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The eighties were a time of alter for many females around the globe. Slowing the sex stereotypes established by the mass media, art, and advertising with the previous years starts to become stronger. Persons start seeing that beyond ladies basic privileges, such as voting and education, achieved by the first feminists, a deeply rooted patriarchy still is present. This interpersonal structure still generates inequality and hierarchies that profit men. For this reason, women’s libido and their right to their own physiques, as well as to child killingilligal baby killing and contraceptive, enter the debate. In this dissertation, two of the most iconic party films from the 1980s will be analyzed and compared. Equally Dirty Dancing and Flashdance tackle the theme of gender, which englobes the ideas of feminism, femininity and female sexual freedom. The idea of the hyper-sexualization in the female human body by the “male gaze” can also be explored. To compliment the fights in this article, I will employ sources coming from dance and film studies, such as Laura Mulveys “Film and Image Pleasure” In Film Theory and Criticism.
Flashdance tells the storyline of Alexandra Owens, a new and amazing girl who works every day job at a metal mill and a night task doing amazing dance performances in a regional bar. The girl does this to finance her dreams of being a professional ballerina. One nighttime, Alexs employer from the stainlesss steel mill, Chip Hurley, recognizes her boogie at the tavern and is interested in her sexual performance. He tries to approach her, actually following her in his car, to jump her. Even so, she proceeds rejecting his advances. Finally, after a lot of persuasiveness, Alex and Computer chip start going out with. However , they will soon start off having problems. Alex realizes that Nick, at the rear of her again, wrote a letter of advice to the boogie academy she aspires to sign up. Alex disfavors this, because she really wants to achieve her goals through her own diligent operate. Due to this, Alex spends a week at home, not going to work possibly to the metal mill or maybe the bar. Yet , she is distraught when her best friends Jeannies resigns from her task dancing in the bar to visit work at a competing deprive club, after abandoning her dreams of being a professional skater. Additionally , her mentor Hanna, an old female who was every ballerina, unfortunately dies. Following fighting with her pride, she makes a decision to go to the move academys season casting. She combats her fear of failure and demonstrates that she will not abandon her dream of learning to be a ballerina.
Flashdance was an instant hit when it arrived in 1983. Alexs unconventional personality, her cool perception of style as well as the electrifying party sequences attracted millions of ladies. They aspired to appear like her. Alternatively, Flashdance as well attracted fresh boys and men. Not for Alexs persona, but as a result of her athletic body in the highly sexualized dance sequences. They aspired to have her. Flashdance, even though based on a true story, was written and directed by men. This kind of ultimately afflicted the way that portrayed their characters. The female characters happen to be watched by a predominantly “male gaze”.
The “male gaze” can be described as feminist theory discussed by simply Laura Mulvey in her essay Film and Aesthetic Pleasure. This kind of theory invokes the mousseline sexual politics and implies a sexualized way of seeking that allows men and objectifies girls. In the man gaze, the lady visually positions herself since an “object” of heterosexual male desire. Womens emotions, thoughts, and sexual impulses are less crucial than their particular framing to please men’s desires. While Mulvey, very little wrote: “The concept of the male gaze retains that Hollywood defines women body being a form of lusty spectacle which usually plays to and implies male desire” (809). This theory could be easily put on many aspects of Flashdance, especially to the party scenes.
Flashdances initially choreography picture, where Alex performs for Mawbys tavern, illustrates the idea of the “male gaze”. In this scene, the camera lingers over her sweaty, athletic body as she lively dances, as the mostly male audience gazes. It can be contended that this scene was made not only to attract teenage girls with the fascinating performance but also to arouse men. These views could be problematic for the viewers, as they can promote unhealthy requirements of beauty for women plus the objectification of the female physique for men.
Chris Michael jordan, in his dissertation “Gender and Class Flexibility in Sunday Night Fever and Flashdance. ” makes an interesting level about the “male gaze” in Flashdance. He states that Alex’s character could support the myth that womens sole goal is to be viewed by males. This fable could be dangerous, as it “encourages women to see their looks as a method to obtain power and to predicate their self-esteem prove ability to attract the male eyes. ” (9). Flashdance was highly promoted as a teenage flick. It had been designed to entice teenage girls, the sexualized image subtext was made to jump on men.
