Women in the 1980s (week 4)

For this blog post I chose to focus on the potrayal of women in 1980's films. This 1980's saw women srtive for equality and this is reflected in the film industry.
The 1986 film Aliens shows the female character Ripley being a strong independent woman. One article suggests this film was one of many 'Productions that enhanced the female independency and strength' and that these feisty female characters 'were produced in genres that only men had been presented in before, such as action and science fiction.' This is perhaps reflective of  how women were impacting the corperate and other male dominated worlds and therefore films were developing in order to portray the new era of equality as the article says 'American film, from its creation, has frequently mirrored the contemporary American society'; the film industry had to evolve with the changing attitudes.


 Although the character Ripley challenges the female sterotype she doesn't actually appear altogether female; she appears to be representing a male sterotype. Even the use of her surname makes her appear masculine. Personally this makes one feel that attutides towards women in the 1980's were not equal; in order to enter the male dominated world women had to become more masculine which does not appear to be equality. This is also present in the corperate world with the example of the shoulder pads and trouser suits women would wear, again in order to look more masculine.




website used
http://sbccfilmreviews.org/?p=6569