blog




  • Essay / Women and masculinity in Blade Runner (1982)

    At the beginning of his work Ways of Seeing, John Berger deepens the juxtaposition between cultural presences and representations of men and women. The presence of a man embodies ability, power and influence over the society around him while, more importantly, the representation of a woman is a representation of her own perception and what can be done to her do ; this being the case, its presence is distinctly tied to itself, completely ignoring that which encompasses the world around it. Applied to the realm of Blade Runner, the first women shown on screen do not even have the dignity of a tangible, mortal body: they are relegated to the rank of simple voices, present only to transmit information to men who could need. no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay They are simply inorganic, computerized objects acting as servants of men in society. This reflects, at its core, Berger's proposed juxtaposition between men's dominance in cultural presence and women's imbued servility and malleability. This concept draws on store displays throughout the environment, littered with a multitude of mannequins. These are clearly mannequins of female figures. Although this particular example is more biased towards the representational aspect of Berger's analysis, it remains true of the key concept that women serve as objects to the dominant, male members of their culture. These two questions, and even more so the mannequins, illustrate Berger's observation about "surveying"; We could simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. The women look at each other. This determines not only most relationships between men and women, but also women's relationship to themselves. The observer of the woman herself is a man: the woman interviewed. It thus transforms into an object – and more particularly into an object of vision: a spectacle. The models, in this particular case, exemplify the representation of a woman presenting herself as an aesthetic beacon for men to gaze upon and admire. Further developing the idea of ​​surveying, Berger notes that a woman's personal worth is represented by her representation of manners, from her perspective, from society's perspective, and especially from the perspective of men. Women are therefore little more than objects, women as men see them. In terms of dominance within the film, Rachel and Pris are the only women to be seen as such; however, they can only be considered dominant when it comes to the duration of screen time. This is anti-parallel in terms of their influence on the plot or other characters. Further illustrating this injustice, Rachel and Pris have only been portrayed as versions of each other since the beginning of Blade Runner. Scott gives them the same introduction; a long shot out of the darkness as they enter the camera followed by a medium shot. However, this similarity is of course offset by the costume design. The mannerisms offered by these two reflect their cultural presence as objects intended to appease men and their cultural position as figures of authority and power. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized paper now from our expert writers. Get Custom Essay Thus, all the women in Blade Runner are objects, given that they have been shaped and created by the ideals of Tyrell and Sebastian. This act of creation leads to the heart of the problem; THE.