Gender Representation in Film

Gender Representation in Film Gender is a significant reflection in development. Through it we can analyze how social norms and power structures influence on the lives and opportunities accessible to different groups of men and women. Gender analysis explores the way power is distributed between women and men, how it function, who uses it and for what reasons.In contrast to men, women control less both economical and political resources, such as property, employment and traditional positions of authority. This uneven distribution of gender relation of power is also represented in the media. Media, as a framework for interpretation and a message in the contemporary society, can have an imperative role in promoting or even obstructing gender equality, both within the working environment and in the representation of women and men. Women and men are often stereotyped and depicted unevenly by the media. Women and girls are positioned in underprivileged situations, for instance in passive and submissive roles whereas men and boys are portrayed to be more possessive in their occupations and more probable to thrive. According to Ferguson, the majority of female characters in the mass media â€Å"holds and uses private power as wives, mothers, partners† (Ferguson, 1990). Accordingly, traditional gender roles and power relations have been profoundly internalized in public’s sub consciousness through the mass media which limit the progress of both human personalities and social equality. Visual images especially, are arranged in a way that have the power to stir beyo nd the entertainment and evoke emotional responses by having a immense influence on our state of mind (Alcolaea -Bangas, 2008). As Berger (1992) pointed out â€Å"‘Like fish, we â€Å"swim† in a sea of images, and these images help shape our perceptions of the world and of ourselves†. An essential derivate of visual images are films which are adhered images together in order to create a story that transmit certain ideologies or ideas and has an impact in peoples lives. As Gerald Mast, a film scholar, affirmed, â€Å"there are fewer cultural products more influential in contemporary life than films†. Thus, those ideologies also shape our everyday perception of women. According to Dutt, Hollywood films’ portrayal of women sticked to the patriarchal structures, but later on, have veiled these messages under the faà §ade of female empowerment and independence (Dutt, 2014). According to many criticism power is at the central of a patriarchial society. Foss describes patriarchy as â€Å" a system of power relations in which men dominate women so that women’s interest are subordinates to those of man and they view themselves as inferior to men† (Foss, 1989). The portray of women can be seen in the way of how a film is constructed. Male charac ters play an active role and are shown as mentally and physically powerful. They are dominant guardians looking to â€Å"gaze† at women. On the other hand women are passive, dependent and in need for support. Furthermore a major criticism from feminist perspective has been towards the â€Å"male gaze†. Laura Mulvey used this concept to show the gender power assymety in film. Mulvey states that female are objectified in film because heterosexual men are in control of the camera. Thus, the man becomes as the dominant power inside the created film fantasy. The woman is submissive to the active gaze from the man. The use scopophylia, sexual satisfaction through viewing, to communicate adds an element of patriarchal system and it is regularly viewed in iIIusionistic narrative film (Mulvey, 1989). A very controversial representation of women can be traced in the early beginning of Hollywood era. Film Noir, is a term which is used to describe Hollywood crime dramas in 40’s and 50’s with cynical attidues and sexual motivations. During these era the concept of femme fatale flourished. The archetypal femme fatale of film noir use her sexual attractiveness and merciless manipulation to trick men in order to achieve power, money, or independence, or all of them at the same time (filmnoirstudies, 2008). Femme fatale refuses the conventional roles of devoted wife and cautious mother that mainstream society set down for women, and in the end her disobedience of social norms leads to her own distruction and the destruction of the men who are attracted to her (filmnoirstudies, 2008). Film noirs depiction of the femme fatale, according to film noir studies, aims to sustain the actual social