Preview

Films semiotic analysis

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1795 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Films semiotic analysis
In every day life we are surrounded with imaginative constructs about gender: magazines, billboards, books, games, TV. They teach us what is natural every day. Which tells us how men and women differ in so many different ways. Creating myths like “ You are not normal, if you won’t find anyone”, “You can’t be good without man”, many variations of “Beauty myths”. This essay will focus first on the film The Ugly Truth (Luketic, 2009) arguing about gender issues, furthermore the films The Princess Diaries (Marshall, 2001) and Legally Blond (Luketic, 2001) will be analyzed to support the argument in which the heroines portrayed as pathetic beings, not able to do anything without men, even they work on high positions in law, on television and being Princess. Essay will use Gender perspective and will answer questions like what is to be an woman and what is to be an man.
The Ugly Truth film (Luketic, 2009) offers us whole range of different myth and stereotypes. The movie indicates huge difference between main hero-Mike and heroine-Abby. They are presented as a black and white. Abby – not confident, truly believe in love, excited about everything, naïve. Mike –very confident, doesn’t believe in relationship, very skeptic, and extremely arrogant, pretty straight forward. “Many aspects of masculinity myths are concerned with the assertion of toughness, stoicism, courage, and the distinguishing of this form a ‘soft’ feminity that belongs to woman”(Horrocks, 1995, p. 18) (Paraphrase)
Mike is very successful, gets promoted and changes jobs few times through the movie. Whereas Abby stays at the same job at all the time. Even though she has a high position, her boss is a man. The entire film supports the idea of how important his role is and how Abby’s role is insignificant. Firstly He comments: “You are here to make sure I am ok”. Secondly at the senior management meeting, she tries to introduce her boyfriend. Meanwhile the men are completely oblivious to her and continue

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Content analysis will be used to see the portrayal of gender role in Disney princess films.The coding procedure that will used for this study is based on (England, Descartes, & Collier-Meek, 2011). In addition, comparative analysis will also be done to observe any differences that are present in the Disney princess films with respect to their color.…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the examination of the modern Disney film, "Beauty and the Beast", it is evident that the 'age old' women stereotypes are becoming less noticeable. In the newer classic, women are depicted as being independent, intelligent, and heroic.…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is a common theme in all Nicholas spark’s books and movies, and that is that each of the main female characters fit into the feminine ideology, there are all thin, white, have blonde or brown hair, great features, and much more. The women in the films are also the ones who are always falling for the dominant, hard-working, ‘masculine’ man, who is also depicted as very handsome with masculine traits. Of course, the men in the film usually end up breaking the girls heart during the middle of the story plot, but they always come back to them in the end, no matter all of the random deaths that occur in Nicholas Spark’s films, it is always a ‘happy ever after ending’. Each and every one of Spark’s films provides stereotypes of femininity as…

    • 178 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The documentary Miss Representation shows the false representation of women through media. The media’s portrayal of what a powerful women is includes harmful and artificial substances to the body. It is important for all of us to learn the truth behind media because false stereotypes are created. We must value and respect human beings and not as objects. People must know that they can be powerful just by being themselves and not by trying to be someone else. The truth behind feminist anger can awaken our society and start a change in the world. Our everyday lives are effected by these false advertised women in television, magazines, music videos, etc. The film points out that influential women do not need to wear clothes that reveal their body…

    • 229 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Film has proven to be a medium through which society frames its expectations of gender performance and derives its accepted societal norms. This paper will call attention to how “chick flicks”, and in particular how the sub-genre of makeover films influence how women are expected to portray their femininity. The Devil Wears Prada is a perfect example of a makeover film within the chick flick genre. The “chick flick” genre is often described as movies that are meant to serve as entertainment for women that examine independent and self-sufficient heroines that portray female empowerment. Within the “chick flick”…

    • 1673 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Is it true to say that the representation of women and femininity has had limited development over the last 25 years… or would it be more accurate to say that these representations have dramatically changed? Has stereotyping become less accurate and more common or has the Romantic Comedy genre developed its representations to break female stereotypes? This investigation aims to explore these questions and, ultimately, to evaluate if the representation of femininity has developed over the last 25 years. Also, to find out to what extent the female role within Romantic Comedy has changed. Exploring the representations of female characters by comparing and contrasting the representation of femininity in the chosen texts; Pretty Woman (1990) directed…

    • 1764 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the satire of the sexes, Egalia’s Daughters by Gerd Brantenberg, there is put forth a society different from which has ever been present in modern times. This would be a society where women were at the forefront and did the decision making, worked and held governmental positions. The men were portrayed in the way females live in present society, though it was often exaggerated to make that point. Men were dominated and ruled by women and had to do their bidding and cook for them and take care of the children, so on and so forth. By taking a hard look at how sexuality is imagined and experienced on all analytical levels and picking apart the social construction of gender in Egalia’s Daughters, society itself in the present can start to be unraveled as well. What is found in this book can transfer over to a point and parallel itself with present experiences of women and their struggle for equality, recognition and acknowledgement.…

