The beginning of this movie starts with a woman, Celie, frolicking in the flowers with her sister, Nettie, enjoying life. One of the women begins to give birth and a man walks in as she’s giving birth and says to her “ain’t you done yet?” Then, that same man comes in and takes her baby and tells her “you better not never tell nobody but god” as she cries. It seems as if men are superior to women because he didn’t seem to even give the woman a choice. The girl who gave birth was 14, and asks for a sign from god because she’s a good girl. Her dad then asks her to do what your momma wouldn’t, which was give him children.  Her father impregnated her and she had 2 children from him. She hopes her father didn’t kill her boy, and she heard he sold him. She hopes he finds someone to marry, which shows that she wants the best for him and wants him to find someone so he realizes what he’s doing is wrong. He doesn’t treat females right unless he truly loves them or finds them attractive.

One man from their church wants to marry Nettie, but her father says no and says he can have Celie because she’s old and ugly, and the sisters hear this. Her father seems to have no heart or emotions which traumatizes these women. The man takes Celie and beats her and then forces her to have sex with him because she isn’t what he wanted. The next day he forces her to clean his home. These men treat women as if they are nothing and like they are worthless. Celie talks back to him and he slaps her and says “you do what I tell you.” Watching this gives you chills thinking men thought that they could just do this and receive no repression. Celie goes to the store and runs into a mom with her baby. Celie asks to hold her and then thinks that it might be her baby. It’s heartbreaking watching this knowing that she doesn’t even know if the baby is her own child. Nettie runs away from her house and stands up to her dad because she does not want to be raped by him anymore. Nettie goes to live with Celie, and the women teach each other how to read which shows that they are determined to learn and be independent. The father Celie is living with then forces them apart and tells the other sister to leave. He orders Celie around and says that women are no good these days even though she does everything for him and takes care of his children. In Feminist Film Studies by Janet McCabe, there is a section about the movie The Color Purple. “As Bobo sees it, the positive readings made by Black women of The Color Purple, with its negative stereotypes, reveals a community of women used to filtering out derogatory racist images and adapting mainstream texts ‘to give new meaning’” (McCabe 54). The Color Purple displays many scenes of negative stereotypes of women and also being a person who is Black. There are many movies that will not show or even talk about these negative stereotypes, but this is not helpful because it does not show what Black women really went through. Society tries to shed light and positivity on Black women being tortured, raped, living with unknown families, not seeing their own children, and getting called derogatory names, but this movie truly shows these aspects of what Black Women went through and are still going through.

The father’s son gets married to a woman who stands her ground and tells him how it is. She’s independent and even stands up to his father, which everyone was shocked about. The father asks his son if he’s ever hit his wife and he says no. His father replies with why not? You have to let them know who has the upper hand. What the father doesn’t understand is that relationships are about being a team, not everything is about having an upper hand. He then says, nothing can do better than a good sound beating. His father is giving him bad ideas and what his son is doing is right. His father is being an awful influence on him and the rest of his children. Harper then uses what his dad told him and asks his wife, aren’t you gonna make me something to eat? And she replies with, do it yourself. Harper then tries to beat her, and he ends up with a black eye from her. She is upset because she had to fight men her whole life and wanted to feel comfortable in their relationship and then this happened. Sophia, Harper’s wife, then left him with her children to live their own lives. The father then tries to cook and fails horribly, so Celie gets a good laugh out of it. The father finds a woman, Shug, to stay with him who he enjoys. She begins to bond with Celie although she thinks every child should have a father. The woman in their house is at a gathering and sings a song for Celie and tells her to be her own woman, it really empowers Celie. Shug asks Celie to wear her dress and smile so she feels good about herself. Celie tells her that he beat her when she wasn’t here so she likes having her around. Shug then tries to kiss me Celie. A man hits Harper’s ex wife, Sophia, for telling a woman that her kids will not be his wife’s maids, and then she hits him back and goes to jail. She was standing up for herself and what she believes in. The children get to see Sophia after 8 years because she was a maid that entire time. This movie shows what women, especially Black women have suffered through.

