SSRP Proposal

A first draft of my possible research question is: Female gender representation in contemporary cinema. This may be refined and developed after receiving any feedback and constructive criticisms. My possible focus films for this title will include ‘The Hunger Games’ (2012) ‘Gravity’ (2013) ‘Labor Day’ (2013) and ‘Charlie’s Angels’ (2000). These films all hold a lot of valuable discussion points for my research area. Here is a brief look at these significant points: Gravity portrays a more modern female, with archetypal qualities of a Final Girl, including an androgynous name and ssappearance, Dr. Ryan Stone, as well as being the last character to stay alive by the end of the film, surviving against the odds, as well as being smart and not overly sexualized. This is opposed to Labor day, however, which represents Adele as a more traditional female, as she is portrayed to be submissive, hesitant, weak, and domesticated. Charlie’s Angels, on the other hand, depicts three physically and mentally strong and intelligent women, but also focuses more on the glamorous and sexual aspect of the three leading ladies, which is yet another aspect to film and cinema’s portrayal of females that I can explore in my project. This links to The Hunger Games, as Katniss is portrayed both as physically fit and physically attractive, with strong will and the ability to charm those around her. All these films show a wide range of many different female portrayals shown within contemporary cinema, which can then be compared and assessed against one another, which shows a wide range of modern day representations that can be discussed.

There is a lot of secondary research and data that I can gather, extrapolate and use within my project, both on the internet and in books found in the library, which will be useful to me. For example, I can use Carol Clover’s Final girl theory, look at the Feminist Film Theory, and also use research work by Linda Ruth Williams; including extracts from her  ‘Calling the shots: women and contemporary film, 2000-2015.’ There are also other areas of research that I can use consisting of: Women’s Cinema by Alison Butler, Contemporary Hollywood Cinema by Steve Neale and Murray Smith, and Action and Adventure Cinema by Yvonne Tasker. A particularly useful book is Working Girls, Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema by Yvonne Tasker, as it has a whole section on action women, which is beneficial.

My area of research will be within the Genre section, as I am considering to research into the representation of femininity in contemporary cinema. I may then decide to refine this to femininity within contemporary action films, and therefore remove ‘Labor day’ from my set of focus films, and replace it with another action film. I could then use films such as Speed (1994) or Fantastic Four (2005) or something else entirely. I have chosen to research into the representation of women in contemporary film for various reasons. For example, I enjoy watching modern and contemporary films, take a feminist view of society, and take sociology as a subject, so I can draw upon these attributes to help with my presentation, and complete primary research. Furthermore, action films are also one of my top favorite film genres as well, which will help with my project, as this means I will be more interested in the focus films chosen. Originally I was going to take a look at the representation of women within independent films, however, I felt there was a limited amount of studies and secondary research for me to be able to use in my project, and so I then therefore refined my choice to looking at contemporary films, where there is an abundance of useful studies that I can use which will benefit my presentation.

During this project I hope to gain a wider understanding of the relationship between women and cinema, and the changes in film representations of woman over the years to how they are portrayed in contemporary film, and to then be able to express this information and research in a clear and concise presentation that is both informative and entertaining.