Related Blog- Women and Hollywood

One blog that highlights the issues of both women and the impacts of Hollywood is another BlogSpot blog called “Women and Hollywood.” It covers news and commentary about Hollywood from a feminist perspective.
This blog contains one main page, where the main entries are posted each week, and several links to other pages, websites, comments, and other articles. There is even the choice to subscribe to the weekly update of women-centric film openings. Some of the noteworthy items on the page include a list of 2008 possible Academy Awards winners for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and currently playing women-centric movies.
The two main articles that were posted on October 24, 2008 was about women at the box office this weekend. This article reviewed two films, The Changeling, and I’ve Loved you so Long.
I’ve Loved you so Long is about a woman recently released from prison after fifteen years and for killing her son. This blog says that the movie is not for the faint hearted, but that Kristen Scott Thomas, the leading actress, plays out the story through her facial expressions. Many have called her performance Oscar worthy.
The Changeling, staring Angelina Jolie, is about a woman whose son went missing, and how the police department is trying to hide something about his disappearance. The review features the biggest problem/distraction of the movie, Jolie’s bright red lips. It goes on to say that the film is a reflection of a male interpretation of a woman, so the plot of a woman fighting back falls hollow. This review focuses on the acting of Jolie as well, saying that she has lost the qualities and commitment that she had ten years ago. It goes on to suppose that this may be due to her celebrity and exposure has restricted her onscreen. Oh, but Pitt is doing fine disappearing into his roles. Maybe it is the lips that are Jolie’s downfall.
The comments about The Changeling’s review were mostly in defense of Jolie, showing that film critique is subjective.
“Women and Hollywood” highlights a crucial part of Hollywood women, that of movies, but does not focus on anything other than movies, which misses many crucial aspects- television, media, magazines, etc. The website does focus completely on women-centri films, which shows that some are interested in the topic, and that it is noteworthy that these female actresses are eligible for awards and prestige just as men are.

Top Box Office Hits

Well, three, maybe four, of the top ten box office movies this past week were women-centric; these include: Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Nights in Rodanthe, and The Duchess, and we might be able to include Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.
This may sound like a good thing, shooting thirty, maybe forty percent. But, the only problem foreseeable in this situation is that women make up over fifty percent of the movie-going audiences, and at least two of these movies appear to have a target audience other then women.
Nights in Rodanthe is obviously targeted to women, and an older crowd of them. This movie is about a woman and man who need to find themselves, they meet, fall for each other, etc. Classic romantic movie, and the target audience is obviously women, but the actor and actress chosen, Diane Lane and Richard Gere respectively, appeal slightly more to an older generation.
The Duchess, starring Kiera Knightly, is about the Duchess of Devonshire, who marries one of the most powerful men in England. She is loved by the general public for her fashion sense as well as her political activism, but is unloved by her husband, which sends her into the arms of another man. This movie focuses on the “brutal difference” between the rights of a man and woman in the eighteenth century. It is a good representation of the rights that women had, and does show that the Western world has come pretty far in the past centuries. The target audience, although many would enjoy this film, is again women, as the main point is to expose the differences between the genders.
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is about two kids in New York who meet and spend the night roaming the city. Like Nights in Rodanthe, this is a sort of love story, though targeted to a different demographic. Young women are definitely a target audience of this film, but it could be argued that the younger generations in general are targeted, as the movie focuses on the comedic side of the interaction, and less on the romantic aspects.
Finally, Beverly Hills Chihuahua is a movie about a female dog in Cali. that is separated from its owner’s daughter. The movie focuses on the lives of women in some aspects, and girls will definitely enjoy this movie, but it is almost targeted toward a much younger generation, like twelve year olds.
The only movies that truly are about women and show positive aspects of women’s lives are Nights in Rodanthe and The Duchess. Nights in Rodanthe shows that older women still have a chance to be found appealing, beautiful, and sexy, as well as confident, and successful. The Duchess portrays a woman who is loved for her activism, and the way she carries herself. It also shows the inequality between the genders, and may enrage the audience at the unfair treatment.
Beverly Hills Chihuahua shows even the female dog as greedy and driven by appearances, not the image that young girls need to be seeing. The human cast is also superficial and somewhat slutty in appearance.
So, even though it is good that several women-centric movies are out in theaters and making money, it is not enough. Not only do films need to focus on the huge proportion of women who attend movies, but they need to send positive images about those women.

