Prostitutes in Cinema Only Serves the Male Imagination - Report Example

Prostitutes In Cinema Only Serves The Male Imagination Culture of any society depicts how it inculcates values and virtues inthem and how these individuals integrate and foster them into their lives. Similarly, Cinema industry from its inception portrays certain values, which have become globally acceptable and instead have been integrated into the lives of many via their vivid and frequent representation. Many themes like love, enmity, mystery, revenge, sexual allures and ways to satisfy them have been depicted vastly by the cinema industry around the globe (Chapman, 2004). However, there have been few themes and metaphors which are a direct by-product of cinema-graphic depictions. For instance like associating attraction and sexuality to slim body types, associating love to a pretty face, gang culture, drugs, prostitution, pornography and etc. Female body has been used as a tool for many centuries to attain political, economical, psychological and sentimental advantages by many races and ethnicities. The notion of beauty and sophistication is always associated to female gender. Since the inception of time, female body image has been considered the object of male sexual satisfaction. Hence, sophisticated and nude female sculptures and paintings have been produced for the sole cause of gaze satisfaction and also have been a popular medium for male spectators. Cinema industry in the modern world has been trading this notion of female sexuality in many diverse ways. The most popular and attractive notion is prostitution, which mainly entertains the male spectator. The idea here is to attain instant attention of the male spectator and represent the female body into a commodity style (to sell their movies via female nudity in a ready for purchase and sale manner). The cinema industry has been exploiting the image and repute of female gender; hence, it’s intricate to change the global trend now or to change the meaning which has been deeply set (Nelmes, 2012). The idea of female prostitution is fundamental and mandatory in Cinema industry. Cinema has produced and depicted the story of a female whore with more details and care than of a decent woman striving for something amicable. The general perception can be extracted from the fact that spectators would not appreciate or watch a biography video on ‘Mother Teresa’, but would definitely watch the movie ‘Pretty Women’ of Julia Roberts. Cinema is not solely responsible for shaping general perception of female persona, but it’s the literature which has gathered chunks of truth from the surroundings (society) to formulate a fiction or narrative. Hence, it’s not just the cinema which is shaping our views, but mainly it’s the society which is rotating the idea of representation (Gallego, 64, 2010). Nonetheless, media has been shaping perceptions of its spectators in a wider sense than any other medium of communication. The message sent via graphical representation is much more powerful than any other type of representation. Visual images are perceived and interpreted by the viewers and the type of interpretation completely depends on the capability of the interpreter. Thus, type of interpretation of the visual image also relies on cultural, religious, ethnic and gender relevant beliefs (Evans and Halls, 4). However, the image or idea in rotation is also a liability of the producer or director, who actually demonstrates the veracity of it to the wider spectators. Evans and Halls theory entails the significance of the perception and the perception developer, but in such a case the developer has the empirical responsibility than any other individual. Moreover, visual message is often powerful and is accepted without an argument. For instance, in a WWF series two male wrestlers are merely fighting for the spectators and spectators assess it as a form of fight for victory or challenge. The reasons could vary, but if the fighters are female their fight will only be watched for the sake of nudity in action, male entertainment when the female body parts are exposed, and eventually satisfaction of male gaze and desire. Yet, According to Gallego the representation of prostitution as female popular character for male spectators is due to one basic concept that they can keep their sentiments and physical relationship apart. Hence, they acquire the trait of explicitly in their sexual needs here like men. Secondly, the author also suggest that change in modern society relationship has changed the meaning of prostitution, for instance ‘La Golfa’ in 1931 was evidently a movie, which was produced to put shame for ill-repute women of this trade on the other hand, ‘Pretty Women’ (1990) even the name suggests that the idea of prostitution changed by the end of twentieth century. Revolution of ideas did occur for aspects like decency and honesty (66, 2010). Moreover, the notion of prostitution is usually associated to female prostitution only this has been the case since the inauguration of cinema industry; and almost 90% of the movie concepts revolve around female prostitutes. Only 10% of the movies entailing