The beginning of Blockers the movie starts off with three girls, Kayla, Julie, and Sam going to school and meeting each other and becoming best friends. It quickly fast forwards to their lives as seniors. The first scene starts with Kayla’s dad, Mitchell, shoving a thong into his mouth saying dirty things to his wife and then she reveals to him that the thong is his daughters. He spazzes and says that she wears bears jerseys and cleats, not dirty stripper underwear. He makes this comment just as he was saying all of the things he’s going to do to his wife while she’s wearing the thong. He then asks if he should start paying her allowance in singles, referring to the stereotype of strippers getting dollar bills thrown at them. He then forces her mom to tell her she can’t wear them, which is just wrong because if her mom can wear them then why can’t her own daughter? He feels like his daughter is growing up and he doesn’t know how to handle it, but he is 100% using the wrong language. Janet McCabe, the author of Feminist Film Studies, states “Struggling with the language of patriarchy is a precarious task. It is a dilemma anticipated by Laura Mulvey: ‘how to fight the unconscious structured like a language (formed critically at the moment of arrival of language) while still caught within the language of the patriarchy’” (McCabe 116). Language is something obtained and learned, and it is hard to change especially if you have been using the same words for most of your life. I doubt Mitchell thinks he is being sexist when he speaks, he probably thinks he is being emotional because his little girl is growing up. His language has to change if he wants to be viewed as a respectful person in society, because he is definitely not respecting his own daughter with the words he is using.

Once it’s officially prom night, Mitchell gives his daughter a small knife and tells her how to use it Incase her date makes a move. She seems shocked and pissed that her dad is doing this when she knows how to defend herself. Once the parents Mitchell and Lisa, Julie’s mom, find out their kids made a sex pact for prom night, they absolutely lose it and think their lives are over because they want to have sex. Sex is a natural thing that humans do, and it definitely will not ruin their lives. The parents are overreacting because their children are growing up. The parents are reflecting on their own mistakes thinking it will happen to their own daughters. Hunter, Sam’s dad tells Mitchel and Lisa that they should be celebrating instead of fearing their daughters exploring their sexuality. He wants their daughters to be empowered. Mitchell goes as far as saying he would kill himself if he caught his daughter having sex. The parents then go to Mitchell’s house and his wife finds out they are trying to stop their daughter from having sex. Marcie, his wife, freaks out on him and asks if his father tried to stop him and he tells her it’s different, in which she replies it isn’t at all and it’s a double standard. She then asks how they expect society to treat women as if they’re equal when their own parents won’t. When Lisa and Mitchell don’t take Marcie’s advice and they still try to stop their children, Lisa goes into her daughter’s hotel room and realizes that their room is filled with flowers and hearts and she realizes that it’s romance and not just something to get over with, she feels bad and regrets her decision of trying to bust her daughter.

Kayla’s dad starts running through every hotel room to find his daughter and when he does, he picks up her date Connor and slams him to the ground. She is angry because she isn’t doing anything wrong and she likes Connor. Her dad admits to following her around all night which just makes matters worse. She tells her father she’s not a damsel in distress and she does not need saving. She can live her own life without him having to worry about her or interfere with her plans. She cannot be independent if her father is following everything that she’s doing. She wants to make her own decisions and handle herself without her parents getting involved. She asks why sex is bad, and her dad truly doesn’t not have an answer. Sam’s dad then walks into his daughters room and asks where Chad is, her prom date, because he thinks that he was forcing Sam to do something she didn’t want to do. Sam then tells him it’s none of his business. She then comes out to her father that she is lesbian. Each other parents came to the realization that their children are growing up and they have to let them go. They are responsible and aren’t doing anything wrong, and exploring sex is apart of life.

