Kira Moore

Gender Representation and Stereotyping in the Action/Adventure Genre

This is a social issue that is especially provident and controversial in modern day society and
is addressed most clearly in action/adventure (AA) films. Majority of such films conform to
the stereotypical gender roles with the men often playing the protagonist and hero and the
women simply being an object to make said protagonist look better. However, such
stereotypes are beginning to be challenged in the world of AA films.
The stereotypical gender roles aforementioned play into majority of the classic AA films
such as James Bond, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Here we see the protagonist(s) as a
strong male who is often generically attractive. This is likely due to the fact that for the
majority of people these would be viewed as Mens Films as most in the AA genre are.
Therefore, the entertainment industry makes a protagonist more relatable by making them
the same gender as the majority audience, in this case, male. These are all relatively old
franchises from the 1960s to the 1990s where nearly every AA film was sexist and had a
strong male lead. The one exception perhaps being the Alien franchise during the late
1970s to present day where Sigourney Weaver plays the strong female lead of Ripley. The
fact that this is the only notable exception from this time period highlights the sexism and
lack of female representation of the old AA films.
There are many stereotypical gender roles in AA films for both men and women. For
example, in Avengers Assemble you have the moral hero (Captain America), the anti-hero
(the Hulk due to his aggression toward the other members), the super villain (Loki) and the
comic relief (Iron Man). All of these roles are stereotypical of the AA genre. The female roles
include the cold badass (Black Widow) and the sidekick (Agent Maria Hill). These go against
the female stereotyping of the helpless damsel-in-distress. However, Black Widow is
sexualised as she often wears a tight suit which is a stereotype, the objectification of women
through sexuality. Again this is done to appeal to a mainly male audience.
However, some of the more modern AA films that have been released are starting to
challenge if not completely contradict these stereotypes. A perfect example is the newly
released Ghostbusters with a primarily female cast. Here the original plot is reinvented with
a dumb male secretary rather than the female from the original. Another film that shows this
male superiority in AA films being challenged is Wonder Woman where the lead is a strong,
not overly sexualised, woman with a male love interest to make her look better. This is
happening due to the change in audience with more and more women becoming AA fans.
The social issue of sexism is being raised to make the films being released a lot more
relevant to modern day viewers.
In the past AA films have simply stuck to stereotypes because they worked to bring in
majority of viewers but now, because the times have changed and sexism is a more
prominent social issue, the AA genre is tackling stereotyping head on. Granted, there is still
stereotyping happening in AA films but this is less relevant to gender now. The female can
be the strong moral hero and the male can be the clever sidekick. It is not so shocking now
to find AA films with strong female leads even if they are not the main protagonist (see
Gamora in Guardians of the Galaxy).
So, while the overwhelming majority of AA films still show the men as being stronger, braver
and superior to women, there has begun to be some change and female representation is
becoming more prominent in modern AA films and because of this the social issue of sexism
is becoming less of problem within the AA genre. In this way, they have addressed it.