Femininity and Masculinity in Clueless Film - Movie Review Example

Changing representation of gender (femininity and masculinity in Clueless Film Gender representation has been a major theme in many Hollywood films and many films tend to depict man-woman relations in accordance with the socially acceptable principles of masculinity and femininity of the time. The question of what it means to be a man or women was prevalent in all stages of man’s development. In the early movies, male and female characters have exhibited the traits and values of the specific time. Especially women in the early movies displayed the qualities that were generally suitable for women in the contemporary period of time. Female characters in films were mainly portrayed as defenseless and fragile. There were only two types of female roles in the early films. The First type of women characters were portrayed as fair-haired, diminutive, helpless, dependent and gorgeous women who were truthful wives or lovers; the second type of female character was the ‘Femme Fatale’ who was frequently attributed with a sort of crooked mind. This is very well suggested by Karlyn when he states that “the 1990’s might well be remembered as the decade of girl culture and girl power” (Karlyn 2003). However, there were exceptional depictions of female gender representations in the 1990s such as Jane Austen’s Emma over Amy Heckerling’s Clueless, and Mary Shelley’s over Wes Craven’s Scream trilogy that are infused with today’s adolescent girl live, and the face of today’s feminism. In the 1990s women characters underwent drastic changes both in their attitudes and ways of living. The transition from women characters that were vulnerable and immature to those who were very strong and independent was clearly visible during the period. One can easily identify this cultural transfer in the comedy film ‘clueless’ which was released in 1995. The film was inspired by the novel called Emma written by Jane Austen in 1816. The movie is described as a feminine protagonist film and it shows the girl power throughout the film. ‘Clueless’ not only converse the girl power and girl crisis but also their mutual latent consumer potential. The character Cher Horowitz is the heart and soul of the ‘clueless’ acted by Alicia Silverstone is the best example for the embodiment of this cultural change (Mccord 2008). In the film, Cher Horowitz is a typical teenage girl from the region of Beverly Hills. She has immense control over her dad who believes that everything can be bought with money. Cher Horowitz also has strong hold over her high school mates, in that all the schoolboys were dreaming over her and every girl respected and tried to please her. Thus, she adorns such a position in her relations that she could pick up and select whoever she needs to have friendship with. As a protagonist, Cher Horowitz was representing the ‘limitless potential’ guaranteed by the girl power discourse. She is always living in-control of her planet; she is only taking judgment on her concerns as well as others. In addition to relationship between the father and daughter, she was much benefited with numerous friend and adults. In the movie Dionne and Tai are the friends of Cher and both of them were very much impressed by Cher’s behavior. In the film, Cher at times is portrayed as a Selfish girl even though most of her actions are blameless and fairly harmless to others. Cher wants to keep Tai on her grip. She is not interested in Tai’s mutual relationship with Travis, a skateboarding slacker. Cher wanted to make match with Tai and Elton but Elton’s rejection backfires her. On the other hand, Tai’s fame and popularity increases day by day at school; Tai downplays the popularity of Cher at school after ‘near death’ adventure at the mall. The relationship between Tai and Amber, the long time rival of Cher made big hole between Tai and Cher. And also she identifies that she was downgraded from queen to courtier at school. This was the first incident that tempted Cher to think of Tai as her rival. The relationship gets worsened when Tai asked her to make match with Josh and this prompts Tai to lose virginity. Here one can see that Cher is very possessive as other women. Selfishness and envy are part of her nature and she does not like to be a mere sexual object of man. In the film, the women characters give more importance on love, affection, respect, dignity than being a sexual object. For instance Tai falls in love with skateboarding slacker Travis when Cher tried Tai to make match with rich guy Elton. This is best example of the women’s perspectives in the film. Comparatively the character Josh displays some masculinity in his character than others. He is always teased by Cher throughout the movie; however, he shows adorable caring and concerns towards Cher. Thus he shows certain traits of masculinity in the movie even though this is demasculinized through his appearance and soft spoken