Critical research about women in film

[missmedia]

all comments welcome



dispite genre do women in film play stereotypical roles?



as in even though in action/adventure films ect they appear to take on a masculine role do they at some point take on a feminine role?

[batman]

Oh no .... not another question about women in films! Are the people who set these assignments that limited in their imagination that they can't think up some new questions!

How about .... 'Are Men Neutered by the Appearance of Women in Leading Roles in Action Films?'. At least it's different.

[rbrooks2008]

Let's take bets on it being the same college and group?

[Steve Crook]

name='rbrooks2008']Let's take bets on it being the same college and group?

The only thing media studies lecturers seem to be able to think of is variations on the "Women in Film" theme.

Why aren't there more women directors?

Are women in film being exploited?

etc. etc. ad nauseum



Steve

[torinfan]

I took a political science course in college, called Politics in Sci-Fi Films and when we saw Alien in class, my professor drew attention to the fact that the hero was a woman.



Then, when we saw the original War of the Worlds, he pointed out that a central female character in the film had her PhD, something very rare for a woman to have in the 1950's.



No, my professor was not a woman but he was very liberal with regards to women's rights and equality, etc.

[Gary D.]

I guess I'm just not with it these days. If a woman's good as a director, more power to her--as in Ida Lupino. In an all-male movie, read John Wayne's wartime epics, would a woman have to be inserted just to be politically correct if they were to redo any of them? I have read many novels where a woman was the central chacter and have never had a problem relating to her. And who says boys can't enjoy Louisa May Alcott?



I would have once said I had a bias against women writers--and there seem to be many more of them these days than men--but I always enjoy Margaret Truman's mysteries, Mary Stewart, and especially Mary Renault. Of course, as to the latter, Ms. Renault, a lesbian, when she was once asked by an interviewer why she always wrote about men, she replied, 'Because men are more interesting.'



No doubt, I am off the point, again.

[AdrianTurner]

What really depresses me is that so many students, such as the OP missmedia, cannot string a sentence together and have little grasp of grammar or basic spelling. We are all capable of lapses and typos but this sort of thing goes way beyond that; it reveals a deep failing in the education system. Frankly, they don't deserve to have their pathetic questions answered, nor do our students deserve to have lecturers locked in a 1980s timewarp.

[rbrooks2008]

If a woman played a role in a film where she worked with hifi equipment, would that be stereo typical?



Okay, I'm leaving now!

[Gypsy]

Aw, give the girl a break.She can't help it if the educational powers that be keep pretending that doing these courses will get the students wonderful jobs in the movies.



Women in film usually take on feminine roles because they are women. Men usually take on masculine roles because they are men. From the 70s to the 90s it was believed that more men went to the cinema than women, so there were more action heroes and predominantly male dominated films. Now they KNOW that more young men buy DVDs and generally heterosexual men don't want to see Sex and The City or Mamma Mia, where there is a strong lead woman character. They like a bit of sex and a beautiful woman though. Generally women don't want to view too much violence or horror, so don't want to see Reservoir Dogs, Football Factory or Teeth. In the 1930s and 40s more women went to the "pictures" and were more interested in romances and Lurve, hence appendages to the strong, heroic man were popular. But let's not forget Bette Davis. What is true is that there are very few women who can "open" a movie. Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts were able to do that briefly. Sigourney Weaver was playing a man's role in Alien, (no sexuality apparent) but could also open a movie. Meryl Streep possibly.



But this is just MY opinion. In the movies, as in life, there are strong, weak, working and stay at home women. I think men in movies can be stereotyped too, i.e. the strong, invincible hero or the emasculated idiot as depicted in so much tv.



It's all about money in the end. So (see above) it's who's buying the DVDs.

[Wicked Lady]

I think a better question to the lecturer would be: why do you perpetuate the notion that the woman's role in film is secondary to men's by asking these stupid feaking questions?



A women can star in a film and make it a hit.



A woman can direct a film and make a hit.



A woman can write a good script and make a hit.



By continually asking this sort of idiotic question, lecturers are planting the seed in each generation of film student that women are some how incapable of doing any of these things.

[Bernardo]

name='Wicked Lady']I think a better question to the lecturer would be: why do you perpetuate the notion that the woman's role in film is secondary to men's by asking these stupid feaking questions?



A women can star in a film and make it a hit.



A woman can direct a film and make a hit.



A woman can write a good script and make a hit.



By continually asking this sort of idiotic question, lecturers are planting the seed in each generation of film student that women are some how incapable of doing any of these things.

Well put and closes the topic I think.

[rbrooks2008]

name='Wicked Lady']I think a better question to the lecturer would be: why do you perpetuate the notion that the woman's role in film is secondary to men's by asking these stupid feaking questions?



A women can star in a film and make it a hit.



A woman can direct a film and make a hit.



A woman can write a good script and make a hit.



By continually asking this sort of idiotic question, lecturers are planting the seed in each generation of film student that women are some how incapable of doing any of these things.

It's almost the same technique that those child abuse people had done in the States and something to do with selective memory. Tell the child enough about it being abused then it becomes true in the little ones mind.

[Steve Crook]

name='Bernardo']Well put and closes the topic I think.

If only that were true. But I expect that there'll probably be another one along soon when another media studies lecturer has the novel idea of setting an essay on women in film



Steve

[torinfan]

name='Wicked Lady']I think a better question to the lecturer would be: why do you perpetuate the notion that the woman's role in film is secondary to men's by asking these stupid feaking questions?



A women can star in a film and make it a hit.



A woman can direct a film and make a hit.



A woman can write a good script and make a hit.



By continually asking this sort of idiotic question, lecturers are planting the seed in each generation of film student that women are some how incapable of doing any of these things.

Very well put, Wicked Lady.

[Caine]

name='Wicked Lady']I think a better question to the lecturer would be: why do you perpetuate the notion that the woman's role in film is secondary to men's by asking these stupid feaking questions?



A women can star in a film and make it a hit.



A woman can direct a film and make a hit.



A woman can write a good script and make a hit.



A woman can ruin a perfectly good war film.



By continually asking this sort of idiotic question, lecturers are planting the seed in each generation of film student that women are some how incapable of doing any of these things.

Can I join in the "Well Put"s please.