Technology Diary 2: Movies

After our class meeting where we talked about Goldie Blox, it made me think about how a lot of things we watch influence our perception. One thing being movies. Gender roles are something that has followed us from our history but even today, the things created by our society even now still reinforce these things. I find it quite interesting to see how movies based on books written in the past compared to the newly created movies differ so much. For those based on classic novels, I often find a lot of romance movies very stereotypical. There’s almost always a damsel in distress that needs to be saved. The girl usually can’t do anything by themselves and there this idea the main male protagonist is the hero that needs to save her. There’s been quite a change in the role of characters as we get to more modernized movies. It’s very common these days to see movies with a strong female protagonist that does everything on her own.

When I watch some of my favorite movies by time order, it’s really easy to see how society has changed and the improvements that have been made. Instead of the female protagonist suddenly getting pregnant and having to stay at home and become a house wife, it’s more like the character will simply give birth, and continue on with where they left off in their lives. The most recent movie I watched, was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatball 2 and the main male character is basically a wimp compared to his girlfriend who’s a meteorologist out battling through tornadoes. Even though we can see a trend of having strong female characters for females, it’s still undeniable that there are still a lot of gender role stereotypes in movies. Even in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatball, the main male protagonist still had to save his girlfriend in the end became she got captured by the enemy. I think it says more about what society likes to watch. These movies that come out are based on what the writers think will be popular.