Sociology through Film

Through the years, media has been known as one of the fundamental institutions in our society. This institution has influenced most of the trends as well as the norms and culture of each individual. One of the most known forms of media is the movies.

Most movies depict the everyday lives of the people which the society can really relate to. Due to this, people enjoy watching films that they could relate in their everyday lives. In addition, the society does not only attach themselves in the film but also in the actors and actresses that portray the roles in the film.Most of the people watching these actors make them symbols or idols due to their choices of roles as well as their personal lives. The lives of these actors are mostly highlighted by the media which some how creates a classification of what is right and what is wrong, beautiful or not and the likes. The media evidently shapes the society through presenting the trends and the classifications that an individual must do.

In this paper, a movie will be reviewed and analyzed in order to present that movies truly influence the society through the plot, characters and the likes.The movie “Stepford Wives” will be used in order to justify the claims in this paper. Summary of the Film: The movie “Stepford Wives” was a movie which had been made in the 1975. In 2004, the film was remake and became one of the most buzzed about movies due to the popular actors that are included in the film. The main characters were Nicole Kidman who plays as Joanna Eberhart who was a very popular reality talk show in a much was known television station in the United States. She was attacked by a distraught audience.

After the incident, she and her husband who was played by Paul Rudnick that they need to leave the city and live in the suburbs. Their family left the busy city life in New York and then moved to the quiet and perfect state of Connecticut. The couple gets to know the people in the small town and realizes how perfect and quiet the little place is. They were able to meet Bobbie Markowitz—played by Beth Midler and Robert Bannister who was played by Roger Bart.

Bobbie was a writer and a recovering addict while Robert is gay and is married his partner.Three of these characters are suspecting that there is something wrong with the whole city due to the “perfection” that they see in the women of Stepford. In one of the events that are held by the city, a woman malfunctions due to some unknown reasons. The Eberhart, Markowitz and Bart decided to investigate about the situation. After their thorough investigation, they find out that all the women were transformed into robots by the technology that which was made by Mike Wellington which was portrayed by Christopher Walken.Joanne later on knew that her kids were taken into hostage by the men’s club.

She decided to go to the mansion of Walken. There she was turned to be like all the women in Stepford town. ( Review and Evaluation of the Film: The movie “Stepford Wives” is a movie that represents a community that desire to have perfection in many different ways. One of the most evident examples is the situation of women in the Stepford town. Almost all the women in the town are “perfect” n terms of their physical appearance.They are all dressed up as if they are always going to cocktail parties.

Their hairstyles seems to be immovable even there is a strong wind that past through them. In short, all of them are real life Barbie Dolls. Given their perfect physical appearance, they are also able to perform well as wives to their husband and good mother to their kids. They are able to finish all the house-hold chores that they need to accomplish everyday such as cleaning the house, washing the dishes, doing the laundry, buying grocery supplies and etc.These Stepford Wives could also provide satisfaction to their husbands in terms of affection, attention, and making sure that all their needs are attained such as sexual need and etc.

Most men in Stepford are satisfied with the situation of their wives—changed into life size Barbie Dolls. They are happy because they are being se as kings. They are being provided with most of their needs with just one click of a button. They do not endure the nasty naggings of their wives or even suffer the tantrums or the mood swings that women usually have due to hormonal reasons.

Stepford men are most satisfied with their situation, because if it is observed, the film presents that the men live as if they do not have wives. They act like they are bachelors and live as if they have no responsibilities at home. Most of the men have jobs but as presented in the film, they usually have gatherings without their family or even their wives. With this situation, the film presents how the women are treated by the men.

The Stepford women are like robots—who do not have their own mind to follow. They only have remotes in order to be controlled by their husbands.In reality, men really desire and act to be like the powerful person in the family due to the financial capabilities that he can bring to his family. In addition, the society dictates that a man should act as such—to be authoritative, to be free from responsibilities in their house and to be the bread winner of the family. All these characteristics are generally what the male is obligatory to do.

