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Tiffany Hansen

Professor Whittaker

Film and Culture

April 10th 2017

Power over the People, White Patriarchal Capitalism in Film

The dominant ideology of the United States has been White Patriarchal Capitalism began

at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The committee of five that contributed to the

creation of the Declaration of Independence included John Adams, Roger Sherman, Benjamin

Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Thomas Jefferson, it comes to no surprise the founding

fathers of the constitution were all white. (National Archives, 2017) All the signees of the final

Declaration of Independence were white males, had strong established education and members

of the continental congress. (ConstitutionFacts.com) The Declaration begins as We the people,

the idea that individual citizens are equal and not bound by race, class or gender. But considering

that the signees of the declaration were all white males it contradicts itself from the beginning.

The idea of this equality of individuals is untruthful because women at the time were completely

secluded and African Americans were still looked at as three fifths a person. (America on Film

p.6) These facts about the time associated with signing of the Declaration of Independence helps

to understand why white patriarchal capitalism is the dominant ideology in America today and is

still prevalent in society in the 21st century. White patriarchal capitalism is not going anywhere

anytime soon as long as our country is mostly based on capitalism The only way to see any

future change in this county would to start at the beginning, the raising of our children through
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examples by parents, schools, churches and restrictions on film and media. As a nation, we must

put aside the money factor and have more control over these corporate elite media companies.

We have to stop the continual reflection of racism and sexism in media and film on the next

generation of children that contributes to this dominant ideology in America. The only way to

see any future change in this county would to start at the beginning, the raising of our children.

Racism and sexism over time is slowly changing but if we cannot control what is placed in films

and the media our only hope is that the parents of our future generation will devote there every

waking hour to show by their actions and teach their children that everyone is equal. If we as

Americas can do this we can start to bend this tradition of white patriarchal capitalism.

So how does films reinforced seism against women and racism against African

Americans? When I first signed up to take this class I realized how ignorant I was in society I

was exposed to Americas film dark side. America Culture and film class was not going to be

what I had initially expected, I learned about white patriarchal capitalist in film. I went into this

class thinking I would be learning more about how film was made and yes indeed on how the

films brought out feelings and ideas in the average joe but I didnt think of it as a mind

controlling event. I came away from this class with a new understanding of capitalism and why

the dream of America is not so much in reach for the middle and lower classes Once youre at

the top you stay at the top and the people at the bottom of the chain are meant to stay there as

well. Capitalism a way to keep the working class people hold less power than the middle class

people and the middle class people in turn hold less power and wealth then people of the upper

class and the upper class have the least amount of work and the most privileges, and they want it

to stay that way. (America on Film p.7), It is not about being able to start from the bottom and

make your way up to the top, that is just an illusion that the corporate companies want you to
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think. We are brainwashed to be good little slaves and to accept our small wage working class

place in this country. Woman have learned that they have the role of the mother and wife and

African Americans are not as good as white people. At least this is what has been portrayed in

film since films beginning and it is unfortunately still being portrayed in film today. A good

saying would be, All for us and just enough for you to get by!

After learning much about white patriarchal capitalism in this class I have begun to regret

that I loved these films so much. Never realizing that these films have most likely shaped my

views of my life, how I view my social standing and as unaware as I have been until this class I

never did notice white racism in my favorite films until now. One of my all-time favorite movies

growing up was the Indiana Jones Trilogy. An example of a white patriarchal genre is the white

savior genre, this type of film has been repeated over and over and drilled into our heads in

hundreds of films over the years. White savior genre is a film that is about a white, straight male

that is seeking power or wealth. He has a beautiful, female sex interest as the side character and

is usually in a helpless situation. The white male is always fighting a non-white or from another

country villain character and in the end he always wins and saves the woman.( Sirota2013)

Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark is a perfect example of white savior genre. In the Raiders

of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones is the straight, white male and has a love interest, Marion. At the

end of the film Indiana Jones saves the Ark of the covenant and his love interest from the leader

of the Nazis. Another example of the white savior gender is Indiana Jones and the Temple of

Doom. In this film Jones is again the hero that not only saves his helpless love interest from

Asian gangsters earlier in the film but also saves many children who were to be sacrificed by a

tribe of demonic Indians. Jones also had an Asian side kick who idolized his every move.

(Sirota2013) There are hundreds of films that fit this genre but one more example is the film,
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Drive. (2011) A white male hero must save his helpless white female love interest from a pack

of Hispanic and Italian Mobsters while she hides away in an apartment with her Son. In the end,

he is victorious, saves the girl and kills the bad guys.

