The implied meaning behind each film is a form of challenge to analyze the subtext and what the film actually depicts in a way that is not direct enough. I decided to work on a feminist subtext and the film I am going to analyze is “Sucker Punch”, an American action thriller paired with a Pakistani film, “Cake”. Both of these films refer to the gender stereotypes that have been created in our society as well as around the world if we talk about their perspective and perception on a global scale. Gender stereotypes arise because psychological characteristics corresponding to behaviors are generalized to the gender that typically performs them, and these characteristics are considered stable, intrinsic attributes of each gender. Specifically, to the extent that women are concentrated in domestic work and demanding jobs within the community, people believe that they are warm, caring, and socially competent. To the extent that men are concentrated in strength-intensive and high-status roles, people believe that they are assertive, forceful, and dominant. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay First of all, it's important for us to know what feminism actually means before we move on to the subtext of the film, Sucker Punch. Feminism is the belief in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes. It is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is essentially a social movement organized around this belief and has had a huge impact on film theory and criticism. Some well-known feminist theorists have emphasized the importance of showing women in films. Through their theories, they also highlighted the goals of feminism, namely to reveal that historically men have remained dominant and authoritarian while women have been presented as subordinate to men. Feminist theorists include Laura Mulvey and her theory of the Gaze, Claire Johnston who talks about the ideological image of women and Freud's psychosexual theory. “Sucker Punch” is a film directed by Zack Synder. Through this film, many feminist issues have been depicted in an indirect way, in which the objectification of women, their position in society and their ability to fight against the world that constantly tries to harm them through sexual violence has been portrayed. addressed. represented. This film tells the story of a young girl, Baby Doll, who is sexually assaulted by her stepfather. She and her younger sister find themselves alone with him after the death of his mother. In order to save her sister as well, from her stepfather's sexual abuse, she tries to escape from the room in which her father locked her. With a gun in her hand, she tries to save her sister but accidentally fails due to which her sister dies. . Crying, she points the gun at her stepfather but does not shoot him. As a result, he sends her to the mental asylum even though she is no longer needed or wanted. Here I would like to mention a famous feminist theorist Claire Johnston who was among the first feminist critics to critically analyze stereotypes from a semiotic point of view. of view. It highlights the way in which classical cinema constructs the ideological image of women. According to her theory, in Sucker Punch the male class is shown to be superior, such as her stepfather who takes her to a mental institution and is able to control her life by paying off the managerover there, Blue, to admit her and have her lobotomized. As Claire Johnston analyzes, the male character is active and powerful, which can be seen in the film. Blue is a strong figure because he is the head of the metallurgical institution which, according to Baby Doll, is a Bordello and the other patients are prostitutes. He controls the place where women are sexually and physically abused by male workers who are supposed to protect them. The subtext behind this film is nothing less than a reality that the female character is passive and helpless because of the mistreatment of women. This reality is not depicted as it is, but the connotations are that the protagonist Baby Doll dances and gets caught up in the imagination of being strong enough to fight against her condition of being trapped in a situation she wants escape. This also depicts her weak position as she and the other female characters named Blondie, Sweet pea, Rocket, and Amber are helpless to escape, which depicts a hidden meaning in the film that women, despite their strong selves interior, as shown in the film when Baby the doll dances and with the magic of her dance she diverts the attention of each male character to obtain that the four necessities necessary for escape are limited to their need for fulfillment. Due to the supremacy and superiority of men in our society, woman is forced to be treated as something inferior, which men take advantage of because Blue thinks he owns the girls by catering to their needs and being able to keep them there. , he thinks that they should obey him no matter what, which is totally unacceptable because men and women should have equal rights, but the women in the film are not allowed to make any decisions and even live according to this that they want because men govern. on them, which shows how helpless they are because of the fear of being killed if they don't obey. However, according to Laura Mulvey's theory, the film Sucker Punch can be considered a film where the objectification of women is at its peak, not only physically but also mentally. I would like to prove my statement through some examples. Laura Mulvey's gaze theory is used to refer to both the way viewers look at images of people in any visual medium and the gaze of those depicted in visual texts. It involves camera angles, camera movements and the way an act is presented in a setting that attracts the male sex to the opposite sex. The close-ups, extreme close-ups, mid-shots, every angle in the film acts as a tool and depicts the message behind it, helping to tie the momentum with other shots and scenes in the timeline. This concept of the male gaze is clearly visible in the film as the protagonist; The baby doll was dressed in a cute high school outfit with two ponytails giving a Barbie doll feel to onlookers. This creates an attraction to male viewers, as Laura Mulvey analyzes that men in the narrative are shown generally looking at and lusting after female characters. This could be through the camera lens, which lingers on one woman in the scopophilic manner that is shown in the film while others are dressed in cleavage-revealing outfits and wear sheer pantyhose. These women are dressed provocatively while at the brothel and it gets even more intense as these girls try to understand the four elements of escape and how they are viewed as objects by men. These areprostitutes and are nicely dressed. However, their bodies are not overly objectified through close-ups, but in some places the women