How has the role of female characters changed in action adventure movies and become more dominant over the years with reference to “Resident Evil Extinction”.“Mankind faces extinction, one woman, is the final hope, for our survival”
[1]‘In 1970s action-adventure shows, only 15 per cent of the leading characters were women’
[2]. This shows how rare it was for women in the past to have a lead role in movies. This proves that women were under-represented and hardly had a value in society. However, this has changed over the years as the number of women in leading dominant roles has exceeded this shows change in society as in ‘1995-1996 43% of major characters were female’
[3].Males have dominated the action genre for many years, playing the protagonists in most films. Therefore, females were given roles in action films purely because of their physical attraction and to be used as sex objects. Women were stereotypically given the passive roles whilst men were given the active roles; however this is not particularly the case in Russel Mulcahy’s film Resident Evil Extinction in which women are portrayed differently in this male dominated society the women in this film oppose Propp’s theory as women are not ‘princesses’ but the ‘heroes’. However as the film has a male director it can be seen that the women are also under-represented as sex objects for the male gaze, this can be shown through the costumes and suggestively the props used.
Resident Evil Extinction is a contemporary film that portrays women as dominant, for example when we see Milla Jovoich in the last seen of the movie she is killing many zombies. She is shown as a display of the “ass-kicking female empowerment”
[4] that needs to save mankind from extinction. This proves Jovovich as a powerful and assertive female character. However women have not just been shown as strong characters recently, this has also been the case in some films from the past such as Alien and Terminator.
In the movie Alien (1979) the female character – Signourey Weaver is the protagonist of the film who is ‘resourceful, self-reliant, hard-assed, feminist action heroine’
[5]. She is shown as a masculine character as she is seen killing the predators and is portrayed as a ‘male’. This is because Signourey Weavers character, Ripley is the only surviving character and all the action revolves around her. However, on the other hand when she gets captured a male saves her. This shows that women are still subordinate to men and need them to save the day for them which links to Propp’s theory of the hero and the princess because as well as her taking on the hero role she could not fulfill that character well enough and still needed a man to save the day for her which makes him the hero. This shows that women could not take the full active role as protagonist-hero characters in action adventure and society had not changed enough as it was still a ‘patriarchal’ society.
‘Representation is seen as an expression of ideology, it expresses different kinds of power relationships in society which are to do with inequalities of groups’
[6]. Milla Jovovich challenges these dominant ideologies in Resident Evil Extinction. She is shown as dominant and a superior character. She’s a female character taking on a man’s role. She is represented as an independent and strong female; her character seems to be challenging the stereotypes that females are associated with weak, emotional, and sex objects. Although like many other females in the action adventure genre Milla jovovich is also represented as beautiful. However her character is also very powerful as she is on a mission to save mankind. Milla Jovovich is represented as dominant in many of the scenes as we can see her riding a motorbike which is usually associated to men who are mostly stereotyped as strong and powerful. She is also shown as a powerful character and challenges stereotypes as she is shown using weapons such as guns and machetes to kill zombies. The machetes and guns represent more of her male side and show the female dominance that she has throughout the film as she is always seen walking around with something so threatening. The machetes and guns can be seen as phallic objects and therefore this reinforces her power as she is able to castrate men, therefore instead of the women being seen as weak it is men who would be seen as weak. Also when the men watch Resident Evil Extinction it would be them who would have to cross gender into a woman instead of it having to be women who typically had to be the ones to cross gender into males in action adventure films. Resident Evil Extinction clearly suggests that the representation of females within the film industry has changed, due to the reason that nowadays there are many female action stars whereas before females were only given parts which fitted in with their stereotypes e.g. housewife or object of sexual desire for the male. By Jovovich taking on a masculine role she is presenting females as more independent and strong.
Milla Jovovich does not support Laura Mulvey’s theory (1975) which ‘argues that the dominant point of view within cinema is masculine, especially where a woman is concerned. The female body is displayed for the ‘male gaze’ in order to provide erotic pleasure and ultimately a sense of control over her’
[7]. Resident evil extinction challenges this as Jovovich is seen as a dominant and strong character who takes on a masculine role and instead of males gazing upon the female they would’ve have to cross gender and identify with her or would be anxious and afraid of her as they fear the female character castrating their ‘penis’. However, Mulveys theory can be supported to an extent as the male gaze is still appropriate at times. This is through the use of costume, for example at the beginning of Resident Evil Extinction Milla Jovovich lying in a bathroom and only covered in the shower net. The camera zooms out on her and shows her whole body. In this image she is represented as weak and as an ‘object of desire’ therefore the men would watch the movie ‘voyeuristically’. She is also represented as a sex object, this is after the bath scene we see her wear a red dress which is quite short this reinforces the stereotypes that women are seen as sex objects as red connotes love and makes her look seductive, therefore she reinforces some of the stereotypes that are linked to Mulvey’s 'male gaze' theory. The audience then assumes that all action adventure films are targeted towards males, because of the constant depiction of women as objects of desire. However the male characters do not get enough time to gaze upon Jovovich as she is always killing someone or doing something active, also her costume in the movie after a while changes and she is seen wearing khaki coloured clothes and a long cloak. The khaki colours clothes present her as powerful as those are the colours that army men tend to wear therefore she is seen as similar to them and therefore dominant just like the men in the army.
