Portrayal of Male Vs Female villains in Film
... The first movie depicts a female villain and the other a male. ... This writing will discuss not only a general idea of each movie’s content, but also a look at some of the most major contrasts between the portrayal of the sexes as villains in film. ... The twist of course is that the villain is female. ... Deception is the way of the female villain. After all, if it were obvious that she was the antagonist, a male could have easily overpowered her and the movie could end just like that. ... Conversely, the male villain is depicted in a whole different light. The film in question for this essay was Tomorrow Never Dies, which is a James Bond film. ... He is after all a male that is perfectly capable of protecting himself. ... Male villains are always glamorized. ... It is never a mystery who the male villain is. He, after all, is male and does not need to hide behind anything because he has power to protect himself. Conversely, female villains need to hide behind a mask of deceit and attempt to recruit helpers using a smokescreen of lies. She cannot overpower anybody because she has no real power of her own, and in the case of this movie survives only by the amount of money given to her by the protagonists, a male scientist. ... The motives of both male and female villains are opposite each other as well. The male villain’s motivation is always greed. ... Again, the opposite is true for female antagonists. The female is only evil because of an event that enrages them. ... Lastly, the most important difference that sets these two types of villains apart is the way they carry out their actions. Positioning of the two sexes in representation clearly favors the male, because his desire carries power/action where the woman’s usually does not (Kaplan 1983). The male never does anything on his own, only gives orders out to his henchmen to take care of things. ... On the other hand, female villains always act alone. ... And their actions are always on a much smaller scale, because it would be totally ridiculous to place a woman in a position of such vast power in a film. So it is safe to conclude that portrayal of the sexes as film villains are at two extremes.