the idea of prostitution are directed by female directors, which evidently portray a different perspective of the same idea. Countries which produce the highest no. of movies regarding prostitution issue are as follow: North American Cinema produces 41.5% Spain from 14.5% later on France produces 9% England 5.5 % Japan 3% Germany 2.5% (Gallego, 67, 2000) The idea of prostitution even in movies depict that the general public can humiliate and harass them especially, their male exploiters (pimps or abusers) have all the right to abuse, harass and humiliate them. After 1990, prostitution was not associated to illicit sex, as sex with strangers was not considered unrighteous by then, hence physical relationships ouside of marriage were acceptable trend. The profession of prostitution entailed new ideas like sexual abuse for male satisfaction. The mere example can be the movie ‘Whore’ (1991), Liz (female prostitute) is raped, abused, mocked upon and thrown out of the van eventually by a group of guys (67). The main idea here is that the female character puts her life in jeopardy for the sake of few dollars and receives ultimate abuse physically and psychologically as well. Russell Campbell in his book describes; how female prostitute is actually depicted in cinema yet, the main objective of this depiction remains the same; to satisfy the male gaze. Female prostitute acts as potent character developed specifically to represent what is expected of her, an active sex partner, an attractive allurer, an expert who knows how to pull the reins, an individual who keeps her work and emotions apart. The female prostitution is anything and everything for the male protagonist or antagonist. If it’s the protagonist then eventually he becomes her lover and if its antagonist then she is submissive, active and puts her life at risk for him in return of his abuse. The core idea here is that she is an entity to support male members physically, psychologically, sentimentally and for the sake of male audience; visually. Hence, in the movies ‘Pandora’s box’ and ‘Never on Sunday’, prostitutes are mere illusion of male imaginations (Campbell, 383, 2006). Simultaneously, movies like ‘Red Kimono’ and ‘Diary of lost girl’ represent two different aspect of prostitution, the former entails the notion of sex slavery and the later depicts that prostitution can become a free business (respectable) and also for the sake of sensational pleasure (which is a false depiction). However, the two movies depict that even though the main female characters (prostitute) have been bounded in the trade with or without will, but they do not want any of their loved ones into this trade. For that matter these female prostitutes are shown to take matters into their hands and fight against the antagonists (Campbell, 2006). The Cinema reaffirms the male bias for the sake of identification hence; female gender is always represented as a mean to attain satisfaction and pleasure. Desire has been termed the most potent aspect in the cinema graphics, which is always been centralized and focused by the directors and script writers. The idea of male desire usually gains attention and hence; films depict exactly how the male majority wants to view their fantasies on screen. In addition to it, the female character is always positioned in such a manner to accommodate the male character physically, psychology and sentimentally. However, some critics believe that prostitutes in cinema are always shown tough and rigid like a boxer though they have been given little control of their lives and circumstances around them, but have the ability to endure the toughest pain and misery. In the movie ‘Working Girls’ (1987) the title is suggestive and contains dual meaning and storyline. The title became famous for the forbidden and deceived profession later on (Tasker, 6, 2000). However, the critics believe that cinema culture relies on stereotyping and it often depicts which attains instant attention or become popular among the spectators. Yet, famous actresses like Sharon Stone, Julie Roberts and Angelina Julie also consider ‘bad girl’ character more charming and entertaining. This proves that cinema has always used female body and acting into regard as they both have strong impact on its spectators. Not one of them can be left behind to entertain the viewers both have to be charming enough to gain popularity and attention. The main idea to produce such movies is either to entertain the male viewer to watch their fantasies or to shed light on the lives of these prostitutes. The imagery could be fiction or at times realistic as well. However, Cinema has rarely depicted the unglamorous version of this profession and has always shown the false notion, making them look like physically needy and sentimentally greedy and shallow (Brown, Iordanova, and Torchin, 60, 2010). Such movies also contain violence like beatings, rape and humiliation, which also condones the dignity of a woman. One of the finest example for it would be the South Korean movie ‘Bad Guy’ (2002), the story revolves around an innocent girl who has been tricked to become a whore and the lead character the antagonist