First Draft!!
“Its time to settle the score” [1] (She’s The Man-2006) To what extent has the historical representation of women been challenged in today’s world? With particular references to “She’s The Man”
Women are stereotyped, they are singled out in a patriarchal society, “the housewife is favoured, whilst the woman in power is often shown to be the villain.” [2] They are passive and vulnerable towards men. “Often when women are shown in a position of power, it is portrayed as being unnatural, because from the dominant ideology, it is the men who are the most powerful” [3] or who were the most powerful, until Feminism, In the late 1970’s, came forward a movement of women, for women which dragged women into the limelight and brought a new chapter to their lives. From films such as Star Wars in 1977 to Alien in 1979, women became powerful and dominant within film and society. The representation of women spread over to film, adverts, magazines and other media texts, the dominant ideology within society broke traditional stereotypes of typical housewives and mothers. She’s The Man - 2006 helps emphasises this break of traditional values and brings forward a new outlook for women, being my main text it shows how historical representations of females are being challenged in today’s world.
10 Things I hate about you - 1999 juxtaposes two sisters by appearance. The first being immensely obsessed with her image as a typical female would be in a chick flick comedy. In Contrast, the other being deeply involved within her education, and being less concerned about her image. The first sister reinforcing stereotypes of a bimbo, whereas, the second sister challenging stereotypes by being intelligent, “It is also shown that a woman is either intelligent or beautiful; but rarely both.” [4] The sisters carry each single stereotype but cannot carry both. In addition, Mean Girls - 2004 portray how image amongst females is vital and females are portrayed as self obsessed. Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls is portrayed as a “plastic” [5] her beauty is emphasized and exaggerated, but her intelligence is frowned upon, as her being a “plastic” is seen as more significant. In She’s the Man - 2006, Viola is deprived of feminine qualities and is presented to the audience as more masculine, “Sometimes I think you might as well be your brother. [6] This is challenging as she is not image obsessed, but has an interest in football. A Sport which is normally associated with males. However, due to her being challenging stereotypes she is not accepted by her mother, as she is not conforming to typical feminine stereotypes and roles.
Mean Girls; help fulfill the “male gaze” [7] the females are subjected to objectification, due to the short, skimpy clothing. Thus, therefore representing how females are reinforcing typical stereotypes of being there “to-be-looked-at-ness.” [8] With no other relevance apart from being objectified.
Clueless-1995 being a historical text, show typical feminine roles being expressed. “Sex, Clothes, Popularity…” [9] Being the tagline immediately gives away apparent stereotypical roles of females. It emphases the genre of the film as from the tagline we are able to understand it is a chick flick. “Sex, Clothes and Popularity” being associated typically with females shows how the film carries stereotypes. In contrast to She’s the Man, were “It’s time to settle the score” portrays more masculine qualities. However, the “Sex” in the tagline of Clueless, is not hinted towards the females as the “woman being a virgin, which is very much a part of the dominant ideology, but does not apply to men.” [10] Shows how men are more associated with the word “Sex” which reinforces a patriarchal society as the tagline promotes a masculine value first, then the typical female qualities are promoted.
Historical representations are however, being challenged in today’s world regardless of previous texts due to films such as Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill-2004. Uma Thurman is presented to us a powerful, dominant and revengeful. Compared to previous texts such as, Fatal Attraction- 1987 were the first female is weak and vulnerable. However, the vamp character in Fatal Attraction is punished for being bad. In comparison to Kill Bill, as Thurman is being bad by going against typical female stereotypes yet still manages to defeat the male in the film and gain a positive outcome. Thus, representing the change in attitude and historical representation of women. Furthermore, other films such as Casino Royale- 2006 show role reversal, as men are being objectified just as much as women. A specific scene were James Bond is seen coming out of the water semi naked expresses how a female gaze has occurred as this would normally be seen as a typical female role. Thus, linking to my main text, She’s The Man, which shows Viola cross dressing as a male in order to fulfil her desires of playing football equally amongst men, both emphasising how roles have been reversed of both genders. In addition, “It is widely noted that since the 1980s there has been an increasing display and sexualisation of the male body in mainstream cinema and television and in advertising” [11] which shows, how males are subjected to objectification as well or just as much as females were if not more, proving that historical representations of women are being challenged. “The number of housewife images began to decline slowly after the 1950’s” [12] which also shows how due to feminism waves and World War One, women were gaining higher status and their stereotypes began to change. World War One, enabled women to prove themselves of how reliant and hard-working they were, and of how they could do anything that men were capable of doing.
