CRITICAL INVESTIGATION

To what extent do the female characters in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and ‘SALT’ challenge traditional female stereotypes?

The female characters in the ‘Dark Knight Rises’ and the ‘Salt’ challenge the traditional female stereotypes significantly due to the roles they take upon in both films. An example is that the protagonist Angelina Jolie took the role of a spy in the ‘Dark Knight Rises’ which means that she was represented as intelligent and  smart. Also as both films are action films, this challenges the traditional female stereotype as both films have protagonists of females, and therefore this challenges the traditional female stereotype as most films in the 80’s didn't have female protagonists in action films. This shows how the female characters are represented as courageous and therefore they don’t need to depend on men. However, it could be argued that females still have traditional stereotypes as in the ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Angelina Jolie is wearing clothes fitted to her body, which therefore presents her as a sexualised object. This shows gills theory of female gaze, as women in the media are presented as sexualised objects for men to look at. This also shows the theory of the female body the debate of the plus size. In both films the female characters have an idealised female body, which is emphasised through their clothing. The use of make-up also connoted how women still don’t challenge the traditional female stereotype, as the Angelina Jolie is wearing red lipstick. This emphasises her appearance as being looked at by the male audience as this makes her look more attractive and an object to be looked at.

The representation of women in the media

The Tale of TWO Real Women:
 
Jade Goody:

• Jade was vilified by the tabloid press and despised for being  fat’, ‘ugly’ and ‘thick’. Despite not winning Big Brother, she went on to be the most successful ex-housemate in terms of her public profile and earnings. She became a regular fixture in magazines such as heat, OK! and Now! and was the subject of fly-on-the-wall documentaries which consolidated her fame.

 

• At the height of this time of positive representations she followed the lead of other celebrity ‘brands’ and a perfume was released under her name

Susan Boyle:

 

• the impact of the sudden fame on a ‘simple woman from Scotland’ was discussed and her physical appearance and its changes became a story in itself. The story built to the climax that was the TV programme’s final.

 

• that the most common positive representations of women, in today’s media are as being thin, young and attractive. Despite the recent ‘Size 0’ debates, the idealised physical image of women is still very narrow and often a woman’s accomplishments are secondary to her physical appearance.

 

The Female Gaze:

 

• The representation of false and unattainable images of the idealised female body is clearly linked to the idea of the gaze and to spectatorship theory.

• In analysing female representation, you will invariably encounter theorist Laura Mulvey and her pioneering 1970s work on ‘The Male Gaze’. However her work has now been challenged, and you need to analyse how women themselves consume and decode images. Mulvey’s theory is now seen as very limited in its approach; it assumes there is only one kind of spectator (male) and one kind of masculinity (heterosexual).

• The apparent crisis in female body image that Dove/Unilever seized upon back in 2007 suggests that the female gaze is crucial for media and Film students.

 

The Representation of Women:

 

• Although there has been change in the way women are represented, since the 1960s, it appears that the difference may be merely cosmetic. This suspicion is not new:

 

• In 1990, many women sense that women’s progress has stalled; there is a dispiriting climate of confusion, division, cynicism and, above all, exhaustion. Older women are burnt out; younger women are showing little interest in seizing the torch. (Wolf 1990:1)