Asian American Women In Hollywood Cinema
Mitchell Anthony Reyes
Cinema 123
Women in Film Women have definitely had a struggle in American society, on screen and off. As we have viewed each film this semester, women and their struggle shave definitely been portrayed in some way. As I have realized this, a thought has dawned on me. Not only do women have to deal with major challenges and obstacles to make better roles in film as a gender, but they also have to deal with the same kind of challenges if they happen to be a racial minority. Of course, like the other racial areas we have observed throughout the semester, there has been improvement in Hollywood film when it comes to gender roles as time progresses, but there are still unnecessary stereotypes and challenges that women come …show more content…
to face today. The films that we have viewed throughout the semester are Crash, Hollywood Chinese, Better Luck Tomorrow, Saving Face, 42, Do the Right Thing, In the Heat of the Night, The Help, The Bronze Screen, Stand and Deliver, Under the Same Moon, and A Better Life. Crash is a film that takes place in Los Angeles and is about different people whose stories intertwine with each other in some way. It follows the struggles of minorities and the racial stereotypes that they have to deal with in order to live in American society. Some characters of Crash are a black detective, who deals with his drug abusing mother that thinks he isn’t concerned with his family; a Hispanic locksmith, who takes care of his daughter that is afraid of bullets; a Persian store owner, who buys a gun in order to protect his store and family from robbers; a Caucasian man, who uses race to help him in his political campaign; a Caucasian women, who believes her fear of non-whites is justified after being car-jacked by two black men; and two black men, who use their ethnicity as an excuse to justify for what they do. The Hispanic locksmith was immediately viewed as a “gangbanger” by the Caucasian woman because he wasn’t white. The Persian store owner and his family were viewed as Arabic people and were viewed as terrorists by the gun store owner and the robbers that vandalized his store. The Caucasian man tried looking for the saddest life story of a minority to use to support his political career. The Caucasian women discriminated against the locksmith and her housekeeper because they were Hispanic. The two black men car-jacked and robbed people, using their ethnicity to say that they deserve the thing they steal because of racial stereotypes against them. Crash was able to show the struggles of most of the racial minorities in America and the stereotypes portrayed. However, the film was still able to portray some of the stereotypes of women, racial minority or not. One such example in the film was the African American woman that was sexually assaulted by the racist police officer when the African American couple got pulled over. She was portrayed as someone that was helpless and weak, which is a stereotype on women even today in society. Hollywood Chinese is a documentary about the history of Asian Americans in Hollywood Cinema.
It tells the stories of the changes of Asian American roles in cinema and the stereotypes typically viewed in past Hollywood films. Asian Americans were first expected to act like the stereotypes about them in films. Those stereotypes would be things like not knowing English, speaking in deep Asian accents, being the supporting “sidekick” roles, and other things like that. It wasn’t until later on that Asian American actors, male and female, starred in leading roles in Hollywood movies and even TV series. Hollywood directors would also shift Asian culture to what they think Asian culture is. Asians that moved to America and became actors were unable to portray what real Asian culture is because they had to do what they were told. The Asian population, however, were fascinated by the leading white men and women in the Hollywood films back then. They never cared for watching the supporting Asian roles and always wanted to see the white actors and idolized them. Later on, with the Asian American actor, Bruce Lee, Hollywood films influenced the general audience to believe that all Asians knew kung fu or karate. This newfound stereotype of Asian American actors brought the influence of Hollywood film directors wanting them to engage in fighting scenes. This is portrayed in the Bruce Lee movies, the Rush Hour series, Jackie Chan movies, and more. Movies like Better Luck Tomorrow didn’t go with the influence of Asian American stereotypes in film, and caused controversies and change on what is expected from Asian American actors. This documentary showed the challenges women faced as well. Many Asian American actresses were casted roles not only as “fresh-off-the-boat” Asians that had deep accents and little to no knowledge of English, but also as prostitutes and mistresses as well in the past. This brought on the assumption in society that some Asian American women were street
walkers with accents, bringing stereotypical phrases like “me love you long time” or “me so horny.” Better Luck Tomorrow is a film about a group of Asian American high school friends that go through the struggles of trying to maintain high academic records for future college choices while also becoming rebels. They become rebels by first selling cheat sheets of tests from their high schools to fellow students, but that became a gateway into selling drugs and doing jobs for money. The main character and narrator, Ben, tells us the story of how they got into the life of petty crime and the stresses that were brought on with it. In the middle of the film, Ben realizes he is in too deep with what was supposed to be just small acts for small cash. What makes him realize this is the fact that he woke up in bloody sheets because his nose was bleeding. His nose was bleeding because he was doing too much cocaine. The film also portrays the stereotypes that were used against the group of Asian American friends. At a party, a couple of white varsity sports players made racist jokes against them, but that caused Daric, one of the main characters, to fight them and the Asian American group ended up beating one of the white varsity players. After that, people at the high school started treating them with more respect. Another interesting aspect about the movie was that there were no parents. I felt that this brought all of the attention towards the struggles that the high school students felt, without being repressed by the perspective of the parents. I enjoyed this film very much. I thought it was very funny and was also very accurate on portraying the stereotypes that Asian American high schoolers had to go through. The stereotype of women that this film portrayed was with the main woman character. This was the woman that Ben was going after. She was a skinny, tallish, beautiful popular Asian American and that is a stereotype that was portrayed. Within films, mostly ones that have stories of high schoolers, there always has to be some beautiful, skinny, popular woman that the main character has to chase after. This affects society by making women think with the controversial issue of body image.