has a twisted crush on her and wants to watch her sexually active with other men. The story revolves around the fact that the Asian girl is forced to live an undignified life because a psychologically ill man ‘Silent man’ wants to witness her sex life. The plot is realistic to an extent that innocent girls have been trapped for brothels in exchange of loans, but the whole idea of her life around a male dogma of sexual appeal is centrally focused to attain male attention and appreciation (Taylor-Jones, 2013). Sexual Objectification (SO) theory entails the idea that women have been treated as mere objects or commodities of satisfaction and are only valued on the bases of their attractive body type or male desire criteria. SO theory also entails the idea that such criteria instills a pessimistic feeling in them, which perpetuates psychological disorder like depression, low self esteem, sexual and eating disorders in them. They eventually believe the male view for them and treat them self as an object of speculation and gaze, instead of being an individual worth of living with or without attention (Szymanski, Moffitt and Carr, 8, 2011). SO theory also enable women to experience and evaluate them self according to their body type. Researchers believe that OS theory is triggering physical and mental health problems in women rapidly and is reducing their motivation level. Moreover, anxiety is the main symptom observed among women facing SO in the society. Race, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation are also influenced by internal and external SO. Another APA (2007) study reveals that media depicts women and cash them in terms of their erotic body parts and suggestive language. The lens of the camera always focuses on the female sexuality to sell their product, service, graphics or campaign. With the aim of selling their commodity or service they amalgamate it voluptuous figure, which demonstrate the decline of dignity for them in general. The notion has been frequently preached and is wide spread by the media that it has become a part of global society now. Another research also indicates that media has depicted women of lower social class dirty, sexually active, wild and crude and who deserve any kind of physical and sentimental abuse and aggression (Ibid, 10, 2011). Another study reveals that media industries like music and cinema are persistently airing the concept of female physical aptness as criteria for social and professional success. The theme of hot, sexy is desired has been so deeply-rooted that now women also measure their social and professional success from their body type. They have accepted the notion of decorative item for them and have been actively satisfying male gaze, without paying attention to their own worth (Ibid, 16, 2011). Further study in the same arena suggests that women subject of SO use numbing therapy to relief the anxiety of being objectified. Such therapies contain alcoholism, drugs, smoking, excessive masturbation and excessive or abused sexual relationships. Another Feminist theory entails the concept that Hollywood has always underrepresented women and in a stereotype manner, such objectifying has generated a false image and decreased the worth of women in male perspective and also devalued women in general. Yet, these feminist critics also understood the dilemma that cinema structure of movies cannot be changed and painting a rosy picture of the current situation of women isn’t helpful either. Hence, they comprehended and studied the patriarchal pattern of imagery in cinemas and the dominant impact of male vision in the cinema industry. The feminist film theory also depicts women are always represented powerless in any society. The renowned feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey introduced the concept of male gaze, its impact on society and domination in cinema grapy. She describes that these are the reasons women have been represented belittling and erotic in movies. According to Mulvey the three type of gaze all revolve around the male perspective and that is why films usually entertain the male spectator. Women have been assigned the passive roles in movies for being subject of gaze and not the central position unlike the male hero or the male spectator (Mulvey, 1975). In addition to it, she describes the view to be of two types: Voyeuristic view and the Fetishistic view. The former entails the idea of male spectator extracting pleasure from gazing women and not being looked at in return. And the later establishes the notion that the women is still a sexual object, but is invulnerable and tenure of male character and viewers in large. The popular feminist theory attained immediate attention and name among female feminist organisations and critics. And from there on wards it has been used as a foundation to assess the male subjugations in media against women. A movie ‘Boys don’t cry’ is produced from a different perspective of male gender, it projects light on how a transgender Brandon Teena wanted his true identity as a male member of the society; and how male and female have been treated differently if they want to change