Task 13 - ‘Detailed Essay Plan’...
“I’m The Deadliest Women In The World”, in particular reference to Kill Bill: Volume Two (2004) by Quentin Tarantino, how and why have women's roles in action films changed over the recent years?
Introduction: [Task 14]
Paragraph One: Representations of women in the past: [REPRESENTATION & HISTORICAL CONTEXT]
- What they were represented as e.g. housewives, caring, passive, etc…
- Why they were represented like this e.g. Patriarchy.
- ‘Levi Strauss’ [Binary Opposition]:
-Normally, the dominant character in a action movie tends to be a male, and women tend to be passive and damsel in distress. However, in Kill Bill Uma Thurman is the dominant and main character, as you would expect the hero to be a man instead of a woman.
Paragraph Two:
· ‘Male Gaze’ - The term used by Laura Mulvey in her essay 'Visual Pleasures and Narrative Cinema' (1975) to describe what she saw as the male point of view adopted by the cinema for the benefit of an assumed male audience. To an extent Kill Bill does not reflect this.
· Laura Mulvey agrues that cinema audiences look at films in two ways- voyeuristically and fetishistically.This leads to objectification and narcissistic. The female body is displayed for the male gaze in order to provide erotic pleasures (voyeurism).
· Women were oppressed to be nothing more than mere sex objects, with their passive roles. The most common stereotypes of women is the term “Bimbo”.
· Emanuel Levy (1990) concluded that physical looks and youth were far more important for the female stars. For men, attractive looks were a weak basis for longevity of appeal.
· Tuchman (1998) – symbolic nilation: invisibilty of women – underpresented.
Paragraph Three: Actions Films in the past: [REPRESENTATION]
- The main action centers around a male action hero or protagonist - portrayed by these most prominent actors: Bruce Lee, Steven Seagal, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, etc…
- Women in action-films usually play the roles of accomplices or romantic interests of the hero, although modern action films have featured strong female characters to broaden demographic appeal.
- Society patriarchal, harder for women to have leading roles in films.
Paragraph Four: Male domination: [HISTORICAL]
- E.g. [1980’s] - 'The Terminator' (1984) by Jamkes Cameron and 'RoboCop' (1987) by Paul Verhoeven. Men were typically a hero/ protagonist.
- Society was far more Patriarchal and women were not seen to have a higher status than men: women were seen as objects of desire.
- There was hardly any strong female featured in action films.
- ‘Robocop’ (1987) also shows how men dominanted the past and how women were not seen as equal to men till feminism was introduced.
- Audience would read a text from a males point of view. [AUDIENCE]
- Only male directors. [Why?]
Paragraph Five: Feminism:[POLITICAL CONTEXT] –
- Political movement to advance the status of women by challenging values, social constructions and socioeconomic practices which disadvantage women and favour men:
-Kill Bill deals with feminism as women are shown as independent and with a higher status which is what feminst want to achieve: equal rights for women.[REPRESENTATION]
- How they changed the world for women e.g. Equal Rights/ Opportunites. [SOCIAL CONTEXT]
- Kill Bill and many other films, challenges the traditions of actions films having a male dominant/protagonist character. [VALUES&IDEOLOGY & SOCIAL CONTEXT]
- First, Second and Third Wave of feminism.
Paragraph Six: Audience:
- The audience may be thrown of balance while watching Kill Bill as they usually see a male as the protagonist, but however this is not the case: As Uma Thurman is a strong headed, powerful and dominant character. This may seem to shock the audience as they usually identify the protagonist to be a male. [AUDIENCE]
- Marjorie Rosen (1973) a feminist – changing representation of women in Hollywood.
Paragraph Seven: World War Two:
- World War Two was a great social opportunity for women [1939-1945].
- Women's work in the two World Wars of the twentieth century was an important factor in the course of both wars. This involvement changed the social status and working lives of women in many countries from that point onwards. [HISTORICAL CONTEXT & SOCIAL CONTEXT]
- World War Two alongside feminists helped to produce successful films with dominantn women such as kill bill, cat women, tomb raider, etc..
Paragraph Eight: Women gained dominance and much more [Womens Roles Have Changed]: [SOCIAL CONTEXT]
- ‘Subversive’ - Undermining of dominant idoelogy and values:-Kill Bill is challenging stereotype of men being dominant and in control, as Uma Thurman is dominant throughout the film, as she takes her revenge. Uma Thurman breaks this tradition of women just as the 'propp' of a film.[VALUES & IDEOLOGY]
- Women have more dominance and power than before, many films such as ‘Cat Women’, ‘ Tomb Raider’, ‘Charlie’s Angel’s. [ECONOMIC CONTEXT]
- David Gunlett agrues that in contemporary society, genderroles are more complex and that the media reflects this. He agrues that much of this is due to the rise of ‘girl power’ in the media, through identities constructed by music artists such as Detinys Childs as well as contemporary actresses e.g. who are demanding less passive film roles.
