American Psycho (2000) is a film starring Christian Bale as wealthy psychopath Patrick Bateman. I chose to look at the trailer for this piece as I'm a fan of the film and know how men and women are represented in this drama already. I think this movie gives prime examples of gender stereotypes in the workplace which is what makes it such a good text to look at.
The entire backstory is riddled with stereotypes. The main character Patrick (played by Christian Bale) showcases the idea of the metrosexual male. The movie begins with Patrick doing his daily routine, which is incredibly complex, more so than any average male or female. Bale plays a character that could be seen as a ‘big shot’ by most. He has the bachelor lifestyle. The money, the women, you name it, Bateman has it. He’s joined by a huge number of similar male characters, who are always seen wearing suits and ties. It acts as a reminder of Bateman and co.’s class. All of these males are made out to be these powerful, dominant, alpha figures but Patrick really personifies these traits. He really thinks of himself as better than everyone else, and to see others succeed around him really irritates Patrick. He is the complete opposite to your common joker character and shows a few traces of the jock character. Women on the other hand take one of 2 charcters in this film. Firstly, there are women who are presented as sexual objects. The scenes in which Patrick hires prostitutes, makes a point of really showing the audience these girls lives are miserable and tries to feed us the impression that all they are good for is sexual fulfilment. On the other hand, almost 100% of the secretary’s we see at Bateman’s place of work, Pierce and Pierce, are female. Not once is a woman shown any higher up than being a personal assistant at this major wall street company, this kind of backs up a functionalist perspective in the way a woman’s job should be to satisfy men on multiple levels. So there are 2 main representations – Sexual objects and tools for men to use. Unfortunately the film doesn’t offer very many perspectives apart from the one’s found in a cruel business world.
Good choice of text. You could go into more detail when referring to prostitutes and how females are objectified, maybe some camera shots that represent them through the eyes of a male. I like the structure you use in this paragraph, separating the females into two type of representations is a good way of presenting. Stereotypical gender roles is the second point you make, try to use that term in future, again another example of hegemonic construction in a film text. Good work.
ReplyDelete