Gender In Tiny Furniture By Lena Dunham

“Brick” directed by Rian Johnson (2006) is a hybridised teen film focusing on protagonist Brendans search to find out what happened to his ex-girlfriend Emily. Through Johnson's treatment of the characters in “Brick” I have come to the conclusion that “Brick” is a sexist film that portrays women in a negative light due to the portrayal of the female characters in contrast to their male counterparts. As “Brick” is a teen film it features a lot of stereotypical characters, for example, the brainiac, jock and outcast but also intertwines with the stereotypical characters of a classic Noir film such as the flawed male and femme fatale.

Today’s filmmakers have three areas to focus on: the event or theme of the film, the audience who will be watching the film, and lastly, the individual characters and the roles they play and how they are portrayed and interpreted. Many of these films bottom line objectives are to focus on the “erotic needs of the male ego.” The focus on fetishistic scopophilia tend to slant the view such that we see the world as being dominated by men and that woman are

In the Bedford Introduction to Literature book, Carol Strongin Tuft wrote an article called “A Psychoanalytic Reading of Nora” there is a list of “narcissistic” qualities from the Task Force on Nomenclature and Statistics of The American Psychiatric Association (1226), to prove that someone actually is narcissistic, and these prove how Nora really is not a narcissist in any way, one of the qualities that it says is that the narcissistic person exhibits “interpersonal exploitiveness: takes advantage of others to indulge own desires for self-aggrandizement, with disregard for the personal integrity and rights of others.” So, in the play Nora begs her husband for money; which makes him think that she is a “spendthrift” (Ibsen A Doll’s House 1165),

Referring to the article, “Feminist Aesthetics,” the author explains that “the male gaze refers to the frequent framing of objects of visual art so that the viewer is situated in a ‘masculine’ position of appreciation.” (Korsmeyer). It means the women are an object and provide satisfaction for the men. In “the yellow wallpaper,” the narrator describes that John, the husband of the narrator, loves her and worries about her situation. However, the way that John treats her is similar to an object.

The characters Sherman portrays, lighting, clothing and expressions are cliché of what is present in cinema, so much that viewers of her work have told Sherman that they ‘remember the movie’ that the image is derived from, yet Sherman having no film in mind at all.[iv] Thus showing that her word has a pastiche of past cinematic genres, and how women are portrayed in cinema and photography and how Sherman has manipulated the ‘male gaze’ around her images so they become ironic and cliché.

Gender roles have been, and unfortunately still are, evident in our everyday lives for quite sometime. Women are often portrayed as sexual objects, or delicate individuals; a body with no brain or strength. These traits are easily found within many novels and movies- old and new. In Alfred Hitchcock’s films, Rear Window and Strangers on a Train, Hitchcock begins his films representing women with the same characteristics as stated above. They are very stylish, attractive and presented as second-class individuals to males. But after examining these two films, Hitchcock does something that many directors in his time would not have dared to do. By making the women the heroine and arguably the protagonist of the storyline, Hitchcock proves to

In conclusion, the film She’s the Man shows the audience how gender gets represented in films. It shows the traditional femininity as well as the traditional masculinity. This illustrates that gender has impacts on power and gender relations to contribute gender inequality. Gender norms are enforced in films which maintain the power inequality difference between both genders. These issues confine the way modern films represent gender and gives a direct effect to the

Gender ideologies are apparent in all areas of life. Whether it be online, in TV shows, movies or in person, this idea of a specific role for each gender is almost inescapable. The stereotypes of both what women and men should aspire to be and follow are ever changing in today’s current society. However, in 1954, gender roles were very specific and it is shown throughout the film, Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Through this film, gender ideologies are challenged but ultimately remain unshattered. The film produces an obvious view of women as the caretakers, and fragile in comparison to men who are the main providers. As the plot of Rear Window develops, characters continue to maintain the time periods gender ideologies despite the challenges they overcome.

6) What does made in Dagenham tell us about aspects of ‘the women question?” for instance what are women like? What do they want? What is their proper sphere? You may wish to comment upon how the film works as a film for instance framing images, music, and characterization. Etc.