Little Women is based in the 1960’s about a family of women. It starts with a young woman, Jo, submitting a paper about a book that she wrote, and gives it to a man who seems to abuse his power and is rude, he crosses out everything she wrote, but it doesn’t hold her back. One of the sisters waits for her date to a ball, and her date ends up ditching her and then shows up by himself, drunk, and embarrasses her. He then said he can’t wait for her to spend someone else’s fortune instead of his, but she will prove him wrong. Jo writes another paper and she goes to get an opinion from another man, but he was very rude and criticized her work. She finally stood her ground saying she will write her paper herself and doesn’t need his opinion because it is essentially invalid. She secretly does take his thoughts into consideration and fixes the paper. The family of women all have strong personalities and are independent. They have a strong bond that is shown throughout the movie. Although they get into arguments as everyone does, their bond grows stronger. When Christmas came around, they brought their breakfast to the home next to them where a single mom was raising many kids and they didn’t have food to eat. The families of women worked together and supported each other. The women take care of each other and don’t rely on men. One of the girls says to Lawrence, a rich young man, that as a woman there’s not enough opportunities. Marriage is an economic proposition she says and she cannot do anything without a man which is unfortunate. She has to marry rich because during this time period, there were no opportunities to get money besides relying on a man. Janet McCabe from Feminist Film Studies states “But by then the new image of American woman, ‘Occupation: house-wife’, had hardened into a mystique, unquestioned and permitting no questions, shaping the very reality it distorted” (McCabe 5). Being a house-wife was the only job a woman really had, and women don’t have the option to choose a career path. This was the reality for women and it truly hurt women in society because they were not receiving the same rights and chances as men. Lawrence tells Amy, Jo’s sister, that he loves her but she says no because she comes second to Jo (because he had a crush on her) but she doesn’t want to come second. She deserves to be someone’s first and she doesn’t want someone to settle for her. The women in the story show what it is like to be a strong, confident woman and they are inspirations. Towards the end of the movie, Joe tells her sister that she wants to build a life with her because they can thrive together as women. Lawrence confesses his love to Jo, but she denies it because although she loves him, their lives don’t mix. She is the only one thinking about reality, where he’s only thinking about his feelings. She doesn’t want to get married and she wants to be an independent woman. When the women’s aunt passed away and left them her house, they tried to come up with a plan to do something great with the money like a women’s college or a school. The author critic tells jo that girls want to see women prosper, get married and not be on their own, but she disagrees. She wants to show the world what it is like to be happy with yourself and to believe in yourself.

Spoiler Alert- Teeth is a movie based on a young woman, Dawn, who has a vagina with teeth. You can imagine how great this is going to work for her. Dawn unfortunately encounters many boys and men who are rapists, perverts, don’t know how to treat women, and they get the karma they deserve. The first time a sexual situation happened was when a boy asks to see Dawn’s vagina and it bites him. Her vagina is basically speaking for her since she is not speaking up. Her vagina biting him shows she is uncomfortable with the situation and he needs to stop. Some time goes by and while in class, she learns about genitalia, and her teacher doesn’t speak about vaginas but the vagina is covered in her textbook. Why is it okay to talk about penises but not vagnias? Not shaming penises, but how is it more comfortable to talk about penises than a vagina when humans naturally come out of vaginas? Sexist behavior can even come from our teachers, who we look up to most! Surprise! Dawn wants to save herself for marriage because sex is important to her, but her brother is the complete opposite and does not believe in this at all. She finally finds a boy that she is interested in, Toby, and things are going great for them. She develops feelings for him, and they eventually kiss at a swimming hole that they met at. One thing leads to another and Toby becomes obviously horny and wants to move further. Dawn is not comfortable with this considering she is saving herself for marriage, and she starts to panic. Toby panics as well but becomes forceful and aggressive towards Dawn. Dawn ends up getting hurt and so Toby took advantage of Dawn and raped her. She was mortified, and her vagina bit his penis off. She was so upset knowing that her first time having sex was with a guy who she didn’t give consent to and he was forceful and took advantage of her body.

Dawn decides it is best to go to the gynecologist to see what is happening with her vagina, and he sexually assaults her and her vagina bit his fingers off. Again, this was a way of her vagina defending her and stopping these horny, gross men from thinking they can just control women like that. Tammy Oler, the author of The Brave Ones states, “The rape-revenge genre is responsible for a vicous celluloid legacy of violence and victimization of women, but at the same time, it allows us to identify with a fantasy of female power and recrimination that is second to none in cinema” (Oler 31).  Teeth falls under the rape-revenge genre because Dawn is getting revenge on the men raping her by biting their penises off. Although the men get what they deserve, it is still traumatizing to Dawn. Dawn comes home one day and realizes that her mother is on the ground and is not responsive, so she gets taken to the hospital and passes away. She goes to her friend Ryan and confesses to him about everything going on, and he tries to help her. He thinks that this may be happening since she did not consent to either of these situations, so he helps her to see if her vagina would bite off a vibrator even though it isn’t harming her in any way. She enjoys it and consents to it, and her vagina does not bite it off.

