Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Feminist Theory - The Incredibles



Feminist Theory

               Feminist film theory is a theoretical film criticism derived from feminist politics and feminist theory. It was started in 1920s in looking of women’s expression of her own subjectivity. Feminist view film as a culture practices that representing the myths about femininity and masculinity. Feminist film theory was started as a social movement. The early period of feminist theory and criticism was reflected at the stereotyped representation of women in classic Hollywood film. This stereotyped symbol of women in classic Hollywood had a negative effect on female spectators due to the fixed and infinitely repeated images of women in cinemas as objectionable distortions. Soon, there was a call for a more positive representation of women in Hollywood cinema by change the underlying structures in film. However, it is not enough to drive towards a more positive representation of women in the cinema because women representation in cinema was constructed from the male’s perspective. Back to the point, feminism is a set of political practices that analyses the social or historical position of women as subordinated, oppressed or exploited in dominant modes of production or by social relations of male domination. Therefore, in this essay, I would like to discuss about the theme explored in feminist theory and the discussion of feminist theory in the film The Incredible. 

               Feminist theory aims to understand gender inequality and focuses on gender politics, power relations and sexuality in providing an analysis of these social and political relations, and much focuses on the promotion of women’s right and interests. I would like to discuss one of the themes that explored feminist theory which is discrimination. Discrimination is a consideration of making a distinction in against a person based on the group, class, gender or a category which that person is perceived belongs to rather than on individual merit. It is a term in explaining the rejection of the usual look or convention that found in the reality. A typical example of a discrimination study argued that social, psychological and behavioral traits were caused by metabolic state.  In a sense of women supposedly conserve energy and this makes them passive, conservation, sluggish, stable and uninterested in politics. However, men expend their surplus energy and this makes them eager, energetic, passionate, variable and thereby interested in political and social matters. These biological facts give us a concept of the behavioral differences between women and men and also generalizing of the people’s perspective about the typical women which is weak, powerless, independence and etc. This creates gender imbalances and leaves room for systemic bias between the genders. For instances, there could be a claim that women is refused to become a hero to save the world as the people in the past generation would not accept it due to their negative perspective toward to women and also the dominance of men in social systems. An unfair discrimination usually follows the gender stereotyping held by a society. However, in the contemporary era, an obvious observation found from the society to advocate the gender equality in the society through the film. For an instance, a female superhero that save the world; a female spy or agent, or even a female villains to show her power and etc.  Therefore, it is a kind of satisfaction to see the progression of women position in the standing equally with the men in the context of film. 

               The Incredibles is a 2004 American animated superhero film written and directed by Brad Bird and produced by Pixar Animation Studios. The story started with Bob Parr a.k.a Mr. Incredible and his wife Helen a.k.a Elastigirl who are the world’s greatest famous crime-fighting superheroes in Metroville. But fifteen years later, they have been forced to adopt civilian identities and retreat to the suburbs where they have no choice but to retire as superheroes and live a “normal life”. They have their three children which is Violet, Dash and Jack-jack and they all have their own superpowers. In a sudden, Bob gets his chance when a mysterious communication summons him to an island for a top secret assignment. He soon discovers the conspiracy behind the villains and his family helps in rescuing the world from a total destruction.  

               A superhero film was usually featured around a dominant male superhero that solve obstacle and rescue the world. However, The Incredibles animated superhero film has reject the usual convention of a superhero film by bringing out positive representation of female characters in the film. For an instance, Helen, as known as Elasticgirl, has the superpower of elasticity. She is a family oriented woman who decided to protect their family in order to stay normal like a human without the superpower. One day, she realized her husband might in danger. Then, she successfully rescues her husband with her daughter and son. In this case, we can see how dependent Helen is in deciding how to rescue her husband, Mr. Incredibles from danger. As we can see this is another convention of a superhero film where a female able to plan and make decision to take action on saving someone. But not just center about how dominant is the male in saving the world. This film shows a different perspective of women in rejecting the convention of stereotyped representation of women in classic Hollywood film. It was a successful call for showing a more positive representation of women in film. 

               Besides, in study at feminism in films, we can observe the various female representations in the film and compare them, yet seeking out the final resolution of the “preferred” female representation. In this film, a few female characters have shown their differences traits and characteristic about the contemporary women. For instances, Helen, the Elastic girl, who is family oriented, strong, dominant, independent and more, able to take good care of the family and rescue her husband when he is in danger. Next, Violet, a shy, obedient girl that has lack of confident in doing things and a good follower to her mother, Elastic girl. She has the superpower of invisible, which reflects her own personalities of shy and no confidences in facing the peoples. However, she successful walks through from her inner shades and gains back her confidents after some incidents. From these characters in the film, we concluded that the film shows how women able to have their own decision making in their life without any control from the male. The contemporary women able to decide what to do and what to change for themselves without any kind of distraction from men or society. Women started  to think independently and free decision making in their life such as Helen able to make her decision in saving her husband from danger. 

               In a nut shell, women deserve the right in being equality treated in the film. It can be a question to the society on how women became in this contemporary era. It gives the critics the querying the reflection of the society or vice versa that we can seek out the ideological and social construction of women in films or societies.

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