indulge in attracting male attention, such as when Baby Doll started dancing in front of a wealthy, orderly client wearing a tiny top with revealing cleavage and panties underneath due to which the male gaze theory is applied and simultaneously another woman sits on him to fulfill the desire. Through this, Laura Mulvey's theory of visual pleasure can be described as the desire of invited male audiences to watch attractive women on screen and enjoy the desire of their fantasies through them. In the film, the main subtext behind this is that throughout the film, women are seen as a commodity on display where customers come in, use them, and throw them away like they have no lives or dreams. The males look at them and objectify their body parts. They see women as objects to satisfy the active men desire to look at the female character. Throughout this film, women have been portrayed as inferior to men because the storyline was designed that way. However, on some levels the film showed powerful women, for example when Baby Doll is forced to dance for the first time in front of everyone, she becomes so stressed that she does not want to appear sexually looked at in that atmosphere. But, another female lead shown as dominant who looks after the other girls, motivates her to show herself to the world and tells her that she can do it. Through which Baby Doll closes her eyes and takes her to another fantasy world where she is depicted as a female fighter with weapons in her hands and fights the evil that prevents her from escaping. The subtext behind this is that if a woman once decides to complete a task, no matter what comes her way, she will complete it. She has a strong inner soul and the way Baby Doll guides the escape plan towards Blondie, Amber, Sweet pea and Rocket, it shows her leadership skills that even though she is forced to do what she wants, she is always able to guide everyone. with confidence and when more than one woman decides to work together, they are more powerful than anything else and because of this, they become strong through each other's support. But social observation at this level of fantasy is complicated. From what I've seen of the film, these women control their lives by acquiring the elements of escapism, but a male character tells them what to do and where to get it. Additionally, at times, it is also depicted that women who attempt to hypnotize men by allowing them to look at them, are indirectly controlling men's minds and in doing so, they are indirectly controlling men's minds. they try to take advantage of gathering all the elements of escape. Similarly, Baby Doll is shown to be assertive and confident when she stabs Blue when he is helpless and tries to approach her. The film Sucker Punch highlighted all the feminist issues which are also mentioned in Freud's psychosexual theory. Freud's view on women is seen in films where women who assume positions of power, become sexually aggressive, or desire to pursue careers are punished for crossing the boundaries established by the ruling patriarchy. This is shown in the movie Sucker Punch, as when Baby Doll and her other team slowly began to misplace the cook's knife, the rich customer's lighter, and the map, Blue strictly warned them and threatened them with death. And when they still didn't obey what he said, Blue being the authoritative figure killed Blondie and Amber one by one.a. The subtext behind this is that in this male-dominated society, no one questions men for doing wrongs. He is always considered supreme and always right. They are never punished for oppressing women and threatening them, but women are. Even if women are shown to be dominant in certain films, there always comes a time when the stereotypical image of women is highlighted, namely that they are less active and less well placed than men. Psychosexual theory supports the views of typical patriarchal society that men are superior to men. women should be in charge. If women try to compete with men, this is seen as a threat by the patriarchy, because women not only seek to gain power for themselves, but they also want to take power from men. So, from all the analysis I've mentioned so far, the subtext of Sucker Punch is pretty deep when it comes to the feminist point of view. Each theorist, through their theories, mentioned their views on cinema and the history of the stereotypical image of male power as well as female objectification in classic cinema. They proved their analysis through the narrative of classic cinema which is constructed by men, therefore representing women from a male point of view. However, if I compare and contrast Sucker Punch to another movie, from a different part of the world, it would be the movie “Cake”, which would break the stereotypes. Although there are also high rates of male dominance in our country Pakistan, through the film a different message was portrayed about women who work and manage the external environment as well. Aspects such as cinematography, sound, camera shots and movements, direction have been designed in a way to reflect the genre element in a way that complements the Cake film on many occasions. “Cake” takes place in the present. the day in Karachi where the film revolves around a dysfunctional family of five; Zareen (Aamina Sheik), the middle child who gave up her dreams to take care of her parents, their farmland and basically everything else in the house, Zara (Sanam Saeed), the youngest who lives in UK for a long time and the eldest, Zain (Faris Khalid), who lives in New York with his partner, a child and their parents (Mohammad Ahmed and Beo Rana Zafar). The family reunites after the parents' well-being begins to falter. Following their meeting, circumstances arise where the family is forced to confront and deal with their grievances, laments, feelings of resentment, privileged facts, happiness and everything else. The film recently has the appropriate measure of wit and humor, adjusted by the perfect measure of disaster. At its core, “Cake” is a film about the progression of time seen through the eyes of a family and offers a candid look at the substances of life, at different times, at decisions and outcomes. Cinematographically and aesthetically, this film in relation to the fight against stereotypes, represents the performance of gender on screen. The way the composition and framing helps depict Zareen's dominance and the way she treated workers and took care of the household creates a narrative structure that complements the feminine genre. The sounds used, the background music, the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds and the camera movements in several locations helped create the momentum of the film according to each situation, whether at work or at home . Cake offers its audience realistic settings and a solid performance from the actors while the script demanded.