Independant Study Final Draft

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 (theory and history of Folklore) as women are not ‘princesses’ but the ‘heroes’ and there is no male hero rescuing the ‘damsel in distress’, as Alice is the one who comes to the rescue for everyone. 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’.
‘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’[5]. Milla Jovovich challenges these dominant ideologies in Resident Evil Extinction. She is shown as dominant and a superior character who takes on a man’s role. She is represented as a ‘fighting female’[6] who takes control; her character challenges the stereotypes that females are associated with; weak, emotional, and sex objects. 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 her masculine side and show the female dominance that she has throughout. The machetes and guns can be seen as ‘phallic objects’, therefore this reinforces her power as she is able to castrate men, therefore men are seen as weak instead of women. Also when men watch Resident Evil Extinction they would have to cross gender into a woman instead of it having to be women who typically cross gender into males in action adventure films, this would therefore oppose what was suggested by James Monaco that ‘Increasingly we are all going to watch the same ten movies’[7] whereas, we are not; due to the action adventure genre changing and taking on more dominant females. Resident Evil Extinction clearly suggests that the representation of females within the film industry has changed, due to the increase in female action stars whereas before females were only given parts which fitted in with their stereotypes e.g. housewife or sexual objects. Jovovich represents females as more independent and strong by taking on a masculine role. This challenges stereotypes and shows women are just as capable of being as physically powerful as men.
To an extent 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’[8]. ‘Resident Evil Extinction’ challenges Mulvey’s theory that ‘the female body is displayed for the ‘male gaze’ in order to provide erotic pleasure and ultimately a sense of control over her’[9]. This as Jovovich is taking on a masculine role and instead of males gazing upon the female they would 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, Mulvey’s theory can also 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’ Jovovich is 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’[10] therefore the men would watch the movie ‘voyeuristically’. She is also represented as a sex object, in the scene after as we see her wearing 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, thus reinforcing 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 thus proving that ‘genre offers a comfortable reassurance’[11] as genre is repeated in terms of its elements. However the male characters do not get enough time to gaze upon Jovovich as she is always active, also her costume in the movie changes after and she is seen wearing khaki coloured clothes and a long cloak. The khaki coloured clothes represent her as powerful as those are the colours that army men tend to wear therefore she is seen as similarly dominant to them.
Traditionally females are not the ones who tend to “lead the story ...make the central decisions ...save her male colleague ... [or be] the star of the film.” [12]. Women have not always been represented as powerful and dominant characters but instead more often been represented as ‘passive-weak, ineffectual, victimised, supportive, laughable or morally token females’[13] 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’[14]. This shows how patriarchal society was and how women were always given stereotypical roles 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’[15]. 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. This changed due to ‘the second wave [of] feminism’[16] during the 1970’s which lead to a ‘presence in society for equality’[17]. The zeitgeist of this era is reflected in the action sci–fi film ‘Alien’ (1979).
In the movie Alien (1979) the female character played by Signourey Weaver is the protagonist of the film who is ‘resourceful, self-reliant, hard-assed, feminist action heroine’[18]. She is shown as a masculine character as she is seen killing the predators. Signourey Weaver’s character, Ripley is similar to Jovovich’s as she is the only surviving character and all the action revolves around her. Although the director (Ridley Scott) ‘never intended to have the [lead role] played by a female’[19]. This shows how due to their being so many male directors it is harder for females to take on lead roles. Nonetheless it was very successful and made “$1,983,690”[20]. On the other hand when Ripley 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 fulfil 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 emphasises the fact that action movies is ‘typically male dominant genre’[21].
Superman (1978) is a prime example of an action film which is male dominated. In this movie Superman ‘typically made the decisions which led the story’[22]. Superman shows as weak and inferior towards the male. 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. Such as when superman has to save a woman from a car crash, 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 movies are a clear portrayal of male dominance as there is no sign of female empowerment. 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’[23]. Thus reinforcing male dominance in the action adventure genre. 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’[24] (Gaye Tuchman 1978).
Women are underrepresented in movies due to the films actually being directed by males. Therefore it can be seen that ‘Film is a male dominated industry’[25].This is the case in Resident Evil Extinction as it is directed by Russel Mulcahy, but also the case in many other action adventure films starring women such as ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Charlies Angels’. 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, therefore ‘we don’t really see women as [they] see [themselves] and as [they] really are because it’s only men writing for [them]’[26]. But as there are such a few amounts of female directors it is hard for women to ever be represented in a fair way as men are likely to always be biased. It can be argued that the reason why there are such little amounts of women directors is because most 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 simply because ‘it must be incredibly hard if you have children to navigate the hours’ needed in being a director’[27]
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’[28]. 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 Resident Evil Extinction even though Jovovich is taking on a dominant males role she is still represented as the ‘Madonna’ this is because of the Zeitgeist and the change in society as it is now acceptable for women to go to work and be independent.
In ‘1995-1996 43% of major characters were female, although still less than half’[29]. 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 during the 1970’s, 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. In Resident Evil Extinction Jovovich is represented similarly to Thurman as they’re both represented as ‘ass-kicking females’[30] . 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[31] 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 which was also highly successful and made a total of ‘$50,648,679’[32] . 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 intertextual 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 thus gain voyeuristic pleasures in looking at their bodies. This then confirms that ‘Pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female’[33].
In addition Mulvey’s essay of “visual pleasure 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”[34]. 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’[35], 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 powerful, she is mostly objectified as a sex symbol to the male viewers. Overall she is being portrayed as the “to-be-looked-at-ness”[36] object resulting in her to be gazed upon.
In 1992-1993 ‘only 3 per cent of women were represented as housewives as their main occupation’[37]. 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 Gauntlett’s book that ‘Men and women are seen working side by side, as equals, in the hospitals, schools and police stations of television land’ [38]. Also ‘movie producers are wary of having women as screaming victims, and have realized that kick- ass heroines do better business’[39]. Once again this shows that directors and producers are changing the way they represent women and prefer it better if they took on a active role as its better business suggesting that’s what the audiences like, showing that society has changed and 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”[40]. 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 are also movies such as Kill Bill starring Uma Thurman and Charlies Angels 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.
Word count: 3,270 (without footnotes included)
3,573 with footnotes

