20th Century film has seen a significant rise in the amount of dominant female actresses, escaping traditional ideas of women being housewives. According to Germaine Greer “The notion of girl power has been co-opted by the establishment and marketed back to the younger generation of women.” This view has been forwarded by Steve Connolly, by stating that “Girl power is really a smokescreen to disguise a whole range of behaviours while legitimizing male oppression of women.” This has been reflected in films over the decades such as Aliens (Scott, 1979), Thelma & Louise (Scott, 1991) and The Long Kiss Goodnight (Harlin, 1996) to empower women to become equal and combat the same tasks that originally were fulfilled by men in mainstream film. In this essay I will be arguing whether women are being sexually perceived or are masculinized so that audiences can take them seriously as a lead role figure.
I have decided to focus my critical research paper on the representation of women in action films. I predict and hypothesise that the main differences between women in each of my Action Adventure that the women are either represented sexually to appeal to a male audience or in a masculinzed way to show women that women can oppress men. Feminists such as Laura Mulvey have a tendency to regard Hollywood cinema as a reflection of the patriarchal ideology present in society. When undertaking my primary research, I emailed Mulvey in order to get her personal opinion, she expressed the view that “There seems to be a tendency now to (attempt to) conceal the sexualisation of images of women behind a mask of pseudo strength. The use of special effects and montage for these 'strong' sequences also conflates woman as spectacle with special effects as spectacle.” Males are seen as having an active and controlling role, whilst females are passive. Women in film are ‘typically young, slim and attractive’ argues Smallbone (2001); feminists often claim this is unrealistic and stereotypical. Women’s roles tend to be feminine and Merck identifies an interest in the ‘eroticised’ female body, and how it is used to keep audiences watching and going to see the films.
The movies that I am looking at in particular are Tomb Raider (2001), Kill Bill (2003), and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). The main characters are Angelina Jolie who plays the main role of Lara Croft, Uma Thurman as Black Mamba in Kill Bill, and lastly Kristanna Loken as TX in Terminator. There are many theories and different perspectives that look at the role of women in film, but mainly arguments in favour of the fact that they are being exploited or wrongly represented. All of these three movies have main and strong roles played by women, all shown differently but in the main focus of the film. I am not specifically focussing on sequences of the women in each film but discussing each of their characters as a whole.
In the past thirty years there has been a significant change in the role women play in film, changing from heroines to what can arguably been seen in more films as the hero. This rebellion against imposed ideas of feminine beauty has, as a result, made women adopt a more masculine dress sense and character in certain films. Women have gained increased freedom and independence, leading to the rise in feminism, which emerged at a similar time to film theory and leading to women’s function in film to be a popular topic of debate. This social change has inevitably impacted the film industry, and consequently broadening the roles women play in films, such as Sigourney Weaver in Alien (Scott, 1979), and Mila Jovovich in Resident Evil (Anderson, 2002).
As Roger Ebert says, “All the major characters are women, the men having been emasculated right out of the picture.” This trend of women as tough and capable super action karate heroes may have had it’s beginning with Diana Rigg of the popular Avengers television series. She was the first person ever to do Kung Fu on the small screen. Her name Emma Peel came from the British expression “M-appeal” meaning “man appeal.” Her fighting ability coupled with her leather pants placed her twenty years ahead of her time as the new and emerging image of woman. Charlie’s Angels built on this image as did Sigourney Weaver’s role in Aliens.
Tomb Raider (2001) is an action film based on a well-known computer game and because of this, the kind of narrative and image associated with the lead role was already established before the film was created. However, the way in which the film represents the character of Lara Croft, played by Angelina Jolie, clearly shows the influence of male filmmakers behind the scenes. Although the narrative follows the actions of a female heroine who is both intelligent and physically strong, aspects of both the story line and mise-en-scene present her from a ‘male gaze’. During the film, Croft’s deceased father is frequently mentioned and the plot revolves around her rectifying his mistakes and finishing the work he began – all in order to have one last stolen moment of time with him. Therefore, although she appears to be an independent character, she is building on the discoveries that a man has laid out for her. She is clearly presented as an erotic object for the male audience, as can be seen in her costume for the majority of the film and on the film’s promotional posters, where her breasts were computer enhanced to attract male audiences. She wears a tightly fitting vest and tiny shorts, which emphasise both her exaggerated breast size and her feminine curves, thus supporting Mulvey’s theory of voyeurism within the representation of women in films. These clothes are also highly unrealistic, as the character performs many stunts, which even though she is completely unprotected leave her spotless and without any bruises or blood, keeping her seductive image intact. Croft’s costume also includes fetishist signifiers such as her long flowing hair, guns, and the holster that carries them. This gun holster is significant as these are most commonly worn around the shoulders, but placed on her hips in a luring sexual image for men.
