Gauntlett: Chapter Three: Representations of gender in the past

“Gaunter (1995) and Elasmar et al. (1999)..“In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, only 20 to 35 per cent of characters were females. By the mid- 1980s, there were more women in leading roles, but still there were twice as many men on screen”-pge 43 “Gaunter goes on to show how studies in the 1970s consistently found that marriage, parenthood and domesticity were shown on television to be more important for women than men (1995: 13-14).”-pg 43

-On TV, the female was shown as a married woman

-Female characters were unlikely to work

-“Overall, men were more likely to be assertive (or aggressive), whilst women were more likely to be passive. Men were much more likely to be adventurous, active and victorious, whereas women were more frequently shown as weak, ineffectual, victimised, supportive, laughable, or ‘merely token females’ (Gunter, 1995)”.
Gauntlett, pg43

-“The films almost always focused on male heroes. These men typically made the decisions which led the story, and were assertive, confident and dominant. Women had important roles in many films but were far more likely than men te be shown as frightened, in need of protection and direction, and offering love and support to the male charcerter(s)”.
Pg 46

-Some like it hot- starring Marilyn Monroe challenged the male to female role

-In the 60s “all women characters were shown as inept, or were always cast as housewives”.
Pg46

-“In the 1970s, Leia in the decade’s to hit Star Wars (1977) was pretty good at shooting stormtroopers, but she was also the prized princess that the heroic boys had to rescue, and win the heart of”.
Pg46

-Ripley in Alien (1979) superior female
-Victim films- The godfather (1972), The sting (1973), The Exorcist (1973), Jaws (1975), Superman (1978) all!

- “The role of a woman in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction and the mating games she plays with the male characters”.
(1972: 13)
Smith, Sharon (1972) ‘The image of women in film: some suggestions for future research’, Women and Film, 1, 13-21.

-“In Hollywood films, then, women are untimely refused a voice, a discourse, and their desire is subjected to male desire”.
(1983: 7-8)
Kaplan, E. Ann (1983) Women and film: Both sides of the Camera, London: Methuen

-“…we are likely to be portrayed as powerless and ineffectual”.

























“The image of women that emerges from this big, pretty magazine is young and frivolous, almost childlike; fluffy and feminine; passive; gaily content in a world of bedroom and kitchen, sex, babies, and home. The magazine surely does not leave out sex; the only goal a woman is permitted is the pursuit of a man.”
Freidan, Betty: The Feminine Mystique (1963:32)

“From the 1940s to Freidan’s present (the 1960s), women’s magazines had focused on this feminine, home – bound image”
Gauntlett, David: Media, Gender and Identity (2002:50) Routledge

The 50’s promotion of Occupation housewife

1960s change- woman’s liberation

Tuchman (1978) “The symbolic annihilation”