Saving Face is about the struggles that a mother and daughter go through in their very nuclear multi-generational family. The daughter and mother are too afraid to make their love lives public because of their cultural expectations. The family is Chinese, so their culture on family is based on traditionalist values and honor. The daughter is Wilhelmina “Wil” Pang, who is a lesbian that falls in love with another Chinese-American lesbian, but is too afraid to make their love public, especially to her mom. The mom is Hwei-Lan Gao, who is a divorced 48 year old woman that is found to be pregnant without being married. This brings dishonor to Hwei’s parents and is kicked out of their house and forced to live with her daughter, Wil. Both women struggle to be truthful to each other. Wil doesn’t want to verbally admit that she is gay to her mom, even though she was caught with another woman in her apartment a few years ago. Hwei doesn’t want to share who the father of the child is because the father is a younger man and doesn’t want rumors to spread about that. At one point of the story, Wil finally says to her mom “I love you and I am gay.” However, her mother rejects this immediately because of her traditionalist background and says “How could you say I love you and then throw that in my face. My daughter is not gay.” Later on, at the story’s resolve, Wil finds out who the father of the child is and quickly stops her mom’s arranged marriage to tell her to be with the person she loves. Hwei finally accepts this and, with that, accepts her daughter’s sexuality. This film portrays not only the cultural expectations of Asian-Americans, but also woman in general. It is definitely one of the major films that portrays obstacles that women face that we have watched this semester. Wil is culturally expected to be heterosexual and her mother is culturally expected to stay married and, in a way, has been “slut-shamed” for bearing another man’s child, while she is not married. This exposes the cultural challenges that women face with the issues of marriage and LGBTQ acceptance. The film 42 tells the story of Jackie Robinson and, under the guidance of team executive Branch Rickey, Robinson 's signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers to become the first African-American player to break the baseball color barrier. The story focuses mostly on the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers season and somewhat on Robinson 's 1946 season with the Montreal Royals, which emphasize his battles with racism. In 1945, Jackie Robinson and his team, the Kansas City Monarchs, stop by a gas station. When the attendant refuses Robinson entry to the washroom, Robinson says they will find another station at which to fill up the team bus, and the attendant relents. As Robinson comes out, a scout for the Dodgers approaches him and sends him to Brooklyn. He is offered a $600/month contract and $3,500 signing bonus, which Robinson accepts after being warned he must control his temper if he wants to play. Robinson proposes to his girlfriend, Rachel, by phone and she accepts. During Dodgers spring training, Robinson makes it to the franchise farm team in Montreal. After a great season there and spring training in Panama, he advances to the Dodgers. Most of the team soon signs a petition stating they refuse to play with Robinson, but manager Leo Durocher insists Robinson will play with the main team. When Durocher is suspended (for actions in his personal life), leaving the Dodgers without a manager to start the regular season, Burt Shotton agrees to manage the team. In a game against the Philadelphia Phillies, manager Ben Chapman taunts Robinson, causing him to go back to the dugout and smash his bat to vent his anger. With encouragement from Rickey, Robinson then returns to the field and hits a single, steals second base and advances to third on a throwing error and scores the winning run. When Chapman 's behavior toward Robinson generates bad press for the team, the Phillies ' owner requires him to pose with Robinson for newspapers and magazine photos. Later, Robinson 's teammate, Pee Wee Reese, comes to understand the pressure Robinson is facing, and makes a public show of solidarity, standing with his arm around Robinson 's shoulders before a hostile crowd in Cincinnati. Robinson 's home run against Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Fritz Ostermueller, who had earlier hit him in the head, helps clinch the National League pennant for the Dodgers, sending them to the World Series, which they would lose to the New York Yankees. A concluding postscript describes how Rickey, Robinson, and many of his teammates went on to have distinguished careers, including inductions into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The notes also describe the entrance of other African Americans into the Major Leagues, beginning with the season after Robinson 's debut. I felt that this film definitely portrayed the hard times that African Americans had in the past. Racial discrimination kept many talented men and women from achieving their dreams, but Jackie Robinson being given a chance to show what he was able to do as a professional baseball player instead of as some “nigger,” opened doors for the discriminated black community. I feel that the cultural expectation of women that was portrayed in here was the assumption that in every marriage, the wife must follow and support the man no matter what, even though this wasn’t an issue that the film seemed to try to address. The film, Do the Right Thing, looks at life in the Bedford-Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn on a hot summer Sunday. As he does everyday, Sal Fragione opens the pizza parlor he 's owned for 25 years. The neighborhood has changed considerably in the time he 's been there and is now composed primarily of African-Americans and Hispanics. His son Pino hates it there and would like nothing better than to relocate the eatery to their own neighborhood. For Sal however, the restaurant represents something that is part of his life and sees it as a part of the community. What begins as a simple complaint by one of his customers, Buggin Out, who wonders why he has only pictures of famous Italian-Americans on the wall when most of his customers are black, eventually disintegrates into violence as frustration seemingly brings out the worst in everyone. This film gave some of the women in it the typical supportive role it seems like. Mookie’s girlfriend, who still lives with her mom, has the role of being one of the main supporters of her child, with the other supporter being her mom. This shows the issue that women face that they are expected to do all the heavy lifting in supporting the children that they bear, while the fathers are the ones with the jobs and that women rely on the fathers for financial support. In In the Heat of the Night, Detective Virgil Tibbs is caught up in the racial tension of the US South when he is arrested after the murder of a prominent businessman. Tibbs was simply waiting for his next train at the station in Sparta, Mississippi and the confusion is soon resolved but when local police chief Gillespie learns that Tibbs is the Philadelphia PD 's number one homicide expert, he reluctantly asks for his assistance. The murdered man, Mr. Colbert, had come to Sparta from the North to build a new factory and his wife and business associates immediately point the finger at Endicott, the most powerful man in the county and the one who had the most to lose if a major new employer comes to the area. Tibbs ' life is clearly in danger but he perseveres in a highly charged and racially explosive environment until the killer is found. It wasn’t easy finding issues that women faced with this film. However, I feel that one issue that was portrayed may be a common one. That the woman relies on the man to solve her problems. Delores Purdy is a 16 year old girl in the film that had an accidental pregnancy. The whole reason for the murder was so that the impending father could pay for Delores’ abortion. This shows that Delores relied on the father, Ralph Henshaw, to fix the problem that they faced. The film, The Help, is about a writer named Skeeter Phelan, whom has just graduated and returned home after finding a job writing in a futile newspaper column in the local newspaper. When she arrives home, she finds that her nanny and family 's maid Constantine Jefferson is gone. Skeeter sees the chance of writing a book about the relationship of the black maids with the Southern society for an editor from New York. First she convinces Aibileen Clark to open her heart to her; then Minny Jackson is unfairly fired by the arrogant Hilly Holbrook, who is a leader in the racist high society, and Minny decides to tell her stories after finding a job with the outcast Celia Foote. Soon