Introduction
and brief history
The extent to which images of men and
women are conventionalized in the cinema demonstrates the power of gender
norms. Nevertheless, the history of cinematic representations of gender is
characterized by tensions, contradictions, and change. Between its invention in
1895 and the imposition of the Production Code in the early 1930s, American
cinema was torn between the modern idea of the New Woman and the antimodern
Cult of True Womanhood—a Victorian ideology that prescribed for women the four
cardinal virtues of purity, piety, domesticity, and submission. In early
cinema, before the stabilization of industry standards and norms and while
cinema still lacked respectability, women on the screen were often active,
sexual, and even feminist. The possibility that the genres of movies then encouraged
active, curious, militant female spectatorship was the cause of some social
concern at the time, especially in the case of the white slave films. There was
also concern that the movie theaters were drawing women into new and unsafe
public spaces. Early cinema formed part of a modern urban cultural scene in
which women's increased mobility was both cause and effect of changes in their
social roles.
In later silent cinema, the
dialectical tension between old and new model femininities can be most clearly
seen in the contrasting stereotypes of the virgin, personified by stars like
Mary Pickford (1893–1979) and Lillian Gish (1893–1993), and the vamp, most
notoriously embodied by Theda Bara (1885–1955) and Clara Bow (1905–1965). However,
flapper films of the 1920s, such as The Dancing Mothers (1926) and It
(1927), depicted and addressed the modern, active, independent women of the
decade that began with their enfranchisement.
The impact of historical events on
gender roles often appears in indirect and mediated ways in Hollywood
cinema. The Depression and the New Deal generated an ethos of selflessness that
arguably informed maternal melodramas such as Stella Dallas (1937),
although the film makes no explicit reference to the economics or ideology of
the times. Many critics have noted the influence of World War II on gender
roles in the woman's film and film noir, genres that have been said to
participate in the complex postwar readjustments of social roles for both men
and women. The twin figures of the war veteran misfit and the woman whose
contribution to the work-force is no longer required have been said to inform
the maladjusted femininities and masculinities of many films of the late 1940s
that otherwise lack explicit sociological content.
Women in American film industry
There
is definitely an inequality between men and women working in the film
industry. In fact, out of the 250 top grossing films of 2007, only 15% of
the directors, writers, executive producers, cinematographers, and editors were
women. But how did this inequality come to be? It is a hypothesis that
since the beginnings of the film industry, when males completely dominated the
important production jobs, the male gaze has become a necessary visual
narrative tool; and because of this unconscious acceptance of the male gaze,
these techniques have become standard for all directors, regardless of their
gender. The camera became, in many ways, gendered independently from the gender
of the director. From here, the assumption is made that Hollywood is a male-dominated industry,
because the mainstream movies being produced are much more male-friendly than
female-oriented. This, in turn, has led to Hollywood actually being a male-dominated
industry; and while the percentage of women working in high-level jobs has
increased over time, it hasn’t been by much. The early gendering of the camera
has led to a very gendered film industry world today. Clearly, industry
standards have been set, both artistically and professionally, with a
distinctly male undertone. Mulvey describes this in her article, saying
that “it faces us with the ultimate challenge: how to fight the unconscious
structured like a language…while still caught within the language of the patriarchy.
There is no way in which we can produce an alternative out of the blue”.
On the
other hand, when we analyze how women appears in the American movies, we notice
another kind of stereotyping evoked from the different origins of the US
population, where it shows the white American woman as a strong woman who wants
to be independent, and loyal to her country. While the black American woman in
most movies appear as single mother, have a relations with the gangsters in her
neighborhood, and have a dirty history. Whereby, women from Latin
America appears to be thieves, sluts, and looking for rich old men
to be with. For Arab women in American movies, they appears to be like always
covering their whole body, very passive, and mostly can’t speaks English.
Empirical Analysis of American films:
The
Celluloid Ceiling is a report compiled by Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, Executive
Director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and professor at
the School of Theatre,
Television and Film at San Diego
State University.
