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Breaking stereotypes: Women’s representation, from film to leadership
Israa Radaydeh, Jordan News
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As the Kingdom’s 11th edition of
Women's Film Week continues, screenings today and tomorrow tackle both
stereotypes and realities in the representation of women as leaders, showcasing
their influence in society and shedding light on issues such as under-representation
across professions.اضافة اعلان
In film and fictionFirst up is “Rol & Rol” (2020), a documentary by Chus Gutiérrez scheduled for screening today at 6pm at Rainbow Theater. This film compares the role of women in media, advertising, and fiction to that of men, exploring distinctions through both testimonials from different women in these sectors and the personal experience of the director herself.
The documentary manages to give goosebumps from the beginning through its depiction of female strength. If you are a woman, it might make you angry as it outlines data undermining the concept that civilization has achieved great equality between men and women. While it is true that progress has been made, behaviors and stereotypes eroding that progress continue to accompany the human race on its march through time.
Take film as an example. Female characters continue to carry certain stereotypes, such as the mother or the femme fatale. And even when some movies offer examples of hard-working, persistent women, they are usually portrayed in a negative light, subliminally accused of being too demanding or “bad bosses”. But what would the plot of “The Devil Wears Prada” be like if character Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) were a man? Would the film still convey a cold, tyrannical, and insensitive boss or would the male Priestly be a prodigy in business, demanding but ambitious?
However, not all realities are negative. Gutiérrez also talks about the role of women behind the cameras and the rise, though small and insufficient, in the number of women directors. With that increase in female directors comes an increase in leading women characters. It becomes clear that women want to tell the stories that have been taken from them all these years.
On social media“Girl Gang” (2022) by Susanne Regina Meures, to be screened tonight at 8pm, offers a different angle as an eye-opening documentary on the superficiality of social networks.
In a shopping center, a crowd of young women rushes to meet their idol: Léonie. She is neither a musician nor an actress; she is a social media influencer, so successful that even her parents have given up their jobs to help her manage her career. Together, the family runs this home business with Léonie as the product.
At home and workThursday's first screening is “Her Job” (2018) by Greek director Nikos Labôt. The drama describes an aspiring feminist revolution that, alas, does not take place.
A housewife devoted to her husband and her two children without any real gratitude on their part, the protagonist Panayiota, embodies the very profile of the dependent woman whose existence is ignored. But a change is slowly taking place as Greece faces crisis, and the woman is forced to take a job for the first time.
In the officeTomorrow’s second screening, “Break the Codes” (2022) by Safia Kessas, introduces nine women working in the field of new information and communication technologies in Belgium, where women represent a meager 14 percent of workers in the sector. Why this imbalance? The documentary explains as witnesses and filmmaker build a story through a panorama of careers riddled with obstacles.
These women are Nadia, Rima, Hélène, Barbara, Nathalie, Laure, Aurélie, Leila, and Myriam, proudly wearing their titles of Data Scientist, CEO, and Cloud Specialist. But reality for them is a tough, in the heart of a world where machismo and paternalism rub shoulders with sexism.
Rather than sitting idly by as other career choices are offered, these warriors have grabbed their keyboards, and are now breaking the codes of yesterday to offer a new tomorrow. Through this film, Kessas takes us into their daily life, bathed in resilience.
Read more Entertainment
Jordan News
In film and fictionFirst up is “Rol & Rol” (2020), a documentary by Chus Gutiérrez scheduled for screening today at 6pm at Rainbow Theater. This film compares the role of women in media, advertising, and fiction to that of men, exploring distinctions through both testimonials from different women in these sectors and the personal experience of the director herself.
The documentary manages to give goosebumps from the beginning through its depiction of female strength. If you are a woman, it might make you angry as it outlines data undermining the concept that civilization has achieved great equality between men and women. While it is true that progress has been made, behaviors and stereotypes eroding that progress continue to accompany the human race on its march through time.