order and especially its strictly defined gender roles by creating the powerful, inde pendent woman, only in the end to penalize her. Later during the period of 70’s and 80’s, in Hollywood, we had the muscle obsession. Blockbusters such as Rambo, Terminator, Leathal Weapon were produced where masculinity was over displayed. A dominant ideology of that time were the masculinist figure of gender that characterizes masculinity regarding the male warriorwith the attributes of great strenght, effective use of force, and military bravery as the main expressions. As Susan Bordo articulated ‘†¦muscles have mainly symbolized and maintain to symbolize masculine power as physical potency, regularly operating as a means of coding the naturalness of sexual difference. (Bordo, n.d). Genres as well assist in preserving stereotypes in cinema (Gledhill, 2012). For example, war, action, spy films are considered male film genres, and romantic, comedy film are female genres with a female protagonist. However, in the 90’s we saw the surfacing of some female actions heroes defined by a quality of â€Å"m asculinity†. Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, confronted those cultural norms. She was putted as Judith Butler would call a â€Å"gender performance† where she was required to perform the stereotypical â€Å"masculinity† as a strong and dominant warrior. Tasker (1998) articulates this â€Å"as an enactment of a muscular masculinity involving a display of power and strength over the body of the female performer† (Tasker, 1998). Nowadays, referring to Dutt, in most of the films women are obliged to incorporate everything. They must be tough and aggressive but also beautiful and sexy. This is the â€Å"empowered† woman of corporate consumer society’ (Dutt, 2014). For example in the film â€Å"The Devil Wears Prada†, women and power are main themes throughout the film. Female power relationships examined in the film shows how women exercise power effectively to race in the world of business. The film is a good illustration which shows how a women shatter through traditional gender stereo-types and exercise a leadership type associated with masculinity. The protagonist Miranda Priestley, is depicted as a powerful women often associated as the â€Å"devil† boss who is ruthless, demanding and very hard hard to please. The film prehending the way gender relations with leadership is practiced in the work-place. On the other hand, Juno, an independent non-Hollywood film gives a more realistic representation of women’s. The film is about a young girl who becomes pregnant during the high-school by his teen boy-friend. According to Dutt her character signify an rising cultural formulation of girl hood that have as a attribute independence and strength (Dutt, 2014). Juno is someone who is unconventional and indifferent with her appearance. She doesn’t care what others think of her and takes the decisions for herself. For instance, she doesn’t listen to her mother and boyfriend and decides to keep the baby. As Dutt points out, her agency marks a considerable progression for female portrayals in films. She embodies the ‘visual characterization of newly emerging constructions of girls that fuse particular aspects of traditional â€Å"femininity† and â€Å"masculinity†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢(Dutt, 2014). References Alcolea-Banegas, J. (2008). Visual Arguments in Film.Argumentation, 23(2), pp.259-275. Berger, A. (1991). Seeing Is Believing: An Introduction to Visual Communication.The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 49(1), p.101. Bordo, S. (1999).The male body. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Dutt, R. (2014).Behind the curtain: women’s representations in contemporary Hollywood. MSC. London School of Economics. Ferguson, M. (1990). Images of power and the feminist fallacy.Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 7(3), pp.215-230. Filmnoirstudies.com, (2008).Film Noir’s Progressive Portrayal of Women – A Film Noir Studies Essay. [online] Available at: http://www.filmnoirstudies.com/essays/progressive.asp [Accessed 12 Mar. 2015]. Foss, S. (1989).Rhetorical criticism. Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press. Mast, G. (n.d.).How to watch movies intellegently. [online] Bluffton.edu. Available at: http://www.bluffton.edu/~mastg/Watchingmovies.htm [Accessed 10 Mar. 2015]. Mulvey, L. (1989).Visual and other pleasures. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Tasker, Y. (2002).Working girls. London: Routledge.

