Damsel in distress

In today’s modern society women’s literature seems to be fascinated with the romance of abnormal couples. As we all know the popular book series of Twilight sparked the world’s fascination of vampires and the romance of a mortal teenage woman and a forever young teenage vampire. Throughout the books it follows the semi-love triangle of three teens Bella, Edward, Jacob and forbidden love. For three out of the four books it is written through the thoughts and emotions of Bella point of view and…

There is a widespread belief among scientists that they have been successful at objectively forming scientific theories, but upon further inspection it is clear to see that may scientists incorporate gendered biases into their findings. There is an entire scientific field dedicated to determining what biologically separates males and females, and what behaviorally separates men and women, generally focused on defining which group is superior. This type of science restricts findings to a binary…

The aegyo that the female celebrities portray to their audience supports the cliché damsel in distress mentality and the need for male protection. The gendered image of females in the media embodies the notion that young women are expected to portray themselves to their male counterparts as fragile and helpless. The aegyo behavior that South Korean popular culture portrays perpetuates the sexualisation of young girls. Groups such as Lovelyz and GFRIEND have music videos—both of which have more…

Men in my opinion are overlooked and sometimes are not taken seriously when talking about stereotypes, even though they receive just as much if not more than females. The first stereotype that comes to mind when dealing with men are the colors we associate with the male gender, blue and green. We see this frequently in advertising, especially when announcing the birth of a child. I think we use these colors because they relate to men loving to spend time outdoors. Green for the grass and blue…

Three confirmations that would support the claim of how the delayed progress of women holding office is due to the media’s representation of women is the gendered socialization created, the miniscule amount of female protagonists, and the idea of taking the boss down a peg. Caroline Heldman states that “there is a gendered socialization where politics is for men, leadership is considered masculine, and women are discouraged from pursuing ambitious positions.” I think this is the biggest reason…

For centuries, folklore has defined different cultures around the world. Many of these tales have been adapted into mainstream media for children by companies such as Disney. Unsurprisingly, Disney leaves out a lot of the original stories. The fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen are meant to express topics involving the loss of innocence that young ones are not expected to know. Amidst modern literature, Joyce Carol Oates’s inserts similar connotations in her 1966…

The Academy award winning film Titanic depicts ideologies of gender and class differences of the 1910’s. Masculinity of the upper class male is portrayed as strong, violent and intellectual men. On the contrary, upper class women are represented as separate spheres and submissive to the males. James Cameron, the writer and director, makes a fascinating portrayal of Rose, the lead character, in relation to feminity. The movie Titanic visibly depicts the altering disposition of women’s place in…

Present Impacts of The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper’s the Last of the Mohicans tackles the racism of the Jacksonian era through a story based around the late 1700s. He portrays the racism through his characters, for example, the main character proclaims after just learning someone’s race, “A Mingo [group of Native Americans] is a Mingo, and God having made him so, neither the Mohawks nor any other tribe can alter him” (Cooper 29). This quote shows how influential race is in the…

expectations of ourselves. You can only imagine my heartbreak when I found out about Bob the Builder. Young girls don’t get to be mischievous, crime fighting heroes or witty, intellectual builders. It’s usually one of the two classic roles, an insipid damsel in distress or a heartless…

Written in 1844, The Snow Queen or Snedronningen by Hans Christian Andersen is a unique and feminist tale about the journey to adulthood, however with deeper analysis through both a psychoanalytical and feminist perspective it is evident that the underlying themes of this fairy-tale reflect the views of a patriarchal society. The Snow Queen, is centred around a young boy, Kay, whose complex personality is represented by Gerda, his childhood friend, and The Snow Queen. Although this fairy-tale is…