In
the last 100 years, women’s position has radically altered from being
second-class status to achieving legal equality in Western societies. Women
throughout history have typically suffered sexism in almost every way from the
‘fact that females give birth and males don’t. From this single anatomical
acorn has grown the mighty oak of patriarchy’ (Maushart 2001, pg.41). Women’s
changing status has been brought into effect by the defining movements of
feminism. This essay aims to explore how these changes in society are mirrored
and enforced by the media by looking at popular performances at the time of the
defining movements of feminism as ‘films offer a means by which we understand
who we are and how we should behave.’ (Tally 2008, pg.107 )
First
wave feminism and Vesta Tilley
Although
feminism has its roots in the late 19th Century it’s observed that
the movement began in earnest at the beginning of the 20th Century
with women’s suffrage movements. At this time the main aims were abolishing
legal inequalities, focussing mainly on the right to vote. (Friedan 1963, pg.
86) Performance and media in the early 20th Century are mostly
limited to theatre as this was the main form of public entertainment at the
time. The latter half of the 1800s saw a significant increase in the number of
women who took up a career in the theatre. The U.S census tells us that from
1870-1880 the number of women who stated that they were actresses rose from 780
to 4652 and by 1910 this number was 15,432 (Auster 1984, pg. 31). However,
despite the rise in both women viewing and performing in theatre productions,
it was still viewed as an unsuitable career and one that women couldn’t sustain
if they hoped to marry.
By
the early 1900’s many women counted themselves as actresses and highest paid
female star of that era, and therefore a good representation of women in the
media of the time was Vesta Tilley, a music hall singer who cross-dressed for
all her performances. Tilley led a successful career being popular both amongst
men (who favoured the mocking edge of her characters) and women (who viewed her
as a figure of independence). Although Tilley’s career can be seen as an
embodiment of the aims of first-wave feminism in her financial and career
independence, her success was rooted in the cross-dressing highlighting the
sexism that was still hugely prevalent at the beginning of the 20th
century. It seems that for a performer to be successful to both genders, which
is primarily the reason Tilley was the most successful female performer of the
time, they need to take on the appearance and mannerisms of a man. Although,
the public were still uncomfortable with Tilley acting fully male, she still kept
her own tone of voice and off the stage her attire was resolutely feminine. It
seems the audience needed to know the gender deception of Tilley to accept her
performance. Both the fact that the most successful performers were acting as
males and that they still needed to appear female off the stage displays how
society respected men more in a career form; while it was accepted that women
were eligible to vote, they were still considered second-class in many areas.
Furthermore in 1920 Tilley stepped back from the stage so she was in keeping
with her husband’s ambition to become an MP, this embodies the view of the time
that a man’s career was more significant and when married a woman becomes the
property of her husband. Although
performers such as Tilley illustrate women’s increasing equalities, her cross-dressing
supports Walter’s (2010, pg 212) point that ‘what women who seek power gain in
authority, they will lose in femininity’. Tilley as a performer both embodies
the rising independence of women during the first wave of feminism and how
clearly the patriarchy was still in place at the beginning of the 20th
Century.
Second
wave feminism and The April Fools
(Rosenberg, 1969)
Feminists
of the second wave movement which spanned the late 1960s and 1970s were striving
for sexual freedom, equal pay and working opportunities and highlighting marital
issues such as domestic violence, ‘In the 1960s, the treatment of women as
sexual objects was perceived as one of the primary forms of oppression of women
in society’ (Tally 2008, pg.110). The feminist movement of this decade achieved
‘political representation for women, rights to equal education and working
opportunities, and rights to contraception and reproduction’ (Walter 2010, pg.
231) During this period, cinema was still a principal form of entertainment and
many films, mostly ones that centred around romance, were aimed at women. Film
has always mirrored the way society behaves; therefore films of certain periods
embody the ideals of the time for how women should behave and how men and
women’s gender roles are formed.