He should not act in any feminine way such as take care of the children, doing laundry, buying groceries, and the likes. Doing feminine work and practicing such actions is unusual for a man.Therefore a man should not be doing female activities because he will be connoted as “gay” or “cowardice” because he cannot live up the expectations of the society for the male gender. However, women do suffer the consequences of these obligations and requirements of the society. The whole movie symbolizes the current society and the expectation of men in every woman—mostly to their wives.

As emphasized by the movie, every woman needs to be perfect in every way imaginable. The society dictates that every woman needs to be “perfect” and be submissive to her husband.This brings the paper, to the evaluations that the female is required by the society to act as fragile and submissive towards men because that is what they are made to be. (*) These characteristics of women, though they are not clearly stated by the society, there are certain classifications and requirements that a female must be able to attain to reach the prerequisites of the society of being a woman. She must be able to do all her responsibilities in order for her to be fully accepted and be viewed as a woman that truly does her duties.

She must satisfy the society through following the norms such as giving birth to kids, taking care of her husband as well as all his needs, taking care of the house and taking care of her self too—maintaining her physical body so that her husband would not cheat on her. All these responsibilities are truly hard to attain. In terms of the actors that they picked, the producers chosen the most popular face and most awarded actors in the Hollywood industry. In some sense, the film’s desire is lead to the capitalized theory of Hollywood is which it has the capability to influence the people in its decision and choices.In the article review written by Cynthia Freeland, she stated that the Hollywood films had truly influenced the society through the actors’ and actress’ portrayal of their characters.

The popular characters reflect the trend of the society such as the actions and traits of men and women during those times. She also added that, “…in cinema: men as subjects identify with agents who will drive the film’s narrative forwards, women as objects of masculine desire and fetishistic gazing”(Freeland n. p. ). A typical Hollywood film truly presents such stereotype with regards to gender.Most of the time, the male acts as the lead role of the movie and be the savior of the whole film.

On the other hand, females role are often damsels in distress otherwise their role is only to be the other half of the lead actor. Women are not given too much given roles in which they would be empowered and given great duties in terms of the characters available. This situation raises the trend that women are only made to be the other half of men or they are only seen as helpless beautiful women. The film targets audiences that are mostly women, who are experiencing such situation.The movie desires to fully make the society view that women are only treated and expected to be like “Barbie Dolls” or in pessimistic view point—women are only treat to be materials that men could use in order to make them free from any responsibilities.

The Stepford wives film also desires to present the situation of couples who are need of renewal of their relationships. As noticed in the film, the men would not realize that they love their wives and if they are not given such situations they would not realize it. The whole movie presents that men and women often have misunderstanding however, they still get to understand each other.This situation is saddening because women also could do great possibilities.

Women are not only made to be “Barbie Dolls” in which men could play with and use when they needed. It is so unfair that women are only seen this way which is very evident in the film Women should be empowered and given much attention compared to the Stepford wives. Women must also be given the same authority and power just like men and not be limited because of what the society dictates. The pressure on women to be perfect must not always be present because perfection is very subjective.In is unfair for the female gender to be belittled because she cannot attain the society’s classification of how a real woman should be. Conclusion: In conclusion, Stepford wives present us that the female gender is not given equal treatment compared to the male gender.

Females are given certain responsibilities which must be followed and attained. If these tasks are not obeyed or not be pursued then the female gender is believed to be out of her box. She could be classified as a bad woman who is selfish, (sometimes seen as) promiscuous, a bad mom or wife, depending on the situation given.Unlike men, women in obliged to attain these responsibilities because the society dictates them to be such. Although there are no written proof that women have these types of responsibilities, it is evident thorough the daily lives of women that such classifications are needed to be achieved and sadly one of the few causes are the media and Hollywood.

Currently, Hollywood is slowly realizing their ability to influence other people. With such realization, they view that they need to be realistic and not influence create a “fake” world.They have realized that the world in only within the walls of Hollywood. Some women do acts that change the notion of Hollywood’s perfection such as Oprah Winfrey and other actors and actresses that desire to reach out and also make people realize that Hollywood should not be the classification that they must attain in their life. Oprah Winfrey is able to influence women and make them see that they are worth more than they think (Schick n.

p. ). These types of empowerment somehow create a balance of the “dream world” and reality that every individual must realize.