Representation of Gender (Women) in Modern Cinema: A Feminist Perspective
Keywords:
Gender, Women, Cinema, Society, Feminism.Abstract
Gender is a social construct and is therefore contentious. The discourse on gender and its representation in media has been under alteration since its inception. Media has played a crucial role in the socio-political exploration of gender and its impact on the population. On one hand, it has concretized several stereotypical notions imprinting a limited, specific picture in people’s minds but on the other hand, it has also challenged those notions, disillusioning that picture and providing an alternative reality. This paper will examine the role of cinema, especially movies in critiquing the problematic aspect of gender roles and stereotypes, especially in the case of women. It will provide a feminist critique of the stringent gender roles that incarcerate a woman into a specific model, appropriating her actions and denying her agency. This paper will further refer to Harry Bradbeer’s movie Enola Holmes and Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and will work on a nineteenth-century Victorian setting, challenging the patriarchal notions through its ‘modern’ twenty-first-century feminist approach. It will delve into the cinematic expanse and its projection of an alternative, dismantling the structure of the pre-existing gender roles through its ‘modern’ characters who will challenge, question and rebel against these repressive structures. The nineteenth-century setting with ‘modern’ heroines will provide a sharp contrast between the
previous and current representation of gender roles, facilitating a proper understanding of the changes and development with time.
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