Friday, 11 March 2011
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
XXploitation
As far as filmmakers are concerned, women are nothing more than eye-candy, and their only place in film is to be enjoyment for a male audience.
here is a picture of the original Marvel Drawing of Elektra.
and.... suddenly the idea of Twin Sai is'nt quite so hot anymore.... *Shudder*
A glowing example of this form of exploitation of the female form in modern cinema is the notorious "Bond film"
For generattions the bond film has perpetuated ideaologies and negative perceptions of women in the form of "Bond girls"- in short they are women who are domintaed mentally emotionally, and normally sexually by the infamous spy James Bond himself. To top it off, they even have degrading names, such as "Pussy Galore" or "Molly Goodhead" conclusively, the name of the character "does what it says on the tin" and makes the intentions of James Bond regarding these women blindinlgy obvious, just in case you didn't know...
In "The world is not enough" bond is told by a female doctor that he has a broken collarbone, and consequently she can not discharge him for duty. This is not the outcome he wanted. He gains control of the situation by seducing her, he does this by stripping off her shirt. She replies by clearing him for duty, and merely says "you have to promise to call me this time" - OMG??????!!!!!!!
Truly, no female doctor is going to stand for this type of sexual harrassment, but Bond is a whole different story. He can do what he wants, because he is the one and only, indestructible spy, who can, and frequently does, pursue and hook up with women. He has sexual relations with a different woman in every film. In real life, he'd be sent to a sex addicts rehab.
According to Harding (2003) it was estimated that over half of the world's population have watched a James Bond film at some stage in their lifetime. It is simply shocking, to put it mildly, that so many people have watched and taken in these negative female stereotypes.
This is also very important thinking in terms of gender roles, especially in a patriarchal society. This form of Socialisation is training women to believe that men are allwoed, and expected to dominate and disrespect them, after all James Bond uses women as tools to satisfy his own sexual desire, the women in question have absolutely no say in what he chooses to do, and have no emotional attachment to him, neither do they expect any form of respect, mutual understanding or affection from him. This is also perpetuating negative ideologies about the nature of relationships in a world where the man dominates,and the woman merely coexists.
Ideally a female protagonist should be fairly young (usually in her 20's) have a good body, and appear as sexually available to the male protagonist in most cases. These characters are such that men are invited to freely fantasise about them. This is a very dangerous image to be sending out. Men will expect all women to look like something out of a Marvel comic, and women will be aspiring to yet another unachievable ideal that has been bombarded at them via the media. What's more, people have become sex-obsessed, and the media won't stop banging on about it (pun intended). These sexually explicit and candid images and messages floating around the media are being sent out to young people, and making them feel that the sexual usage of fake, plastic looking women in tight clothes is normal and acceptable behavior, or even worse, women will begin to see it as normal behavior, and allow themselves to be used and abused. This is a process that has been going on for over a century of cinematic entertainment, a patriarchal stab at women for agreeing with the likes of Emmaline Pankhurst for gaining the vote, for standing up against chattel marriage, let's call it "Cattle Marriage", it was a method of enslaving human livestock, and making "Yo' b*tch" do whatever you wanted, naturally the men didnt like this, so perhaps they attempted to suppress women in other ways.
Despite the fact that Audrey Hepburn was naturally beautiful (essential in film) she represents a more neutral, sophisticated heroine. Her features are soft and childlike, and the characters she played tended to be quite innocent young women. This toned down version of sex appeal used to be the messages sent out in cinema in quite a lot of films from the 20's-50's for a LEAD heroine.
The final scene of Breakfast at Tiffany's- A glowing example of the innocent female protagonist, what was considered a good role model in cinema (just click on the purple heading and it will direct you straight to youtube)
Needless to say, there was ALWAYS the sexualised Femme Fatale" or vamp. even in this time!
Greta Garbo was fantastically skilled at playing these "Vamp" characters, and her legacy in these types of roles remains legendary to this day. Greta Garbo's romantic scenes were some of the most emotionally intense, and sometimes controversial in cinematic history. Some films that starred Greta Garbo were even controversial themselves!
What made this scene incredibly awkward for the time was quite clearly, the bastardization of women's roles. Greta Garbo subverted and twisted the gender roles in cinema, and made the innocent heroine seem boring... Perhaps we girls are almost trained like dogs into believing that this scene from Queen Christina is awkward, sick and wrong, and perhaps we have been brainwashed into believing that it is not the right way for women to behave... granted... it's not, as far as men are concerned.