“She doesn’t lead the story, she doesn’t make the central decisions, she doesn’t repeatedly save her male colleague, and she’s not the star of the film.”
[8]. Women have not always been represented as powerful and dominant characters but instead they have more often been presents as ‘passive-weak, ineffectual, victimised, supportive, laughable or morally token females’
[9] as they are shown to simply be there for the pleasure of the male hero, whereas the men were portrayed as ‘assertive, aggressive- adventurous, active and victorious’
[10]. This shows how patriarchal society was and how women were always given a stereotypical role in all movies claiming that women were oppressed. However ‘In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s only 20 to 35 per cent of characters were females, by the mid-1980s there were more women in leading roles, but still there were twice as many men on screen’
[11]. This shows at this time more women became involved in leading roles and it demonstrated some sort of gain over the way they had been represented, and how society was changing, but it also shows that males were more dominant in the film industry, making it difficult for females to become successful.
‘Men typically made the decisions which led the story, and were assertive, confident and dominant’
[12] a great example of a film that shows this is Superman (1978). In this movie women are shown as weak and inferior towards the man. This movie was pretty patriarchal and would have not pleased feminists as it shows how much the role of women in Hollywood has changed compared to today as the typical gender role females generally played is the women who needs saving because she is weak and is apparently incapable of getting herself out of a difficult situation as shown in superman such as when superman has to save a women from a car crash and she falls unconscious and when superman brings her out of the car he kisses her which shows that women are just an object of desire for men. Consequently, this shows that females are seen to be a ‘prize’ for the hero, for his hard work of saving her. Superman is shown many times saving women lives in the movie which is a clear portrayal of male dominance as there is no sign of female empowerment or women being as strong as superman. The most relevant role a respective female plays in the movie is by Lois lane that is Superman's love interest. ‘Although Lois Lane in Superman is a successful reporter, for example, it is still the (super-) heroic man who leads the story and saves the world’
[13] this proves that the movie is male dominated. Lois Lane is hardly shown in any strong positions throughout the whole film giving females a negative representation once again as it shows that women were only given token roles in action adventure films and were degraded, therefore they were underrepresented and ‘symbolically annihilated’
Women are mostly underrepresented in the movies due to the films actually being directed by males. This is the case in Resident Evil Extinction as it is directed by Russel Mulcahy. There are many other action adventure films starring women such as ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Charlies Angles’. Women usually tend to be represented as emotional, sexual, beautiful and size/physique. However, in Resident Evil Extinction, Milla Jovovich (Alice) is represented as a strong, dominant and in control. However, can we argue that this is a fair representation of women? As it is likely that male directors portray women characters different from how women directors portray women characters, simply because it’s harder for them to relate to the characters. But as there is such a less amount of female directors it is hard for women to ever be represented in a fair way as men are likely to always be biased. The reason I believe that there are such little amounts of women directors is because mostly jobs that women prefer are quiet stereotypical they would either want to be a teacher, secretary, nurse or remain a housewife. Another reason is that after women get pregnant it is seen less likely that they would carry on with their profession as they now have a family to look after and it is harder for women to enter this industry as it is male dominated.
Women have many negative stereotypes and can be characterized into two main categories. They are the ‘Madonna who is pure, maternal, chaste, modest and The Whore who is loose, sexual, amoral, sinful’
[14]. A good example of a film that represents both the ‘Whore’ and the ‘Madonna’ is ‘Fatal Attraction’ (1987). Fatal attraction is able to exploit the different roles in which the women play throughout the film, one being the Madonna in the film is the housewife shown to be caring and innocent and pure compared to the other female character who is the Whore as she is the one who uses her sexual appearance in order to get what she wants and comes across as sexual and sinful. This movie was made during the male backlash as "Faludi" found out that there was a backlash against women having careers and being independent on themselves and women liberation's. Therefore in this movie the women who works and is independent is seen as villain and the housewife is seen as the princess. This shows that how if women wanted to do a job they were seen as sinners and were not accepted in society and were losers as Glenn Close (the whore) ends up dying in the movie.
In ‘1995-1996 43% of major characters were female, although still less than half’
[15]. This shows that society was in fact changing and women were beginning to get more of significance in society. Women became more confident due to the second wave feminism which happened at the Second World War, because the women got to go to work and felt freer as the men were out fighting at the war. This meant that women were able to do more work and had more of a social life and helped females to start moving away from being the passive, weaker sex and the traditional ‘housewife’. This lead to women gaining more of a complex and central role in movies, which showed the change and development in society.
