Gender and Politics in Mad Max: Fury Road
POL-1101-005
Silke Groeneweg
Student Number: 3070107 A film like Mad Max: Fury Road, like any blockbuster, is meant to excite, entertain and elicit emotions. The most recent instalment in the Mad Max franchise does all that and more. Taking place in a desert wasteland caused by nuclear war, Mad Max: Fury Road examines power that individuals have and the role gender has in determining power. This examination of power and gender can extend to examining the greater society where men and women deal with gender roles and where they face to either overcome predetermined social stereotypes, fight to uphold them or are forced to conform.
The film begins when Max is abducted by a party of “war boys” who take …show more content…
A scene that depicts the power Immortan Joe and the other men have is when multiple women are shown being milked. This scene really depicts the role of women in the Citadel as subservient and that their only purpose is to provide him with resources like milk or children. The situations these women face are dehumanizing and deplorable. Some women are hooked onto milking machines like cattle while Joe’s wives spend their days in a locked vault separated from everyone else only to be used as breeders and are not thought of as people but as the property of Immortan …show more content…
The large amount of what is typically considered masculine characteristics show by Immortan Joe, his war-boys and his allies, the Gas Man and the Bullet Farmer are cast in a negative light throughout the film. Their brutish, violent behavior and their desire to impress Joe to be the root cause of the current unequal, dysfunctional society and is depicted as an “agent of suffering and oppression” (Steven, 2015). In contrast, the characteristics of the female characters are depicted as constructive and the only way to increase stability and peace. The traits of peace-building and just leadership in the women are evident and applauded at the end of the film when the return to the Citadel and are welcomed by the both the people that live below the Citadel, the war-boys and the women exploited for their milk. They recognize the ability of the women to lead and are ecstatic to see the end of Immortan Joe’s tyrannical rule.
In conclusion, Mad Max: Fury Road uses the beautiful desert landscape and grotesque violence as a way to play out conflicts of power and equality. The film challenges the conventional role of women in positions of power and uses its characters to examine the power held by both genders by examining the contrast between those who wish for the traditional ways to be upheld and those who wish to have freedom from
POL-1101-005
Silke Groeneweg
Student Number: 3070107 A film like Mad Max: Fury Road, like any blockbuster, is meant to excite, entertain and elicit emotions. The most recent instalment in the Mad Max franchise does all that and more. Taking place in a desert wasteland caused by nuclear war, Mad Max: Fury Road examines power that individuals have and the role gender has in determining power. This examination of power and gender can extend to examining the greater society where men and women deal with gender roles and where they face to either overcome predetermined social stereotypes, fight to uphold them or are forced to conform.
The film begins when Max is abducted by a party of “war boys” who take …show more content…
A scene that depicts the power Immortan Joe and the other men have is when multiple women are shown being milked. This scene really depicts the role of women in the Citadel as subservient and that their only purpose is to provide him with resources like milk or children. The situations these women face are dehumanizing and deplorable. Some women are hooked onto milking machines like cattle while Joe’s wives spend their days in a locked vault separated from everyone else only to be used as breeders and are not thought of as people but as the property of Immortan …show more content…
The large amount of what is typically considered masculine characteristics show by Immortan Joe, his war-boys and his allies, the Gas Man and the Bullet Farmer are cast in a negative light throughout the film. Their brutish, violent behavior and their desire to impress Joe to be the root cause of the current unequal, dysfunctional society and is depicted as an “agent of suffering and oppression” (Steven, 2015). In contrast, the characteristics of the female characters are depicted as constructive and the only way to increase stability and peace. The traits of peace-building and just leadership in the women are evident and applauded at the end of the film when the return to the Citadel and are welcomed by the both the people that live below the Citadel, the war-boys and the women exploited for their milk. They recognize the ability of the women to lead and are ecstatic to see the end of Immortan Joe’s tyrannical rule.
In conclusion, Mad Max: Fury Road uses the beautiful desert landscape and grotesque violence as a way to play out conflicts of power and equality. The film challenges the conventional role of women in positions of power and uses its characters to examine the power held by both genders by examining the contrast between those who wish for the traditional ways to be upheld and those who wish to have freedom from