Her industry-wide study, spanning 1998-2009, closely examines women and their
role within the film industry. The Celluloid Ceiling focuses on the number of
women that are working within the film industry in different positions. In the
2009 study, Lauzen reported that “in 2009, women comprised 16% of all
directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and
editors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films. This represents a
decline of 3 percentage points from 2001 and is even with 2008 figures”. This
statistic is broken down as follows: directors 7% (a 2% decrease since 2008),
writers 8%, executive producers 17%, producers 23%, editors 18%, and
cinematographers 2%. When studying the Celluloid Ceiling and its statistics, a
few factors rise to the surface. First, the number of women within
Above-the-Line positions is unacceptably low. Second, these dismal numbers have
stayed consistent over the course of Lauzen’s study, with a vast majority of
films having no women working in certain Above-the-Line positions. An aspect
extrapolated from the Celluloid Ceiling study to consider is the perception of
gender specific job roles within the industry. Producers, which are comprised
of the highest percentage of women, develop and fund a project from beginning
to end. They are heavily involved with negotiating different personalities,
keeping the film on schedule and within budget, and to nurture the film from
start to finish. A producer’s skills are often aligned with traditionally “feminine”
traits: nurturing,
managing, and negotiating. Conversely,
cinematographers, which are comprised of the lowest percentage of females, is
an extremely technical job dealing with (but not limited to) calculating the
film stock needed for a specific look, measuring light and distance, and the
precise control of lens and camera techniques. Cinematographer’s skills are
aligned with traditionally “masculine” traits: technical acumen, manual
dexterity, and quantitative skills. It is evident that those in power within
the industry rely on archaic notions about the feminine gender, and still
perceive certain professions to be gender specific. Hence, within the Hollywood
Production Culture, the glass ceiling is replaced with Lauzen’s “celluloid
ceiling”.
Stacy
L. Smith, a Ph.D. at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California, explains why it is
important to have women in Above the-Line positions. The Gender Report studies
the 100 top-grossing films of 2007. Smith’s Gender Report states: “onscreen
gender roles are a function—to some degree—of the gender composition of
behind-the-camera workers”. While examining writers, directors, and producers,
Smith’s study found that “17% of these jobs are filled by women: 3% in
directing, 11.2% in writing, and 20.5% in producing”. Smith’s report also
indicates that when women are present behind-the- camera, the number of
actresses in front-of-the-camera increases. When films are directed by women,
44% of the characters are female, as opposed to 29.3% when directed by men.
When women write a screenplay, 34.9% of their characters are female, as opposed
to 28.1% when a screenplay is written by a man. A woman producer will have
30.8% female onscreen characters, while her male counterpart will have 26.4%.
In all three instances, the amount of women in front of the camera rises when
women hold Above-the-Line positions behind it. The study also found that female
characters become more complex when women are involved Above the-Line. They transition
from one- dimensional side characters to more complex beings, thus, more
interesting and realistic. Another effect that Above-the-Line women have on
actresses is the amount of sexual exploitation that they are subjected to.
Smith states: “the presence of a female on the production team [is] associated
with a 6.8-10.8% reduction in the percentage of characters shown with some
nudity”. Women on the production team remove actresses from being sexual
objects into being an equal within the story and the plotline. Why is having a
woman in Above-the-Line positions important? The answer is that “films
featuring women working as directors, writers, or producers are associated with
a higher percentage of girls and women on the silver screen than those films
with only men in these sacrosanct positions”. Smith’s report demonstrates that
when women are employed in Above-the-Line positions it represents a broader
cultural shift. Women in Above-the-Line positions bring immediate change to the
production of popular American culture by furthering the empowerment and
representation of women on the silver screen.