Ciba-Geigy

Ciba-Geigy founded in 1750s has come to many changes in their business strategy from case-by-case decisively to be one of proactive planning for the future with corporate portfolio planning which allowed Ciba to decentralise into diversified businesses. At their latest reorganization, Ciba had five categories: Development, Growth, Pillar, Niche and Core allocated from 14 divisions with 33 sub-business units. Each division in each category has separate responsibility to the whole portfolio, for example, the Pigment division in Core category had the role of cash provider. Therefore, it was difficult for this division to access to capital, major investment would violate their mandate, and payback period was set at two to three years. However, the Pigments division head recently proposed the plan for major investment in comprehensive modernization of a manufacturing plant in Newport which was the only global source for Sfr 130 million in sales of Quinacridone (HPP) pigments. Ciba needed to decide whether or not to invest in Newport and choose among three options: invest fully, invest partially in Newport or close it. Recommendation: Based on Lippuner’s two questions in corporate planning portfolio strategy on new business, there are two reasons for Ciba to treat the investment in Newport as exception to invest. Besides, they should choose option one which committed a full investment of around US $140 million. Firstly, this investment improved Newport plant from high maintenance costs and frequent failure in production to become the plant with the leading-edge standards for productivity, safety, and friendly to environment. This investment also opened opportunity for Ciba to produce DPP, which protected Ciba’s leading market position in HPP pigment when DPP pigment’s patent protection was set to expire in 2000 – 2002. Limited investment in option two did not bring Ciba’s Pigment division the leading-edge knowledge and maintained the capability for innovative edge; therefore, it was out of Ciba’s strategy for new business. Secondly, this investment reinforced synergistic efforts between Pigment and other division in current portfolio. Although it was huge investment in core category, the pigment division still maintained to have a positive cash flow and payback period was within 3 years. Besides, Ciba should learn from the lesson of the pharmaceutical business which uelled other categories and came under difficulty in the recession. The same problem would happen in Pigment segment if Ciba did not invest in Pigment. However, we did not know how much Pigment contributed in the cash flow of the portfolio, so we could not evaluate if the whole portfolio could handle the investment period when there was a short of cash from Pigment. If not, Ciba should choose option three: close Newport and move it to Alabama or Louisiana as a less risky plan.

Impact of Strike in an Organization Essay

The impact of strike to an organization Article by Rajalakshmi Rahul on June 11, 2012 Discuss now (0) Go to comments An organizational strike not only destroys the power of labor at its source while still professing theoretical support for the right to strike, but also causes many other losses. Labor on the other hand in demanding freedom to use the organizational strike is seeking an instrument fundamental to its rising power. The right to strike restricted in any way is the right shorn of some of its power (International Confederation for Free Trade Unions, 1989). The economic losses of the employer cause by a strike are incapable of precise calculation. The loss of profits is only one item in the total losses that an employer may suffer. The employer’s business may be crippled because of the loss of the market connection beyond the period of strike; goodwill may be lost; and the idle machines may get spoilt. Additional expenditure may have to be incurred on protecting the plant and on strike breaking activities (Howell, 2005). Publicity and propaganda are yet other items adding to its costs. Besides the loss of mental peace, respect and status in the community cannot be calculated in terms of money. The adverse affects of a strike on the workers are the loss of wages, and fringe benefits contracting of debts, personal hardships and loss of employment. It is difficult to assess the wage and production losses on account of a strike. Any calculation of wage losses from pay roll gives only a partial picture. In addition the strike may leave the union weakened and divided to the satisfaction of the employer Thus, strikes involve both economic and non economic costs for the employer and if at the extreme of strike he has to concede the demands of the striker’s additional burdens are imposed. However certain other elements which mitigate the losses also form a part of the economic calculation of the cost of a strike. References †¢Howell C (2005), Trade Unions and the State, Princeton University Press, New Jersey. †¢International Confederation for Free Trade Unions (1989), Employment and structural change in Indian industries, Cengage Learning, USA.

