Gender Inequality in Action Films:
The Underrepresentation, Misrepresentation, and Over-Sexualization of Women There has been a great rise in women who want to prove that they are just as capable, if not more capable than men. This is especially true in our government and I feel that if the films we watch are still portraying women to be followers instead of leaders. We will not grow as a society until women are seen on the big screen as more than just pleasing to the eye. Seeing strong women in the media and in films, especially lead action roles will help those who are extremely impressionable to see that women are capable and may sway them to open their minds. Action films commonly have a male lead and are deemed a genre for a …show more content…
After she believes her true love, Wesley, to be dead she agrees to marry Prince Humperdinck but is kidnapped before the nuptials take place. Her kidnappers are followed by a mysterious man in black who kidnaps Buttercup from them only to find out that it is Wesley. Buttercup then surrenders herself to Prince Humperdinck to save Wesley’s life, and he spends the rest of the film trying to rescue her back. While she is very capable of speaking her mind, she was captured three times, by three different men and spends the entire movie waiting to be rescued. Ronald Riggio’s article on how men and women are depicted in a leadership role shows that we see men and women very differently. Riggio said “… female leaders are more nurturing, empathetic, and responsive than male leaders, but they will also report the negative side (e.g. moody). Male leaders, on the other hand, are perceived to be more action-oriented and more focused on tasks.” While men like to take charge and demand order, women are ever-evolving and have an easier time adapting to the changing world around them. When we do see women in a lead action role, they are often accompanied by a strong male, who is typically a love interest as well, which takes away from the fact that a lead action role was given to a female. Men and women are both seen as protectors of their …show more content…
The roles that were given to women were given real-to-life personas, while men were given roles relating to work. (Lauzen, It’s a Man’s World…) There has been an unspoken standard set for the heroes in action films, and it has created a stigma for women’s capability to fill the role. Women don’t have brute strength, they show more emotion, and tend to be the ones supporting the male in a film, rather than the other way around. A study conducted by Katy Gilpatric found that 58% of female characters who played a violent role were also submissive to the hero (male lead), and that 42% were involved in a romantic relationship with the hero. She states that “…The majority of female action characters shown in American cinema are not images of empowerment; they do not draw upon their femininity as a source of power, and they are not a kind of ‘post gender woman’ operating outside the boundries of traditional gender restrictions. Instead they operate inside highly socially constructed gender norms, rely on the strength and guidance of a dominant male action character, and end up re-articulating gender stereotypes.” (Nauert, Female Stereotypes Persist in American Films) In The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen is the lead role and she is brave, a tough free-spirit, and not overly sexualized. The hunger games are a fight to the death between twenty-four individuals aged 12-18. She volunteers herself to be tribute in
The Underrepresentation, Misrepresentation, and Over-Sexualization of Women There has been a great rise in women who want to prove that they are just as capable, if not more capable than men. This is especially true in our government and I feel that if the films we watch are still portraying women to be followers instead of leaders. We will not grow as a society until women are seen on the big screen as more than just pleasing to the eye. Seeing strong women in the media and in films, especially lead action roles will help those who are extremely impressionable to see that women are capable and may sway them to open their minds. Action films commonly have a male lead and are deemed a genre for a …show more content…
After she believes her true love, Wesley, to be dead she agrees to marry Prince Humperdinck but is kidnapped before the nuptials take place. Her kidnappers are followed by a mysterious man in black who kidnaps Buttercup from them only to find out that it is Wesley. Buttercup then surrenders herself to Prince Humperdinck to save Wesley’s life, and he spends the rest of the film trying to rescue her back. While she is very capable of speaking her mind, she was captured three times, by three different men and spends the entire movie waiting to be rescued. Ronald Riggio’s article on how men and women are depicted in a leadership role shows that we see men and women very differently. Riggio said “… female leaders are more nurturing, empathetic, and responsive than male leaders, but they will also report the negative side (e.g. moody). Male leaders, on the other hand, are perceived to be more action-oriented and more focused on tasks.” While men like to take charge and demand order, women are ever-evolving and have an easier time adapting to the changing world around them. When we do see women in a lead action role, they are often accompanied by a strong male, who is typically a love interest as well, which takes away from the fact that a lead action role was given to a female. Men and women are both seen as protectors of their …show more content…
The roles that were given to women were given real-to-life personas, while men were given roles relating to work. (Lauzen, It’s a Man’s World…) There has been an unspoken standard set for the heroes in action films, and it has created a stigma for women’s capability to fill the role. Women don’t have brute strength, they show more emotion, and tend to be the ones supporting the male in a film, rather than the other way around. A study conducted by Katy Gilpatric found that 58% of female characters who played a violent role were also submissive to the hero (male lead), and that 42% were involved in a romantic relationship with the hero. She states that “…The majority of female action characters shown in American cinema are not images of empowerment; they do not draw upon their femininity as a source of power, and they are not a kind of ‘post gender woman’ operating outside the boundries of traditional gender restrictions. Instead they operate inside highly socially constructed gender norms, rely on the strength and guidance of a dominant male action character, and end up re-articulating gender stereotypes.” (Nauert, Female Stereotypes Persist in American Films) In The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen is the lead role and she is brave, a tough free-spirit, and not overly sexualized. The hunger games are a fight to the death between twenty-four individuals aged 12-18. She volunteers herself to be tribute in