Women in Hindi film industry
The
narratives of Hindi cinema have undoubtedly been male dominated and male
centric. Themes have been explored from the male audience’s point of view. The
heroine is always secondary to the hero. Her role is charted out in context of
any male character which is central to the script. It may be the hero, the
villain, the father, the boss, an elderly male figure etc. She is devoid of any
independent existence and her journey throughout the film is explored in
relation to the male character. This kind of straight-jacketing limits the women’s
role to providing glamour, relief, respite and entertainment. Another trend to
be examined in the depiction of female characters is the clear dichotomy which
is followed. The woman is docile, domestic, honorable, noble, and ideal or she
is the other extreme – wayward, reckless and irresponsible. It also shows – in
some movies- how two women are pitted against each other to win over the same
man, while he enjoys his fling openly. Further, it shows the “man” as the
savior and the “woman” as the victim is also prominently seen in Hindi cinema
discourse. The heroine is a damsel in distress who has to be rescued by the
hero if she is in trouble. Scene after scene of heroes rescuing their ladies
from the clutches of villains have been captured by the camera.
On the
positive side, there are a chunk of film-makers who have reacted against the
stereotypes set by mainstream cinema and have dared to explore subjects from
the women’s perspective. Contemporary films like No One Killed Jessica (2011),
Cheeni Kum (2007), Chameli (2003), Ishqiya (2010), Paa (2009) and Dirty Picture
(2011) have pictured extraordinary themes and portrayed women as central to the
story line. These films have forced creators to take a fresh look at the
different roles played by women and introspect into the kind of typecast that
was being perpetuated earlier.
Women in Iranian film industry
In Iran, the film
industry is more dominated by men too, the percentage of women behind the
screen and onscreen are less than men, also less than the percentage of women
in film industry in western countries. In regards to post revolution cinema in
Iranian film industry, generally women more than men in films under
investigation are screened doing actions which are typical signs of licensed or
psychological withdrawal and it is worthy of attention that inter-sex
differences relating to this issue are statistically meaningful. It means that
women, more than men, perform such actions which make them inactive in the
position or situation of interaction. Also it shows that women are generally
more than men screened at home or in family circle. That is to say they are
seen accompanying their children either indoors or outdoors; they look after a
child or do babysitting in films; they are often seen to be on the phone
indoors and not outdoors, indicating a link between women and home, men and
outdoors. Further men more than women give occupational order to opposite sex
and train or supervise them in films. On the other hand, women are screened to
submit reports to their super-ordinate men.
Women
in Egyptian film industry
As in other countries, Egyptian film
industry is men-dominated too, both behind screen and on screen. There are few
women working in important production jobs, but their number is very low
comparing to the number of men in this jobs. About the image of women in
Egyptian movie I attached in Arabic the findings of an Egyptian study conducted
based on them. (See the appendix)
Women in Palestinian film industry
When talking about Palestine, there is a great evolution in the
last years in making films, also this evolution created more space for women to
represent their selves and issues in movies and to be a significant part in
film industry, like Shashat multimedia productions. The problem with Shashat
appears in their audience where most of the movies they produce go to the western
audience and to compete in universal movies festivals rather than market it in Palestine for
Palestinians whom more in need to make the changes.
Women challenges in film industry
Women are consistently
underrepresented in Above-the-Line positions, are often paid less when they are
employed, and make a noticeable difference on female representations when they
do obtain jobs. Yet why are women unable to break through the “celluloid
ceiling”? One hypothesis that examines the low percentage of women within the industry
asserts that women self select out in light of the rigorous lifestyle
associated with filmmaking. In a joint interview, some of the industry’s most
successful Above-the-Line women spoke about the issues they face. Andrea
Berloff, writer/producer of World
Trade Center,
asks “Is it self-selection? I’ve gone after some very male-centric jobs, and I
have gotten them, and I don’t feel that I’m being prevented from getting them
because of my gender. So I wonder why aren’t more women trying?”. Self-selection
is the notion that women are choosing not to participate Above-the-Line, and
that male executives within the industry are not purposely denying women
access. Kimberly Peirce, the writer/director/producer of Boys Don’t Cry and
Stop Loss, explains why self-selection is considered at all: “You get into your
second, your third movie, and you’re building a career, and it’s hitting smack
up against those years when you want to have a child”. Filmmaking is a “blood
sport” that requires an extraordinary commitment of time and energy. In order
to do this one has to compromise in other areas of life, and sometimes that
compromise is unacceptable. Some women self select out of the industry because
of the pressures that it places on their personal life.
