Chapter 4: Movies vs Gender Stereotypes

Gender stereotyping. A generalised view or preconception about attributes or characteristics, or the roles that are or ought to be possessed by, or performed by, women and men. Harmful when it limits women’s and men’s capacity to develop their personal abilities, pursue their professional careers and/or make choices about their lives. It refers to the practice of ascribing to an individual woman or man specific attributes, characteristics, or roles by reason only of her or his membership in the social group of women or men (United Nations Human Rights, 2021). How have movies presented this notion of gender? Do movies further prescribe and enforce the standardisation of how each gender, male or female, should behave? Gender stereotyping separates the genders and their preconceived notions of what it should be, particularly with regards to their behaviours, occupations and physical appearance.

The ideas of masculinity and femininity have historically been used to describe differences in socio-psychological attributes of an individual in many cultures. There are traits and concepts that are stereotypically aligned with the concept of femininity – such as the colour pink, being a homemaker, make-up and nail polish, submissive natures – and those which are associated with the concept of masculinity – the colour blue, physical strength, muscle build-up, guns, cars, dominant natures. These stereotypes are also prevalent in movies and media.

The film industry is arguably one of the most influential sectors of modern society. Due to the role of film in mainstream and popular culture and media, films play a large role in the cementing and influencing society behaves and thinks (Morris, S., 2020). When characters are stereotyped in films, these views, notions and beliefs are subconsciously ingrained into their everyday perceptions and expectations of society. This reinforces ideas of stereotypical and traditional gender roles upon the viewers.

Despite the progress that society has made in terms of gender stereotyping and conforming, it still exists, even if it is less obvious than it used to be.

Throughout the years, the notion of gender and gender roles have been prominently etched in film and cinema. Females often play the role of objects or damsels in distress who are in need of saving. Take for example, the popular Disney film The Sleeping Beauty. The plot follows the main character, Aurora, a princess who is forced to live and hide away in the woods, protected by three fairies after she had been cursed by the evil fairy, Maleficent. During the plot of the movie, she falls into a deep slumber after pricking her finger on a spinning wheel, just as she had been cursed to do. And though she is the main character of the film, she simply sleeps until the male lead, Prince Phillip, arrives to rescue her, waking her up with a true love’s kiss.

Talk about lack of consent, much.

Throughout the film, Aurora remained passive, portrayed as frail and weak to the viewers, solely depending on a brave prince to come and save her from eternal slumber. This reflects the stereotype that females are meant to rely on men to protect or save them from harm, depicting females as weak and helpless creatures, too delicate to fend for themselves. The portrayal of Prince Philip, on the other hand, teaches viewers that males must be strong, brave and are meant to be protectors. The film also teaches males that it’s alright to go kissing others without consent because, in the end, this is a damsel clearly in need of saving. Films such as these often focus on the characters finding true love rather than on the growth and development of each individual. Honestly, it is a messaging we should think twice about before accepting.

Despite it all, Aurora wakes up, flutters her eyelashes, falls in love with a man she has never met before, and lives happily ever after.

Another aspect that is apparent in film and media, which continues to fuel the stereotyping and sexualisation of the respective genders, is the concept of the “male gaze”. The “male gaze” is the sexualised way of looking that empowers men and objectifies women. According to the “male gaze”, a woman is visually positioned as an “object” of heterosexual male desire. Her feelings, thoughts and her own sexual drives are less important than her being “framed” by male desire (Loreck, J., 2020)

With this, let’s delve into one of my favourite examples of “male gaze” in cinema – the portrayal of Harley Quinn.

Harley Quinn, played by actress Margot Robbie, is a leading character in the films The Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey. The first movie, The Suicide Squad, was directed by a male director, David Ayer, while Birds of Prey was directed by a female director, Cathy Yan. She is introduced to us as a young lady heavily influenced and devoted to her partner, The Joker – playing the role of the subservient, ditzy and sexually-alluring lover of the Joker. Note how her character was always tied back to her partner, rather than allowing her to be a standalone character. It plays back to the notion that women cannot be leaders, and must always play an assisting role to another male character.

In the movie, The Suicide Squad, Harley’s outfits were made to be over-sexualised – clad in a highly revealing outfit of a tight, cut-up top and tiny shorts (if you could even call it that), that even actress, Margot Robbie herself stated how uncomfortable and difficult it was to move around in. In contrast, during the movie Birds of Prey, Harley wore clothes that were still in line with her character and style, and were still flattering, less revealing, more comfortable, more versatile and significantly easier to move around in (Olsen, C., 2020).

Harley Quinn in The Suicide Squad vs Birds of Prey

Shots of the character were also framed differently in the two films. Note how in The Suicide Squad, the centre of the frame is focused on her chest area, while in Birds of Prey, her headshot does not, in fact, focus on her chest. The way that Harley is presented and shot in the two films depicts her as a sexualised object in the first film, while the lack of objectification if the second film, there is no obvious sexual desire tied to how she looks or dresses.

Whether one conforms to gender roles, or follow stereotypical portrayals of binary genders ties back to the concept of masculinity and femininity. Masculinity and femininity in this regard are not tied to any sex or gender, nor do they live in dichotomous opposition to one another. Rather, they exist as more nebulous categorisations of particular attributes: all individuals, regardless of gender, exhibit masculine and feminine traits to varying degrees. As these concepts are largely influenced by culture, they provide helpful lenses through which we can portray different perspectives (those of men, women, non-binary persons) without necessarily tying those perspectives to gender. Many prominent films such as “Silence of the Lambs,” or the more modern “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” have utilised “gaze” along with varying masculine or feminine lenses to evoke a particular mood or emotion from the viewers (Sisson, D., 2021).

Fortunately, films these days are beginning to make headway in terms of breaking gender stereotypes and delving into gender non-conformity. Examples such as these include Elsa from Frozen 2, who is portrayed as a strong and independent woman who doesn’t need to play damsel-in-distress for a large strong male character to save her, and Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon, who displays characteristics such as sympathy, creativity and diligence instead of the typically masculine traits of being strong, muscular and violent. However, there is still a long way to go before one can say that notions of gender and stereotyping in films have been completely abolished.

Before I end off this post, I just wanted to say, just because the media presents gender in a certain way, doesn’t mean you have to conform or prescribe to that. In fact, gender has no correlation to how you want to present yourselves, or how you should act or dress. Male, female, non-binary, genderfluid – as long as it’s something you are comfortable with, feel free to explore your means of self-expression. Use the pronouns you want to, live as you want to (within reasonable means, of course) and please don’t stereotype people and put them in a box. Happy pride everyone.

References

United Nations Human Rights. “Gender Stereotyping.” OHCHR, 2021. https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/women/wrgs/pages/genderstereotypes.aspx

Morris, Sarah. “How Movies Impact Our Societies: MultiLingual Insights.” Multilingual, July 27, 2020. https://multilingual.com/how-movies-impact-our-societies/.

Loreck, Janice. “Explainer: What Does the ‘Male Gaze’ Mean, and What about a Female Gaze?” The Conversation, April 22, 2020. https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-the-male-gaze-mean-and-what-about-a-female-gaze-52486.

Olsen, Carly. “10 Things Birds Of Prey Did Better Than Suicide Squad.” ScreenRant, February 10, 2020. https://screenrant.com/dceu-birds-prey-things-better-suicide-squad-harley-quinn-margot-robbie-film/

Sisson, Dani. “Deconstructing Male and Female Gazes in Film.” Technique, April 3, 2021. https://nique.net/entertainment/2021/04/03/deconstructing-male-and-female-gazes-in-film/.