Representation of the Feminine in American Feminist Cinema Essay

Representation of the Feminine in American Feminist Cinema - Essay Example The film "Rebecca" shows how women who strayed outside the lines of pre-defined social roles were generally demonized by society, which includes opposition from other women who are comfortable in fulfilling their traditional roles, but occasionally worshipped by other women who longed for freedom of being. The film captured Rebecca’s loss of identity as a woman who is expected to live according to traditional norms of behavior, handing down this mindset to succeeding generations as a continuation of the old ways and old ideals, despite their personal desire for the freedom to express their individuality. In a sense, the film showed that in their uphill quest for freedom, women had to go through several barriers imposed by gender and social tradition. This landmark film established the base for similar Hollywood films against which subsequent cinematic outputs would be compared. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) demonstrated in a clearer manner the feminist stirrings of American cinema. The depiction of women in Martha combined the traditional - stay-at-home and career-less daughter of a well-known university professor who married a loser - and the modern - childless but with an imaginary child, aware of her sexuality, cursing and nagging her husband in public, and flirting openly with a young married guest in front of her husband and the guest's wife. In contrast to other portrayals of women in the past, the film signified a certain degree of equalization between the sexes. Elizabeth Taylor's Academy Award as Best Actress for her portrayal as Martha in a film laced with profanity and feminine sensuality that shocked audiences at the time may have marked a turning point as it showed that a woman could be the mistress of her destiny. Some two decades later, Desperately Seeking Susan (1981) seemed to move towards closing the loop as it directly addressed the concepts of female voyeurism and female desire. It starred the 1980's icon of the fun-loving material girl (pop star Madonna) and featured a young woman obsessed with another young woman whom she had never met, and although there is a strong element of lesbian criticism involved, there is little indication that the women are true lesbians. A psychoanalytic approach to the film necessarily excluded the possibility that the desire inherent in the film is not for the female body but is instead a desire for the 'other', an idealized fantasy life believed to be lived by this other. This film introduced different viewpoints raised regarding its message that addressed the concept of the feminine directly, making it an ideal framework for studying how femininity is reflected in modern cinema

EMA COURSE WORK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

EMA COURSE WORK - Essay Example Other factors such as transporting the materials, utilities, etc could also be used however as stated before it is only an example. Variance Analysis is the difference between what is actually paid and the standard cost. The variance is used as a means for management to discuss performance and to review them. One of the major criticisms of standards is that some forms of standards are outdated and not as widely used as others. Another criticism is that the standards are not attainable. This means that the standards are not within reason. Considering that most standards are outdated and incorporate many different components, it is easy to see how mistakes can be made. If the company uses the wrong information on any of the components than it is guaranteed that a variance will be revealed upon further analysis. The standards are also not changed over a period of time and therefore are prone to be incorrect due to changes in technology or even by inflation. Standards are said to give em ployees the motivation to meet goals and to push his/her self to meet or exceed the goals of the company. This motivation is also said to benefit the company as a whole because it increases efficiency and productivity. The best way for standard costing to be effective is to have someone from every level to participate. There has traditionally been a problem trying to get enough people to participate so that the results are reasonable. Participants will look for the easy target and this can pose a problem. The easy target is not necessarily the optimum target or the most cost efficient. Participation in the costing or analysis would require a lot of time and knowledge that the participants do not have. Also the more time they spend on it the more it will cost the company in the form of salaries and benefits. There is also the risk of the participants being out for their own individual gain. They could feel as if their participation could help them further their own agenda instead of that of the company. They could also spend too much time talking and not enough time coming up with solutions. Lack of knowledge can also factor into this because if the participants do not understand the goal they are trying to reach, then time can be spent teaching them instead of getting down to business. Management of Time is also another criticism of standard costing and variance analysis. The process is time consuming to say the least and most managers already feel as if they don’t have enough time to carry out their day to day activities let alone deal with standard costing or variance analysis. Managers in particular might feel as if this is something that someone else should be doing, namely someone in the corporate office if there is one. Absorption costing fuels another criticism of standard costing and variance analysis. Absorption costing assumes that all costs of the production of a product are included in the final price of the product (AccountingCoach, LLC). T his type of costing can create some problems because it could lead to extremely high standard costing which in turn would always lead to variances. If a product includes all of the fixed costs such as utilities of the entire building, rent of all buildings, etc than the standard cost could be extremely high and overstated. The costs are not allocated over all of the products that are produced in the same area but instead the costs are absorbed into the