White patriarchal capitalism is defined as the early settlers of European decent, light

colored skin, Caucasian. Patriarchal is defined as a system of society or government controlled

by men and the definition of capitalism is an economic and political system in which a country's

trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. (America

on Film) By defining each of these words separately it helps to visualize how many films are

guided towards white patriarchal capitalism. An article from 2012 studied recent films and

explains how many films express that men are of higher statue than woman. It explains how they

can normalize this look of woman. This is just how it is and that is the way it will always be,

Men are more powerful, stronger creatures of mind and body. (Chloe 2013) The article first

reviews the movie Avengers, which is about six superheroes that must fight Asgardian Loki

and a leader of an exterritorial race known as Chitahuri from destroying New York City. The

superheroes are five strong men and one small, slender woman dressed in a suit that insinuates

her curves and she is armed with the smallest weapon. (Chloe 2013) In the article, they analyzed

sixty seven top films from 2012, of the sixty seven films, fifty five of the lead characters were

male and only twelve lead characters were female. Through this research of these films we can

obviously see that women are still most likely to be sex objects and supporting characters for

men than leading roles in 2012 films. Today we are seeing white patriarchal capitalism in films

and men are still to this day dominate in most films. (Chloe 2013)

American films have a long history of discriminating against racial groups. An example

is a term called whitewashing, a practice that began in early film industry and is still prevalent
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today. White washing is where white actors are casted as non-white characters. (BBC2015) An

example, in the 1956 film The Ten Commandments, Charlston Heston is a white actor that

plays the role of an Egyptian prince who learns of his true heritage as a Jew and delivers his

people from bondage. (Jenkins 2017) In the 2014 film called Exodus, Gods and Kings, done

by Ridley Scott you again recognize two very white actors, Christian Bale who plays Moses and

Joel Edgerton is casted as Ramesses. A popular term you hear film critics claim, The American

Moses or white Moses.. (BBC2014) Another somewhat different example of white washing

would be the 1998 Dream works animated film, The Prince of Egypt. The animation stars a

non-white Moses but is voiced by a white man which seems like a large contradiction. (Jenkins

2017) As seen by these examples we have not stepped away from the dominant idea of white

patriarchal genre in films.

The United States seems to be doomed to white patriarchal capitalism and we have

witnessed that over time white superiority seems to be growing even with all the people claiming

that we are slowly getting away from racism and sexism in the united stated it seems to prevail.

Capitalism has a lot to do with the continuing of these biases through films by affecting people

through visual and emotional contact. The creation of oligopoly corporations create complete

control over the film industry and content of films, TV and media they will continue to construct

our way of looking at our culture and American ideology. Capitalism can control any

competition from changing the strong hold they have on the public and social ideology of

American standards.. The only way to change this ideology of our nation would be through non-

violent social formations like schools, family upbringing and religion spread by example and

education. (America on Film) Over time though, generation after generation we could change

our ideological concepts. Parents and teachers must step up and teach the new generation of
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children by example and with education. As a community we need to stop the discrimination

against races and genders and reinforced the ideology that Men and Women and other races are

not different; it is in the eye of the beholder. How you have been raised affects your total attitude

towards a woman and other colors of skin. Things you saw growing up changed your way of

thinking, shaped it. That is what cinema is; a way to change your thinking but instead of learning

it through years of time, you learn it quickly in flashes of pictures: in films.

Works Cited

Benshoff, Harry M., and Sean Griffin. America on Film, Second Edition 2009. N.p.:
Blackwell Publishing, n.d. Print.
The Movies Race and Ethnicity." Media Resources Center, n.d. Web. Mar. 2017.

<www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/imagesafam.html>.

Sirota, David. "Oscar Loves White Savior." Alternet. N.p., 22 Feb. 2013. Web. Mar. 2017.

<www.alternet.org/culture/oscar-loves-white-savior>.

Beighley, Chloe . "Normalizing male dominance gender representation in

2013." Griid.org. Jeff Smith, 12 Feb. 2013. Web. Mar. 2017.

<https://griid.org/2013/02/12/normalizing-male-dominance-gender-representation-in-2012-

films/>.

Constitutionfacts. "US articles of confederation about the signers." Constitution Facts.

Oak hill Publishing Company, n.d. Web.

National Archives. "Americas Founding Documents/ the Declaration History." National

Archives. N.p., 6 Oct. 2017. Web.

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Jenkins, Jack. "The unbearable whiteness of Moses." Think Progess. N.p., 1 Aug. 2014.

Web. 5 Apr. 2017.

BBC, and Tom Brook. "When white actors play other

races." Www.bbc.com/culture/story/20151006-when-white-actors-play-other-races. BBC,

6 Oct. 2015. Web.