Another film which shows the dramatic change of roles of women in the media is, ‘Kill Bill’ (Quentin Tarantino, 2004), a contemporary movie in which the protagonist role is challenged. Before the movie was associated with a male protagonist, but now it’s a female protagonist Uma Thurman, who is strong, powerful and an active and tough women. This is shows women’s ability to be just as equal as men, which, reflects the zeitgeist. Representations of women are gradually changing due to the positive role women are being given. As a result this film was highly successful making a total of $66,207,920
[16] as well as promoting women’s authority which shows that women can be successful in such roles where they are active which is again reinforced in Resident Evil Extinction in which the protagonist is Milla Jovovich also a female. The female viewers would see the female characters as active characters that drive the narrative forward as they see females being heroes and not acting as a sub plot. However, the male viewers may look from a different perspective as Women in action adventure films are shown to be body image obsessed, where their body has to be toned and slim. For example, in Kill Bill (2003), Uma Thurman’s character has a desirable, stereotyped body, which is accentuated through her tight, bright yellow leather outfit. The outfit also has an intersexual reference to Bruce Lee’s, Game of Death (1978); as a result the allusions to him can suggest Thurman’s character, The Bride, is also physically powerful, therefore subverting the stereotype of women being weak. However, male viewers may render them as passive characters and they see them to be objectified and they gain voyeuristic pleasures in looking at their bodies. This then confirms that ‘Pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female’
[17].
In addition this refers to what Tuchman suggested as ‘Symbolic annihilation’ of women
[18]. This refers to how women had no value in society and were underrepresented as they had no authority and were seen as incapable of making decisions for themselves. Tuchman’s theory relates to women being stereotypes in movies as they had typical roles such as housewives or were there to look sexually attractive. Therefore characters such as Milla Jovovich and Cameron Diaz in Charlies Angles can both be seen as objects of the ‘male gaze’ and can be seen as the ‘Bimbo’. ‘The role of a woman in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction’
[19] . This is reinforced as they are both very pretty and both have blonde hair. The ‘symbolic annihilation’ creates stereotypes and controls women roles in society of being the traditional wife, mother and housewife.
In addition Mulvey’s essay of “visual pleaser and narrative cinema” was seen as the feminist claim that men and women are positioned differentially on screen; men as heroes who drive the narrative of the film forward and women as objects of sexual desire and fetishist gazing. Women are considered to be there in order to be “looked at, objectified and sexualized by the male protagonist”
[20]. In Resident Evil Extinction Milla Jovovich is objectified through her clothing e.g. tightly fitted shorts and sleeveless tops. Similarly all the female characters in the film are young, good looking and attractive. Sharon Smith claimed that "The role of a woman in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction, and the mating games she plays with the male characters", implying that women are not really considered because of their intelligence but only because of their looks. This is also the case in Catwoman (2004), in which Halle Berry is wearing some very tight black leather clothing which is also revealing her cleavage and other body parts. In this movie although Halle Berry is supposed to be seen as an action woman who is pretty powerful she is mostly objectified as a sex symbol to the male viewers giving them a chance to gaze upon her. Overall she is being portrayed as the “to-be-looked-at-ness”
[21] object resulting in her to be gazed upon.
In 1992-1993 that ‘only 3 per cent of women were represented as housewives as their main occupation’
[22]. This shows a big decrease from the 70’s and shows how society is changing and becoming less patriarchal. This is re emphasized as it suggest in Gauntlet’s book that ‘ Men and women are seen working side by side, as equals, in the hospitals, schools and police stations of television land’
[23]. This showed that women were beginning to become just as equal as men and were able to do more active jobs. Also ‘movie producers are wary of having women as screaming victims, and have realized that kick- ass heroin’s do better business’
[24]. Once again this shows that directors and producers are changing the way they present women and prefer it better if they took on a active role as its better business suggesting that that’s what the audience likes showing that society has changed and find screaming women boring but prefer women taking on more dominant roles.
In conclusion women in action adventures have typically been under represented and ‘symbolically annihilated’ in the past. However “Women have gradually become more independent and powerful in Hollywood cinema”
[25]. In Resident Evil Extinction is an example of this as Milla Jovovich’s central character and dominant role have shown a progress in this genre. The film challenges Mulvey’s theory (1975) of the ‘male gaze’ but it seems to be shown that women are gradually being able move away from being sexually objectified and given roles such as housewives or a mother and are beginning to be seen more active than passive, this is due to first wave feminism and second wave feminism. Resident Evil Extinction is one of the films that shows women as active and superior there is also movies such as Kill Bill starring Uma Thurman and Charlies Angles starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu which show women as the dominant character instead of a male and are in fact seen defeating men. However although women are given such central and active roles they are still objectified to the male gaze as we live in a patriarchal society which is male dominated and males are the ones who most often watch the action adventure movies therefore in order to attract them women have to be sexually attractive and objectified.
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