In contrast Casino Royale still objectifies women as they are still portrayed as sex objects, “Women are seen as disposable pleasures rather than a maintaining pursuit” [13] even though this contemporary text manages to go against stereotypical roles, it still to an extent portrays females typically, by subjected them to objectification. In addition, She’s the Man, portrays how difficult it is for women to beat a man whilst being a woman, “If you can’t beat em, be em” [14], Viola expresses how by turning herself into a man she is more likely to be accepted and is more able to beat a male.
Previous James Bond films, such as “Licence to kill”- 1989, or “Goldeneye” – 1995, all had specific “Bond Girls” chosen, by referring the female as “Bond’s” girl the females was objectified. However, in the more recent James Bond film, “Casino Royale” – 2006, we see James Bond being objectified as well as the women, showing historical representation to be challenged.
Other media texts, apart from film also express how the representation of females vary such as adverts, and with the breakthrough of feminism the adverts have become more active than passive towards females. Adverts such as Flash where the male is seen to be promoting the household products and is seen to be cleaning himself rather than his wife expresses how the females are breaking away from historical representations. In addition to this, the Mr Muscle adverts portray a man doing his own housework with no female in sight, both adverts representing a breakthrough of gender roles, and role reversal. “Male Chauvinism” [15] is dominant within males, as according to Peter F Murphy “all men are infected with male chauvinism; they were all brought up that way. It means we assume that women play subordinate roles and are less human than men.” Expressing how stereotypical roles are applied unintentionally towards females. However, both the adverts express how society is breaking away from this and a conforming to new roles, the typical gender, stereotypical roles are altering.
Even though with texts such as, magazines like “Nuts” and “Zoo” which portray women as sex objects and objectify them to fulfil the male gaze. Women’s magazines, such as “Cosmopolitan” help fight back as they portray men in a similar sense, due to semi naked men being issued in the magazine. On the other hand, “Page 3” can be seen to portray what is seen as “scotophil” [16]. However, it can be seen as a post-modern text, which makes this representation more acceptable within society and of women.
“Today’s man has pumped his pecs and shoulders and exhibits well defined abs…not many years ago, the slick and refined look defined fashion’s ideal man. Now the muscular guy dominates the runways and magazine pages.” [17] This emphasises how men are concerned about their image more than before. Before women faced pressure to look a certain way, as magazines portrayed skinny models, however, recent years express the change between the genders showing how men are just as pressured as females. On the other hand, women and adverts such as the Dove campaign – 2006, show how society is adapting to women who are not skinny and media is starting to present realistic images of females. Therefore, portraying how the historical barriers of women are being broken due to media bringing realistic images forward.
Referring back to my main text, She’s The Man – 2006. Viola associates herself with men in order to fulfil her desires for football. Viola has the football as a signifier which represents masculinity, but as she is female it can be seen to break away from stereotypes and she now is being associated with this object. However, even though she is being accepted with this challenging role by being dressed as a man, she still gets a positive outcome at the end “resolution” [18] as a female. As she is able to play football being her own gender and is accepted. The narrative has a routine structure like other chick flicks, even though it sticks to the conventions; it challenges certain conventions by having the protagonist in a challenging role of not conforming to typical stereotypes.
The stereotypical qualities of femininity are, “Domesticated, weak, emotional and passive.” [19] Whereas, for masculinity they consist of being, “Strong, professional, aggressive and competitive.” [20] In She’s the man, Viola is represented as “Strong, and competitive” as she wants to be treated the same as the men. Whereas, her ex-boyfriend is represented as “Weak and emotional” as he cries when they lose a match or when he is upset. This is role reversal as the qualities are being crossed over, and stereotypes are being challenged. Women are now socially accepted in various roles, other than just being housewives or mothers as they are now more likely to be the protagonists in films. In addition, women are now able to do things that men can, equal opportunities are more apparent as they are able to have the same jobs as men allowing this change in society to be developed and emphasised on screen through media.
“Women are put into these categories of bitch, mother or sex symbol” [21] these typical representations are associated with females in society. However, in She’s the Man, even though the “bitch” is still represented, Viola goes against the “sex symbol” representation as she challenges the stereotypes by acting upon male qualities and following her ambition instead of the typical bimbo character who would follow boys and look for popularity.
The institution, DreamWorks, promotes American values and ideologies as it is an American company. As the institution is well known, audiences are encouraged to watch the film, which shows how films like She’s the man are able to get a clear message across of changing attitudes towards women and the breaking of stereotypes. Previous films done by DreamWorks consist of Roadtrip-2000 which portrayed women as sex objects mainly as they are used for sex and pleasure. Whereas, the men are portrayed as manipulating and sexually active compared to recent films such as She’s the Man were the message of females as taken a twist into a more positive sign.
