'Through the construction of women in texts composers convey attitudes to gender roles in different contexts.'
In texts composers often place gender roles on women to convey their personal attitudes about different gender roles and the gender roles place in context. A gender role is the public image of being male or female that a person presents to others. Gender roles are often employed or subverted depending on the composer’s purpose. In Gary Marshall’s 1989 film 'Pretty Woman,' Marshall often subverts the role of the female and male to convey his opinion on gender roles and stereotypes. Similarly in Gwen Harwood’s poem 'Suburban Sonnet' women stereotypes such as the housewife and mother are presented in a negative light to demonstrate the changing attitudes to women in the 1980’s. Finally in the Brothers Grimm’s fairytale ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,’ the composer also presents women negatively due to the strong patriarchal society in the early 19th century. These ideas are conveyed through a variety of written and visual techniques used by the composer.
Gender roles are used by composers, often unintentionally, due to the patriarchal society that they grew up in. Until the 1980’s women were stereotyped as subservient to the male, the housewife and mother, their gender role was focused on the domestic lifestyle. Marshall demonstrates this in his film 'Pretty Woman.' Vivian at the beginning of the film fits into the stereotypical views of a woman...; the emphasis is on her body. The responder understands this emphasis on the body through countless closes up shots of the parts of Vivian’s body, all except the face, the most personal part of her body. Although this technique illustrates that women are still stereotyped, Marshall demonstrates that women are attempting to subvert this stereotype by taking control of their own lives. This is conveyed to the responder by the camera’s focus on her body, illustrating how women are still measured by their...