their identity. The movie also depicts male aggression against Brandon, who has a confused identity biologically. The audience was presented with a true story of how male domination impacts on transgender members of the society, who want to choose for an identity for themself (Swank et al., 2000). However, another movie ‘Working Girls’ depicts an entirely different version of the issue under discussion. It demonstrates that prostitution is a profession of choice; the characters were neither forced, violated or were a victim of circumstances, but chose it them self willingly; neither of them regretted their decision or suffered from it (Smith et al., 1987). This is the modern perspective which is gaining popularity in the cinema industry; however, it is far away from reality and truth. Prostitution is the oldest and most condemnable profession in the world, none of the religions or sects have allowed it by any means. Hence, its existence is always discouraged and is penalized in the world and here after. The mainstream cinema has always depicted the opposite of what any religion teaches us, hence; some of the religions of the world consider cinema industry a hub of devilish productions and chaos. If a religion or philosophy preaches harmony, veracity and dignity the cinema industry teaches the opposite violence, fraud and undignified life style of whores and drug addicts. Thus, rationally it has frequently generated videos, which are against the beliefs of faith (Miles, 2002). Yet, there are many movies and biographies for and in favor of religious preachers as well, but they are neither popular nor have attained any worth in the general audience. The main reason is for it is that the emphasis is always laid upon the male and female gender and their attraction in the movies; but eloquence of spirituality cannot be captured on camera. Religions preach modesty, decency and rationality a prescribed model for the life style of any human being. On the other hand, films represent that it is necessary to follow heart; no matter where it leads to. This is lack of factual and trustable representation of social truths on camera. Hence, if prostitution can be displayed as a rightful and dignified profession, next thing can be any illicit action like killing, drug in-take, theft, sale and purchase of humans can be presented as a legit action as well, which will put long term detrimental impact on the youth. In Hollywood movies the lower strata prostitutes are usually African American women. These black women are assigned low supporting characters and get minimal attention of the director the spectators also pay attention to their voluptuous figure for their delight (Manatu, 2003). The popular and recent examples could be ‘Borat’ (2006), ‘Baby Mama’ (2008) and ‘Road Trip’ (2000), the movies depicted African women as desperate to have intercourse with the white male characters. There are several other examples which depict that African women have no moral when they are faced with a choice of intercourse with a white male. Moreover, Asian and American women are also shown as hyper sexual and frequently indulging in illicit sex, eventually; become prostitutes (Shimizu, 2007). They are depicted as submissive, overtly active sexually and highly tempted for sex when offered by a white male. The concept of ‘China doll’ emerged from movies like ‘Return to Paradise’ (1998), ‘Dragon Lady’ (1992) and ‘The year of Dragon’ (1985). These movies falsely depicted Asian women as greedy and needy for sex. Moreover, these women are portrayed flirtatious, seductive and they attain success in exchange of sex only. However, the reality is quite the opposite; Asian women have been renowned for their attachment and sacrifice for their children and family life. US Cinema has also painted Latino Women as aggressively sexual and due to their lush figure they become a subject of sexual attention in movies as well. The stereotyping against them is too vivid that they have been assumed sexual objects even by the viewers now, and spectators only expect their character to be seductive not meaningful. These Hispanic women mainly get the character of seductive nanny, maid or gardener (Dines and Humez, 2011). Moreover, the hypocrisy and bigotry of cinema industry gets evident as it has always depicted white women prostitutes with a heart of gold notion (Pretty Women), but Hispanic women are just what they are shown (prostitutes/ ready for sex and get paid)like shown in the movie ‘Savages’(2012) and ‘Take this Waltz’ (2011). The main idea is to show all the women from different ethnicities lusty and needy for white male companionship. Cinema has portrayed this view from its inception and has been carrying it forward till now. Another character that is followed by the prostitutes is of a pimp. Hollywood represents the pimps behind prostitutes, as rich and glamorous African American males who drive expensive cars and wear flashy clothes and jewelry. However, this is a false depiction of prostitution industry pimps. They are neither rich nor black; they can belong to any ethnicity yet, they snatch 70% of what these street prostitutes earn on daily