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Hollywood's Portrayal of Women

The images of women in films reflect Hollywood's preoccupation with and fear of women, as well as that of American society at large. Hollywood has portrayed women in the prescribed roles that it felt comfortable seeing them in but has always maintained a veneer of the artificial that constrained women from expressing their real selves on the screen. From the femme fatale role depicted by Marlene Dietrich, in which woman was mysterious and profound, never to be understood completely, to the bimbo played by Marilyn Monroe, all sensual charm oblivious to what is transpiring around her, women's roles were rarely designed to reveal the real nature of women. They were caricatures that concealed living, breathing women whose true complexities were obscured, distorted, and constrained to fit the mold of the Hollywood stereotypes. Why did Hollywood keep women at arm's length instead of allowing them to open up and reveal what was most alluring about them-their real selves, with all the permutations of character and personality and their depth of soul?

There were several reasons. First, Hollywood had a vested interest in ensuring that their films were profitable, and once a particular type of role had resulted in a box office hit, Hollywood attempted to repeat it as many times as possible to obtain the same results. Like a substance abuse addict, a Hollywood producer would reprise the same plot lines and characters repeatedly, until the distinctions among movies became minimal. The Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers vehicles provide an excellent example of this. As soon as Hollywood directors found that Astaire and Rogers were a popular combination with the public, they were starred in a seemingly endless series of virtually identical films in which they always danced together and usually fell in love. The settings differed somewhat, and the plots had a few distinguishing characteristics, but for the most part, the stori...

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Hollywood's Portrayal of Women. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 02:43, March 19, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/2000472.html