eleven other maids accept to be interviewed by Skeeter that also tells the truth about Constantine. When the book "The Help" is released, Jackson 's high society will never be the same. This is another one of the major films that we have viewed in class that portrays the struggles that women can face, on and off screen. The women in this film come across the struggles of having the characteristics of being weak, and being followers rather than standing up for themselves in the beginning of the film. The Bronze Screen examines, analyzes, and critiques the portrayal of Latinos in Hollywood over the course of a century. The documentary traces the different stereotypes evoked by Hollywood throughout the mid 19th and 20th century. This is done through the use of silent films and small excerpts from a variety of movie genres that feature Latinos. In addition to exploring stereotypes and negative representations of Latinos, The Bronze Screen also acknowledges the contribution and emergence of Latino writers, directors, cinematographers, composers, and graphic designers. The documentary is divided into several sections that explain the struggles of Latinos in film in categorized detail. A stereotype, actor or actress is examined in each section. The first section begins by looking at silent films and their use of Mexican men as the bad guys and Mexican women as bad girls with loose morals. In the sections that follow stereotypes such as the greaser, the Latin lover, the tonto (dumb), the bandido (bandit), the lazy Mexican, and the gangster are identified in various Hollywood films. The "if you talk like deez" section focuses on the Latino accent. According to the documentary the introduction of talkies ended the careers of many Latino actors. Latino males went from playing lead roles in silent films to playing supporting roles because of their accent. In "the grave yard shift" Lupe Velez recalls her experience as an actress working the night shift. She goes on to explain that the Spanish versions of films were shot at night while the English version was shot during the day. Yet another obstacles Latinos have faced in Hollywood. Instead of focusing on stereotypes "the name game" section consist of the obstacles Latino actors and Latina actresses have had to face in regards to their names. The actors and actresses interviewed in this section all said to have experienced a moment in their careers in which their managers or someone in the industry suggested that they changed their name to something more American. They, however, refused to change their names because to them their names form part of their identities as actors and actresses. The struggles that the Latina American actresses face is the stereotyped gender roles of Latin women. Typcially, Latinas would be portrayed as maids or any job of a similar field, giving the assumption that Latinas are good at cooking, cleaning, etc.
Stand and Deliver is a film that shows us the life of Jaime Escalante. He gave up a job as an engineer to take a job at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. The school is on the verge of being decertified by the school district due to poor academic results and Escalante 's philosophy is that students will respond to expectations and those at the school are so low that they perform poorly. After several years of success he decides he wants to teach them calculus, driving his students as hard as he can. Working with the students and also their parents, many of whom think schooling is a waste of time, 18 of them eventually pass the Advanced Placement calculus exam, giving them college credit. The Educational Testing Service finds a number of anomalies in the scores and suspect they have cheated, leading to a crisis. This degrades Escalante’s students because of their academic history, they feel they were prejudiced into the assumption that they couldn’t possibly be smart enough to pass the AP exam. As they try to fight the Educational Testing Service’s assumption, they find the only way to prove themselves is to retake the AP exam, except this time the exam will be much harder and more complicated. Escalante and his students take on the challenge and strive to pass the AP exam for the same time. Every one of Escalante’s students retake the exam and pass again, causing the Educational Testing Service to reinstate the college credit that they have earned. The film ends with written text explaining more and more students taking Escalante’s calculus class each semester and, as a result, more and more students passing the AP exams. This film definitely portrays the struggles of not only young Latinos, but also of high school students in general. I can relate to their high school struggles a lot because a lot of the students had to take an AP class while also taking care of themselves and their families. One struggle this film showed was the expectation for a daughter to do what her father has chosen for her to do when she grows up. One of the characters was forced to drop Escalante’s class mid-semester because her father wanted her to work more at their family restaurant and to take over the restaurant when she gets older.
Under the Same Moon tells the story of Rosario, a mother who illegally immigrates to the United States, and her nine-year-old son, Carlitos. Rosario, now living in Los Angeles, California, calls her son, every Sunday from a payphone. Carlitos lives in a small Mexican village with his sick grandmother and his oppressive aunt and uncle, who try to take custody of him in order to get the money that Rosario sends to him. One day, while working for a woman named Carmen, Carlitos encounters two American immigrant transporters, Martha and David, who offer to smuggle small children across the border. When his grandmother passes away, Carlitos decides that he cannot live with his aunt and uncle, so he finds the two coyotes. Though he successfully crosses the border without being caught, the car that he hides in is towed away and he is separated from the two coyotes since they had parking violations and expired tags and didn 't pay for them. Afterwards, Carlitos continues the journey, eventually staying with other illegal immigrants while they pick tomatoes. However, immigration police raid the building, and arrest most of the workers, but Carlitos and another worker named Enrique, who does not like Carlitos, escape. While traveling, Carlitos and Enrique arrive at a restaurant managed by a Native American man and his wife. Carlitos manages to get jobs there for himself and Enrique. At the restaurant, Carlitos looks up his father, who he learned about from his aunt and uncle despite his grandmothers wishes, in a phone book, and they meet at a wholesale store and have lunch there. Oscar agrees to take Carlitos to Los Angeles to where Rosario is, but later changes his mind, angering Carlitos. In turn, Enrique decides to take Carlitos to Los Angeles. The two take a bus ride and make it to LA. Carmen manages a phone call to Rosario to let her know that Carlitos is missing and Rosario decides to leave on a bus back to Mexico. Meanwhile, Carlitos and Enrique searched the city for the pay-phone that his mother called him from every Sunday. Failing to find the pay-phone after hours, the two fall asleep on a park bench. As Rosario is about to depart on a bus ride, seeing a pay-phone by the bus reminds her of Carlitos and she gathers her thoughts to make a decision. As the sun rises, Carlitos is still sleeping on a park bench, Enrique leaves to buy food and Carlitos is spotted by the police. Carlitos is almost caught by the police, but Enrique throws a cup of coffee at the officers, provoking the officers to chase him instead. Carlitos manages to escape but Enrique is caught. He finds himself in a familiar place that matched all of his mother 's descriptions and sees her across the street waiting at a payphone. Carlitos calls out to her and she is overjoyed to see that he is unharmed. There are too many cars for Carlitos to cross against the light, so the two anxiously wait on either side of the street. The movie ends on the image of the crosswalk changing to a walk signal. This film shows Carlitos’ mother as someone that is caring and tries her best to find ways to support her son as best as she can by trying to make a life in America before Carlitos will be able to move there from Mexico. I feel that this can give the assumption that women are caring and supportive, which are typical stereotypes of women in general. Doesn’t really have to be a bad stereotype, but the expectations that all women are caring and supportive can put pressure on them and this seems to be somewhat of a trending role for women to take in film. Always the supportive role within films and because of that, we rarely see a woman character that can stick up for herself and is the heroin of the story.