Kill Bill (2003) by the all famous director Quentin Tarintino has Uma Thurman playing the dominant role of “The Bride.” She is introduced to the audience in a blood splattered wedding dress, after being brutally beaten up which immediately indicates to the audience that she may be a weaker character. The films revolves around her coming out of coma gaining revenge on the assassins who attempted to kill her and killed her unborn child, and also through costume, as the women are not made to appear masculine in any way. She uses a large sword, instead of guns being used which immediately shows she is a strong character and the sword acts as a phallic weapon to attack men and show she is an independently strong woman. With her name as “The Bride” and her mission to kill Bill for killing her unborn child, this links to motherhood which represents the old age woman inside the character. In my secondary research I found that when undertaking my secondary research, the academic journal of Sarah Cardwell claimed that “famous female protagonists have been presented as strong models of motherhood, we have rarely seen women whose priority is to pursue and develop their ambitions, talents or vocations.” I feel that Kill Bill is a true example of this, with as we are literally watching a mother get revenge from someone hurting her child. Unlike Tomb Raider’s, Lara Croft, The Bride is very flat chested so she is not seen as a sex symbol as much as Lara Croft, as she has a very plain and skinny figure whereas Lara has a very curvy and sexual figure. The Bride rides a motorbike which suggests masculinity as men are normally referenced to riding a bike, and she is also wearing yellow leather suit, which is the same yellow suit as Bruce Lee did in his final film. Although this is seen sexy to a certain extent, the yellow can have the connotations of a male or female colour therefore it shows she is a strong and masculine women that acts as a good role model for a dominant woman. When undertaking my primary research when undertaking a questionnaire I found that my target group saw Uma Thurman as a less sexual figure being made to seem like a man warrior. In Kill Bill men are rendered powerless by having their arms and legs cut off. This represents a real reversal in our culture with men having been the ones originally oppressive towards women. This film therefore set a huge amount of equality for women becoming dominant, and fits in with the new era of women playing a larger part in what was a patriarchal society.
“Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” has the Terminator, to protect their future saviour and leader, their machine foes have now sent a more advanced terminator unit, the T-X played by Kristanna Loken, the main female I will be focusing on, to kill John Connor. An android that looks like an anatomically correct woman, the T-X can assume the shape of anything she touches and control any machine, and has been programmed to kill John and various other future lieutenants, such as veterinarian Kate Brewster. T-X is introduced to the film landing on the planet naked, she is instantly this skinny, blonde character is seen as sexy and in the “male gaze.” She is a very dominant character although more of a sex symbol than that of The Bride in Kill Bill, similarly wearing leather which is a sexy outfit but T-X’s is in red which connotates sexiness as well as death. A particularly significant scene is T-X speeding in a sports car, and the police chasing her eventually making her pull over, as the police officer approaches the machine makes her boobs grow bigger which shows the exploitation of women being shown as sex objects as boobs are important to men. The T-X plays an important role as in the fight sequences with the Terminator she manages to destroy him as well as completely demolish him, and she is the only woman to do this to the Terminator. T-X has a combination of The Bride and Lara Croft, she contains Croft’s sexuality whilst having The Brides strength and revengeful ways.
I found in my secondary, in the book by Yvonne Tasker (Gender and Sexuality In Popular Cinema, Routledge, 1998) that Cathy Griggers claims that “becoming butch is a psycho-social and virtually bodily process visually documented…” She continues to argue that the “new butch-femme” where they have become too butch to survive as dependent housewives, the innocent victims or the single working mother, which is all apparent in the protagonist roles of my films.
The focus groups I formed identified the masculine presence each of the women from the sequences I showed them. Their feedback showed that although the women were still quite feminine in their looks, they were very masculine in their fighting and ways of life. Both my female and male respondents found them attractive however, the women saying that their determination and strength was attractive whilst the men thought sexually their looks were appealing. I feel that this shows they make characters that appeal to both gender groups, however it seems for all the wrong reasons with men seeing them as sexually attractive it seems to undermine and oppress their power, because however powerful they are, they are not taken seriously in this way.
In conclusion, matriarchy is unlikely and undesirable for the future. Males who currently dominate the Hollywood film studio systems are also able to live out their fantasies through the male ‘gaze’. Females tend to be represented as overly feminine and in cases where they are more of a heroic protagonist, they appear to adopt heavily masculine traits. There is, however, a notable rise in the freedom to which film genre women can feature in. Each of these three women are presented differently, but showing strong women as well as being sexy which is attractive to men and coinciding with this ever growing power of women. The lack of female protagonist roles does not help our audience remain used to seeing strong women in cinema, however the general consensus seems that women are playing a larger part than ever which is developing a “new women” era, but it seems slightly degrading that they have to conform to male roles in order to fit into a male-dominated protagonist role.
