Representation and Feminism

While talking about Anchorage, Semiotics, Context etc, we touched upon the subject of representation as it is closely linked in with what we were looking at.
  The subject of 'Feminism' as it got called in our class discussion, although I think in this context it is more suitably referred to as the representation of women, is a large issue that has been around for a long time and is still to this day in conflict. In my opinion it stands simply like this; Men and women have the right to be fairly, equally and accurately represented in the media, people who think men should always be represented as identical or superior to women, are misogynists (although that word may be too extreme) and people who think women should always portrayed as identical or superior to men are misandarists. Although the argument goes far deeper than that. Looking at pieces of media throughout history we can see the progression of sexual equality and the representation of women:

In ancient greece the equality of women varied from city to city but it was extremely rare for women to be actually equal to men. Looking at the play 'Lysistrata', a greek comedy originally performed in 411 BCE we see the attitude to women;s equality represented. The plot of the play follows Lysistrata and the women of a greek civilisation as they try to stop the Peloponnesian War by denying their husbands sexual contact. Although this may seem to be a story in favour of women and giving them power, and mocking men for their primitive minds and reliance on sex, it is actually written to belittle women and mock the idea of women having power over men.

It was not until 1928 that women got the vote equal to men, representations of this time can be seen in media pieces set from as early as 1900, for example Mary Poppins, set in 1910 shows the character Mrs. Banks wearing a campaign sash for women's vote. Despite this giant turn in women's equality the representation of women in films had not strayed too far from tradition, with the first King Kong film portraying a classical example of a 'damsel in distress' in the form of young actress Ann Darrow. Over a decade later we start to see some examples of strong female characters (or traits within characters) for example 'A street care named Desire' shows Blanche, a more independent woman, but it also has another character, Stella, who is very much dependant on, and controlled by, her abusive husband Stan. Around the 40's and 50's women started to become noticeably more towards equality in terms of media business, with the likes of Lucille Ball and Ida Lupino.

In more recent years movies have seen many female protagonists and strong female characters. For example:

• 'Alice' In the 'Resident Evil' Films - Milla Jovovich
• 'Beatrix Kiddo' In 'Kill Bill' - Uma Thurman
• 'Lisbeth Salander' In 'Girl with the dragon tattoo' - Noomi Rapace / Rooney Mara

• 'Lara Croft' in 'Tomb Raider' - Angelina Jolie
• 'Evelyn Salt' in 'Salt' - Angelina Jolie

 Now I have nothing against these films at all, especially 'Resident Evil: Afterlife' which I thought was a spectacular film. But they all juxta-impose women into the traditional roles of men, bearing weapons and killing people in hollywood style violent action scenes, Which again I don't have a problem with, I just dont like the fact that It has been pushed to this by 'feminists' saying that a man cant be dominant over a woman, saving her life, killing the bad guys and hooking up with her in the end. But I say whats wrong with a bit of tradition? Whats wrong with a bit of chivalry? It's how science and evolution and all that has built us to be, men are stronger than women to protect them. Personally I like the traditional man-saving-woman format. But that doesn't mean that im sexist in any way. Secondly the men in these films are often portrayed as stereotypical shallow, vain, stupid pricks.



(Interesting Fact: The origin of the word 'actor' is dated to be over a century before that of 'actress')