Anti-Damsel Gender

Words: 1060
Pages: 5
Open Document
From Damsel in Distress to The Last Girl Standing
The Emergence of the Anti-Damsel
We have seen the typical damsel in distress archetype portrayed in movies from the beginning of film. From Disney movies to slashers films this portrayal of stereotypical female characters has been one of the biggest representations of women in film until more recent years. Damsels in distress are often oversexualized, weaker women who need rescuing of some sort from the cliched male protagonist. But the pushback from movie fans craving a strong female lead has led to many of the anti-damsels we have seen in more recent films. The damsel in distress still makes her appearance in movies, but she has been pushed aside by the stronger, last girl standing also known as, the anti-damsel.
When we all were younger, we viewed movies where we were given a set of gender roles and norms that one must follow. There is always a beautiful oversexualized female who is subjected to the male gaze, she is usually a young, extremely fair skin white female. The term “the male gaze”, was coined by Laura Mulvey in her 1975 essay on cinematography titled Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. In the essay, Mulvey discussed the role of women in films and brazenly stated that women …show more content…
The concept of the final girl began to emerge in film during the second-wave women’s movement in the 1960’s and 70’s. Unlike the damsel, the final girl was the last woman standing while all her friends and presumably the killer lie dead all around her. She is usually a virgin with masculine characteristics and dark features. “The final girl — almost always white, young and straight(ish) — has had a complicated evolution in the male-dominated horror world. She’s a feminist renegade to some fans, including women, but a sexist fantasy figure to others” (NY
Show More

Related Documents: Anti-Damsel Gender

Essay on Death and the Maiden Film Critique

Roman Polanski’s production of Death and the Maiden assuages and refines the tormenting and vulgar play by Ariel Dorfman into a guiltless viewership. The horrors of a tortured mind remain placidly hindered by a film screen as Rafael Yglesias sands the play into an unambiguous, verging on facile, screenplay of one woman’s quest for justice in post-dictatorial regime. The reproachful, introspective nature of the original play is resigned in favor of a cookie-cutter portrayal of victim, criminal, and…

Words 2715 - Pages 11

Essay On Black Family

Throughout history, the idea of the black family has been a complex topic. There are many variations of black families, and many struggles, hardships, and triumphs that families of other races might never even think of experiencing. According to Moynihan’s War on Poverty Report, “The structure of the African-American family has long been a matter of Public Policy interest.” Moynihan wrote this in 1965 to warn African-Americans about the coming destruction of the Black family. At that time, rate of…

Words 2520 - Pages 11