Discrimination of Women in a Mans World - Movie Review Example

The main plot of the film revolves – as a representative case – around training and combat in the national army. How Lt. Jordan O'Neil suffers in ‘this world’ and launches herself to fight back against inequalities, insensitivities, and injustices, indeed, is the main theme of this film.

Information about Film
The director, Producer, and Writers of this film are Ridley Scott and Roger Birnbaum; and Danielle Alexandra and David Twohy (writers) respectively. The main actors are Demi Moore (as Jordan O'Neil), Viggo Mortensen (Master Chief James Urgayle), and Anne Bancroft (Sen. Lillian DeHaven). The film was officially released on 22 August 1997. Cinematography goes to Hugh Johnson while Editor is Pietro Scalia. It is distributed by Hollywood Pictures (United States). The budget is $50,000,000. The running time is 124 minutes.

Introduction
G. I. Jane covers the internal and external conflicts a modern and upright woman faces in this man-dominated American culture. This film presents diverse aspects of the psychology and sensitivities of a contemporary woman. The causal restlessness of women versus stereotyped discriminatory attitudes of men is shown in this film in a very effective way. This restiveness turns into O’Neil’s struggle to claim her dignity of being an equal human being. Women’s sexual discrimination even in professional institutions like the national army is also characterized in this feature film.
Topics Movie Addresses
This film addresses gender concepts such as sex-role congruency, androcentrism, traditional stereotype military culture, and sexist discrimination of women against a backdrop of norms set up by man-dominated socio-political ethos. Characters like Jordan O'Neil are related as deviants in this situation – be it military, social, political, or otherwise (Andrews 74-94, Dunivin 531-547, Norman 56-57, Palmer 1687).
During military training, O'Neil had to use steps while climbing a wall in a live-fire session. Cortez left her in the lurch. Still, she could finish her live-fire exercise well in time though with some extra time allowed for women. Had O’Neil been participating like all other men, she would not have required additional concession given to her. Had Cortez been in her place, he might have failed in live-fire timing!
In a combat operation, O’Neil saved the life of Master Chief James Urgayle. In another scene, she had been to the Senator to ask for equal treatment to her vis-à-vis other men in the army while the concerned Senator was behind a plan to fire her from the army due to motivated political vested interests.
G. I. Jane is replete with such instances of O’Neil voicing her fight for equal treatment to her in the army. She even went to the barber to cut her beautiful long hair just to look like other men in the army.
All these instances of O’Neil’s fight point to inherent overt and covert attitudes of men towards women as examples of gender concepts anent sex-role congruency, androcentrism, traditional stereotype image, and sexist discrimination of women. Such pointers focus the attention of the viewer of G. I. Jane on the deep-rooted psychological malaise and traditional outlook towards women in society, State, and politics.

Relevance
Women are serving in the national army from the First World War onwards. Despite this, the context of proper socialization of women in combat is still a ticklish matter. Women-in-combat becomes even more controversial for it confronts societal stereotypes about gender roles, military readiness, military effectiveness, and unequal opportunities. This situation of varied sex discrimination of women continues although -- in the name of equality between the sexes -- gender-norming stands introduced to the military since the 1970s. Gender norming is there for providing male adjustment standards regarding the entry of women into the armed forces. This process has further created recurring stress between women and men in the military. “These tensions, in some cases, have been displayed as sexism and harassment”. There have already been several cases of rape and attempted rape of women rank and file officers in the army.

Message
Filmmaker of G. I. Jane – with the above-mentioned perspectives – is sending a very clear message of the need for bringing about a change in stereotype image of women in society. It is shown in this movie that women are, in effect, more endearing and better officers if they are not given any special treatment or concessions.
Effectiveness
As such, there are quite a few very effective portions of the movie as mentioned in the topics the movie addresses. Yet the most effective scene in the movie is when O’Neil visits the Senator. This puts forward very clearly the involvement and hypocrisy of politicians in the corridors of power. They project and fight for a public cause only when they are certain about securing their aggrandizement of power at the cost of other common citizens of the country.
The most ineffective part of the movie was in the scene where Cortez tells O’Neil that she was a better person when she got engaged in drinking. The dialogue in this clip of the film could have been crafted with more depth, finesse, and power.

Conclusion
This film is a masterpiece despite some of its ineffective parts. It very powerfully conveys the issue of androcentrism in social practices and shows how women can fight this male-dominated world with a bit of determination and a strong sense of initiative in one’s personality.  Read More