These days men can afford to be less subtle... this image of catwoman is as subtle as a brick to the face...
leather, flesh, the whip, the dark skin.... hmm.... exotic-looking.... and dangerous.... This is softcore porn, with nuances of S&M. It wouldn't have even been that successful if Halle Berry wasn't attractive, slender, exotic-looking and dressed in fettish gear!
a cheeky, self assured minx, who knows what she is doing... This makes her seem dangerous, almost like a forbidden fantasy, I say ALMOST because catwoman appears to be engineered as nothing BUT a fantasy.
Funnily enough, most Marvel heroines are simply to serve as just that, a nerdy men’s fantasy.
Jennifer Garner as Elektra is no exception. Marvel also seems to have played on the exoticism to an extreme as well. She is an expert in martial arts, and went to a martial arts school, which is a very orientalised idea. She also fights with twin Sai. A Ninja weapon which dates back to the Ancient Egyptian times.
Edward Said had an interesting theory that oriental women are even more sexualised than western women; they are often shown as sexually submissive and needing to be controlled. This is a very dangerous image to be sending out, and it gives a very negative message. This theory is called Orientalism. Edward Said also states that oriental man are shown as more feminine that western men, in conclusion, oriental people are treated differently and stripped of their sexuality, this alienation of other ethnic groups of people is called “The other”
Perhaps men also rather like the idea of danger inherent in the feminine mystique. A woman that could potentially hurt you either physically or emotionally adds to the excitement of this fantasy at times, especially in the case of these Marvel heroines, or modern heroines who are experts of martial arts. It seems that a combination of violence and seduction is essential in the construction of these modern heroines.
Despite Elektra being dangerous, strong and seductive and seemingly independent she still fits the mould of the stereotypical heroine. She still takes on the role of a mother, and falls in love with the main protagonist, who she was originally sent to kill. Instead, she decides against the completion of the task she was sent to do, and takes to protecting the main protagonist who she on the drop of a hat decides she now loves, and mothers his daughter, protecting her from the evil band of assassins known as “The Hand” what is interesting about them as a group of assassins is that they are shown as dark, frightening, mysterious, and in short, epitomise the concept of Edward Said’s Orientalism and the other as a theory. In short, the film had little or no relevance to the original comic, there was no mentioning of daredevil. I know… I was gutted too…. And her rash behaviour seemed a little bit, well…. Odd…. Strong woman is still compromised, should have been a tagline for the original trailer… just saying…
A glowing example of this form of exploitation of the female form in modern cinema is the notorious "Bond film"
For generattions the bond film has perpetuated ideaologies and negative perceptions of women in the form of "Bond girls"- in short they are women who are domintaed mentally emotionally, and normally sexually by the infamous spy James Bond himself. To top it off, they even have degrading names, such as "Pussy Galore" or "Molly Goodhead" conclusively, the name of the character "does what it says on the tin" and makes the intentions of James Bond regarding these women blindinlgy obvious, just in case you didn't know...
In "The world is not enough" bond is told by a female doctor that he has a broken collarbone, and consequently she can not discharge him for duty. This is not the outcome he wanted. He gains control of the situation by seducing her, he does this by stripping off her shirt. She replies by clearing him for duty, and merely says "you have to promise to call me this time" - OMG??????!!!!!!!
Truly, no female doctor is going to stand for this type of sexual harrassment, but Bond is a whole different story. He can do what he wants, because he is the one and only, indestructible spy, who can, and frequently does, pursue and hook up with women. He has sexual relations with a different woman in every film. In real life, he'd be sent to a sex addicts rehab.
According to Harding (2003) it was estimated that over half of the world's population have watched a James Bond film at some stage in their lifetime. It is simply shocking, to put it mildly, that so many people have watched and taken in these negative female stereotypes.
This is also very important thinking in terms of gender roles, especially in a patriarchal society. This form of Socialisation is training women to believe that men are allwoed, and expected to dominate and disrespect them, after all James Bond uses women as tools to satisfy his own sexual desire, the women in question have absolutely no say in what he chooses to do, and have no emotional attachment to him, neither do they expect any form of respect, mutual understanding or affection from him. This is also perpetuating negative ideologies about the nature of relationships in a world where the man dominates,and the woman merely coexists.
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