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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