    • 1697 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Critical Analysis of Film

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages

    This essay will focus on the current representation of women and men in the classical Holly Wood western film High Noon, focusing on the gender roles of each character and the stereotypical roles that are given.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Cinderella Trend Analysis

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Cinderella, directed by Clyde Geronimi, is a movie about a pretty girl who has been made a servant by her ugly stepmother and stepsisters, and deserves a better life. Cinderella is the fairy tale basis for all other movies, in which the underdog prevails against all odds. Ever After, directed by Andy Tehnant, is a movie based on Cinderella. Besides some differences in characters and a change in setting, it has the same good beats evil concept. Maid in Manhattan directed by Wayne Wang is a newer version. It brings motherhood and a difference in ethnicity to the table. Although the servant girl also prevails in this newer version, she does so by working hard at her job and keeping her independence. The article, “Fairy Tales and a Dose of Reality”, by Catherine Orenstein, is about the non-realistic fairy tales that media today still displays. Between picking bachelors and winning game shows, these unrealistic shows give people false perceptions. “Commercialism, Materialism, and the Drive to Fulfill Beauty Ideals in the United States” by Katie Hickey, is an article that discusses some of the media affects on girls. All of these sources deal with the trend of girls trying to become the perfect image. During the process of idealizing the perfect image, many girls suffer psychological problems with themselves and their own body image.…

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Hunting Ground

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gender roles are constantly changing, but there is not enough progress in the gender identity chosen by society for women. A woman being depicted in the media as weak or lesser than a man is not tolerable. Just because these femininity performances have been repeated for so long in history does not make it natural that women should act and be represented in that way. (Alberts, 2007) It is the twenty-first century and women should be considered strong, independent and equal to men. This is still not the case as women are often also over sexualized in the media, which causes real world…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the article “A Feminist’s View of ‘Cinderella’” Madonna Kolbenschlag, a noted feminist theologian, author, social philosopher, and psychotherapist, approaches the well-known fairytale “Cinderella” from a feminist’s point of view. She presents many examples to support the argument that women are degraded throughout society and the story. While some compelling evidence can be found that agrees with the degradation of women claim, Kolbenschlag makes compelling arguments that women allow these burdens to be placed upon themselves.…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Princess Culture

    • 1199 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The princess culture can have a phenomenal effect on how little girl’s mature, perceive themselves, and even how they see their roll as a woman today. One of the biggest impacts on the princess culture is the tale of Cinderella, which we are going to dive into. Cinderella unmasks some of the questions that go along with this issue. We will look at how it shows how girls look at themselves, where the industry of the princess culture has steered us, and how different cultures use their values in the versions of folk tales and versions of Cinderella. This leaves us with one question asked in the article by Tomchin an author for Jewish Woman International ask, “How would you define the potential harm in the princess culture?”…

    • 1199 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gender Roles In Society

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages

    To be feminine means having qualities and or appearances traditionally associated with women. Women are expected to act a certain way, and that certain way is to be subservient to men. They are depicted as insecure human beings who want to look pretty to impress others, and in order to find a husband. Gender roles in society state that women who are opposed to them are rebellious “she-males” who wouldn’t make a good wife or mother instead of viewing them as women who are independent, powerful, and strong in society. When beautiful women in magazines or television shows always have flawless skin and a perfect complexion, the typical female viewer, who is most likely not all of these things, will be alienated by the very image in which she is supposed to identify with. Young teenage girls, whose bodies are changing and developing, are being deprived of necessary nutrients at every meal in order to match this archetype of an ideal…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Traditional definitions of Women’s Film connote explorations into the emotional journeys of women as they encounter internal and/or external challenges. In this way, analysis of Women’s Film is sometimes aided by comparing the female characters to the men within the stories. The male characters in My Brilliant Career and Jindabyne are presented as failures and defeated heroes in many ways, when they are matched up against Sybylla and Claire who are “instinctively more sensitive/emotional”1 and far more determined and passionate about ‘righting the…

    • 2585 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In "The Ugly Truth About Beauty,  Dave Barry suggests that men and women view themselves differently. People have known for many years that men and women have their differences. These differences often mean that there may be confusion between the sexes. In Dave Barry's essay, he uses three literary devices to determine how males and females feel about themselves. Dave Barry's essay not only suggests how men and women feel about themselves, but also how men feel about women. On this occasion, Dave Barry’s purpose is to enlighten men and women to show them what beauty means to each gender using allusions,hyperboles and ethos.…

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics