Year 11 ATAR English

A character analysis and comparison of the roles demonstrated in  the Best Actress category at the 1976 and 1991 Academy Awards  Background The two films under the spotlight are One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Misery (1990). Both films are film adaptations of the novels of the same titles. I decided to analyse the Best Actress Academy Award as this is in my opinion what Hollywood decides as the peak of female representation of that year and such deserves to be rewarded for its achievements. I chose too analyse these two films as they both feature a Woman as a Nurse and as the main antagonist of the films. 15 years was also a nice time gap that would create a more interesting and apparent difference in representation instead of a smaller time gap of only a few years. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Background information about the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) is a film adaptation of the 1962 novel of the same title by Ken Kesey. ...

Once upon a time, there was a women. She was taught how to cook, clean and look after children. When she grew up, she got married and cooked, cleaned and looked after her children. The End. Fig 1 (Source: Statistics Canada) That is essentially a summary of what society thought (for a good chunk of recorded history) was the sole purpose of women, to take care of the house, and to raise the kids. However, in recent years, there has been an increasing number of women becoming the primary bread-winners of their family and an even larger number of women entering the workforce (Fig 1). Such a big shift in society may be associated with the rise of many feminists (not just women, men too) and simply a lot of women are standing up for themselves, saying that the society's beliefs shouldn't decide the outcome of their lives: they should. However, despite such shifts, in even Australia there is still supposedly a wage gap between women and men of 15.3% (ABS). Though this is pro...

Women Over Time Even before this unit, the representation of women had been a topic I was interested in. With social media nowadays, the subject comes up even more often, and has sparked many debates and protests. However, when the unit began, I realised that the sexism experienced by women was still a major ongoing problem in our society. Women are often portrayed as inferior to men. They are objectified, and pressurised to be physically beautiful, because society has forced them into believing that that is their role. Society has guided them from a young age, through books and movies and toys, to care more about their appearance than their aspirations and goals. Men, on the other hand, had whatever they needed to achieve their dreams from a young age. Wanted to become a police officer? Buy a toy gun. Wanted to be an explorer? Grab a pair of binoculars. And if a girl wanted to become any of those things, buying anything from the boys' section was frowned upon by society. Unle...

Initially, before this course, I didn't take much into account what women in our society were represented as, all I was aware of was ongoing sexism in society, but after the first couple of lessons, I realised that femininity is such an interesting and broad topic that I can learn so much from. In early times, women were typically represented as a sex object, or somewhat an aid to men, whether it be in the form of housework, carer or love interest. Nonetheless, women were always portrayed as the inferior gender, dominated and pressured by society's wants. Even when we were still young children, there was always gender stereotypes and norms, girls liked dolls and pretty things, while boys choose their own adventures and explore the wild. It might not seem as much but we were always grown up in similar ways, taught how we were expected to behave like a gender. What does the phrase "You act like a girl" even define? all women are unique, there is no right or wrong ...

Representation of women has never been something that I have thought much about. However, I believe that this unit will be a great opportunity to allow me to widen my limited knowledge about this topic. I think that this unit will be very insightful as it will inform me about how women have been portrayed has changed over the years and what hardships they have experienced. In the past, women have been represented less in comparison to men in media. This could be due to the fact the there was this common mantra/thought that men were more powerful, superior and significant than women. This strong perspective had influenced many negative things on women which degrades women’s values such as the wage gap and employment opportunities. As seen in the advertisement, it portrays how women are meant to be in the kitchen while the man of the family is the breadwinner and goes to work.   The increase of women in the media such as magazines, movies and more ...

Jiamu Li The world is always changing, even more so in the day and age we live in, along with it, the representations of women in society are changing too. In the past, majority of women were seen as “damsels in distress”, weaklings that need the help of men to “rescue” them.   They had a specific role in their household, which was to bear children and deal with the household chores, while the men were supposed to get a job and support the household. This role does not require them to be educated or the ability to think for themselves. While this stereotype is a portrayal of the time it was born in, it isn’t necessarily healthy or beneficial to either women or men. However, as time progressed, more and more women were fighting to tear down this stereotype. They were fighting for their education, the right to and equal pay as men, and a different portrayal of them in society. This sparked many movements for gender equality, and paved a way for the improving wo...