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Well? Are you a Witch or a Wife? CIU111.3 #3

  • Writer: Celeste Evans
    Celeste Evans
  • Aug 15, 2018
  • 4 min read

In the beginning of our careers as creators , we usually create and complete projects primarily for ourselves. We might have a cool idea for a project and so we act on it. Usually at this point our followings are still very minimal, if not non-existent and we don’t put much thought into whether or not the thing we are creating could hurt, offend or exclude someone else.


As a creator grows bigger, so does their following and the things that they create. With this comes a new responsibility, one that requires the creator to think about not only their own audiences but anyone who might see their creations. The creator must now make sure their designs are inclusive of more than just themselves or those like them. They should be actively understanding and aware of those with accessibility issues, those of a different race or gender and even how certain types of conflict can negatively affect some people (https://medium.com/self-directed-practitioners/week-12-inclusive-design-9df8f239653b).


Something I find interesting about the concept of inclusive design is how gender and sexuality have been portrayed within film and theatre, specifically the treatment and representation of women.

https://mikefrost.net/wonder-woman-isnt-female-hero-film-year/

I would first like to talk about one of the earliest forms of entertainment within theatre; plays. In particular Shakespeare's plays and the roles women played in them (or didn’t). Women were never allowed to appear on stage during Shakespeare's time, and female roles were performed by men disguised as women (Rose, 1991). This was said to have been because women did not technically have any personal freedom, and were never known for more than being a wife, mother or daughter of a man. They were not normally educated and ladies were rarely known to take on a profession.


This is the one of the first recorded instances where women were represented by someone other then themselves, and were mainly portrayed as four things; wives, mothers, daughters or witches.

American Actress Anne Nagel (1940) - https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/241646336227253499/

Let's skip forward a few centuries, to the Golden Age of Hollywood (1920's to the 1960's). Female roles are now performed by women. But asides from that, not much has changed. Female roles during this era still mainly consisted being a wife, girlfriend, mother or daughter. Occasionally, a woman may have been cast in a lead role. But this didn't mean she got to enjoy being within the center of the action like other male-lead films of this era. These female-lead roles were still riddled with stereotypes, such as being unintelligent, dependent, overly-innocent or overly-sexualised. They are put in roles where their character believes "...that the only way to to earning money and a comfortable lifestyle is through a man." (https://medium.com/women-in-media/examples-of-female-characters-in-golden-age-hollywood-6e50f185781f).


Now it's 2018, and a lot has changed in the past 50 or so years. Between now and 1960, women had begun doing things that only men had done for almost a century. This includes finally being cast for lead roles in genres more than just romance, or at least roles that aren't always a blatant stereotype and don't always involve playing the "doting housewife."


At this point, I would like to introduce the Bechdel Test. The test is used in films to help determine the way women are depicted. The test originates from a comic strip created by female cartoonist Alison Bechdel in 1985.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test

The test contains three rules that a film must meet in order to pass it. They are:

  1. It has to have at least two (named) women in it

  2. Who talk to eachother

  3. About something besides a man

An example of a modern film with more than one female character that also can pass the Bechdel test is the Thriller/Drama film Red Sparrow.

Red Sparrow (2018) - https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/818eKkkuqjL._SL1500_.jpg

Red Sparrow's synopsis is as follows:


"Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) is many things. A devoted daughter determined to protect her mother at all costs. A prima ballerina whose ferocity has pushed her body and mind to the absolute limit. A master of seductive and manipulative combat. When she suffers a career-ending injury, Dominika and her mother are facing a bleak and uncertain future. That is why she finds herself manipulated into becoming the newest recruit for Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people like her to use their bodies and minds as weapons. After enduring the perverse and sadistic training process, she emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow the program has ever produced. Dominika must now reconcile the person she was with the power she now commands, with her own life and everyone she cares about at risk, including an American CIA agent who tries to convince her he is the only person she can trust." - Twentith Century Fox


Red Sparrow passes the Bechdel test (which shouldn't be hard to beat considering how long the film industry has had to mature, but apparently directors are still having trouble thinking of more than just one character for a woman), meeting every rule easily. The movie has more than one female character that's relatively important to the plot (eg. Dominika, her mother, the other Sparrows, her roomate Marta, etc) and they talk to eachother about more than just the men within the movie. (eg. Dominika and her mother talking about her ballet and training, the matron and Dominka about training, Dominika and her roommate Marta about their respective missions, etc).


Overall, I believe that as far as the film industry had came since the "Golden Age of Hollywood", there still is room for us to improve. As creators in the modern age, we should constantly be aware of the stereotypes that plague not just women, but those of different race, sexual identity, disability and gender. We are currently taking small steps in the right direction, it would be a shame for all of that to be lost because of one person refusing to acknowledge more than just themselves.


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Created by Celeste Evans.

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