Sexism in Popular Culture Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Sexism in Popular Culture - Dissertation ExampleImportant here to pure tone is there is a significant portion of the movies in Hollywood and instances in the popular culture, where one can easily find effeminate characters, whether lead or supporting, with similar traits, whether it be film, television, theatre, drama, advertising, comic books, literature, video games, cartoons and others (Stephanie & Brabon, 2009, p. 225). The rise of feminism and the debate about the identity of women has forced many filmmakers directors and producers in the media to move away from the tralatitious emotionally unstable and weak concept of women and portray women in a more realistic and empowering way. This created a demand of strong female characters and over the other(prenominal) couple of decades, many strong female characters have emerged to fill this gap. However, many feminist critics and even other experts have challenged and criticised the idea and depiction of strong female characters. This paper is an attempt to explore and analyse the depiction of women in film and video games, while simultaneously exploring the concept of strong female characters, its ideological substructure and the criticism. ... Towards the end, the Hero would come and save them to live a life happily ever after. However, towards the mid 20th century, the rise of feminism created discontent amongst female viewing audience and stakeholders of Hollywood that this portrayal of women as needy and weak creatures in sexist. In order to address the same, writers came up with female characters that would be trapped by the villain only after putting up a strong fight (Hollows & Moseley, 2006, p. 58). These women, to a certain degree, had skills normally possessed by men. They could drive sport cars, drill guns, had physical strength, was comfortable with her body and could outdrink any man. Even when she could put a fight, these strong female characters, in the end of the movie, would get themsel ves into trouble and that also in the sexiest way possible. Surprisingly enough, even when she could put a fight to resist the pressures of villain, she would never get a black eye or get physically injured probably because they same would decrease her appeal. The blot here is that all the strength added to the female character was just an attempt to make her a reveal and more attractive prize for the hero at the end. (Meyers, 2008, p. 172 (Gillis, et al., 2007, p. 413). The problem with the commonly used phrase strong female characters or strong females or women is that it is ironic, conflicting and contradictory within itself. Female characters are viewed as strong only when they are able to exhibit dominance, assertiveness, tendency for violence, boldness, rudeness and impudence that is characterised with male characters (Haase, 2004, p. 340). The point here is that in order to become strong female characters, women have to give up the