bases. Hence, in reality the life of a prostitute is neither independent, care free nor full of luxuries and fun (Flowers, 2011). According to a Annenberg report on Gender portrayals in media from 2007-2012, 56.6% girls of age 13 till 20 wear revealing attire and 39.9% women age 21 till 30 also dress up in revealing dresses. However, the ratio of partial or complete nudity is also alarming and troublesome, 55.8% of the girls (13-20) and 39.6% women (21-30) have been portrayed partial or completely nude on camera (Dr. Smith et al., 2013). The same study reveals that in 2012, women have been underrepresented and they have only been casted to sexualize the graphic content via their alluring body types. And most significantly, the study also reveals that the graphic content developers (White male members) in media are responsible for this discrimination and stereotyping. Conclusively, history of Cinema depicts that women have been assigned with the characters that were seductive, reclusive, revealing and alluring roles of call girls, prostitutes, whores and sluts. These characters were produced with the intention of entertaining the male gaze and satisfying the male desire. The meaningful female roles have always been very few; and were rarely recorded on camera. If female characters have any role in movies it is to show how they relate to desire, seduction attraction for sex and eventually submission for the same gender. It has been a prehistoric cinema trend, which has developed and nourished in the cinema and has become a global perception as well due to its persistent representation. The chain can only break if censorship policies, stereotyping and meaningful illustration is adopted by the director, producers and accepted by the male spectators. The global trend of ‘male gaze’ needs to change or altered as this behaviour has been the root cause of female objectification; and underrepresentation of women socially, psychologically, geographically and identically. Initially the male directors and producers have to establish ground rules for the spectators and from their onwards this false and wrong dogma can be altered or rightly treated. Top of Form Bottom of Form Bibliography Brown, W., Iordanova, D., & Torchin, L. (2010). Moving people, moving images: Cinema and trafficking in the new Europe. St. Andrews: St. Andrews film studies. Bottom of Form Top of Form Campbell, R. (2006). Marked women: prostitutes and prostitution in the cinema. Madison, Wis, University of Wisconsin Press. Top of Form Chapman, J. (2004). Cinemas of the world: Film and society from 1895 to the present. London: Reaktion. Top of Form Dines, G., & Humez, J. M. (2011). Gender, race, and class in media: a critical reader. Thousand Oaks, Calif, SAGE Publications. Dr. Smith S. L., Choueiti M., Scofield E., & Dr. Pieper K. (2013). Gender Inequality in 500 Popular Films: Examining On-Screen Portrayals and Behind-the-Scenes Employment Patterns in Motion Pictures Released between 2007-2012. Retrieved from Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism University of Southern California website: http://annenberg.usc.edu/Faculty/Communication%20and%20Journalism/~/media/A41FBC3E62084AC8A8C047A9D4A54033.ashxTop of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of FormTop of FormEvans, J., & Hall, S. (2007). Visual culture: The reader. London [u.a].: Sage Publ. Top of Form FLOWERS, R. B. (2011). Prostitution in the digital age: selling sex from the suite to the street. Santa Barbara, Calif, Praeger. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form GALLEGO, J. 2010. Cinema and prostitution: how prostitution is interpreted in cinematographic fiction. [e-book] QUADERNS ISSN: 1138-9761 / www.cac.cat DEL CAC. pp. 63-71.  Top of Form MANATU, N. (2003). African American women and sexuality in the cinema. Jefferson, N.C., McFarland & Company. Bottom of Form Top of Form Miles, M. R. (2002). Seeing and believing: religion and values in the movies. Boston, Mass, Beacon Press.Bottom of Form Top of Form Mulvey, L. (September 01, 1975). Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Screen, 16, 3, 6-18. Top of Form Nelmes, J. (2012). Introduction to film studies. London [u.a].: Routledge. SHIMIZU, C. P. (2007). The hypersexuality of race: performing Asian/American women on screen and scene. Durham, N.C., Duke U.P. Bottom of Form Top of Form Smith, L., McElduff, E., Gladstone, A., Borden, L., Charter Entertainment (Firm), Miramax Films., & New Line Home Video (Firm). (1987). Working girls. Los Angeles, Calif.: Charter Entertainment. Bottom of Form Top of Form Swank, H., Sevigny, C., Sarsgaard, P., Sexton, B., Sharp, J., Peirce, K., Bienen, A., ... Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Inc. (2000). Boys dont cry. Beverly Hills, Calif: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Szymanski, D. M., Moffitt, L. B., & Carr, E. R. (January 01, 2011). Sexual Objectification of Women: Advances to Theory and Research. Counseling Psychologist, 39, 1, 6-38. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Tasker, Y. (2002). Working girls: Gender and sexuality in popular cinema. London [u.a.: Routledge. Bottom of Form Read More