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Women in Film

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Submitted By otakugirl901
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Women in Film

Women have made incredible impacts in the film industry with their many talents and skills. Women in movies have become a staple in Hollywood; from having them as the central theme of the movie, to them being the damsel in the distress, or the unneeded love interest, women have always been there. Without women, the rise of the industry would have been nonexistent. Some movies that include women in powerful roles are: The Help (2011), Easy A (2010), Brave (2012), and Wolf Children (2012)
The storyline of The Help is that it takes place in Jackson, Mississippi during the civil rights movement. An aspiring writer named Skeeter graduated from college and has found a job writing for the local newspaper. She takes this opportunity to write about her friends’ African-American maids and their mistreatment. The main characters of this film are Skeeter Phelan, Aibileen Clark, Minny Jackson, Celia Foote, and Hilly Holbrook. The movie has more than two women in it, and they mainly talk to each other seeing as there are only one two men in the film. Romance is hardly an issue, the women mostly talk about the rights of PoC and treating others fairly. Women in this film are not only truly represented, they present the issues of their time, and it was important for me as a woman of color to see into the lives of the maids and how they handled it and who decided to jump in and help.
The storyline of Easy A tells the story of a high school student named Olive and her best friend Rhiannon. Rhiannon asks Olive to go to a party, after the party Olive tells a little white lie saying that she lost her virginity. A schoolmate hears this and spreads it around the school, labeling Olive a slut as she identifies with The Scarlet Letter’s Hester Prynne. The main characters are Olive Penderghast, Melody, Woodchuck, Rhiannon, and Marianne. The women has more than two women in it. The main focus of the film is romance and promiscuity. I can’t be too sure if women are truly represented in this film, they are shown as high school students, and I’m not sure if they are really accurate.
The storyline of Brave is about a girl named Merida, daughter of King Fergus and Queen Elinor. Merida is heavily interested in archery and horse riding, things that her mother does not approve of. She and her mother get into a heated argument and gets her cursed, turning her into a bear. Merida must rely on her own bravery and courage to fix the curse. The main characters are Merida, her triplet brothers, Queen Elinor, Lord MacGuffin, and King Fergus. Yes the women does have at least two women in it. For the majority of the film Merida and her mother talk to each other until she is turned into a bear. They do discuss things other than romance, although the King’s main purpose is to find Merida a suitor, to which Merida does not agree with. Women are truly represented in this film; Queen Elinor is overbearingly protective of her children and wants nothing but the best for them, and Merida is a rebellious princess who just wants to live her life the only way she knows how by doing what she loves.
The storyline of Wolf Children is that it takes place somewhere in Japan and tells the story of Hana, a college student who meets a mysterious young man without a name. After the two spend a lot of time together and soon form a relationship, the man tells Hana that he is a werewolf, and she accepts him for who he is. Years later they move in together and have their first child, a girl named Yuki. A year or two later, Hana is pregnant with their second child, a boy named Ame. But soon after Ame is born, their father goes out to hunt for food and is killed, forcing Hana to raise two half wolf children by herself. The main characters are Hana, Ame, Yuki, and their unnamed father. If you count Yuki as she starts growing up and other unnamed women in the village, then yes there are more than two women in the film. Hana mostly keeps to herself, but most of Yuki’s friends in school are girls. Romance is only really an issue at the beginning, but as the film goes on it isn’t talked about as much. Women are truly represented in this film; Hana is forced to be a single mother with two half wolf children with no way of knowing if she is doing the right thing, and Yuki has to choose between being a wolf or being a normal girl. In the beginning she loves being a wolf, but over the course of her moving through school, she realizes that she wants nothing more than to fit in and be normal.

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