"Maybe the past is like an anchor holding us back. Maybe you have to let go of who you were, to become who you will be." [22] With females breaking away from past stereotypes, they are making space for new more acceptable stereotypes to take over. Sex and the City-1998-2004 as a sitcom presents sexually active women. They are able to be just as sexually active and get sexual pleasures as men, by challenging the typical representations as mentioned before of females being virgins. In addition to this, Monica in Friends- 1994-2004 does not rely on Chandler for financial support; she works independently and is successful. Furthermore, the Diet Coke advert portrays all the women as successful and independent and the male window cleaner is subjected to objectification and a female gaze is created.
In the Mid-1970’s, “nearly equal proportions of men and women in situation comedies” [23] shows how the representation near the wave of feminism brought forward change to television. The representation of women was being brought to screens just as much as the representation of men was, expressing equality and showing how the roles were challenged due to equality.
With most directors mainly consisting of males, females were at disadvantage as their power off screen was limited. In addition, on screen power was also limited as females were portrayed as passive, weak and vulnerable. As Tushman states, women are not seen much, their symbolically annihilated. However, more women now are on screen not only in film but in other media texts such as, television. In contrast, however, off screen still limits even though a number of female directors have come about, male directors still outnumber them.
In previous years, women were portrayed as the damsels in distress, who the hero would come and rescue, they were weak and vulnerable. Now, however, women do not need saving as their representations have changed and the roles are being altered. Propp distinguishes from “hero and villain” [24] roles, traditionally we would be encouraged to relate to the male protagonist now however, we are being influenced to relate to the female protagonist as females are now more likely to take on the main roles.
As She’s the man is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” cross dressing is used as one of the themes, this linking to 10 Things I Hate about which was an adaptation of “The Taming of the Shrew.” “The behaviour of women in general has historically often received less attention than that of men, and cross-dressing is no exception.” [25] Now however, women receive a whole lot more attention and are able to get attention for more than just their appearance, they are appreciated and accepted in various ways in society.
White Chicks – 2004 portrays two males dressed up as females; they are presented as strong and dominant. However, this strength is being portrayed through them being dressed up as females showing how females are gaining the same strength and attitude as men. In addition, it also shows how females such as Viola in She’s the Man do not dress up as men to gain power, or represent strength as men dress up as females too.
The genre of chick flicks is predominately growing as over recent years the build up of chick flicks films have increased. However, the conventions of chick flicks were mainly, high school romance, popularity, bimbo character and rebellious characters; which have been challenged to some extent as chick flick comedies are not as image centred now. They tend to include a moral at the end and break stereotypes within the film. “She’s all that” - portrayed an intelligent, quiet character who was not considered to be beautiful, however, she did not change herself to conform to typical stereotypes. In contrast, to Mean Girls, were Lindsay Lohan changes herself to fit in with the popular crowd. Linking to She’s the man, as even though Viola changes herself to fit in with the men she does not do it for typical feminine purposes but she does it for her ambition. “Masculinity qualities are Ambitious” [26] thus representing how females are gaining qualities that males were normally to be associated with, this again showing how my main text is challenging historical representations by bringing forward new representations.
“Binary opposition” [27] is used when Monique and Viola are talking outside Viola’s house, it can be used due to their representations being juxtaposed at the start of the scene. Viola’s role is being challenged as even when she is acting as her own gender, she is dressed more masculine to what is known as a “tom-boy” style; with a cap, jeans, trainers and a hood. In contrast, to what Monique is wearing, with heels, pink top and a handbag, accessories which are typically associated with females. However, even though the other females in She’s the man are dressed typically with high heels, skirts and handbags, the cross dressing enables there to be an ease at this topic as cross dressing can be seen as a way to disguise in this sense. Whereas, in Some Like it Hot - 1959 it can be seen as to create humour amongst the audience.
In Conclusion, contemporary media texts and society suggest how the “score” has been settled. The historical representation of females has been broken in not one but many ways over recent years, She’s the Man helps portray how females are as able as men and can carry out to the same activities and actions as them. Society itself has adapted to this change through Feminism and World War One, and with changes in society the media represents the change. She’s the man helps show through Viola how females are gaining the same status as men. Not only through film is this change represented but other media texts follow, the adverts of Diet Coke to Flash and the magazines such as Cosmopolitan help to bring forward a whole new change for women allowing the historical representations of females to be challenged. From damsels in distress to protagonists, women have progressed within the roles in films. After all, every woman should think “I can do whatever I want and I have a right to voice and I can find the expertise to make that voice be heard in the world.” [28]
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