- Subordinate to men and are no longer just een as housewives but also breadwinners.
Paragraph Nine: Alien (Ridley Scott-1979): [HISTORIAL]
- First female action hero.
- Active protagonist’s role in ‘Alien’ (Ridley Scott-1979). Here, her character is strong, determined and able to achieve what she wants.
- Alien was the first action movie to feature a strong female protagonist, independent of a guiding male lead Alien has thus been considered a prototype for the Girl Power-effect that occurred in Hollywood towards the early 2000s when more and more action-movies with powerful female leads appeared from the comedic (e.g. Charlie's Angels) to the mainstream martial arts film (e.g. Kill Bill).
Paragraph Ten: To What Extent Are Women Dominant & Independent: [REPRESENTATION]
· Women’s representation in the media tend to revolve around the focus on physical beauty.
· Women are often represented as being the victim or lover or being part of a context (family, friends and colleagues).
· Leading females are represented differently when directed by a male or a female director.E.g. Kill Bill Volume [One And] Two.
· ‘Kill Bill: Volume Two’ (2004) has a male director Quentin Tarantino. This shows even though Uma Thurman was the protagonist in ‘Kill Bill’ she was still however acting on what Tarantino had wrote, this shows how a male is still dominating the film.
· The audience are forced to see women through a males prospective becasue majority of the directors are male.[AUDIENCE]
· Actions films are usually a male based film however Uma Thurman breaks the action ideology, as women have the upper hand and represented as strong and more control. She sends a positive message across proving that women are just as better as men and there is less of the patricharcal society. However, even though Uma Thurman shows a independent strong female, she is directed by a male director Quentin Tarantino. 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.[VALUES AND IDEOLOGY].
Paragraph Eleven: Womens roles in actions films have changed over the recent years: [POTICAL & SOCIAL CONTEXT]
- 'The Terminator' (1984) Directed by James Cameron, because this shows and proves that womens roles in actions films have changed.
- 'Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle' (2003) Directed by McG, because this text shows that women have their independence, are strong and just as equal as men.
- Kill Bill Volume Two (2004) by Quentin Tarantino, because Uma Thurman breaks this tradition of women just as the 'propp' of a film.
Paragraph Twelve: Kill Bill Volume Two:
- As Kill Bill breaks the tradition of having a male as a dominant and heroic character, however Kill Bill doesn’t show any misogyny, hatred towards women because women are represented as dominant and in control, as we tend to see a male taking up the heroic and dominant roles. However, Bill did brutally murders his lover [Beatrix], which reinforces the misogynistic as well as patriarchal attitudes.
Paragraph Thirteen: Tarantno:
- Tarantino does not follow the traditional narrative cinema, so to some extent we can agrue it does not follow the issues Mulvey raises: as women in Kill Bill are active and not passive, and controlling in comparison to the male actors. Also, the samuri sword "the bride" uses can bee seen as a phallic symbol and fetish object.
- Women still being objectified, and men still dominant as “Beatrix is essentially tortured in each instance.
- Tarantino is ‘merely reflecting the violence in the society around him...’.
- Tarantino is showing a positive role for women in this film. For example, Thurman's character, single handly killed ‘The Crazy 88’ (who were all men) and the ring leader of the ‘Deadly Vipers’, Bill.
- Miramax usually help to produce art house films and in this way Kill Bill was recognised. [ECONOMIC CONTEXT].
Conclusion: Sum Up All Arguements:
- Women weren’t much in text in the past. However now that they are they are being stereotyped but Uma Thurman breaks and challenges the traditional roles of women being passive as she is more active and dominant.
- Action films [main ones] in the past centers around a male action hero or protagonist: Society was far more Patriarchal and women were not seen to have a higher status than men.
- Feminsts changed the world for women e.g. Equal Rights/ Opportunites.
- World War Two was a great social opportunity for women.
- Alien was the first action movie to feature a strong female protagonist, independent of a guiding male lead Alien has thus been considered a prototype for the Girl Power-effect that occurred in Hollywood towards the early 2000s when more and more action-movies with powerful female leads appeared.
- Women are often represented as being the victim or lover or being part of a context (family, friends and colleagues). Leading females are represented differently when directed by a male or a female director.E.g. Kill Bill Volume [One And] Two.
- 'Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle' (2003) Directed by McG, because this text shows that women have their independence, are strong and just as equal as men.
