The Bridges of Madison County
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The Bridges of Madison County is a film based on a best-selling novel, and its high sales have been attributed largely to its romantic mood rather than its literary merit. The film makes numerous changes from the book version, and in part it moves more toward a greater realism as well as toward a delineation of character more in keeping with the sensibilities of movie audiences than readers of romance novels. In doing this, the filmmakers reflect current concepts of gender socialization in the context of the original story about a news photographer taking a series of pictures of the bridges of Madison County who has an affair with an Italian woman living on a farm in that region whose husband and children are away for a time. The affair is presented in both versions as an interlude of great importance to the two people involved, something they remember all their lives even as they continue those lives apart. Suzanna Danuta Walters refers to the relationship between postfeminism and popular culture and how in film there has been something of a backlash against feminism, as seen in more reactionary works such as Pretty Woman or Ghost. She sees the 1980s and 1990s as having certain "dominant ideologies" about women, and much of what she says about this shift applies to The Bridges of Madison County as well. Most of these films have a certain feminist veneer, with women who are shown as trying to be their own person and trying to gain control either over their own lives al
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rything a woman is supposed to want--all man and with the sensibilities of a woman. This element is less important in the film, where the two people involved respond more to real character traits in one another than to the physical or even to a romantic ideal of what a woman or man should be. At the same time, given the two people playing these parts, there is a greater sense of attraction because of physical attractiveness and the power of charisma than in the novel.
Sandra Lipsitz Bem writes about the construction of gender identity and the process of socialization and notes about our social structure,
Because that social structure is everywhere based on a gendered division of labor, this preparation must include the gender-differentiated molding of not only skills but psyches as well; male and female children must be shaped to fit their very different adult roles (Bem 133-1340.
Yet with feminism, many questioned the way society had long imposed that role and educated the young to their roles. In the postfeminist world, people are questioning whether t he new approach is any better. Bem refers to the androcentric social practices in America, and this can be seen in one way on The Bridges of Madison County with the fact t
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Madison County, National Geographic, Lipsitz Bem, Danuta Walters, Woman Ghost, Affair Walters, bridges madison, bridges madison county, madison county, Bridges Madison, Warner Bros, University Press, California Press, romance novels, return world, suzanna danuta, people involved, italian woman, social structure, feminist veneer, outside world,
Approximate Word count = 1392
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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