Indeed, at the end of the film, there is a call to action to boycott media that seek to objectify women and instead support those that highlight women’s accomplishments. Here, these media are the makers of the claim that their subject, the accomplished woman or the objectified sex symbol, represents women, the “object”, to their audience, the consumers. Of course it is the audience that decides the whether to accept or reject the claim (Saward 2010). Thus, the film’s argument in its call to action is to reject the claim that the sex object represents women rather than the accomplished woman, using the strategy of boycotting the medium. At the same time, it is implied throughout the film that women are passively accepting the former claim through its existence alone. Instead of active acceptance or rejection of the claims made by media to represent women, the film argues that it is this hegemony, the sheer amount of media that make this claim to objectify women, that causes the claim to be accepted by the audience. Of course, it is not only women that are the audience to this claim, and not all women choose to passively accept this claim. Some women noted in the film, such as Sally Ride, the first female astronaut, chose to reject this claim rather than “waiting for a female astronaut role model”. On the other hand, many men, as consumers of media and thus also the audience of these claims to represent women, choose to accept the sex symbols as valid representatives for women. Thus, the film cites how women like Carol Jenkins receive hate mail that is against her gender and sexuality and how men believe that a woman cannot be a surgeon or a news anchor or President of the United

On gender roles and the pressure put on women by society’s given expectations, Psychologist and writer, Cordelia Fine says “blatant, intentional discrimination against women is far from being something merely to be read about in history books.” Society has been raging psychological and emotional warfare against women, since what seems like the beginning of time. Throughout history, women have been held by the standard of men and confined to these invisible barriers, threatened to never to step outside their “role”. In both plays, Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, we get to explore this theme and the havoc it wrecks. While all the characters seem to be content with these ideologies, it eventually peaks into a stand-off between society and the women. We will explore the trials and tribulations of these women in both plays.

It’s ironic that this particular word is used because puberty is actually a stage of emotional crisis’. A hurtful remark was made towards the child, and she was described as having a "big nose and fat legs." The second stanza also begins with the subdued tone mentioning the girls positive aspects, such as being "healthy…intelligent…strong." These specific details are usually related to the male. Once again, the gender characteristics play as an underlying factor. These qualities were not good enough for a woman if they were not beautiful. The stanza then takes a turn like the first turning away from the simplicity. The girl "went to and fro apologizing," while everyone still saw "a fat nose on thick legs." Society places women into the mold where they begin to put on a facade and apologize for their "misfortunes." In the third stanza, the girl was "advised to play coy…(and) smile." Women are once again pressured to act in a way that is unreal, like a "barbie doll." The "fan belt" mention in this stanza is used as imagery to describe how one’s facade can wear out over time, as hers did. She "cut off her nose and her legs," in response to this. The character Nora in "A Doll’s House," is a perfect example of how women are like dolls and do what they are told or what society expects of them. It is only in the last stanza where the girl is dead and has "consummation at last." She is finally given a compliment when someone said,

Contrary to popular believe, gender is referred to the attitudes, behaviours and emotions linked with a specific sexual group. There are two dominant perspectives that illustrate two different viewpoints of gender inequality. The functionalist perspective, by Talcott Parsons, believed that both men and women possess specific qualities that make them excellent at specific events, and these qualities are not interchangeable (Brym, 2014). The Marxist-Feminist perspective; however, viewed qualities for men and women as to being dependent on social conditions rather than being inherited (2014). In order to further illustrate the presence of gender inequality in the present society; the film Missrepresentation, by Jennifer Newsom reveals the

The problem with this approach is that it depends upon a view of feminism that does not cut across racial and class lines, and ignores the societal impact of the normalization of sex work. Liberal feminism is, due to this, a fundamentally exclusionary philosophy. Cheryl Butler, in her essay applying critical race feminism to the question of the sex trade and sex trafficking in America, reveals the holes in liberal feminist theory. She specifically calls out how “liberal feminist perspectives on prostitution have focused on… the need to protect the rights of women to choose prostitution,” and, in doing so, ignore “how racism and other factors obscure choice for women of color in the United States.” According to Butler, discussions about

The presentation of women on screen is another highlighted issue in many of the gathered sources. Because men were ultimately in control of what went on the screen much of what the audience perceived were women from the male imagination or fantasy. Bernard Beck elaborates in his article Where the Boys Are: The Contender and other Movies about Women in a Man’s World that, “…women have been used to dress up a male story or motivate a male character” (Beck 15). Women were often insignificant and trivial characters. Although, Kathe Davis disagrees to a point. In her article, Davis offers a dissonant opinion to the fore-mentioned insignificance of the female character. She instead describes many female characters as “predators,” and analyzes the roles of lead women in three prominent films of the nineteenth century. In each film, she finds parallels and similarities of cases of “female emasculation” and instances where “women are turned into objects of male desire” (Davis 47-48). Davis does not perceive female characters as being insignificant, just stripped of their power and misrepresented. She discusses how females of power are often portrayed as crazy