Move Heroines, Essay Example

The action heroine has been seen as blurring the boundaries of “masculine and feminine, of desirable beauty and threatening sexuality…of powerful and powerless” (Brown 2011 p.10). Discuss with reference to one or two films containing action, backing up your argument with close analysis and academic sources.

Like any forms of art, the concept of Films is made solely for the visual pleasure, which has in time, appealed to our emotions as well as the minds. The world of cinema has played a grand role into the perception of our society, as well as societies perception in woman. It’s no great secret that the movie business is not the most female-friendly industry, however, over the past century, women have slowly but surely, made more appearances as lead characters on silver screens. With big names such as Lucille Ball and Marilyn Monroe, making appearance and dominating the world of cinemas and television, nonetheless, only in drama and musicals genres. If seen in an action movie, a woman is most likely to play either a role of femme fatal or damsel in distress, but far from being the hero.

As one of the most dominant genres of popular cinema since the early 1970s, action film, including sci-fi, western, film noir and detective, have always been identified as a masculine dominated genre, and has in time constructed the body of the male hero as spectacle. As quoted by the late Robert Warshow, a former American author, film critic and essayist, “A hero is one who looks like a hero”.

In 1979, 20th century fox released the first of ‘Alien’s franchise, which was directed by now award winning, Ridley Scott. ‘Alien’ introduced history’s first and iconic (non animated) action heroine, officer Ellen Ripley, which was performed by also now award winning actress, Sigourney Weaver. Despite having been crucially criticized, Alien have since won more then two awards and nominated for over seven academy awards, opening doors to many of this century’s most acclaimed and iconic female heroine actresses like Angelina Jolie as Lara croft character in ‘tomb raider’ (2001, directed by Simon West), Scarlett Johansson as the black widow in ‘Avengers’ (2012 directed by Joss Whedon) and our most recent action heroine Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen in ‘The hunger game’ (2012 directed by Gary Ross).

According to Jeffrey A. Brown’s book “Dangerous curves: Action heroines, gender and popular culture”, Page 155 reads “these action heroines were first seen as symbolically male, through both the roles they perform and the way they are presented” in which he states that the book explores ‘the contradictory nature of action heroine’ in which, although they were held as something to be admires and feared, they were also, however, created, contained and controlled by the opposite gender.

In this essay, I will explore more of this complicated representation and reception of the female body in this contemporary popular American science fiction cinema, by analysing two of the most recognised female protagonist of the 21^th century, Alice from the movie “Resident Evil” and Lisbeth Salander from “The girl with a dragon tattoo”.

It can be said that action heroines are a new breed of arse-kicking female protagonist (Alleva, 2010). Smarter, tougher and better equipped then both the traditional heroines and many of their contemporary male counterparts of the action genre, both Alice and Lisbeth Slander are necessary components of the story who demonstrate that they are able to “save the day” when their male counterparts lack this ability. Instead of using the female character to advance plot for the male hero, these individuals demonstrate their independence and therefore strength in their unique situations. The use of these two characters demonstrate that the role of the female has changed significantly throughout history. While female heroines were once subject to the role of the male sidekick, society now respects the strength of women enough to provide them with the ability to control their own fates and fictional situations.

Alice from the movie “Resident Evil” is given the ability to fight for the resistance due to superhuman powers she was given from the t-virus. However, despite these abilities, she demonstrates strength in character that allows her to become successful and win the fight against the Umbrella Corporation, fighting her enemies and helping her allies along the way. While one could argue that women, such as Wonder Woman, have been given superpowers in the past and have held strength of character, it is apparent that these characters were designed primarily to align with the fantasies of men and to demonstrate that while women can be powerful, men have more power. Furthermore, powerful female characters like Wonder Woman have been forced into the shadows of more prevalent male characters like Superman. This is not the case for Alice. She relies on not only her superhuman abilities for success, but also the skills she had gained as a trained member of the Umbrella Corporation. In addition, she is not highly sexualized; instead, she is appreciated for having a bold personality and strength similar to that of many male heroes that are well known in the film industry.

Elizabeth Salandar from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo represents a modern hero. Salandar is a skilled hacker and computer engineer who uses her skills to help her team members solve an important case, decoding necessary messages and clues along the way. Even though this movie is classified as science fiction, the movie’s heroine demonstrates important skills that can be used of a hero in real life today. Traditionally, computer skills and hacking are jobs that are more male dominated in society, but Salandar demonstrates that sex does not make completing the job more or less effective. Salandar’s role in this movie is important to the understanding that while men and women could work together in hero films, it is possible to provide the woman with a role in which the woman is the forefront and contributes to the movie in a meaningful way. Her role in this film demonstrates the changing opinion that many individuals have towards women as members of society; it is now socially acceptable for women to work and to demonstrate their career skills instead of being required to live a domestic life.

The use of both Alice and Elizabeth Salandar is important in these modern films because it demonstrates the changing role of women in society. In classic hero films, women would have either been assigned the role of damsel in distress or sidekick. Now, they are able to take the forefront as hero. It is clear that the world has changed much to allow these characters to serve as leaders in main roles. As Brown mentions, “masculine and feminine, of desirable beauty and threatening sexuality…of powerful and powerless” (Brown 2011 p.10). However, in these films, it appears that Alice and Elizabeth Salandar are reclaiming these traditionally masculine qualities for the female gender. They are showing that it is okay for women to have masculine traits or to not appear sexualized to be a hero. By eliminating these gender normalities, they are demonstrating that female heroes should be take just as seriously as male heroes, and that the traits of these individuals should not be considered explicitly feminine or masculine (Daar, 2010). Therefore, it is apparent that the role of the modern heroine is to reverse our perceptions of these pre-existing gender roles and to show that women are equally capable as men, if not more so, in a variety of realistic and fictional settings.

In conclusion, it is films are made for the public’s viewing pleasure and often reflect society’s opinions as a result. They are created to appeal to large audiences to ensure profitability. Therefore, traditionally, women do not follow a role that makes them look like a hero. Instead, they are often play a supporting role or are the individual being saved to advance the plot. However, modern movies do not follow this format because the perceptions of society have changed. Alice and Elizabeth Salandar are strong women who use their strengths to fight the stereotypes that have befallen female movie characters. They show that they are independent and have the ability to solve their respective crises without the help of men, although they are welcome to this support. Therefore, it is apparent that films can be used to gain greater insight into the beliefs of the societies that produce them,

References

Alleva, Richard. 2010). Off the page: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo & Kick-Ass. Commonweal (New York City: Commonweal Foundation), 137(9): 26.

Brown, J.A. (2012). Dangerous Curves: Action Heroines, Gender, Fetishism and Popular Culture. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/23416405?uid=3738032&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21106396658431

Daar, Abdallah. (2010). The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Nature, 466 (7306): 566.

Trilling, L. (2009). Sincerity And Authenticity. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=o9QrCeCFnMIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=SINcerity+and+authenticity+book&hl=en&sa=x&ved=0ccoq6aewagovc        hmi8jnkufwxxwivhw0ech3nnw7a#v=onepage&q=sincerity%20and%20authenticity%20book&f=false