She then decides to engage in sex with Ryan which she consents to, and her vagina does not bite his penis off until he starts focusing on a phone call while having sex and is not focusing on her. Dawn leaves and then later speaks to her stepfather about her mother’s sudden, unfortunate death. Her stepfather is hysterical over the fact that Brad, her step-brother, knew something was happening but just ignored it. Dawn has had enough with these disgusting men and decides to plan something that will show Brad that he is a pig. She seduces him and gets him to take his clothes off, and then her vagina out of anger bites his penis off, which kills him. She tries to ride her bike away and finds a car that picks her up, but while in the car trying to recover from everything that has happened to her, she realizes she is in a pedophile’s car, and then the movie ends. Overall, Dawn has encountered many unfortunate situations in which she encountered awful men who got what they deserved in the end.

The movie begins with a conference meeting of two men talking, and the one is trying to convince the other that he has a really good investigator, but she is just different. The other man asks him in which way, and he says every way. When Lizabeth enters, the man who has not met her continues to question her as if he doesn’t trust her because of her appearance. She is continuously questioned about how much she makes and how much her rent is because they don’t believe she is qualified. One of the men then state to her, “you think that thing through your eyebrow makes you attractive?” Referring to her eyebrow ring. What the men do not understand is that she is not going out of her way to please them, she’s being herself and it doesn’t seem like it will change although she’s in a professional setting. He then looks at her records and believes she’s not changed, but how can he tell her that when he’s not in her position? He is setting standards for her that are unreasonable and she doesn’t even have these standards for herself.

He then assumes that if she does not do everything perfect then he will believe  that she is doing drugs. He continuously asks about her sexuality, in which she does not respond because it is not his business. Janet McCabe, the author of Feminist Film Studies states “Key to Butler’s contribution is what she terms “gender performativity”. For her, the body does not simply embody social norms but is produced by discourses that give it meaning. The concept of performance is central to her thinking, for gender identity is a kind of performance: it is the imitation and impersonation of sexuality. Gender is learnt through repeated performances and involves manipulating codes such as clothes, gestures, and behaviour” (McCabe 109). What stands out to me here is that Lizabeth was her true self and did not try to be someone else. Her doctor seemed so stuck on what she identified as and who she was attracted to, but he was judging her simply on her appearance and was stereotyping her. 

Next, he threatens her that she will be in an institution. The men in this movie all have way too big of egos and try to control women as if they are nothing. Her doctor is asking her questions that won’t help him or her, he just wants to her to feel uncomfortable. He then gets close to her and tries to be nice to her so he can take advantage of her. He then makes her unzip his pants and makes her perform sexual acts on him in order for her to get a computer that she needs. He took advantage of her because he had something she needed and the only way she could get it was by sexually pleasing him. She then goes back to his home and tells him she needs money for food, and he expects her to do the same thing once again. He then puts a handcuff on her without her consent and sexually assaults her. In the shower, her body is shown with dark bruises and marks from the abuse from her doctor.

She then goes back the next time and says she needs money for food again, and he starts off saying that he feels bad about how things went, and then she tases him. She ties him to a bed and then tattoos him, and gives him a taste of his own medicine. He took advantage of her so she’s getting revenge. Page 49 of Feminist Film Studies states, “Stacey begins by surveying psychoanalytic theories on the female image, cinematic spectatorship and visual pleasure to identify the issues that she wishes to address. Given that our ‘culture [is] saturated with images of desirable femininity’, and that women look at feminine ideals on the cinema screen” (McCabe). This movie shows society that you do not need to portray yourself in a way that society wants you to in order to do a good job in life. Lizabeth was a killer investigator and she didn’t have large breasts or a large butt. She was a normal human with flaws and imperfections and was intelligent and determined.

