Females in Film

In my film analysis class last semester we spent a few days studying the role of females in film and feminism in film. I thought after last semester I would be completely done with film theory for awhile, but I found myself flipping through my notes about feminist film theory and paging through the one text book I have left to brush up on the subject.

The stereotypic representations of women in film peaked my interest the most. Bill Nichols, author of Engaging Cinema says that women fill certain stereotypic roles in film. These rolls include the virgin, wife, mother and the vamp-seductress. These basic stereotypes have existed since the early days of cinema.

Bill Nichols' stereotypes:
The Virgin- represents a male projection onto women of profound innocence and vulnerability.
The Wife- at the center of the complex dynamics that fuel family life. the wife supports or impedes her husband.
The Mother- represents the be-all and end-all of a woman's life. She is devoted to her family.
The Vamp- aka Femme Fatale, she is a projection of male anxieties about autonomy. She leaves the male blameless for his loss of independence. Kind of like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct.


When focusing on feminist film theory in class, we viewed three films. They were: Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), Jennifer Reeve's Chronic (1996) and Ousmane Sembene's Black Girl (1966). I'm not exactly sure if these films are considered to be feminist films. However, as we were watching them, the teachers called attention to the fact that none of the main characters (all of which were female in these films) fit any of Nichols' stereotypes and in the end, they all committed suicide. To me, it proved in a way that if a woman in a film (with a main role) that doesn't fit one of the stereotypes is doomed to die, disappear or be forced into one of these roles.

Think about it. Look at Thelma and Louise. Thelma left her husband, Louise left her boyfriend and in the end they both died. But imagine if they did make it to Mexico and lived. I'd like to think that they probably would have settled down and started families there, therefore putting themselves back in the role of wife/mother.

Another example is Million Dollar Baby. Hilary Swank doesn't marry, she doesn't have a love interest in the story, she isn't even the "virgin" stereotype. She does something different that deviates from these stereotypes and in the end, dies.

In class we were told that when the main female in a movie does in fact deviate, there is no way to retain order in the plot. (Most films have the order/chaos/order plot formula). This pisses me off, but it's so true. So many commercial Hollywood films end with a uniting couple (Even Fight Club ended that way among many others...) that it seems to be the natural way of ending a film.

I was talking about this with my mother and she tried to rebut my argument with the film Baby Boom. Diane Keaton is a Harvard graduate with an awesome job but then she gets a baby dumped on her (forcing her to be the mother) and loses her job and busy city life. So she moves to Vermont, makes applesauce and becomes successful on her own until she meets the sexy doctor and falls in love with him or whatever. I told my mom that even though she was successful, she was still forced into the mother/wife stereotype, otherwise she would have died or something in the end.

Of course, movies are not real life. That's just what sells. There has to be a beginning, middle and ending (in commercial films at least). In real life, a woman wont get killed off if she isn't the wife/virgin/vamp/mother.

Oh, and my favorite females characters in film...
I love:

Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct)
Carolyn Burnham (Annette Bening in American Beauty)
Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago)
Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep in Doubt)
I also loved that young girl in True Grit. 


I think my favorite stereotypical female character is the Femme Fatale. That was a hard question for me to answer since I have far more favorite male characters in films than female characters. Not sure why.