A Better Life explains the lives of an illegal immigrant, Carlos Galindo, and his high school age son, Luis. Carlos Galindo works as a gardener with Blasco Martinez in Los Angeles, California. Blasco wants to return to Mexico and continually tries to persuade Carlos to purchase his business from him, which includes the work truck and gardening tools. Carlos 's son Luis is in high school and is dating Ruthie Valdez, the niece of a local gang leader. Luis regularly goes to her house after school where gang members congregate. Luis is embarrassed by his father and, although he does not wish to follow in his footsteps, has a hard time committing himself to his education. However, his relationship with Ruthie and his friendship with Facundo pushes him toward becoming a gang member. Carlos asks his sister Anita for a loan to purchase Blasco 's truck and tools. Anita lends Carlos $12,000, which comes out of her family 's emergency fund. Carlos reluctantly accepts. Carlos returns to a corner where he used to look for work and hires Santiago. On the first day, Santiago steals the truck. The next morning, Carlos and Luis head out to find Santiago. A tip leads them to a South Central apartment complex. The apartment is used as lodgings for illegal immigrant workers. One man, to whom Santiago sold Carlos’ cellphone, tells them that Santiago moonlights as a dishwasher at a nightclub. When they first go, the club is closed and they go to a nearby rodeo. At the rodeo, Carlos and Luis talk about Luis’s feelings toward his culture and his family. Luis is bitter about his mother abandoning them. He does not like Mexican music or certain Mexican traditions. When the nightclub opens, Carlos finds Santiago washing dishes. Santiago runs away, but Luis is waiting outside and tackles him. Carlos pulls Luis away. They discover that Santiago has sold the truck and sent the money to his family back home to El Salvador. Luis runs away. The next morning Carlos goes looking for Luis and finds him at Facundo’s house. They argue, and Luis decides to stand by his father. They find the garage where Santiago sold the truck and steal it back. However, on their way home, they are pulled over by the police, and Carlos is arrested and incarcerated as an illegal immigrant. He is quickly processed, and Luis gets to the prison just before Carlos is about to board a deportation bus. The guards allow Luis and Carlos to see each other, and Carlos apologizes to Luis for not being there for him. Luis tells him he should not be sorry. Carlos makes Luis promise him that he will succeed in his studies and Luis makes Carlos promise him that he will return. They both agree and Luis and Anita watch Carlos board the deportation bus. The film closes with Luis at a soccer game with Anita and his two cousins watching him play. It then shows Carlos with a group of illegal immigrants about to cross a desert to get back to America saying in Spanish “Let’s go home.” This film also seems to support the trending role of the female actress needing to be caring and supportive. Anita’s character is supportive and caring by loaning $12,000 to her brother without her husband’s consent. Another issue that the film shows is the assumption that every wife needs to have her husband’s consent to make decisions. Before making the decision herself, Anita said she had to ask her husband for consent on loaning the money. One article a fellow peer submitted that I found interesting was The Dollar-And-Cents Case Against Hollywood’s Exclusion of Women. This article definitely hits the strong points of the obstacles women actresses face when it comes to Hollywood film. Using the Bechdel Test on a number of movies definitely exposed how much discrimination and stereotyping Hollywood film still shows on women. Also, the fact that the test itself is simple and vague enough with the three criteria questions and the majority of the tested films still hit those criteria questions is a bigger representation of how Hollywood film is rather than the test results themselves. Even just the question of two women talking to each other about a male character seemed to stop numerous amounts of films when I think about it. Another article I found interesting that a peer submitted was Women In Film Are Underrepresented, Hypersexualized Despite 'Year Of The Woman ' Claims (REPORT). The correlation of the "Year of Women" and the low statistics of leading female roles compared to men is ironic. I feel that it makes sense to try and give women spotlight to try to expose the talent of women actresses and women in general by naming a year for women, but just naming a year won 't help. Even with this special year, women were still gender stereotyped in Hollywood films, with the usual oversexualization of the female anatomy. The article that I submitted was The Hollywood Problem: Why We Need Women in Film. This article talks about Reese Witherspoon’s transition into becoming a female producer. It stresses about how Hollywood needs more female directors and producers and needs to center more on women. It even shows statistics on female directors and their films vs male directors and their films, which, shows a majority success for the male directors in comparison. So, not only do women actresses have hard times with Hollywood film, but it also seems that women directors have the same struggles.
I’ve noticed that every film has some sort of stereotype or cultural expectation portrayed with their female actresses. Also, rarely any of the female actresses were the main characters of the films. America’s society has always had immense stereotypes on women. Throughout history, women had to fight for equal rights again and again and even though they have gained many of those rights that they fought for, American cinema still creates obstacles for women. Not only does the lack of more equal roles on film create obstacles, but the fact that film today still portrays gender role stereotypes is influencing the younger generations into thinking that the roles that these women play are the social norms.
Bibliography
Strother, Mary. "The Hollywood Problem: Why We Need Women in Film." The Biola University Chimes. Biola University, 14 Oct. 2014. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
Gray, Emma. "Women In Film Are Underrepresented, Hypersexualized Despite 'Year Of The Woman ' Claims (REPORT)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 May 2013. Web. 09 Dec. 2014.
