Gender Stereotypes In Grease

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Cinematic Gender Inequality: Combating Female Stereotypes Grease, a nostalgic love story set in the 1950’s, is considered a classic by English and American critics, but it is not commonly known that a gender stereotype of female dependence on male presence takes place in the film. Jenni Veitch-Olson brings the stereotypes to light in her scholarly article entitled “’We Go Together’: Nostalgia, Gender, Class, and the London Reception of ‘Grease: A New '50s Rock 'N' Roll Musical.’” The most prevalent, yet absurd stereotype she uncovers, “that women must conform to men’s desires,” is a very common stereotype in other contemporary cinema as well (Veitch-Olson 1). Andrew M. Lindner, Melissa Lindquist, and Julie Arnold uncover male-centered statistics…show more content…
According to figure one, the most successful cinema brings in between 95.1 million and 754 million dollars and an astounding 64.4% of those cinema fail the Bechdel Test. The monetary success of the movie followed by the fail rate of 64.4% should frighten all those who support gender-equality. By having a fail rate that high, the cinema is proving the gender stereotypes of female dependence upon males. To pass the test, there must only be one instance of conversation between the two female characters without discussing a male (Lindner, Lindquist, and Arnold 409). The lack of a single instance proves how gender-biased the cinema must be since throughout the entire film, there is not even a single instance of female independence. These cinema greatly embrace the most common gender stereotypes including: women are weaker than men, women are meant to listen and not to be heard, women can never be the hero, and women are flirts (Brewer 1). Grease is a film that employs the common gender stereotypes listed previously. Veitch-Olson states, “They [Danny and Sandy] reunite when Sandy trades her clean, proper, and feminine image for the trappings-leather jacket, hoop earrings, and a cigarette-of a bad girl” (Veitch-Olson 2). Not only does that quote relay the gender stereotype…show more content…
A viewer could also go back to their residence and replicate any witnessed cinematic-stereotype. Although these stereotypes are ridiculous, they are fueled by the trend of popular cinema that fail the Bechdel Test (Figure 1). A course of action to combat the stereotypes should be to ignore them in cinema and then to take action against them when witnessed in the real world. Due to the success The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 experienced in the box office, producers should also take note upon the success experienced and begin to introduce more female protagonists into their films. Lindor, Lindquist, and Arnold also came to the conclusion that women oriented cinema receives less of a budget for their films compared to the male-centered protagonist films (Lindner, Lindquist, and Arnold 425). The fact of a smaller budget is a key contributor to the lack of success for female protagonist films. Viewers cannot individually change the fact that women receive less of a budget, but each can change the box office rating for any film by choosing what film to attend. Each viewer should be more active in researching and viewing films centered around female protagonists and gender equal films while avoiding to repeat the gender stereotypes witnessed in the 64.4% of successful films. By choosing gender equal films, each viewer will become a piece in
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