Dirty Dancing, like Flashdance, is also regarded one of the most well-known dance films. Nevertheless, the narrative and characters change greatly to Flashdances. Soiled Dancing explains to the story in the idealist adolescent Francs “Baby” Hausman and her wealthy family because they go dedicate their summertime at a lake holiday resort. Here, Baby is immediately attracted by handsome party teacher Ashton Castle, who comes from a drastically different background than hers. Baby discovers Johnny’s dance partner, Penny, posseses an unwanted pregnancy. Baby after that lies to his daddy to provide Penny funds to intend to abort. For that reason, she has to take her place as Johnnys dance spouse. While training for the move routine, Baby and Johnny fall in like. Problems start off when Penny falls very ill after the unsanitary abortion procedure. For this reason, Baby phone calls his dad, a doctor, pertaining to help. Following saving Penny, he finds what Baby has been about, and with whom. This individual promptly bans her from associating with “those people”. Baby rebels against his fathers orders and goes toward Johnnys log cabin to apologize for his rude attitude. In his vacation cabin, Baby confesses her thoughts for Ashton and determines to start their 1st sexual face. After somebody accuses Johnny of stealing, he is quickly fired from the resort. However, he comes back to the resort’s annual expertise show and provide a talk about Baby. He tells her simply how much he areas and admires her, and this she is never put in a corner. The movie ends happily, and while the summer is finished, Baby goes on with her life strategies of changing the world, without being slowed down by any individual.
In her composition about 1980s cinema, The Time of My entire life, Hadley Freeman, describes Grubby Dancing while “one from the greatest feminist movies of all times” (Freeman 2). The Guardians columnist recounts what she, as being a preteen, believed while watching the Eleanor Bergstein classic. The lady, like many more, was so excited by the dance regimens, Patrick Swayze, and the “dirtiness” of the movie, that she did not pay attention to what happened to Pennys character. Years later on, while rewatching the film, she noticed that Dirty Dancing talks about child killingilligal baby killing naturally. The topic was not changed into a drama or the primary argument from the movie. Additionally , Dirty Moving also relates to the subject of the female sexual waking up, gender stereotypes and what could be grouped as the “female gaze”. Contrastingly, while Flashdance objectifies the female physique through the “male gaze”, Filthy Dancing does the opposite.
There are no lingering shots of Babys half-naked body in Filthy Dancing. Instead, the camera captures Johnnys “dirty”, shirtless, movements. The roles are reversed. Females take the place of guys behind the camera. Rather than gazing through the eyes of the man, we all do so from the eyes of your woman. Baby was attracted to Johnny from the first time the lady saw him, and we observe him through her eyes. In Soiled Dancing, it is the woman who approaches the person, unlike Flashdance. Baby is not frightened of communicating her feelings and initiating a loving, and later intimate, relationship. It could be argued that Baby breaks the patriarchal order once she makes a decision to have sexual with Ashton. She knows she will disappoint his dad who wants to protect her “purity” for a relationship with a rich man, yet your woman does it anyways. Baby constitutes a free decision, she feels desire and she is the sole owner of her body.
There is a satisfactory argument to get categorizing Soiled Dancing like a feminist film that goes beyond its pro-choice claims. In numerous films, girls that enjoy sexual and recognize it freely end up badly. Whether they end up with an unwanted pregnancy, applied only for sex, or in an unhappy marriage. Nevertheless, Baby enjoys her sexual runs into without any reprisals from the script. Freeman emphasizes in her essay the unusual with the matter. All of the sex scenes in Filthy Dancing happen to be told via her point of view. Instead of an ordinary man seducing the most appealing girl, a plot that never seems to surprise any individual, the story is usually reversed. And the female followers delight, the camera targets the ballroom dancers body, which can be the object, while the one that is usually aroused, the topic, is her.
Total, it is safe to say that while Flashdance and Dirty Dance both have relatively similar styles, they have a completely different message. Both have strong, sexually empowered girl characters with goals, nevertheless the way that they can be presented differs from the others. Flashdance was made from a male point of view while Filthy Dancing was made from a lady point of view. In both motion pictures, there is also the theme of low-class vs high class, yet the roles are reversed. In Flashdance, Alex aspires for way up mobility by reaching her goal of becoming a ballerina, yet the method the film portrays this suggests that the girl needs a person to do it. In Dirty Dancing Baby is part of the upper-class, and the lady aspires to get part of the tranquility corps, and so she can change the world. She does not need a guy, and the films narrative does not suggest that. Baby would not depend on Johnny. Instead, they may have an equal romantic relationship of respect and rely upon which there is certainly space to get both of them to grow with out stunting the other. Flashdance is a great iconic motion picture, yet the approach it shows women, their very own sexuality and their relationships could possibly be considered sexist. Dirty Dance, on the other hand, could possibly be considered feminist, as it shows women and their very own relationships justly and reasonably.