The April Fools was a romantic comedy released in
1969, at a time when the second-wave feminist movement was at a peak and
therefore the film both embodies the most prevalent beliefs such as the
changing attitude to sexual freedom and displays the sexism still present in
the late 1960s. The film centres on Brubaker and Catherine’s love affair and
their desperation to be together despite them both being married. The
characters go through what could be considered an emotional affair as they fall
in love and plan to leave their partners. Although they face complications the
belief that you should be with the one you love, despite prior commitments,
embodies women’s drive for sexual and emotional freedom and independence at the
time. Furthering this view of women being independent in marriage is Brubaker’s
wife Phyllis’ portrayal in the film as a negative character through her desire
to constantly re-decorate new homes and live the perfect domestic life. The
audience is meant to laugh at Phyllis’ attitude to life displaying the changing
view of the time that the classical housewife of the 1950s is no longer
desirable and should be frowned upon
However,
the film also illustrates it’s era in its more negative portrayals of the women
and the character’s gender roles as in 1969 women were still campaigning for
many social changes. The lead female protagonist has no job or any ambition other
than to move back to Paris. This decision to not give her a career of her own is
typical of women’s main inequality of the time. Although a woman might have a
job in the 1960s it did not define her like it did a man. It is therefore not relevant
to Catherine’s character, unlike the importance of Brubaker’s job, embodying
what Macdonalds (1995, pg. 27) says that ‘classic American film gives priority
to male perspectives, both narratively, by giving male stars the more
interesting roles, and visually, by making women the object of a dominant male
gaze’ Finally another element of the film that displays the sexism of the time is
Brubaker’s total abandonment of his son. We watch as he tells his wife that he is leaving that night but during his process
of decision-making we never see him considering leaving his child. It doesn’t
seem an issue for him that he will be leaving his son fatherless and his wife
to raise the boy on her own. This total disregard of fatherly duties embodies
the gender roles of the 1960s that women should be the primary carers and men
didn’t need to be involved in their children’s lives. As Maushart (2001, pg.
162) explains ‘women are expected to find their primary gratifications through
the gratification of others’. Although the film displays society’s changing,
more feminist views of the 1960s, it also illustrates how it is set in a time
before the second-wave movement was complete and a society where sexism was
still established.
Post-Modern
Feminism and 13 going on 30 (Winick 2004)
Although
third-wave feminism deals with issues where sexism is still apparent in modern
society, post-modern feminism is a new movement that is more relevant in the 21st
century. It focuses on one main aspect of society that causes inequality: gender
is a socially constructed concept, not a biological binary, and this construct
forces us to behave in certain ‘gender norms’ that limit development and cause
inequality and sexism in both genders. We are bombarded with these gender norms
in every aspect of our life but they are most prominent in the media, as we
absorb the way we should behave according to what we see.
‘the influence of the media …
encourage men and women in adult life both to adopt behaviour that reinforces
gender-specific roles, and to internalize the appropriateness of this as part
of their own sense of identity. (Macdonals, 1995 pg. 13)
Again, focusing on women-centric media, the
film genre ‘rom-com’ (romantic comedy) underwent a massive revival in the 1990s
that continued into the 2000s. Rom-coms are aimed at women and display the
‘perfect’ romance, showing us how society believes both women and men should
behave.
13 going on 30 (2004) is a typical rom-com of the
early 2000s that embodies many of the gender stereotyping issues that
post-modern feminism focuses on. Firstly, is the embodiment of the
career-driven woman. Many films seem to ‘take for granted that equality has
been achieved and the female empowerment’ (Tally 2008, pg.109) with numerous
women in high-powered jobs. At first glance this might seem a positive reaction
to second-wave feminism, the idea that women can now achieve a top position in
any job. However there are two key problems with this that 13 going on 30 illustrates. Firstly, that in most films the jobs women
work in are typically ‘female’ jobs. Although they’re at the top of their
career it is usually in jobs such as fashion ( Jenna works for the fashion magazine
Poise) which people associate with being feminine as Domosh and Seager (2001,
pg,58) say ‘women work in a far narrower range of occupations than do men.’