Women
on screen
Women on screen mostly dealt with as
an object and passive creatures. And that is what the women in film industry
are fighting to change in the first place. The image of women as movies shows
it underestimate the value of women, and reinforce the old traditional view of
women, and put them in rigid forms that even worse than the old tradition, and
it is obvious when movies deals with females and objects not as human beings.
Hence, women in movies confined between being submissive, sexual object,
follower, dependent, and restricted to house chores or easy jobs. What makes
the situation awful for women the presence of females working in important
production jobs whom also presenting this malformed and degrading image of
women.
Female
Actresses in day life
When
most of people envy actresses for their wealthy and luxury life, only few of
them realize how hard their life is. When we look at the dimensions of
actresses life in details, no one can ignore how journalism always chasing them
everywhere, which means that actresses have less space of privacy than ordinary
people, have less chance to make mistakes that ordinary people can do, also and
in the first place, they can’t live as a normal human, can’t go out in places
they loved to go before they became famous.
Another
dimension make the life of actresses - specially female ones- is their body image and shape, where they must
keep them selves fit and looks sexy which makes it hard for them to follow a
very restricted diets, go into some plastic surgeries that in the end throw
them out of the sense of humanity and being looked at as a robot, TV doll, or
unwanted ideal and role-model “as some of female actresses said in their
interviews”. Also the rapid changes in fashions effect female actresses and
forcing them to follow this rapid changes and representing it in their daily
life which put more pressure and limits to life as they love and be nature.
“Hollywood
says: there is no business like show business”
references
1- Gender and Technology Spring 2009, A multi-disciplinary
course taught by Anne Dalke and Laura Blankenship. Bryn Mawr
College, Bryn Mawr, PA USA.
2- Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure in Narrative
Cinema.” Screen Autumn 1975: 6-18.
3- Lauzen, Martha. “Behind-the-Scenes Employment
of Women on the
Top 250 Films of 2009.” Celluloid Ceiling
2010. 1-2. Print.
4- Lauzen, Martha.
“Contemplating the Celluloid Ceiling.” Media Report to Women.
Summer 2009: 22-24. Print.
5- Lauzen, Martha. “Women @ the Box Office: A Study of
the Top 100 Worldwide
Grossing Films.” Center for the Study of Women in
Television
and Film, San
Diego State University, CA. 2008: 1-2. Print.
6- Smith, Stacy. “Gender Oppression in Cinematic
Content?: A Look at Females On-Screen & Behind-the-Camera in Top-Grossing
2007 Film.” Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California. 2009: 1-28. Print.
7- Traister, Rebecca. “Chicks Behind the Flicks.”
Salon.com. Salon Media Group, 11 Oct. 2007. Web. 4 November 2012.
8- M. Gordfaramarzi,
A. Kazemi. “Iranian Movies and Gender display: a Study in Post
Revolution Cinema” International Journal of Innovation, Management and
Technology, Vol. 1, No. 2, June 2010.
9- N. Tere. “Gender Reflection
in Mainstream Hindi Cinema”. Maharaja
Sayajirao University of Baroda, Gujarat,
India. June,
2012.
Appendix
اهتمت السينما المصرية في فترة التسعينيات بالمرأة العصرية، ولم تتعرض
للأبعاد الحقيقية في شخصيتها من الناحية الإنسانية والأدبية ، وأغفلت تماماً قضايا
المرأة الكادحة والمرأة في الريف . وحصرت صورة المرأة في نماذج متشابهة تهدف من
ورائها مداعبة غرائز الجمهور وإثارته، أصبح هناك تقصير شديد في طرح وتجسيد صورة
المرأة الحقيقية.
