Okay so I am normally an avid movie watcher but I have to say I've been rather lacking within the past 2 months. I've seriously only seen like 2 movies, which to me is kind of ridiculous! But anyways between the two I've seen which is Milk and Coraline...the one I saw most recently was Coraline so I'm going to attempt to describe it in terms of gender. Coraline is a 3d movie. Its characters and surroundings are very similar to those of the Nightmare before Christmas because they share the same directors. But anyway...the story line is about a girl, Coraline, who moves with her family to a new town. Her family is very involved with their work so they pay little attention to entertaining and interacting with their daughter. Coraline is left to create her own adventures and use her imagination to discover her new surroundings. During her search, she discovers a door that leads to world unlike her own. When she enters, she is encountered by her "other parents." These parents unlike her own, seem to live their life only to please Coraline. They make her favorite foods, they create gardens and sing songs about her, and they treat her like she is the only thing that matters in her life. It is easy to see why Coraline becomes enchanted with this world. But she soon figures out that her "other parents" are really just figures of her imagination created by an evil witch who plays the role of her "other mom". The rest of the movie is full of twist and turns as Coraline fights to beat the evil witch and return to her own life in the real world. So basically it is kind of hard to describe it in terms of gender but in reality, I think this movie breaks a lot of gender stereotypes. Coraline is obviously a girl and she is the strong heroine of the movie, which is unlike most movies where the male is the central hero. Her nemesis is also a woman. She is the wicked and strong counterpart to the courageous Coraline. The witch even has control over the whole made up environment. She uses characters like "the other father" to her own advantage of enticing Coraline to remain the other world. There are many other characters that do portray specific stereotypes but overall the women are the lead characters of the movie. Although Coraline's sidekick is a boy, he typically takes direction from Coraline and although at the end he has a shining moment to save the day, Coraline is the one that takes part in most of the aciton. It was actually a pretty good movie especially since it was directed more towards a younger audience. It was refreshing to see the girl as the heroine fighting to protect her family. It helps to break the stereotypes to young children who may always believe it is the man's job to save the day.
In reference to the readings...
After reading I noticed how much times have changed. Well obviously women aren't only thought of as the extension to their husband..or only functioning by the terms of the husband. But really now we have such a hard to struggle to overcome. We still have the motherly instinct and being a mother requires so much time. It scares me to think that soon I will have to face the decision to either further my career or start a family. But I want both so badly. There is only so much time in life. There's so many things I want to accomplish. It feels like the early twenties to early thirties are the times of your life where you really set yourself up. To think that so much happens within that small time frame is a bit overwhelming. This class has really challenged me to think more into the future so I can set my goals straight so when the decision comes, it will be well thought out.
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