Women’s Portrayal in Modern Hollywood

People all around the globe consume the showbiz industry media products, namely movies, on a regular basis. Such movies bear a massive role in our lives and help shape our ideas about social, economic, and governmental issues. Films are peppered with information that reaches viewers far and wide. This information promotes our views around the globe, and in regards to this study, our understanding of females. Women have made great progress in all factors of life, but their interpretation on-screen has been trapped by patriarchal generalizations and normative camp that do not indicate reality. Hollywood’s use of category movies has perpetuated such depictions. Through set treatments and set conferences, category movies tell familiar experiences to large viewers. And category concept informs us that these treatments have been maintained because of audiences’ appreciation toward such movies and Hollywood’s wishes to make enormous profits. In common films, women were seen as passive characters while men were active characters. Often, women were used as inspiration for the male protagonists, causing them to act and move the plot forward. Women were seen as nearly ‘only exist as a result of the male’ - this may be found in such films as 007. The women's activist movement has always battled for women's rights and equality to put women on equal standing with men in society. This upheaval has since been translated onto the cinema, as movies depict women assuming prominent and dominant roles, which starkly contrast the past when women played submissive and subservient roles to male characters.

Representation of Women in Contemporary Hollywood

Since the women’s liberation movement in the 1960s, their roles in social, cultural, political, and economic life have radically improved and advanced, seemingly providing women with equal standing to men in many aspects of life. Yet, the male predominance of the film industry, like many other industries worldwide, is still evident in the 21st century. While females have made tremendous strides, how much of these shifts have been translated into pop culture and the media we consume regularly? Douglas Kellner, a critical theorist, stated, "Radio, TV, film, and other products of media culture provide materials out of which we forge our unique identities, our sense of selfhood; our notion of what it means to be male or female" (Kellner, 1995). It is these products that have the power to circulate ideas, convey insightful narratives, and educate audiences. Because of this significant role, we must understand what messages these products are circulating about women. Do they convey the realities of the world or merely promote normative ideologies? Images, and especially cinematic images, influence our perspective and are arranged in a manner that resonates with us. Unfortunately, or rather predictably, post-liberation Hollywood films' depictions of women adhere to patriarchal structures, albeit with time, have veiled these messages under the guise of female empowerment and independence.

Traditional Depictions and Modern Shifts

Females in Western films were typically associated with the damsel in distress. But does this still exist today? With all the technological, social, political, and economic advancements in the world now, this paper discusses the ways in which females are represented in films in the twenty-first century. It is crucial that we understand what is happening now so we can break away from outdated myths about women, if necessary, and build more realistic female representations in the future. Moreover, the purpose of this paper is to see how traditional conceptions of femininity are either reinforced or challenged in contemporary culture. As the media undoubtedly has a significant impact on shaping social conceptions, an analysis of the specific images depicted in one pervasive form of popular media will attempt to demonstrate our societal norms as represented through these films.

Critical Theories and Perspectives

It's hard to discuss female gender representations without turning to scholar Laura Mulvey's approach to film studies through psychoanalytic and feminist film theory. Mulvey reveals how filmic content communicates dominant and sexist ideologies through an active male gaze. She argues that Hollywood movies utilize scopophilia, sexual pleasure through viewing, to communicate through a patriarchal system. Women are consistently 'looked at and displayed' for the male spectator's pleasure. This is evidenced throughout countless films where women are 'undermined by lingering close-ups' of their voluptuous figures and tight clothing, all 'designed to cater to the male gaze' (Mulvey, 1975). Both male and female viewers look through this male gaze because the camera is consistently positioned in such a way. In this manner, women 'become the images of significance rather than the maker of meaning'.

Visual Embellishments and Limitations

Females are increasingly used as visual embellishments. There is a genuine scarcity of popular Hollywood films that reflect women outside of the man's world. In examining how media products propagate patriarchal ideology, Kuhn focuses on the importance of looking at how women's portrayals in films are fixed and mediated, making them unable to reflect the true social world. Schatz stated, 'a genre approach provides the best means for understanding, analyzing, and appreciating the Hollywood film' (Schatz, 1981). 'Genres have traditionally been central to preserving female (and male) stereotypes in classical Hollywood film'.

Gendered Genres and Societal Implications

Many consider genre classifications themselves to be gendered, even if not linguistically. 'Westerns, war movies, action movies, martial arts movies, spy movies, gangster movies, and road movies are male film genres. Romance, romantic comedy, and melodrama, on the other hand, are female genres with a female protagonist and a female audience' (Langford, 2005). These separations imply that men have a propensity for violent, dangerous, heroic, and aggressive films, whereas women like sappy, dramatic, and emotional films. Such implications say a lot about our society and culture today. Each of these genres has its own specific construction for male and female characters. For instance, if we examine the role of the 'hero' in past entertainment, we see there is a different model to qualify as a male or female hero, generally stemming from patriarchal stereotypes about women.

References (in APA and MLA format):
- Kellner, D. (1995). Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics Between the Modern and the Postmodern. Routledge.
- Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Screen, 16(3), 6-18.
- Schatz, T. (1981). Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking, and The Studio System. McGraw-Hill.
- Langford, B. (2005). Film Genre: Hollywood and Beyond. Edinburgh University Press.