One morning she wakes up after a night out and her co-worker is at the door. He busts into her house and tells her to put some clothes on and to get rid of the girl in her bed. No man seems to have respect for this woman. Lisabeth was doing her job, investigating, and was trying to talk to an officer about part of an investigation, and all he could focus on was her appearance and had the audacity to ask when the last time she ate was. She comes in contact with her doctor again and threatens for her reports to look better and he seems scared, whereas in the first place she was the one who was scared. She eventually starts to grow confidence and believe in herself.

In the beginning of this film, many women are introduced and explain why they chose the military. The women said that they felt like the blended in with the men which was a great feeling because they didn’t feel any different. They went in with high hopes and thought that everything would go smoothly, but unfortunately this was not the case, and this is the sad reality of what women deal with everyday. One of the woman’s husband who she met in the coast guard ended up quitting because of how awful she was treated while in the military. Her supervisor would call her to get him from the bar and he would threaten her. When she went to training, he would sleep in her bed. He went into her room at night while she was sleeping and tried to get her to touch him, and then he hit her as she tried to get off of him. The coast guard did nothing about this, and then weeks later she had to get a key from his room and he raped her. Another woman said she was shipped of in February and by April she was drugged and raped. Another one of the women was at the doctors in the military waiting to get checked out for a cold and the doctor sexually assaulted her. The Invisible War states “over 20% of female veterans have been sexually assaults while serving.” Many of the women stated that they woke up to men on top of them penetrating them. By 1991, 200,000 women were sexually assaulted in the US military. That number is only rising. 80% of sexual assault survivors do not report.

One of the women named Hannah explained her story that she was locked in a hotel room in the military and she was raped. She called her dad who was in the army and told him and he said that she is still a virgin since he took something from her that she didn’t give. Many of these women ended up with severe medical issues after they were raped. Although this documentary is heart breaking and disappointing considering it is about the military, it is reality and it shows what many people in the military go through that isn’t war. Janet McCabe, the author of Feminist Film Studies, states “Direct formal address not only became a means of raising awareness but also gave representation to feminist activism” (McCabe 115). This quote relates to this documentary because after watching it, I was in shock of how uneducated I was on this. This documentary shows what so many women go through in the military and the mistreatment, but it is never talked about because people in the military are inspirations to many and are highly respected. Shedding light on this situation is crucial because it needs to end and not enough people know about what is going on.

The women in the military could never take care of rape cases because the men said they were “too sympathetic.” One woman was charged with adultery when she was raped because she wasn’t married, the rapist was. These women are getting no help from the military or anyone else. One of the female officers was repeatedly raped and she would call her dad at night telling him to please get her out of there but she couldn’t say why because they people raping her can hear her phone calls. A navy study states that “15 percent of incoming recruits attempted or committed rape before entering the military.” After this, how do women move on and just forget about what happened? What happens when no one helps? What if you have no one to go to? Women who have been raped in the military have a PTSD rate higher than men who have been in combat. Military sexual assault does not happen to just women though. One man also said that he was raped by other men in the military and it destroyed his life. 200 men tried to pull off one woman’s shirt and pants, and when she reported it they said that’s what she gets for walking in the hall knowing there were drunk men out there. In Feminist Film Studies by Janet McCabe, she states “we are being subjected to a discourse of femininity.” Even though men will say being in the military is a man’s job, they will still call out women in the military and treat them like objects. Reality check for men, women can do anything you can do and more. Officers were raping trainees and the trainees had no one to go to. In the most prestigious units women were raped. These women came into the military with excitement and left destroyed and punished. When people report rapes to their higher ups, they usually don’t report it because it looks bad on their part that they weren’t looking out for everyone’s safety.

The movie Real Women Have Curves starts with Ana’s last day of high school. At school, her  teacher who she has a great relationship with tells her she should go to college because she is so intelligent, but unfortunately she cannot consider it because her family cannot afford to send her away to college. When Ana arrives home from the last day of school, her family has a surprise party for her graduating. Her teacher shows up and also tells her parents to consider sending her to college. Ana’s mom blows it off and is only focused on Ana’s physical appearance. She thinks that if Ana was pretty and skinny, life would be better for her. Her mom says to her at her own graduation party, “you’re bigger than the cake, don’t eat it.” Ana goes against her mom to teach her a lesson that she loves how she is and she doesn’t need to change because she is pretty the way she is.