Hickey, Walt. "The Dollar-And-Cents Case Against Hollywood 's Exclusion of Women." FiveThirtyEight Life. FiveThirtyEight, 01 Apr. 2014. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
Cinema 123
Women in Film Women have definitely had a struggle in American society, on screen and off. As we have viewed each film this semester, women and their struggle shave definitely been portrayed in some way. As I have realized this, a thought has dawned on me. Not only do women have to deal with major challenges and obstacles to make better roles in film as a gender, but they also have to deal with the same kind of challenges if they happen to be a racial minority. Of course, like the other racial areas we have observed throughout the semester, there has been improvement in Hollywood film when it comes to gender roles as time progresses, but there are still unnecessary stereotypes and challenges that women come …show more content…
to face today. The films that we have viewed throughout the semester are Crash, Hollywood Chinese, Better Luck Tomorrow, Saving Face, 42, Do the Right Thing, In the Heat of the Night, The Help, The Bronze Screen, Stand and Deliver, Under the Same Moon, and A Better Life. Crash is a film that takes place in Los Angeles and is about different people whose stories intertwine with each other in some way. It follows the struggles of minorities and the racial stereotypes that they have to deal with in order to live in American society. Some characters of Crash are a black detective, who deals with his drug abusing mother that thinks he isn’t concerned with his family; a Hispanic locksmith, who takes care of his daughter that is afraid of bullets; a Persian store owner, who buys a gun in order to protect his store and family from robbers; a Caucasian man, who uses race to help him in his political campaign; a Caucasian women, who believes her fear of non-whites is justified after being car-jacked by two black men; and two black men, who use their ethnicity as an excuse to justify for what they do. The Hispanic locksmith was immediately viewed as a “gangbanger” by the Caucasian woman because he wasn’t white. The Persian store owner and his family were viewed as Arabic people and were viewed as terrorists by the gun store owner and the robbers that vandalized his store. The Caucasian man tried looking for the saddest life story of a minority to use to support his political career. The Caucasian women discriminated against the locksmith and her housekeeper because they were Hispanic. The two black men car-jacked and robbed people, using their ethnicity to say that they deserve the thing they steal because of racial stereotypes against them. Crash was able to show the struggles of most of the racial minorities in America and the stereotypes portrayed. However, the film was still able to portray some of the stereotypes of women, racial minority or not. One such example in the film was the African American woman that was sexually assaulted by the racist police officer when the African American couple got pulled over. She was portrayed as someone that was helpless and weak, which is a stereotype on women even today in society. Hollywood Chinese is a documentary about the history of Asian Americans in Hollywood Cinema.
It tells the stories of the changes of Asian American roles in cinema and the stereotypes typically viewed in past Hollywood films. Asian Americans were first expected to act like the stereotypes about them in films. Those stereotypes would be things like not knowing English, speaking in deep Asian accents, being the supporting “sidekick” roles, and other things like that. It wasn’t until later on that Asian American actors, male and female, starred in leading roles in Hollywood movies and even TV series. Hollywood directors would also shift Asian culture to what they think Asian culture is. Asians that moved to America and became actors were unable to portray what real Asian culture is because they had to do what they were told. The Asian population, however, were fascinated by the leading white men and women in the Hollywood films back then. They never cared for watching the supporting Asian roles and always wanted to see the white actors and idolized them. Later on, with the Asian American actor, Bruce Lee, Hollywood films influenced the general audience to believe that all Asians knew kung fu or karate. This newfound stereotype of Asian American actors brought the influence of Hollywood film directors wanting them to engage in fighting scenes. This is portrayed in the Bruce Lee movies, the Rush Hour series, Jackie Chan movies, and more. Movies like Better Luck Tomorrow didn’t go with the influence of Asian American stereotypes in film, and caused controversies and change on what is expected from Asian American actors. This documentary showed the challenges women faced as well. Many Asian American actresses were casted roles not only as “fresh-off-the-boat” Asians that had deep accents and little to no knowledge of English, but also as prostitutes and mistresses as well in the past. This brought on the assumption in society that some Asian American women were street
walkers with accents, bringing stereotypical phrases like “me love you long time” or “me so horny.” Better Luck Tomorrow is a film about a group of Asian American high school friends that go through the struggles of trying to maintain high academic records for future college choices while also becoming rebels. They become rebels by first selling cheat sheets of tests from their high schools to fellow students, but that became a gateway into selling drugs and doing jobs for money. The main character and narrator, Ben, tells us the story of how they got into the life of petty crime and the stresses that were brought on with it. In the middle of the film, Ben realizes he is in too deep with what was supposed to be just small acts for small cash. What makes him realize this is the fact that he woke up in bloody sheets because his nose was bleeding. His nose was bleeding because he was doing too much cocaine. The film also portrays the stereotypes that were used against the group of Asian American friends. At a party, a couple of white varsity sports players made racist jokes against them, but that caused Daric, one of the main characters, to fight them and the Asian American group ended up beating one of the white varsity players. After that, people at the high school started treating them with more respect. Another interesting aspect about the movie was that there were no parents. I felt that this brought all of the attention towards the struggles that the high school students felt, without being repressed by the perspective of the parents. I enjoyed this film very much. I thought it was very funny and was also very accurate on portraying the stereotypes that Asian American high schoolers had to go through. The stereotype of women that this film portrayed was with the main woman character. This was the woman that Ben was going after. She was a skinny, tallish, beautiful popular Asian American and that is a stereotype that was portrayed. Within films, mostly ones that have stories of high schoolers, there always has to be some beautiful, skinny, popular woman that the main character has to chase after. This affects society by making women think with the controversial issue of body image.