Secondly the women are often seen negatively in their careers – either as
overworked or forgetting their moral value because of their profession. In her
30s Jenna has ended up as a soulless career woman who sells her magazine out.
Although often taken lightly in rom-coms, the attribute of women becoming
obsessed with their career may carry a more serious undertone - that women
shouldn’t be fully focussed on their profession and it is more worthy to be a
housewife or mother.
cautionary tale of how these careers are
themselves problematic for the female characters … prominent women are shown to
be unhappy of their jobs; and upon realizing this they often give up their
careers to be with the romantic male lead’ (Tally 2008, pg.109)
This
storyline in 13 going on 30 displays
the gender constructs that we still hold in modern society: that men should
focus on their careers and women should be more caring and domesticated.
This
is further exposed by Jenna retracting back to her domesticated sphere at the
end of the film. Although we see her make the right decision and go back in
time to remain friends with Matt, the flash forward at the end does not show a
new positive career path but her unpacking boxes in a new house in the suburbs.
This embodies the view that, since second-wave feminism, women are free to have
careers but still as a society we are most comfortable seeing a woman ‘settling
down’ in their appropriate gender spheres of loving wife and mother. Finally
the film portrays the changing view of gender roles in the characterisation of
Matt. There is a modern trope in films that although girls may dally with the typical
masculine, alpha male, in the end they go for the ‘nice guy’ who is more sensitive
and caring. On one hand this shows a clear movement away from the leads in mid-20th
Century films who were more unemotional , they still must possess masculine
traits in order to be comfortably in their appropriate gender sphere; Matt
possess the classical masculine traits of sarcasm and ability to put Jenna is
her place. This demonstrates how although gender roles may be moving and
blurring slightly (in that women can be strong and empowered and men are
allowed some sensitivity), in main stream media we still need to see characters
behaving in their classical gender roles in order for us to learn how to behave
in accordance with our own gender. Therefore 13 going on 30 embodies the gender roles that society imposes on us
and that post-modern feminism believes are completely constructed.
In
conclusion, women’s representation has changed drastically throughout the last
100 years as women’s equality has risen due to feminist movements. The beliefs
and trappings of each period can be seen in the performance of the time, from
Vesta Tilley’s need to cross-dress in order to reach stardom, to the rising
sexual freedom of the 1970s shown through the acceptance of leaving ones partner,
to the blurring of gender roles at the beginning of the 21st Century
shown in Jenna careerism and Matt’s sensitivity. Although women have achieved
legal equality in most aspects of life, gender inequality still remains and
will always be shown in the media as they interpret and define our roles in
life.
Word
Count - 2201
Reference
List
Auster,
A (1984) Actresses and Suffragetes; women
in the American theatre. USA. Praeger.
Domosh,
M and Seager, J (2001) Putting women in
place. New York. Guilford Press.
Friedan,
B (1963) The Feminine Mystique. London.
Penguin Books
Macdonals,
M (1995) Representing women. Myths of
femininity in the popular media. Great Britain. Edward Arnold.
Maushart,
S (2001) wifework. What marriage really
means for women. Melbourne. The Text Publishing Company.
Tally,
M (2008) Representations of Girls and Young Women in Film as an Entry Point to
Studying Girl Culture. In: Mitchell, C A and Reid-Walsh, J. eds. Girl Culture. USA. Greenwood Press. Pg.
107-113
Walter,
N. (2010) Living Dolls: the return of
sexism. Great Britain. Virago Press
Filmography
Rosenberg,
S (1969) The April Fools. [DVD] USA:
Jalem Productions
Winick,
G (2004) 13 going on 30. [DVD] USA:
Revolution Studios