When Ana tells her family she really wants to attend college, her family continues to bug her about working and they say that she has to have a job to help their family. In this scene, the teacher comes to their house to tell the family that Ana needs to go to college because she’s so smart and has a bright future but all that her family tells the teacher is that she has to work instead. Her mom also says that she doesn’t want her to go to school because all she needs to know is how to sew, how to raise children, and how to take care of her husband. This relates to Feminist Film Studies by Janet McCabe when she states, “Patriarchal knowledge instead relentlessly constructs an idea of woman as a projection of male fantasies and and anxieties of phallocentric Otherness and masculine lack” (McCabe 4). Ana would agree with this and she believes that there is way more a woman should be doing than just cooking, cleaning, sewing, and raising a family.

When Ana goes to work with her family, she has a tiring job steaming the clothes in a hot facility. Her mom tells Anna that she’ll never fit in the dress she’s admiring because it’s a size 7 and she’s not that. Her mom continues to put her down, but she never stands up for it. Ana’s mom has no respect for her daughter or for the women that work in the facility sewing together. The women work hard but give themselves no credit, only the men get credit. Ana’s mom also tells her that men want women who are virgins and Ana comes back at her and says why does it matter, women have thoughts, ideas, a mind of their own. Ana’s mom speaks her mind, and no one else’s opinion matters. Some may think she is doing this because she has insecurities of her own.

While Ana is ironing the dresses, she realizes that the dresses will never fit her and her sister Estella sees her becoming insecure about this. Estella made a dress for Ana and says to her, “pretty dresses aren’t just for skinny girls.” This makes Ana more confident, even though her mom brings her down shortly after. When her mom finds out she’s been accepted to Columbia with a full scholarship, she shuts it down and does not even congratulate Ana. Ana met a boy who she finds herself falling for, and she has sex with him for her first time. Ana was following her heart, and she didn’t care what other people would think. The following day, her mom sees her looking at herself and says “you lost your virginity didn’t you, you’re not only fat but you are a whore.” Ana says back to her, “there’s more to me than what’s in between my legs.” What Ana says is completely true and no one should judge someone who they engage in sex with. It is important for women to stand for what they believe in, and Ana’s mom doesn’t understand that. She thinks living under mens rules is what is best.

When Ana, Estella and the other women are working in the hot facility, Ana rips off her shirt because she is so hot, and then the other women do it too.  Her mom says to her “If you lost weight you would be good looking and a beautiful daughter.” Ana’s mom yells at everyone telling them they are so unattractive and need to lose weight, and the women clap back at her saying that they want to be respected for how they think not how they look. They stand up to Ana’s mom and seem to have more confidence than ever. It is devastating seeing how Ana was treated throughout the movie by someone who should be her role model. Her mom showed her an awful example of what it is like to be a strong independent woman, but luckily Ana learns from her Mom’s mistakes.

The beginning of The Hunting Ground starts off with students finding out they get into the college of their dreams, and their excitement is uncontrollable. Little do they know their lives may change forever. Notre Dame’s president welcomes everyone to college and they seems so excited, as do most students when they start their college journey.

Several young women introduce how they were just like any other college student, involved, excited, and vulnerable. One student said her and her best friend were sexually assaulted before classes even started. They described the feeling that it makes people feel like no one see or recognizes them. Sexual assault on campus is enormous, and probably larger than you thought. More than 16% of women are sexually assaulted while at college. A young woman at UNC told a female administrator she was raped and the administrator said back to her, “rape is like a football game, If you look back at the game, what would you do differently?” This is extremely awful and unfortunate considering this was an administrator and a woman. She did not get any support or help after this and she was blamed. Young women at other schools also reported their rapes and administrators asked questions like “what did you wear? How much did you drink? Did you pregame?” As if that gives anyone a right to rape someone. Victims also got no responses back and some were even told to drop out and wait until everything blows over. Another victim went into an office to check if anything happened yet and the administrator replied with “oh, I forgot”. It is unreasonable and unfair for people to blame victims because it makes victims not even want to report because they think they will not receive the help they need.