Saving Face is about the struggles that a mother and daughter go through in their very nuclear multi-generational family. The daughter and mother are too afraid to make their love lives public because of their cultural expectations. The family is Chinese, so their culture on family is based on traditionalist values and honor. The daughter is Wilhelmina “Wil” Pang, who is a lesbian that falls in love with another Chinese-American lesbian, but is too afraid to make their love public, especially to her mom. The mom is Hwei-Lan Gao, who is a divorced 48 year old woman that is found to be pregnant without being married. This brings dishonor to Hwei’s parents and is kicked out of their house and forced to live with her daughter, Wil. Both women struggle to be truthful to each other. Wil doesn’t want to verbally admit that she is gay to her mom, even though she was caught with another woman in her apartment a few years ago. Hwei doesn’t want to share who the father of the child is because the father is a younger man and doesn’t want rumors to spread about that. At one point of the story, Wil finally says to her mom “I love you and I am gay.” However, her mother rejects this immediately because of her traditionalist background and says “How could you say I love you and then throw that in my face. My daughter is not gay.” Later on, at the story’s resolve, Wil finds out who the father of the child is and quickly stops her mom’s arranged marriage to tell her to be with the person she loves. Hwei finally accepts this and, with that, accepts her daughter’s sexuality. This film portrays not only the cultural expectations of Asian-Americans, but also woman in general. It is definitely one of the major films that portrays obstacles that women face that we have watched this semester. Wil is culturally expected to be heterosexual and her mother is culturally expected to stay married and, in a way, has been “slut-shamed” for bearing another man’s child, while she is not married. This exposes the cultural challenges that women face with the issues of marriage and LGBTQ acceptance. The film 42 tells the story of Jackie Robinson and, under the guidance of team executive Branch Rickey, Robinson 's signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers to become the first African-American player to break the baseball color barrier. The story focuses mostly on the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers season and somewhat on Robinson 's 1946 season with the Montreal Royals, which emphasize his battles with racism. In 1945, Jackie Robinson and his team, the Kansas City Monarchs, stop by a gas station. When the attendant refuses Robinson entry to the washroom, Robinson says they will find another station at which to fill up the team bus, and the attendant relents. As Robinson comes out, a scout for the Dodgers approaches him and sends him to Brooklyn. He is offered a $600/month contract and $3,500 signing bonus, which Robinson accepts after being warned he must control his temper if he wants to play. Robinson proposes to his girlfriend, Rachel, by phone and she accepts. During Dodgers spring training, Robinson makes it to the franchise farm team in Montreal. After a great season there and spring training in Panama, he advances to the Dodgers. Most of the team soon signs a petition stating they refuse to play with Robinson, but manager Leo Durocher insists Robinson will play with the main team. When Durocher is suspended (for actions in his personal life), leaving the Dodgers without a manager to start the regular season, Burt Shotton agrees to manage the team. In a game against the Philadelphia Phillies, manager Ben Chapman taunts Robinson, causing him to go back to the dugout and smash his bat to vent his anger. With encouragement from Rickey, Robinson then returns to the field and hits a single, steals second base and advances to third on a throwing error and scores the winning run. When Chapman 's behavior toward Robinson generates bad press for the team, the Phillies ' owner requires him to pose with Robinson for newspapers and magazine photos. Later, Robinson 's teammate, Pee Wee Reese, comes to understand the pressure Robinson is facing, and makes a public show of solidarity, standing with his arm around Robinson 's shoulders before a hostile crowd in Cincinnati. Robinson 's home run against Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Fritz Ostermueller, who had earlier hit him in the head, helps clinch the National League pennant for the Dodgers, sending them to the World Series, which they would lose to the New York Yankees. A concluding postscript describes how Rickey, Robinson, and many of his teammates went on to have distinguished careers, including inductions into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The notes also describe the entrance of other African Americans into the Major Leagues, beginning with the season after Robinson 's debut. I felt that this film definitely portrayed the hard times that African Americans had in the past. Racial discrimination kept many talented men and women from achieving their dreams, but Jackie Robinson being given a chance to show what he was able to do as a professional baseball player instead of as some “nigger,” opened doors for the discriminated black community. I feel that the cultural expectation of women that was portrayed in here was the assumption that in every marriage, the wife must follow and support the man no matter what, even though this wasn’t an issue that the film seemed to try to address. The film, Do the Right Thing, looks at life in the Bedford-Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn on a hot summer Sunday. As he does everyday, Sal Fragione opens the pizza parlor he 's owned for 25 years. The neighborhood has changed considerably in the time he 's been there and is now composed primarily of African-Americans and Hispanics. His son Pino hates it there and would like nothing better than to relocate the eatery to their own neighborhood. For Sal however, the restaurant represents something that is part of his life and sees it as a part of the community. What begins as a simple complaint by one of his customers, Buggin Out, who wonders why he has only pictures of famous Italian-Americans on the wall when most of his customers are black, eventually disintegrates into violence as frustration seemingly brings out the worst in everyone. This film gave some of the women in it the typical supportive role it seems like. Mookie’s girlfriend, who still lives with her mom, has the role of being one of the main supporters of her child, with the other supporter being her mom. This shows the issue that women face that they are expected to do all the heavy lifting in supporting the children that they bear, while the fathers are the ones with the jobs and that women rely on the fathers for financial support. In In the Heat of the Night, Detective Virgil Tibbs is caught up in the racial tension of the US South when he is arrested after the murder of a prominent businessman. Tibbs was simply waiting for his next train at the station in Sparta, Mississippi and the confusion is soon resolved but when local police chief Gillespie learns that Tibbs is the Philadelphia PD 's number one homicide expert, he reluctantly asks for his assistance. The murdered man, Mr. Colbert, had come to Sparta from the North to build a new factory and his wife and business associates immediately point the finger at Endicott, the most powerful man in the county and the one who had the most to lose if a major new employer comes to the area. Tibbs ' life is clearly in danger but he perseveres in a highly charged and racially explosive environment until the killer is found. It wasn’t easy finding issues that women faced with this film. However, I feel that one issue that was portrayed may be a common one. That the woman relies on the man to solve her problems. Delores Purdy is a 16 year old girl in the film that had an accidental pregnancy. The whole reason for the murder was so that the impending father could pay for Delores’ abortion. This shows that Delores relied on the father, Ralph Henshaw, to fix the problem that they faced. The film, The Help, is about a writer named Skeeter Phelan, whom has just graduated and returned home after finding a job writing in a futile newspaper column in the local newspaper. When she arrives home, she finds that her nanny and family 's maid Constantine Jefferson is gone. Skeeter sees the chance of writing a book about the relationship of the black maids with the Southern society for an editor from New York. First she convinces Aibileen Clark to open her heart to her; then Minny Jackson is unfairly fired by the arrogant Hilly Holbrook, who is a leader in the racist high society, and Minny decides to tell her stories after finding a job with the outcast Celia Foote. Soon