. She starts her own fashion line, kicks her husband out and develops a stronger relationship with her daughter. This displays how women have come to grow and become more independent in society. They begin to take on their own careers and learn that having a marriage means being equal partners. This movie is a good representation of the current values and ideals in society.

House Bunny

The other day I watched the movie "House Bunny" starring Anna Faris. It is about a dumb blonde who gets kicked out of the playboy mansion and has nowhere to go so she decides to become a den mother for a outsider sorority. This movie portrays women as the superficial dumb beautiful blondes that society would like girls to be. It displays the Barbie Doll image of a fit tall beautiful blonde. The main character gives the girls makeovers and tries to make them more like her much like society does. However, this message is changed in the end when the girls realize that they dont want to be superficial and judgemental like they seemed to become. Theyt become so involved in their appearances and boys instead of focusing on what truly matters. Although the makeovers got them more attention and they were able to attract boys, they turned into girls that they didnt want to be. Society often wants young girls to be like barbies and have the perfect body. These college girls realize in the end that it is more important to just be yourself rather than be superficial like they had become.

Sex and the City

Yesterday I watched an episode of "Sex and the City" and it was all about the different portrayals of men and women. The main character Carrie expressed how in New York City there is often more older single women than their are older single men. She explains how men tend to marry younger and settle and how it is harder for a woman to do so. She also talks about sex and how in society men are much more casual about sex. She even goes on to test this theory by having sex with a man and then leaving as soon as its over by making up some excuse about work. This episode displays how society often portrays women and how men are usually the dominant species in sex and relationships. Carrie explained after having acted like the man she felt powerful and more energetic for her day. She felt like the dominant one in the relationship. She explained that society depicts men and women in completely different ways and that it is ok for men to act this way but it is not acceptable for women to act in this manner.

John Tucker Must Die

The movie "John Tucker Must Die" is about a popular guy in high school who can get any girl he wants and how he prides himself on being able to have more than one girl at once without them knowing about it. A few girls find out and decide to get even by breaking his heart. This movie describes how society sometimes portrays men as being powful, masculine and able to outsmart women with their simple charm. The guy uses his looks and believes that it just makes women fall to his feet. This movie initially displays women as being weak and love obsessed with good looking guys. Every girl in the movie thinks he is a god and is willing to do anything for him. However, as the movie progresses the girls begin to out smart him and show him that just because he is good looking does not mean he gets whatever he wants. He learns that lying and cheating is not right. He realizes that his thinking about how girls should feel priviledged to date him and should feel honored or special is wrong. The girls realize that they do not need him and that they are strong independent girls.

The First Wives Club

This past week I watched the film "The First Wives Club" starring Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, and Bette Midler. The movie follows the story of three women who have to deal with the hardships of their husbands leaving them for younger prettier women. The idea portrayed is that in society men are expected to have the young looking "trophy wife" and that after a certain age women are past their prime. This idea is degrading to women everywhere and makes them feel that they are over the hill once they reach a certain age. It expresses that once women start to look old that they are no longer wanted and are replaced. However, the characters within the film chose to stand up against this societal idea and get back at their husbands. They stood up for women and showed that women do not grow out of their prime. Women are smart and men should appreciate the wife they have and not going looking for someone who is young and looks like they are in their twenties.

A League of Their Own

This week I watched the movie "A League of Their Own" starring Geena Davis and Tom Hanks. The movie involves women being asked to leave the kitchen and go to work as baseball players while their men are away at war. If the women made the teams they were asked to put on a show for the people while playing America's pasttime. They were expected to create good ticket sales and play for a crowd. This movie displays how society believed that a woman's place was in the kitchen cooking and cleaning. People believed that men were the only ones who should be working and that a woman was simply a homemaker whose jobs was to take care of the children.
At the end of the movie the men begin to return from the war overseas and many people believed that women's baseball was no longer needed and that the women were to return to the kitchen. However, a few people stood up and said that women were asked to help the nation by working and that it is not right to send them back home. This ending displays how society's views changed over time and how women came to be respected as part of the working class.

Gender in "She's the Man"

There are many gender issues that you can see when watching the movie "She's The Man" starring Amanda Bynes. The movie itself centers around the idea of a girl having to pretend to be a guy in order to play on a guys high school soccer team because they refused to let her try out as a girl. The coach believed that girls are not capable of playing with boys because they are not as fast, strong, or athletic as boys. However, the girl proved to be as good as the boys and was later able to play with them. This movie displays how attitudes on gender can often influence social behavior. The movie represents the age old mind set of men being more fit than girls and girls not being able to be as good as boys in anything. The coach represents the idea of power and masculinity being bigger and better. The girl represents the feminity and how women are constantly changing the image men have set forth. Throughout the movie the representation of men and women changes. At the beginning men are displayed as the powerful ones who believe women are beneath them and women are displayed as having to follow the rules of men. However, at the end men prove to have an open mind and accept that women are equal and women prove to be powerful in their own ways.