One statistic stated says “88 percent of women sexually assaulted on campus do not report”. This is extremely unfortunate and also gives predators a greater chance to sexually assault someone because there is a high percentage they will not report. Also, a college professor stated that colleges will not report to the police because it will end up as a public record and make the school look bad. At the end of the day, all colleges really care about is making money and having a good reputation. The Hunting Ground also states that in 2012, 45% of colleges reported zero sexual assaults. This is extremely unlikely and the only reason colleges are doing this is to make sure their name stays in a positive light. Many people will say that prestigious colleges like Harvard will never have issues like this, but that is completely untrue. Harvard had 135 reported sexual assaults from 2009-2013. Rape can happen anywhere, and it’s even more likely for a predator to be someone you know or even trust. A student at Harvard reported a rape and the dean of students replied with “don’t talk to anyone about this, it could be a problem with people rallying around campus”. At a hearing for this, professors went and asked, “was it misunderstood? Did he think it was more than just a friendship?”. None of that matters. What people do not understand is that if both people do not agree to engaging in sexual activities then it is considered sexual assault. If one says stop while engaging in sexual activities after agreeing to it and the partner does not stop, that is sexual assault. Page 61 of Feminist Film Studies by Janet McCabe states “Another burgeoning field of study involving cultural theories and film feminism relates to romantic comedy, gender representation and visual pleasures.” TV shows and movies display unrealistic and unreasonable sexual standards that damage people and relationships. Women on television are portrayed as easy, and many men believe this unfortunately, so they think they can take advantage of men.

Stanford University has 259 reported sexual assaults from 1996-2013 and only 1 student was expelled. This statistic is unbelievable because it shows that colleges truly do not care about these victims and they are most likely living in fear that the predator will find them again. It is rare you hear someone get expelled for rape, but it’s common to hear that someone gets expelled for cheating on a test. How is this okay? How are people supposed to feel safe on campus knowing that their college most likely will not do much about sexual assault? If predators are not removed from campus, they are extremely likely to do it again. According to The Hunting Ground, it is the repeated rapists that are the core of this problem. One statistic states “Less than 8% of men in college commit more than 90% of sexual assaults.” One fact The Hunting Ground covered is that the percentage of rapes reported to the police in the U.S. that lead to an arrest was 26%. It is horrifying to be a young woman and to think that if I was reporting a sexual assault to my school and they don’t do anything about it and then knowing the police most likely won’t do anything about it sounds like a nightmare. 

Hidden Figures was taken place at White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia in 1926. The movie is based on three African American women who are highly intelligent and are starting their jobs working for Nasa. During this time, it was unheard of for an African American woman to work for Nasa which was made up mostly of white middle-aged men. In the book Feminist Film Studies by Janet McCabe, she states “Hazel Carby for example identifies that black women fit somewhat awkwardly into the traditional Marxist feminist paradigm based on a strict gender divide under patriarchy” (67). This is displayed in the movie because viewers can certainly see the divide between African American women and the rest of society. The beginning of the movie shows the women on their way to work and they run into a problem with their car. A white male cop pulls up to them and questions them as to how a Black woman works at Nasa. Not only this, but he also questions their abilities to fix their car. The women prove him wrong and fix their car in seconds, and he seems shocked. Not only was this officer racist but he was sexist towards the women. In Feminist Film Studies, it states “[The] category of women is usually used to refer to white women, while the category of Blacks often really means ‘Black men’. What is lost in the process is the situation of the Black woman” (McCabe 67). This quote speaks measures about how Black women were and still are oppressed in society. Not only do Black women encounter racism in their lives but sexism as well. When the women arrive at Nasa, they instantly are put down by others. The Nasa workers do not care at all how they talk to the women and they act like they are better than them. They first question Dorothy and put down her idea of becoming a supervisor because she is a Black woman. Soon after, Katherine asks in her department if she can use the bathroom and one of the workers responds with “I don’t know where your bathroom is” referring to a Black woman’s bathroom. Although the women are being insulted, they continue to work hard and do their best. Mary gets offered a position to become an engineer at Nasa, which is the beginning of the women’s achievements. On a day off, the women attend church with their families and friends and are recognized for their beginnings at Nasa. Although everyone seems proud, they still question the women and how they will live up to Nasa’s standards. Little do they know, these women will be remembered forever at Nasa. The three women begin to stand up for themselves at Nasa when in the beginning they just let everyone walk all over them. For example, when Katherine goes to the Colored bathroom that is 40 minutes away, she comes back and her boss is furious with her and asks where she went in front of everyone. She finally stands up for herself and tells him that she does not have equal rights at Nasa and it is unfair. Her boss listens to her and hears her, and tears down the Colored bathroom sign which is a huge step for Nasa. This is the beginning of equality and a real chance for women. Although some of the men still put down the women by congratulating only the men for sending a man to space when really Katherine did most of the work for this to happen and when the men at Nasa would not let her come into the Pentagon meeting because she was a woman, but she proves all of them wrong by solving a problem that they never could. Mary, a dreamer, is able to achieve her dreams and attend an all-white male school to become an Engineer, and although she faces backlash when the educator tells her that the course was designed for men, she continues to stay and she grows to be confident. Dorothy became Nasa’s first African American supervisor and was known as one of the most brilliant people at Nasa. Katherine educated the women and men in her department and she solved calculations so intricate that she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a building at Nasa was named after her. These women were and still are inspirations for everyone and they never gave up.