Slavery DBQ - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 1006 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2019/05/13 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Slavery Essay Did you like this example? Civil rights was mostly in the years 1950s and 1960s. Almost everything started during Reconstruction. Slavery has not needed discrimination against black people. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Slavery DBQ" essay for you Create order Slavery Banned in the North is one of the important topics there is. Their is also Abolish Slavery. Black to gain equal rights under the law of the United States, officially try to stop slavery. Also by mid-20 century, African Americans had enough violence and prejudice against them. In the northern states banned slavery in the early as 1807. Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New york and New Jersey, this are the states that had slavery during which is in 1777. In the Slavery timeline in 1619 in Virginia the first Africans appear to have been indentured. Majority slaves transported africa, West Indians. In the 1787 states emancipation law was created to free North. After this happened Congress enacts the Fugitive slaves the rights to habeas corpus The law of freedom of slaves pass to punish there who slavery-catches who kidnap free balcks. Being punished was the right thing, even if slavery was not all the was a law to free them. Nat Turner, who believes he had the right to do something to the slaves. In Virginia his people, followers killed up to 57 white people unsuccessful, and 200 slaves were killed in total. The Black history behind slavery has lots of important times. Talking about Africa today, we are thinking about how poor third world continent, Western nations to survive. the sixteenth and Resendiz 2 seventeenth centuries, when Europeans first began exploring the world, Africa back than was a rich continent. Eager to trade her copper and gold, leather goods for the white mans pans, pots, guns and alcohol. In 1492 theres is man name Christopher Columbus, everyone whos him as the man who discovered America. He had a lot to be with slaves of other black Africans. He was still in the year of slavery and was very well thinkful of those who went through slavery and started to ask for Slaves. Why would he want slaves? He wanted slaves because he would trade them with guns because he wanted to be someone big. Being a slave was like being in prison well not actually, it was like been in prison. They would make them work for hours straight with them having absolutely. They would be chained together and marched to the coast. Not caring if they were configurable or what they would think or say. They didnt have the right to speak or have an opinion. When they would take them to be a slave they sometimes had to wait days or even weeks and it was not present to be in a straight line walking. They would always eat beans, corn, yams, rice, and palm oil. And that was just the best food because they had worse. Having to move fast enough to be caught up with the people that has the right to order you. Thats what they thought, that they were the kings of their own crow. It was very bad luck to those who didnt or couldnt complete their journey and were to lick to complete their request pace, they wouldnt care and leave them there died or alive. Now that this has happened the people in Africans had to go back to Europe. There was this thing that developed called The Triangular Trades. Shipping slaves to the Americas, brought goods to them who are in the Americas back to Europe. Antebellum America was slaves been sold. The slaves would be brought from the pen and in turn stand raised platform and the buyers would just buy them and leave with them not Resendiz 3 caring in what they think, because all they were was just slaves. Slavery in the 1800s it was big in the United States not just the states but also Territories. Slavery was different in every Country. What did not change what is the treatment like whipping and sexual abuse, including rape, were common. Specially in Africa it was different in Europe, but how was it different? In Europe slavery was called chattel. This means property, this means the slaves were saved not like in Africa where they had no safety. But no differences work it was hard and difficult. They were still taken as prisoners of war also Were punished for crime even if they didnt do it. Tested good to Europe and people who were boss of the slaves because their country would a grow. That did it so much good to the Europeans but not to the slaves slaves didnt really care about what was going on about the whole growing. It was actually more work for them. Although most slaves were not brought to North America. The strangest thing, that was surprising, you would expect for all slave owners to be white race. Well, no there was not only white slave owners. There was a black man who was a slave owner named James Pendarvis. Small information about him is that he was from Colleton, his father which is Joseph Pendarvis who was not black, but white. He , James Pendarvis was the oldest. His father died in the year 1798 but he did so much work he had three plantations and almost about 156 slaves. Declaration of Independence 1776 was also part of slavery. Until in 1865 Declaration of Independence was stopped. How long did slavery go through in what year did it stopped? Also in 1865 is when slavery ended it was very difficult for those who went through slavery to now see that they are free. Who ended slavery. Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery. This was before ratification of the third amendment. The man that that slavery end it was on December 1865. Revolutionary War there laws were passed mostly in the Northern. In collusion of all of this slavery it was very important for those who went through slavery. But after slavery was done how were lives be with they changed will they be the same. Will it change good to bad, or bad. Actually their lives were better for good.