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American Heroes Essay

Joan Crawford's life appeared to mirror the characters that she portrayed on film in several ways. By analyzing the 1945 film Mildred Pierce, in which Crawford plays the titular character, one can see how Mildred's character is designed to reflect American perspectives of women. For example, in the film and in real life, Crawford was able to reinvent herself and become more successful as time went on. However, despite her successes, society still maintained that in order for a woman to be complete, she had to have a man in her life, thus propagating the social stigma that a woman could not be independently successful. Allen writes, "in many of the woman's films what the heroine strives so hard to achieve is given up at the end of the film in favor of the 'happy ending'; a chance to be a traditional wife and mother." Another example is that women could be successful and climb the proverbial social ladder by marrying the "right" man,...

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For example, the trailer states that she paid for a love that she could never have, however, the film shows that when she did get married to Monte Beragon, she was in love and that eventually their marriage disintegrated. Moreover, Wally, in the trailer, appears to insinuate that Mildred is a tease, while in the film, she continuously spurns his advances and never appears to lead him on.
Question 3.

Jessica Hope Jordan argues that the women in Kill Bill, Vol. 1 refuse the gaze and thus punish anyone that aims…

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Jessica Hope Jordan argues that the women in Kill Bill, Vol. 1 refuse the gaze and thus punish anyone that aims to objectify them. While this may be applicable in some instances, it can also be argued that these women remain spectacles. However, these women are not spectacles in the way that women were spectacles in classic Hollywood cinema because Tarantino celebrates their independence and intentionally makes these women be unattainable, which allows them to assert their independence regardless of the cost and without social backlash. The refusal of the gaze allows the women in Kill Bill, Vol. 1 to assert their dominance over men, while Tarantino simultaneously transforms them into spectacles of what he thinks are strong, independent women that he often celebrates in his films. Furthermore, the refusal of the gaze is not only used to assert dominance over males, but is also used to assert dominance over women, thus blurring the lines between masculine and feminine ideologies.

Question 4.

The refusal of the gaze can also be seen among Joss Whedon's female protagonists, most specifically in Buffy Summers, who was first introduced to the public in 1992 in the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer; the film later led to the creation of a series based on a similar premise as is seen in the film. In the film, as well as in the series, Buffy is consistently refusing the gaze from prominently male antagonists. Moreover, by vanquishing evil vampires, she refuses to be penetrated -- by being bitten -- and rather ends up penetrating her male gazers by staking them through the heart. The ultimate refusal of the gaze can also be seen in the remake of Clash of the Titans and in Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, however, this refusal comes not from a protagonist, but rather an antagonist, Medusa. In the films, and in mythology, the refusal of the gaze comes to fruition through the destruction of any man that dares look upon her as he is immediately turned into stone.
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