Sources used: http://movies.msn.com/movies/top-box-office/

Honoring Women in Hollywood

Elle Magazine, in their November 2008 issue, ran an article celebrating seven women in Hollywood who were “noteworthy.” The issue noted Nicole Kidman, Anne Hathaway, Sigourney Weaver, Salma Hayek, Halle Berry, and Catherine Hardwicke as Hollywood icons; Isla Fisher as their Hollywood spotlight; and Jane Fonda as a Hollywood legend.
In addition to the magazine coverage, an event was held to honor the women. Editor of Elle, Roberta Myers, said that the annual dinner is designed to pay tribute to women “who are telling our stories.”
Some of the biggest names in Hollywood women attended the event to honor their fellow actresses. Crucial introductions were made from generations of Hollywood women, having the event serve as not only an honoring but also a networking agent.
Sigourney Weaver, although looking at the event as positive, did include some skepticism, saying, “Someday hopefully it won’t be necessary to allocate a special evening to celebrate where we are and how far we’ve come… Someday women writers, producers, and crew members will be so commonplace, and roles and salaries for actresses will outstrip those for men, and pigs will fly.” Weaver does admit that things for women in Hollywood have improved, but adds, “We do have a long way to go.”
One of the younger stars honored, Anne Hathaway, has made it a personal habit to only choose roles that do not have negative messages about women. Hathaway says, “Women are about so much more than how they look… I’m free to play my characters as I imagine them, far beyond what size jeans they wear.” Hathaway played the princess-to-be of Genovia in the Princess Diaries, portraying to young girls that women can be empowered and hold elite positions.
Although the event highlighted women who are doing wonderful things in Hollywood, it should be unnecessary to have an event to honor these women. They should be honored every day in the media and in the roles that they play, choosing ones that show women in a favorable light. These honorary women should show future generations that they are choosing roles where women are equals, not subservient, powerful, not meek, and strong, not succumbing. These women have the ability to send messages to younger generations who watch them in the movies and on television, and the messages sent need to be positive. Maybe the start of this is through having events that honor only women in Hollywood, separating them from their male counterparts.

Sources used:
Cohen, Sandy. "A-list women celebrate their own in Hollywood." Associated Press. October 9, 2008. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jWaUhdRi6N2a0qExRddSY_cXrzXwD93LP82O0

Women in Advertisements

The television and the internet are full of advertisements, offering a wide range of products and services. But, there is a large difference between the portrayal of men and women in the media, especially in ads.
Female bodies sell a wide range of products, from food to cars to clothing.
The main difference is that women tend to be more sexualized in the media than are men. Men tend to have their full figures shown, while women tend to be chopped into body parts, rarely being shown in full figure (Media Portrayal; 2007). The types of body parts represented also tend to focus on a more sexual nature. A shot of a woman’s lips to sell some sort of liquid, a shot of a woman’s hair and the outline of her naked body to sell women shampoo (come on, really?). These ads, although designated to both sexes or to women only, seem to be made for the pleasure of males.
Another issue is the portrayal of subservience of women to men in advertisements (Media Portrayal; 2007). Men tend to be looking directly at the camera, and women are often shot in profile, to best show off their features. One ad, for Gucci, portrayed a women on her knees next to a man, shown only from the waist down.
The influence that these ads have is mostly on young girls, a large portion of the people buying magazines, watching television, and surfing the internet. These girls place more emphasis on how they look, and are more prone to become sexualized at an earlier age, or to develop an eating disorder to try to attain the figures of the women in these ads.
Almost all of the advertisements, unless exclusively in a magazine for women of average American sizes, which are few to none, show women who are uncommonly underweight. Hair now has to be “super skinny” (Paul Mitchell), and make-up is something for women to “die for” (Dior), because a women who does not have her hair and make-up done perfectly is characterized as less feminine. These ads are saying that women are just body parts, but only the sexy ones, and only prove that women like this do not exist in the “real world,” outside of Hollywood and the media.

Sources cited:
“The Media Portrayal of Women.” Tennessee Journalist. 2007. http://tnjn.com/2007/mar/20/515-the-media-portrayal-of-wom/.