manners (Movie Review Friday: Clueless 2009). Similarly, one sees that the physical character of Cher is fair-haired, petite and stunning as same as that of the female roles in the early movies but she is sage, elegant and multi-ethnic unlike the female characters of earlier times. Cher also has a certain scorn for household operations. She does not have interest to clean her room or house. She also shows the lack of ability in cooking, even if it is pre-packaged foods. Generally every man does not have interest to do in domestic activities as they were conceived to be women’s business ever since the origin of world. However, one can notice that Cher plays more of a masculine character than a feminist one in the movie. Cher Horowitz does not have a usual boyfriend. She says to new kid named Christian “honey, I couldn’t be happier than if they were based on real grades.” This shows that she uses the wiles to capture the young boy. The film portraits the strong sexual desire of Cher. She is very much fond of handsome and great fashionable guys such as Christian rather than Elton. Christian is homosexual but Cher fails to identify his gay zest. She tries to seduce him when both are alone at one night watching movie but it was ineffective (Stack 1995). To conclude, generally these kinds of activities come from the boy’s side but here Cher acts as the symbol of masculinity and femininity at the same time. For Hofstede, “masculinity is the opposite of femininity; together, they form one of the dimensions of national cultures. Masculinity stands for a society which social gender roles are dearly distinct: men are supposed to be more modest, tender, and concerned with the quality of life" (XIV. Masculinity versus femininity). A close observation of the movie convinces one that Cher’s views, missions and concerns represent the men’s character. The character of Cher is displays an ideal representation of the well rooted principles of femininity in the period of 90’s. The film ‘clueless’ is a precise representation of masculinity and femininity in the particular period. There are many writers and critics who were overwhelmed by the treatment of masculinity and femininity in clueless film. Author Judith Habersham states that the film clueless is the best example of femininity and masculinity and feels that the movie is totally female oriented (Habersham 1998, p.239). Similarly, one can also notice that the male characters in the film are undermined as conventional gender roles. Most of the boys display lack of masculinity in their gender performance towards Cher or other girls. Murray, boyfriend of Dionne is the best example of this character. The character Elton is a clever snob who was fond of Cher but she refused his proposal and denied to travel with him in his car. He left Cher alone in the dangerous part of the city, not displaying any sort of heroic masculine power. Josh and Travis are the only two pleasing heterosexual men in the film but they are demasculinized in their appearance and light-talk manner. Thus, one can analyze that the positive female gender qualities are obscured in the movie’s portrayal of negative teenage and female typecasts. Any woman could feel one of two possible feelings who had watched the movie ‘clueless.’ A woman could probably feel that she shares Cher Horowitz’s outlooks, concerns, and tasks. On the other hand, the film would also prompt many teen girls to re-evaluate and develop their perspectives and self-esteem. In fact, Cher does not have true skill and intelligence because of ignorance. Her driving test and report are proved to be the bad examples of behavior of female. Feminism is the belief that men and women have the equivalent right for self expression. The male manipulation aspects were used in this film by many teenage girls who saw how it worked for Cher. This could cause males to assume that all girls are like Cher Horowitz and this would change their ways in understanding the mind of female counterpart. References Habersham, J 1998, Female masculinity, Duke University Press. Karlyn, KR 2003. “Scream, Popular Culture, and Feminisms Third Wave: "Im Not My Mother". Genders OnLine Journal - Presenting innovative theories in art, literature, history, music, TV and film, Issue 38, viewed 28 October 2009, Mccord, ML 2008 “So very,” “So fetch”: Constructing girls on film in the era of girl Power and girls in crisis, Master Dissertation paper, Georgia State University, viewed 28 October 2009, < http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11182008-162945/unrestricted/mccord_mary_l_200812_ma.pdf> Movie Review Friday: Clueless 2009, Sierra Club, viewed 1 November 2009, < http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife/2009/07/movie-review-friday-clueless.html> Stack, Peter 1995, FILM REVIEW -- `Clueless Knows a Lot About Teen Spoof, Hearst Communications Inc, viewed 1 November 2009, XIV. Masculinity versus femininity, viewed 28 October 2009, Read More