An Analysis of Feminism Perspectives Depicted in Mad Max: Fury Road Movie
Movie is considered as modern form of literature. Apart of the ability to formerly convey what was depicted inside the novel, prose, play, or poem (movie adaptation), movies nowadays can stand alone as purely new form of literature. The making progress of movie involves such ability, which also includes writing, interpreting, reading, and acting. The only written form of a movie is the script. This is why movie nowadays is considered as a new form of literary work which can stand alone.
Moreover, movies are not only using interpreted written text as the way to visualize what is inside the story, but also be supported by sound effect, which tremendously make movies a priority choice in spending leisure time by so many people or moviegoers. It is much quicker and easier. Apparently people who pick movies than books do not want their time to be spent by reading a thick book. This is also why some movie makers out there consider producing their own movies which are not adapted from books or novels. The audience then would get a new sensation because of it.
Just as much the written forms of literature can influence people or anyone who read one, movies bluntly do the same even much easier. They are supported by the acting performed by the actor and actress, making the visualization of what is stated on script much easier to indulge. They can reach a lot of people by age, race, gender and class. Here is then another reason why movie is considered as visual literacy as opposed to verbal one. They are on the same position as plays played on stage, or mostly Broadway.
Besides the connection between movie and literature, expressing thoughts, ideas, and beliefs can be delivered easily through movies. Sometimes the script writer and the one who directs a movie implicitly hide certain thoughts so that the audiences can secretly get it all without directly showing it all. These hidden things become such gems to them who are sensitive enough in certain issues wrapped in those gems. Then they have rights to criticize the movie based on those sensitive issues or even support it.
Movies used to deliver certain thoughts or embrace a new perspective are worth analyzing. There so many of it out there. These sensitive issues trigger the conflict in the plot, characters, as well as setting. They become dominant in the movie. That is when actually those issues are purposely planted, so that the audience can embrace and get the hidden meaning of it. Take an example of feminist movies. There is a lot of reason why Legally Blonde movie is called as feminist movie. Apart of the big number of women playing in the movie, there are also feminist thoughts and empowered messages hiding there. There is also a reason why its title goes with Legally Blonde which definitely questions the stereotype of blonde girls prevail at that time.
Feminist issues can be found in a lot of modern movies these days, playing important role in destining the fate of gender equality. It is known that women nowadays still struggle in living their life under patriarchy system. They are everywhere and holding such control including in preventing women to do this and that in a more professional way. The struggles are still in there although many years had been spent by feminists to fight for gender equality. This gender equality, which by definition means the successful of women and men getting equally the same rights in all fields, should be taken seriously. Because there are some movies, and other literature works who deliver opposite thoughts until they are classified as anti-feminist. These are the works which deliver the thoughts of one gender abusively mistreat the other in job fields, occupations, and so on. Movie producers and makers should be careful because their job can make the women around the world looking more fragile and weaker, instead of empowering them.
There are also movies showing the audiences otherwise. They bluntly display how women are playing important roles and becoming dominant in the story. They make such changes. They are not defined by harmful stereotyping. They are given the chance to make decision. They break through boundaries which society once made it unable to cross. That is why some movies portraying such things are put into this ‘feminist’ box. There are a lot of examples of feminist movies, like the one mentioned earlier, Legally Blonde, and the recently made remarkable memory is Mad Max: Fury Road. The latter movie portrays a lot of empowered messages of women struggling to escape from slavery and sexual-abuse designed by men.
The study which is entitled, An Analysis of Feminism Perspectives Depicted in Mad Max: Fury Road Movie is worth analyzing. This feminist movie delivers a lot of strong messages and perspectives of how women can actually replace men’s roles in the battlefield and better the situation where actually they also become the objects of sexual abuse happened in the movie. When it comes to defend their loved ones, gender is not something to think about. Most of them just do it for the sake of their safety because practically women and men are both human beings wrapped by feelings and strong wills too. This then leads to the questions of women roles in everyday life and how some of their roles are only shutting them to develop even more as equal as men. Other feminism perspectives depicted in the movie is how the female character proves the world that the good ending of this movie is because some of women roles and gender equality.
Women roles come from gender roles, which are based on standards, or norms created by society. In the United States itself, masculine roles refer to strength, dominance, aggression, while feminine roles refer to nurturing, submissive, subordination and submissive. As for today’s world, it sounds way too old to say that women should be weak, fragile, and passive. What about those single mothers who are there to help their own households single-handedly?
When women rule, things could get better to as men did it. It is quite rare as looking back to so many years ago women’s rule became something pretty uncommon to see. The femininity, or women roles which is a set of behaviors, attributes, and roles constructed by society and defined biologically also become the focal point in the selected movie.
According to Butler (1990:7):
Is there a gender which persons are said to have, or is it an essential attribute that a person is said to be, as implied in the question “what gender are you?” When feminist theorists claim that gender is the cultural interpretation of sex or that gender is culturally constructed, what is the manner of mechanism of this construction?
Based on the quote above, if only gender is seen as a fluid, changeable thing, instead of solid, then a person can freely change their traits when it is needed. Sure there are reasons why women can act bravely and compassionate at the same time. The same thing also prevails to men. They can cry anytime they want, when they feel they would feel relieved after doing it. Because of this categorizing of feminine and masculine traits, people tend to hide their true self. They are actually afraid of society to alienate them for breaking down the traits that they possess as soon as their sexes are identified. As for the last lines of the quote above, Butler definitely asks the mechanism of ‘that’ construction which builds the gender as the interpretation of sex.
Mad Max: Fury Road movie questions this fluid thing which is previously mentioned as the female character, Imperator Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron performs a new set of women roles, which are, of course against the old and traditional roles, along with some evidences of the existence of gender equality approved by the male character. These feminism perspectives then become the reasons why this study is conducted.
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