eleven other maids accept to be interviewed by Skeeter that also tells the truth about Constantine. When the book "The Help" is released, Jackson 's high society will never be the same. This is another one of the major films that we have viewed in class that portrays the struggles that women can face, on and off screen. The women in this film come across the struggles of having the characteristics of being weak, and being followers rather than standing up for themselves in the beginning of the film. The Bronze Screen examines, analyzes, and critiques the portrayal of Latinos in Hollywood over the course of a century. The documentary traces the different stereotypes evoked by Hollywood throughout the mid 19th and 20th century. This is done through the use of silent films and small excerpts from a variety of movie genres that feature Latinos. In addition to exploring stereotypes and negative representations of Latinos, The Bronze Screen also acknowledges the contribution and emergence of Latino writers, directors, cinematographers, composers, and graphic designers. The documentary is divided into several sections that explain the struggles of Latinos in film in categorized detail. A stereotype, actor or actress is examined in each section. The first section begins by looking at silent films and their use of Mexican men as the bad guys and Mexican women as bad girls with loose morals. In the sections that follow stereotypes such as the greaser, the Latin lover, the tonto (dumb), the bandido (bandit), the lazy Mexican, and the gangster are identified in various Hollywood films. The "if you talk like deez" section focuses on the Latino accent. According to the documentary the introduction of talkies ended the careers of many Latino actors. Latino males went from playing lead roles in silent films to playing supporting roles because of their accent. In "the grave yard shift" Lupe Velez recalls her experience as an actress working the night shift. She goes on to explain that the Spanish versions of films were shot at night while the English version was shot during the day. Yet another obstacles Latinos have faced in Hollywood. Instead of focusing on stereotypes "the name game" section consist of the obstacles Latino actors and Latina actresses have had to face in regards to their names. The actors and actresses interviewed in this section all said to have experienced a moment in their careers in which their managers or someone in the industry suggested that they changed their name to something more American. They, however, refused to change their names because to them their names form part of their identities as actors and actresses. The struggles that the Latina American actresses face is the stereotyped gender roles of Latin women. Typcially, Latinas would be portrayed as maids or any job of a similar field, giving the assumption that Latinas are good at cooking, cleaning, etc.
Stand and Deliver is a film that shows us the life of Jaime Escalante. He gave up a job as an engineer to take a job at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. The school is on the verge of being decertified by the school district due to poor academic results and Escalante 's philosophy is that students will respond to expectations and those at the school are so low that they perform poorly. After several years of success he decides he wants to teach them calculus, driving his students as hard as he can. Working with the students and also their parents, many of whom think schooling is a waste of time, 18 of them eventually pass the Advanced Placement calculus exam, giving them college credit. The Educational Testing Service finds a number of anomalies in the scores and suspect they have cheated, leading to a crisis. This degrades Escalante’s students because of their academic history, they feel they were prejudiced into the assumption that they couldn’t possibly be smart enough to pass the AP exam. As they try to fight the Educational Testing Service’s assumption, they find the only way to prove themselves is to retake the AP exam, except this time the exam will be much harder and more complicated. Escalante and his students take on the challenge and strive to pass the AP exam for the same time. Every one of Escalante’s students retake the exam and pass again, causing the Educational Testing Service to reinstate the college credit that they have earned. The film ends with written text explaining more and more students taking Escalante’s calculus class each semester and, as a result, more and more students passing the AP exams. This film definitely portrays the struggles of not only young Latinos, but also of high school students in general. I can relate to their high school struggles a lot because a lot of the students had to take an AP class while also taking care of themselves and their families. One struggle this film showed was the expectation for a daughter to do what her father has chosen for her to do when she grows up. One of the characters was forced to drop Escalante’s class mid-semester because her father wanted her to work more at their family restaurant and to take over the restaurant when she gets older.
Under the Same Moon tells the story of Rosario, a mother who illegally immigrates to the United States, and her nine-year-old son, Carlitos. Rosario, now living in Los Angeles, California, calls her son, every Sunday from a payphone. Carlitos lives in a small Mexican village with his sick grandmother and his oppressive aunt and uncle, who try to take custody of him in order to get the money that Rosario sends to him. One day, while working for a woman named Carmen, Carlitos encounters two American immigrant transporters, Martha and David, who offer to smuggle small children across the border. When his grandmother passes away, Carlitos decides that he cannot live with his aunt and uncle, so he finds the two coyotes. Though he successfully crosses the border without being caught, the car that he hides in is towed away and he is separated from the two coyotes since they had parking violations and expired tags and didn 't pay for them. Afterwards, Carlitos continues the journey, eventually staying with other illegal immigrants while they pick tomatoes. However, immigration police raid the building, and arrest most of the workers, but Carlitos and another worker named Enrique, who does not like Carlitos, escape. While traveling, Carlitos and Enrique arrive at a restaurant managed by a Native American man and his wife. Carlitos manages to get jobs there for himself and Enrique. At the restaurant, Carlitos looks up his father, who he learned about from his aunt and uncle despite his grandmothers wishes, in a phone book, and they meet at a wholesale store and have lunch there. Oscar agrees to take Carlitos to Los Angeles to where Rosario is, but later changes his mind, angering Carlitos. In turn, Enrique decides to take Carlitos to Los Angeles. The two take a bus ride and make it to LA. Carmen manages a phone call to Rosario to let her know that Carlitos is missing and Rosario decides to leave on a bus back to Mexico. Meanwhile, Carlitos and Enrique searched the city for the pay-phone that his mother called him from every Sunday. Failing to find the pay-phone after hours, the two fall asleep on a park bench. As Rosario is about to depart on a bus ride, seeing a pay-phone by the bus reminds her of Carlitos and she gathers her thoughts to make a decision. As the sun rises, Carlitos is still sleeping on a park bench, Enrique leaves to buy food and Carlitos is spotted by the police. Carlitos is almost caught by the police, but Enrique throws a cup of coffee at the officers, provoking the officers to chase him instead. Carlitos manages to escape but Enrique is caught. He finds himself in a familiar place that matched all of his mother 's descriptions and sees her across the street waiting at a payphone. Carlitos calls out to her and she is overjoyed to see that he is unharmed. There are too many cars for Carlitos to cross against the light, so the two anxiously wait on either side of the street. The movie ends on the image of the crosswalk changing to a walk signal. This film shows Carlitos’ mother as someone that is caring and tries her best to find ways to support her son as best as she can by trying to make a life in America before Carlitos will be able to move there from Mexico. I feel that this can give the assumption that women are caring and supportive, which are typical stereotypes of women in general. Doesn’t really have to be a bad stereotype, but the expectations that all women are caring and supportive can put pressure on them and this seems to be somewhat of a trending role for women to take in film. Always the supportive role within films and because of that, we rarely see a woman character that can stick up for herself and is the heroin of the story.