جاء ذلك في رسالة ماجستير للباحثة إحسان سعيد عبد المجيد المعيدة بالمركز
القومي للبحوث الاجتماعية والجنائية، تحت عنوان " صور المرأة المصرية في
السينما في فترة التسعينيات" حصلت خلالها الباحثة علي درجة الماجستير بتقدير
امتياز من جامعة عين شمس تحت إشراف د.إجلال إسماعيل أستاذ الاجتماع
أكدت الباحثة أن هناك مغالاة في تجسيد العنف بالأفلام السينمائية في تلك
الفترة ، سواء العنف الذي تمارسه المرأة في الأفلام أو الذي يمارس ضدها . كما لم
تقدم تلك الأعمال السينمائية نموذجاً للمرأة القدوة التي يعول عليها في الصمود
والقدرة علي الارتقاء ومواجهة مشاكلها
تناولت الدراسة البحثية - من خلال الإحصاء وتحليل - القضايا التي شغلت
حيزاً وفيراً في سينما التسعينيات وكان لها أثر بالغ في تسليط الضوء علي أوجه خاصة
في شكل المرأة علي الشاشة متضمنة قضايا حيوية لعبت فيها المرأة دور البطولة سواء
علي المستوي الإيجابي أو السلبي . فعلي سبيل المثال تناولت الدراسة في سياق تعرضها
للصور الإيجابية أشكالاً عديدة من بينها قدرة المرأة علي مواجهة مشكلاتها
الاجتماعية ومحاولتها التكيف مع الواقع الراهن بكل ما يعتريه من متغيرات
أوضحت الباحثة إحسان سعيد في رسالتها أن بعض أفلام التسعينيات عبرت عن
مزايا المرأة وإيجابيتها في صراعها مع الرجل ، ولكن هذه الصورة تبدو استثناء من
القاعدة. فتشير الدراسة إلى صورة المرأة السلبية في أفلام التسعينيات، وحصر دور
المرأة في علاقتها الجنسية بالرجل . كما قدمت سينما التسعينات صوراً مبالغاً فيها
للمرأة المنحرفة ، ووضعتها في دوائر محظورة ، فجعلتها قاتلة وتاجرة مخدرات وداعرة
. وأصبح الشكل الغالب عليها هو الانتهازية والجشع والغرور والخيانة
وتشابهت صورة المرأة في كثير من الأفلام فنشأ التكرار ، وابتعد المبدعون
عن التميز والتفرد ، وجعلوا يغالون في إظهار ضعف المرأة
. ولعل أهم الأفلام التي جسدت الصورة السلبية للمرأة في تلك المرحلة فيل
"ليلة القتل " لأشرف فهمي . و" القاتلة " لإيناس الدغيدي
و" امرأة وخمس رجال " لعلاء كريم و" جبر الخواطر " لعاطف
الطيب و" عتبة الستات " لعلي عبد الخالق
وفي محاولة لتسليط الضوء علي النموذج الثالث لشكل المرأة اهتمت السينما
بتجسيد الصورة العصرية ، وركزت علي الشكل الخارجي للمرأة المتمثل في الزي ولون
الشعر . وأغفلت النواحي الأصلية في الشخصية كالمستوي العلمي والثقافي . ويبدو ذلك
واضحاً في أفلام "الراقصة والسياسي" لسمير سيف. و"اشتباه"
لعلاء كريم . و"كلام الليل" لإيناس الدغيدي.
واهتمت الدراسة بعلاقة المرأة وظروفها بالرجل ، وألمحت إلي مستوياتها
الفنية والثقافية والاجتماعية ، كما تطرقت إلي أوجه التعامل وحجم الأضرار التي
وقعت عليها
أخيراً تؤكد الباحثة إحسان سعيد أن سينما التسعينيات لم تقدم حلولاً
إيجابية لحماية المرأة . كما جاءت معظم أدوار المرأة في تلك الأفلام والمتصلة
بالحياة السياسية سطحية وغير فعالة.
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