THIS WEEK'S QUESTION:  Why does it still seem the norm in Western culture, when it comes to the use of heroes in literature and film, that the traditional role of men as the hero and the role of women as the victim still is used and supported by the audiences?  Is there any way to break this mold in a way that will lead to more diversity in the types of heroes?

                  We find today in our Western culture that in literature and film woman are not succesfully portrayed as heros in the readers or veiwers eyes.  There are many writters that have tried to write movies and literature with a woman hero but the Western culture does not  except that idea for some reason.  An example that i remember we had a discussion about in class is the movie "Cat Woman". This movie seemed like a great movie and a really good idea because at the time it came out the movie industry was producing multiple famouse comic book based movies. But the movie didn't make it in America. This was most likely because of the fact that the main character and hero was a women. Strangly enough the movie did well in Europe.  Other examples are easily seen in disney movies such as "Cinderella", "Robbin Hood", "Snow White", and "The Lion King." Being it aparant that we all watched disney movies when we were young it becomes something natural that men are the hero's in the stories.

        What we do find is writers avoiding writing about women heros because in reality their book's aren't making money. When they do write about women we see that the women are the victims of some event, whether or not their is a hero. An answer to the reason why men can only succussfully be heros in literature  and movies may be that in our past there our culture has stereotyped men as stongly, more powerful people, and women are the helpless lovers of the men. This idea could still be stuck in our society whether we realize it or not.                                                                                                                                                                                                

                   In my opinion it would be tough to successfully have an author write of a woman hero and have the full support or as much support as for a male hero,  from the reader or audience.  But I feel that the only way to really break the mold of this stereotype that we have is to continue and keep trying until someday it turns into something that's not so foreign. We find that in all history, whether it's Westurn culture or world culture, that this is the only way that anyone breaks any stereotypes mold.

»4:53 PM    »2 comments     »0 TrackBack(s)     »Send entry    

Posted by: dreid    in: My entries

Modified on October 2, 2005 at 5:05 PM