- Women still being objectified, and men still dominant as “Beatrix is essentially tortured in each instance.
Introduction: [Task 14]
Paragraph One: Representations of women in the past: [REPRESENTATION & HISTORICAL CONTEXT]
- What they were represented as e.g. housewives, caring, passive, etc…
- Why they were represented like this e.g. Patriarchy.
- ‘Levi Strauss’ [Binary Opposition]:
-Normally, the dominant character in a action movie tends to be a male, and women tend to be passive and damsel in distress. However, in Kill Bill Uma Thurman is the dominant and main character, as you would expect the hero to be a man instead of a woman.
Paragraph Two:
· ‘Male Gaze’ - The term used by Laura Mulvey in her essay 'Visual Pleasures and Narrative Cinema' (1975) to describe what she saw as the male point of view adopted by the cinema for the benefit of an assumed male audience. To an extent Kill Bill does not reflect this.
· Laura Mulvey agrues that cinema audiences look at films in two ways- voyeuristically and fetishistically.This leads to objectification and narcissistic. The female body is displayed for the male gaze in order to provide erotic pleasures (voyeurism).
· Women were oppressed to be nothing more than mere sex objects, with their passive roles. The most common stereotypes of women is the term “Bimbo”.
· Emanuel Levy (1990) concluded that physical looks and youth were far more important for the female stars. For men, attractive looks were a weak basis for longevity of appeal.
· Tuchman (1998) – symbolic nilation: invisibilty of women – underpresented.
Paragraph Three: Actions Films in the past: [REPRESENTATION]
- The main action centers around a male action hero or protagonist - portrayed by these most prominent actors: Bruce Lee, Steven Seagal, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, etc…
- Women in action-films usually play the roles of accomplices or romantic interests of the hero, although modern action films have featured strong female characters to broaden demographic appeal.
- Society patriarchal, harder for women to have leading roles in films.
Paragraph Four: Male domination: [HISTORICAL]
- E.g. [1980’s] - 'The Terminator' (1984) by Jamkes Cameron and 'RoboCop' (1987) by Paul Verhoeven. Men were typically a hero/ protagonist.
- Society was far more Patriarchal and women were not seen to have a higher status than men: women were seen as objects of desire.
- There was hardly any strong female featured in action films.
- ‘Robocop’ (1987) also shows how men dominanted the past and how women were not seen as equal to men till feminism was introduced.
- Audience would read a text from a males point of view. [AUDIENCE]
- Only male directors. [Why?]
Paragraph Five: Feminism:[POLITICAL CONTEXT] –
- Political movement to advance the status of women by challenging values, social constructions and socioeconomic practices which disadvantage women and favour men:
-Kill Bill deals with feminism as women are shown as independent and with a higher status which is what feminst want to achieve: equal rights for women.[REPRESENTATION]
- How they changed the world for women e.g. Equal Rights/ Opportunites. [SOCIAL CONTEXT]
- Kill Bill and many other films, challenges the traditions of actions films having a male dominant/protagonist character. [VALUES&IDEOLOGY & SOCIAL CONTEXT]
- First, Second and Third Wave of feminism.
Paragraph Six: Audience:
- The audience may be thrown of balance while watching Kill Bill as they usually see a male as the protagonist, but however this is not the case: As Uma Thurman is a strong headed, powerful and dominant character. This may seem to shock the audience as they usually identify the protagonist to be a male. [AUDIENCE]
- Marjorie Rosen (1973) a feminist – changing representation of women in Hollywood.
Paragraph Seven: World War Two:
- World War Two was a great social opportunity for women [1939-1945].
- Women's work in the two World Wars of the twentieth century was an important factor in the course of both wars. This involvement changed the social status and working lives of women in many countries from that point onwards. [HISTORICAL CONTEXT & SOCIAL CONTEXT]
- World War Two alongside feminists helped to produce successful films with dominantn women such as kill bill, cat women, tomb raider, etc..
Paragraph Eight: Women gained dominance and much more [Womens Roles Have Changed]: [SOCIAL CONTEXT]
- ‘Subversive’ - Undermining of dominant idoelogy and values:-Kill Bill is challenging stereotype of men being dominant and in control, as Uma Thurman is dominant throughout the film, as she takes her revenge. Uma Thurman breaks this tradition of women just as the 'propp' of a film.[VALUES & IDEOLOGY]
- Women have more dominance and power than before, many films such as ‘Cat Women’, ‘ Tomb Raider’, ‘Charlie’s Angel’s. [ECONOMIC CONTEXT]
- David Gunlett agrues that in contemporary society, genderroles are more complex and that the media reflects this. He agrues that much of this is due to the rise of ‘girl power’ in the media, through identities constructed by music artists such as Detinys Childs as well as contemporary actresses e.g. who are demanding less passive film roles.
