“She-Hulk”: How images of women in the cinema evolved from the search for a prince to saving the world?

Bruce Banner will have to act from now on – his cousin Jennifer Walters, played by Tatiana Maslany, comes into play. At the age of thirty, he works as a lawyer on superhero cases, and one day he becomes the Hulk as a result of an accident. Captain Marvel and Ms. After Marvel, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and WandaVision, this is the sixth project in the MCU to focus on a strong female character, and overall, the trend towards girl power can be traced in the production studio for several years. : Do you at least remember that scene from the last Avengers with the phrase “not alone”? Of course, Marvel isn’t alone in all of Hollywood, and women have been taking over the movie industry for a long time and quite confidently, not just on screen but beyond: Chloe Zhao, for example, took second place last year. The woman who will win the Oscar for best director in history. In the frame, things are not worse, and now we see completely independent characters who, instead of the heroine “princess in trouble” or “accessory”, will stand up for themselves without outside help. How (and when) did the screen revolution happen?

“Maid in Danger”

A woman incapable of nothing without a strong male shoulder – such a cinematic archetype has been offered to us almost from the very beginning of its existence. For example, David Griffith in The Birth of a Nation (1915) makes it clear that women are weak creatures whose salvation can only be expected in the person of a strong man. However, there were all the prerequisites for such a development of thought: the idea that a woman is a rather passive object was born in the Middle Ages and was actively promoted by chivalric novels (hello to Tristan and Isolde) and logically migrated from literature to cinema.

deadly beauty

objectification in action. For the first time such an image appeared in the tabloids, which were actively dismantled in the film adaptation. She brought fame and status to one of the first recognized sex symbols in history, such as Thede Bara, after her lead role in Louis Feuillade’s Vampires (1915).

But it was nearly 30 years before the genre became popular – it fully blossomed in the 1940s and 1950s, when film noir reigned, and featured the Barbara Stanwyck we know now, Ann Sheridan, Rita Hayworth, and the legendary Marlene Dietrich. Her role in The Devil is a Woman. However, it would be very baseless to talk about the “foreground” – the “mortal women” did not appear on the screen alone, and their presence was determined by the presence of a man acting as a protector or object of love.

Even Casablanca heroine Ingrid Bergman had to choose between the two men, so she was more of a conspiracy driver than an independent element. Like other classic heroines of that time.

Modern “Cinderella” and “James Bond Girlfriend”

“I met the person I was looking for. He has millions, glasses and a yacht,” he says in One of the main comedies of the time, Only Girls in Jazz (1959).

The return to knightly romances and children’s fairy tales of princesses, who dreamed of a prince in a Mercedes who would solve all problems, occurred with enviable regularity every decade, but reached its peak, especially in the 90s, during the heyday of the melodrama genre. And yes, we love Pretty Woman and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, too, but let’s be honest—it’s all the same pink glasses, just starring women. But later on, the genre transforms a bit, and in the early 2000s we’ll only see her on screen as the “Bond’s girlfriend” needed in the story to save her (and she often gets into trouble because of exactly one man’s fault). Nothing new, just a little less romantic.

durable

The wave of feminism and civil rights struggles in the 60s and 70s did not bypass Hollywood, although it permeated it very carefully. It all started with comedy sketches (for example, “Nine to Five”) and got serious thanks to Martin Scorsese and Cindy Lumet in the work of “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and “TV Network”. “For the first time, put a woman at the center of the story, not as a supplement to the male character, but as an independent unit. One of the most important films of that period was Paul Mazursky’s “The Unmarried Woman”, which showed that the very ideal life depicted in the cinema does not have to correspond and embody in real life.

In addition, the end of the 60s left its mark on the cinema by the new generation of actors and, accordingly, new standards. Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson and other future stars stand out, not next to them the idealized female characters we’ve seen before – now the industry needs something simple, understandable and easily identifiable for everyone, so aesthetics and external data include internal content and the world is near. He will meet Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Jane Fonda and other cult actresses who are definitely distinguished by their games.

But the real breakthrough awaited the audience a little later – the cult film by Ridley Scott “Thelma and Louise” (1991), where two friends go on a weekend trip, leaving the annoying guys at home and getting together. He got involved in a difficult job, forced to kill a rapist who was harassing him, and escaped from the police. The screenwriter of the film, Carrie Khuri, received an Oscar for this work, and the film itself gave the whole cinema a new type of woman on the screen – the so-called “badass”, for which it could not be worse. a man. Later, we will see such heroes in Sarah Connor from The Terminator, Charlie’s Angels, Lara Croft, Mr. and Mrs. Smith (The character of Angelina Jolie, by the way, the same “Angels” are as independent as possible in women still to men. remains connected) and the Edge of the Future.

Strong woman

Further – moreover, and to change the image of a daredevil who manages to get quite bored of everyone because of their monotony (such heroes have a function – to punish men in tight uniforms beautifully), more deeply female characters came.

For example, Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games already has her own story, traumas and experiences, not only crushing her opponents, but also capable of independently managing her own life without considering men (even more ironically the man is his main enemy. ). After that, Divergent was released, and in the mid-2010s, a new type of female character was defined in the cinema – a strong girl with a harmonious combination of both old role models and new aspects, including inner independence and choice, dedication. herself and her principles, the ability to reconcile and be equal with a man and (usually) a difficult fate. That’s how Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road, Amy Dunn from Gone Girl, and Mildred from Three Billboards Outside, Missouri, came out.

By the way, in parallel with the development of the image of a strong woman, another genre appears on the screen – these are smart and prudent heroes who achieve everything with the help of reason. We saw Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct”, one of the first in this role, and then there was “Erin Brockovich” and “Legally Blonde” (a game of contrasts: a frivolous look and a longing for pink combined with an extraordinary mind, a Harvard degree and successful law career). By the way, the same Amy Dunn in Gone Girl partially refers to this image by spinning all the men around her finger and forcing her husband to live by his rules.

The image of an exemplary housewife, who was at the peak of popularity in the post-WWII era and embodied the ideal of the American dream, is also transforming – a woman raising children and always waiting for her husband at home. with a hot dinner. Zero and the tenth decided to change this role, and the “mothers” on the screen suddenly remembered themselves: this is how “Very Bad Moms”, “Holidays” and “Good Girls” appeared. By the way, very interesting, this idea is also reflected in the series “Why Do Women Kill”, in which the audience is shown the same exemplary housewife, but with her own personal drama.

leading woman

The result of several decades was the image we now often see on screens. In modern cinema, a woman is the main character with no naivety and no dependence on men, and she can do anything: she can save the world like Captain Marvel or Black Widow, she can build a political career like Claire Underwood in House of Cards, she can do science like Amy Adams. Fight for justice and stand up to the system like Frances McDormand in Three Billboards, or learn to be yourself like Amy Adams in Totally Pretty.

Films starring a woman also learned to talk about serious topics, and she did so quite successfully: for example, “The Girl Who Promised” with clear feminist overtones received five Oscar nominations and won one of them – for best screenplay.

Was it worth discussing for many years? Definitely.