[1] “Resident Evil Extinction” (Russel Mulcahy, 2007)
[2] Gauntlett, David (2002): ‘Media, Gender & Identity: An introduction’ Routledge (page 43)
[3] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ Routledge (page 58)
[4] http://www.movieviews.org/reviews/may-july2003.shtml
[5] Burton, Graeme (1999) “Media and Popular Culture”, p-87
[6] Iness, Sherrie A. Ed. “Action Chicks: New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture” New York: Palgrare Macmillan (2004)
[7] James Monaco (1979)- Genre quotes page 24
[8] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
[9] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’

[10] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’

[11] Patrick Phillips(1996)- genre quotes page 25
[12] Gauntlett David: Media, Gender & Identity: An Introduction (pg47)
[13] Gunter, Barrie (1995) Television and Gender Representation, London: John Libbey ( pg 43)
[14] Gunter, Barrie (1995) Television and Gender Representation, London: John Libbey
[15] Gunter, Barrie (1995) Television and Gender Representation, London: John Libbey
[16] http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?DVDID=9572
[17] Bennett, Jacquie (2005) “Media Studies AS & A2”
[18] ‘Alien’ 1979 http://www.filmsite.org/alie.html
[19] Lacey, Nick “Image and Representation” pg 218
[20] http://www.movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800020133/detalis
[21] http://www.helium.com/items/125634-women-in-action-movies-empowered-role-models-or-chicks-with-guns
[22] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ (page 46)
[23] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ (page 46)

[24] Gaye Tuchman (1978) ‘Introduction: the symbolic annihilation of women by the mass media’.
[25] Harris Naomie- http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0 3858 5141913-103680.00.html
[26] http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0 3858 5141913-103680.00.html (Naomie Harris)
[27] Naomie Harris- http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0 3858 5141913-103680.00.html
[28] Introducing media studies, Ziauddin Sardar and Barin Van Loon. (page 84)
[29] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ (page 58)
[30] http://www.movieviews.org/reviews/may-july2003.shtml
[31] http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808504212/info

[32] http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=residentevil3.htm
[33] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’

[34] Laura Mulvey (1975) ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’
[35] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’ page 48
[36] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey
[37] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’(page 58)
[38] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’(page 58)
[39] Gauntlett, David (2002): Media Gender & Identity: An introduction’(page 58)
[40] Neale, S. (2000). Genre and Hollywood (Sightlines (London, England).). New York: Routledge.