- Subordinate to men and are no longer just een as housewives but also breadwinners.
Paragraph Nine: Alien (Ridley Scott-1979): [HISTORIAL]
- First female action hero.
- Active protagonist’s role in ‘Alien’ (Ridley Scott-1979). Here, her character is strong, determined and able to achieve what she wants.
- Alien was the first action movie to feature a strong female protagonist, independent of a guiding male lead Alien has thus been considered a prototype for the Girl Power-effect that occurred in Hollywood towards the early 2000s when more and more action-movies with powerful female leads appeared from the comedic (e.g. Charlie's Angels) to the mainstream martial arts film (e.g. Kill Bill).
Paragraph Ten: To What Extent Are Women Dominant & Independent: [REPRESENTATION]
· Women’s representation in the media tend to revolve around the focus on physical beauty.
· Women are often represented as being the victim or lover or being part of a context (family, friends and colleagues).
· Leading females are represented differently when directed by a male or a female director.E.g. Kill Bill Volume [One And] Two.
· ‘Kill Bill: Volume Two’ (2004) has a male director Quentin Tarantino. This shows even though Uma Thurman was the protagonist in ‘Kill Bill’ she was still however acting on what Tarantino had wrote, this shows how a male is still dominating the film.
· The audience are forced to see women through a males prospective becasue majority of the directors are male.[AUDIENCE]
· Actions films are usually a male based film however Uma Thurman breaks the action ideology, as women have the upper hand and represented as strong and more control. She sends a positive message across proving that women are just as better as men and there is less of the patricharcal society. However, even though Uma Thurman shows a independent strong female, she is directed by a male director Quentin Tarantino. 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.[VALUES AND IDEOLOGY].
Paragraph Eleven: Womens roles in actions films have changed over the recent years: [POTICAL & SOCIAL CONTEXT]
- 'The Terminator' (1984) Directed by James Cameron, because this shows and proves that womens roles in actions films have changed.
- 'Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle' (2003) Directed by McG, because this text shows that women have their independence, are strong and just as equal as men.
- Kill Bill Volume Two (2004) by Quentin Tarantino, because Uma Thurman breaks this tradition of women just as the 'propp' of a film.
Paragraph Twelve: Kill Bill Volume Two:
- As Kill Bill breaks the tradition of having a male as a dominant and heroic character, however Kill Bill doesn’t show any misogyny, hatred towards women because women are represented as dominant and in control, as we tend to see a male taking up the heroic and dominant roles. However, Bill did brutally murders his lover [Beatrix], which reinforces the misogynistic as well as patriarchal attitudes.
Paragraph Thirteen: Tarantno:
- Tarantino does not follow the traditional narrative cinema, so to some extent we can agrue it does not follow the issues Mulvey raises: as women in Kill Bill are active and not passive, and controlling in comparison to the male actors. Also, the samuri sword "the bride" uses can bee seen as a phallic symbol and fetish object.
- Women still being objectified, and men still dominant as “Beatrix is essentially tortured in each instance.
- Tarantino is ‘merely reflecting the violence in the society around him...’.
- Tarantino is showing a positive role for women in this film. For example, Thurman's character, single handly killed ‘The Crazy 88’ (who were all men) and the ring leader of the ‘Deadly Vipers’, Bill.
- Miramax usually help to produce art house films and in this way Kill Bill was recognised. [ECONOMIC CONTEXT].
Conclusion: Sum Up All Arguements:
- Women weren’t much in text in the past. However now that they are they are being stereotyped but Uma Thurman breaks and challenges the traditional roles of women being passive as she is more active and dominant.
- Action films [main ones] in the past centers around a male action hero or protagonist: Society was far more Patriarchal and women were not seen to have a higher status than men.
- Feminsts changed the world for women e.g. Equal Rights/ Opportunites.
- World War Two was a great social opportunity for women.
- Alien was the first action movie to feature a strong female protagonist, independent of a guiding male lead Alien has thus been considered a prototype for the Girl Power-effect that occurred in Hollywood towards the early 2000s when more and more action-movies with powerful female leads appeared.
- Women are often represented as being the victim or lover or being part of a context (family, friends and colleagues). Leading females are represented differently when directed by a male or a female director.E.g. Kill Bill Volume [One And] Two.
- 'Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle' (2003) Directed by McG, because this text shows that women have their independence, are strong and just as equal as men.
- Women still being objectified, and men still dominant as “Beatrix is essentially tortured in each instance.
posted by Kill Bill Volume Two at 23.12.06
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