Women in the movies: Present

In the era we live in today with the increasing popularity of movies and availability of movies at home, the way that women are portrayed in the media and movies continue to have a significant impact on roles, fashion, and behavior. Women today are generally portrayed in a variety of roles ranging from “sex objects” to dominators, often in the same movie. Additionally, women today are being portrayed as serious professional women. For example, in the movie "Tomb Raider", Angelina Jolie is on a mission to retrieve an ancient metallic triangle that found in a tomb chamber, the typical action movie. However, the plot synopsis, when describing Jolie’s character, says otherwise.

“She is everything you could wish her to be – cool, but oh so hot and totally in control, ready to save the universe. Her soft whimsical sighs reinforce her femininity and vulnerability. She is her own woman: sexy, confident, a dare devil and a tomboy but still a lady, in essence as well as name. And Angelina Jolie embodies the cartoon-like character with curvaceous abandon and extraordinary grace, athleticism, style and charisma. She is fabulous to watch – sexy, sassy and without question, all woman” (IMDb).

The media is unveiling the message to the viewers that the woman in this movie is sexually appealing, and therefore will get more viewers. Women, who see the movie or read the synopsis, get the impression that they must be “sexy” and “feminine” regardless of any circumstance.


In opposition of this claim, in our era there are also movies that show women as real people, not sex objects. For example, in the movie "The Silence of the Lambs", the main female character, Clarice Starling, is portrayed very differently from the Angelina Jolie’s character in "Tomb Raider." “She is intelligent, independent, career-oriented, and has an engaging personality. Furthermore, the film lacks a conventional romantic subplot even though it establishes the expectation of one when Starling is assigned to work with an older male agent” (229). In the movie, she rejects any male passes, wears conservative apparel, and is very successful in her career. A movie such as this one sends women the message that it is acceptable to be a serious professional focused on your work without having to be glamorous or sexy to achieve their goals.


One issue with today’s movies is the increasing pressure on women to be thin, because most female movie stars appear that way. It is very rare that we see women in the movies appear as “normal size.” This may be why the majority of women who compare themselves to the thin movie stars they see in the movies are not happy with their body image. Actresses such as Jennifer Aniston and Mischa Barton are prime examples. Because of this, eating disorders have become common in young women today. “Research suggests that about one percent (1%) of female adolescents have anorexia. That means that about one out of every one hundred young women between ten and twenty are starving themselves, sometimes to death” (ANRED). This has in my opinion had an extremely negative impact on young women of today. Movies in the present era have shown women to be both progressive and independent, yet still in a sense, inferior to men.

https://www.msu.edu/~quattron/WRA140/page3.htm