A Better Life explains the lives of an illegal immigrant, Carlos Galindo, and his high school age son, Luis. Carlos Galindo works as a gardener with Blasco Martinez in Los Angeles, California. Blasco wants to return to Mexico and continually tries to persuade Carlos to purchase his business from him, which includes the work truck and gardening tools. Carlos 's son Luis is in high school and is dating Ruthie Valdez, the niece of a local gang leader. Luis regularly goes to her house after school where gang members congregate. Luis is embarrassed by his father and, although he does not wish to follow in his footsteps, has a hard time committing himself to his education. However, his relationship with Ruthie and his friendship with Facundo pushes him toward becoming a gang member. Carlos asks his sister Anita for a loan to purchase Blasco 's truck and tools. Anita lends Carlos $12,000, which comes out of her family 's emergency fund. Carlos reluctantly accepts. Carlos returns to a corner where he used to look for work and hires Santiago. On the first day, Santiago steals the truck. The next morning, Carlos and Luis head out to find Santiago. A tip leads them to a South Central apartment complex. The apartment is used as lodgings for illegal immigrant workers. One man, to whom Santiago sold Carlos’ cellphone, tells them that Santiago moonlights as a dishwasher at a nightclub. When they first go, the club is closed and they go to a nearby rodeo. At the rodeo, Carlos and Luis talk about Luis’s feelings toward his culture and his family. Luis is bitter about his mother abandoning them. He does not like Mexican music or certain Mexican traditions. When the nightclub opens, Carlos finds Santiago washing dishes. Santiago runs away, but Luis is waiting outside and tackles him. Carlos pulls Luis away. They discover that Santiago has sold the truck and sent the money to his family back home to El Salvador. Luis runs away. The next morning Carlos goes looking for Luis and finds him at Facundo’s house. They argue, and Luis decides to stand by his father. They find the garage where Santiago sold the truck and steal it back. However, on their way home, they are pulled over by the police, and Carlos is arrested and incarcerated as an illegal immigrant. He is quickly processed, and Luis gets to the prison just before Carlos is about to board a deportation bus. The guards allow Luis and Carlos to see each other, and Carlos apologizes to Luis for not being there for him. Luis tells him he should not be sorry. Carlos makes Luis promise him that he will succeed in his studies and Luis makes Carlos promise him that he will return. They both agree and Luis and Anita watch Carlos board the deportation bus. The film closes with Luis at a soccer game with Anita and his two cousins watching him play. It then shows Carlos with a group of illegal immigrants about to cross a desert to get back to America saying in Spanish “Let’s go home.” This film also seems to support the trending role of the female actress needing to be caring and supportive. Anita’s character is supportive and caring by loaning $12,000 to her brother without her husband’s consent. Another issue that the film shows is the assumption that every wife needs to have her husband’s consent to make decisions. Before making the decision herself, Anita said she had to ask her husband for consent on loaning the money. One article a fellow peer submitted that I found interesting was The Dollar-And-Cents Case Against Hollywood’s Exclusion of Women. This article definitely hits the strong points of the obstacles women actresses face when it comes to Hollywood film. Using the Bechdel Test on a number of movies definitely exposed how much discrimination and stereotyping Hollywood film still shows on women. Also, the fact that the test itself is simple and vague enough with the three criteria questions and the majority of the tested films still hit those criteria questions is a bigger representation of how Hollywood film is rather than the test results themselves. Even just the question of two women talking to each other about a male character seemed to stop numerous amounts of films when I think about it. Another article I found interesting that a peer submitted was Women In Film Are Underrepresented, Hypersexualized Despite 'Year Of The Woman ' Claims (REPORT). The correlation of the "Year of Women" and the low statistics of leading female roles compared to men is ironic. I feel that it makes sense to try and give women spotlight to try to expose the talent of women actresses and women in general by naming a year for women, but just naming a year won 't help. Even with this special year, women were still gender stereotyped in Hollywood films, with the usual oversexualization of the female anatomy. The article that I submitted was The Hollywood Problem: Why We Need Women in Film. This article talks about Reese Witherspoon’s transition into becoming a female producer. It stresses about how Hollywood needs more female directors and producers and needs to center more on women. It even shows statistics on female directors and their films vs male directors and their films, which, shows a majority success for the male directors in comparison. So, not only do women actresses have hard times with Hollywood film, but it also seems that women directors have the same struggles.
I’ve noticed that every film has some sort of stereotype or cultural expectation portrayed with their female actresses. Also, rarely any of the female actresses were the main characters of the films. America’s society has always had immense stereotypes on women. Throughout history, women had to fight for equal rights again and again and even though they have gained many of those rights that they fought for, American cinema still creates obstacles for women. Not only does the lack of more equal roles on film create obstacles, but the fact that film today still portrays gender role stereotypes is influencing the younger generations into thinking that the roles that these women play are the social norms.
Bibliography
Strother, Mary. "The Hollywood Problem: Why We Need Women in Film." The Biola University Chimes. Biola University, 14 Oct. 2014. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
Gray, Emma. "Women In Film Are Underrepresented, Hypersexualized Despite 'Year Of The Woman ' Claims (REPORT)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 May 2013. Web. 09 Dec. 2014.
Hickey, Walt. "The Dollar-And-Cents Case Against Hollywood 's Exclusion of Women." FiveThirtyEight Life. FiveThirtyEight, 01 Apr. 2014. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.