Miss Representation is a documentary that focuses on what it is like to be a woman in today’s society. Every day, women deal with sexism and are treated as if they are unequal by men. The documentary starts with a quote that states, “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” This quote speaks measures about how women are put down in society so they are made to believe that they do not have the power to become anything close to a man in society. One of the biggest issues that is tearing down women is the media. Media displays unrealistic body images and sets standards for women to have a thin waist, big breasts, and a large buttox. This affects many women’s mental health and young girls as well. Miss Representation reveals statistics that state: 

“53% of teenage girls don’t like their bodies and that number increased to 78% by age 17, 65% of women and girls have an eating disorder, 17 percent engage in cutting and self-injuring behavior, rates of depression among girls and women have doubled between 2000 and 2010, and the number of cosmetic surgicial procedures performed on youth under 19 tripled from 1997-2007.”

Unfortunately, these statistics keep rising, and it will not stop unless men can learn to respect women as much as they respect themselves and other men. Even powerful women in our country are sexualized. For example, Sarah Palin was introduced on national television and after saying her full name and position she was running for, they announced her clothing size. When Hilary Clinton was running for president, there were flyers where the title was “bitch” because she had power and the men were scared. During the election with Hilary Clinton, men were screaming “Iron my shirt”. Many American men also admitted that they have masturbated to Sarah Palin. It is awful that even powerful women figures are still sexualized by men. Feminist Film Studies by Janet McCabe relates to this when she states,

“The image of the woman has … been a site of gendered discourse, drawn from the specific social-cultural experience of women and shared by women, which negotiates a space within, and sometimes resists, patriarchal domination. At the same time new definitions of gender and sexuality circulated by the women’s movement contest the value and meaning of the female image, struggling for different, female recognitions and identifications” (48).

This quote goes to show that the image of women constantly changes but females are struggling still to be recognized as equal as men. Miss Representation also states that “1 and 4 girls experience teen dating violence, 1 in 4 women are abused by their significant others, 1 in 6 women are survivors of rape or attempted rape, and 15% of rape survivors are under 12.” Males, who live in women for 9 months and literally come out of them, treat women this way and it is sickening. As a woman, it is unlikely I go somewhere in public by myself and feel safe. Knowing that I am always on edge, especially on a college campus, is unfair. Men have instilled this in women and it is just getting worse. Many women are at a lost cause and just deal with the sexism they receive, but that is not enough. Males need to be educated from early on that women are equal to men although we have different bodies. Also learning about these statistics shown above will spread awareness and make it known that women are in danger because of men, even though women are the ones who bring people into this world. As a future teacher, I plan on educating my students about the mistreatment of women and how this can be turned around.