Take film as an example. Female characters continue to carry certain stereotypes, such as the mother or the femme fatale. And even when some movies offer examples of hard-working, persistent women, they are usually portrayed in a negative light, subliminally accused of being too demanding or “bad bosses”. But what would the plot of “The Devil Wears Prada” be like if character Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) were a man? Would the film still convey a cold, tyrannical, and insensitive boss or would the male Priestly be a prodigy in business, demanding but ambitious?
However, not all realities are negative. Gutiérrez also talks about the role of women behind the cameras and the rise, though small and insufficient, in the number of women directors. With that increase in female directors comes an increase in leading women characters. It becomes clear that women want to tell the stories that have been taken from them all these years.
On social media“Girl Gang” (2022) by Susanne Regina Meures, to be screened tonight at 8pm, offers a different angle as an eye-opening documentary on the superficiality of social networks.
In a shopping center, a crowd of young women rushes to meet their idol: Léonie. She is neither a musician nor an actress; she is a social media influencer, so successful that even her parents have given up their jobs to help her manage her career. Together, the family runs this home business with Léonie as the product.
In “Girl Gang”, Meures truly takes us to the other side of Instagram, and shows that the overexposed life is not always glam.If everything goes well in the beginning, little by little, the teenager seems to lose interest in her role. But her parents fail to notice — or at least refuse to admit it. For several years, German director Meures (“Raving Iran”) followed the story of this family from the outskirts of Berlin. In the documentary, she paints a portrait of an oppressed protagonist, a study of current suffocating mores. Constrained by the hard work of being on display, Léonie inhabits a universe of appearance and superficiality that even considers cosmetic surgery for a teen. In “Girl Gang”, Meures truly takes us to the other side of Instagram, and shows that the overexposed life is not always glam.
At home and workThursday's first screening is “Her Job” (2018) by Greek director Nikos Labôt. The drama describes an aspiring feminist revolution that, alas, does not take place.
A housewife devoted to her husband and her two children without any real gratitude on their part, the protagonist Panayiota, embodies the very profile of the dependent woman whose existence is ignored. But a change is slowly taking place as Greece faces crisis, and the woman is forced to take a job for the first time.
Just as she left from family home to marital home, passing out of one patriarchal domain into another, her job as a cleaning lady is no exception to the ruleThis obligation turns out to be liberation. Little by little, Panayiota discovers emancipation, financial independence, and new friendships. But all this only describes the surface of things. Just as she left from family home to marital home, passing out of one patriarchal domain into another, her job as a cleaning lady is no exception to the rule. The character remains under the male yoke, manipulated by her superior who takes advantage of her naivety and illiteracy.
In the officeTomorrow’s second screening, “Break the Codes” (2022) by Safia Kessas, introduces nine women working in the field of new information and communication technologies in Belgium, where women represent a meager 14 percent of workers in the sector. Why this imbalance? The documentary explains as witnesses and filmmaker build a story through a panorama of careers riddled with obstacles.
These women are Nadia, Rima, Hélène, Barbara, Nathalie, Laure, Aurélie, Leila, and Myriam, proudly wearing their titles of Data Scientist, CEO, and Cloud Specialist. But reality for them is a tough, in the heart of a world where machismo and paternalism rub shoulders with sexism.
Rather than sitting idly by as other career choices are offered, these warriors have grabbed their keyboards, and are now breaking the codes of yesterday to offer a new tomorrow.There is something intimate in the confessions and speeches made by these protagonists, who reveal without restraint or jargon the challenges they have faced and overcome. Stories of failures, moments of doubt, and successes are shared with honesty. There is Laure, founder of the first women-only training center dedicated to IT. There, we also find Nadia, who is building the future of networks at Microsoft in between diapers and nursery trips.
Rather than sitting idly by as other career choices are offered, these warriors have grabbed their keyboards, and are now breaking the codes of yesterday to offer a new tomorrow. Through this film, Kessas takes us into their daily life, bathed in resilience.
Read more Entertainment
Jordan News
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