Women Portrayed in Drama
Mae: Welcome back to Mae and Sadie’s Podcast. This Episode is called Women in Drama. In this episode,we’ll talk about all women facing injustices in all different novels and comic books.
Sadie: Are you excited?
Mae: I can’t wait. I feel like we have a lot of good segments to bring up in this podcast today.
Sadie: We want to shine a light on all the injustices women have had throughout these novels we read in english class. We will talk about The Kite Runner, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Fences.
Mae: All the injustices that will be brought up in today’s podcast are sexism, sexual assault, male domination, and discrimination. Also all of you guys have really liked the music for the past few podcasts but we had to switch the music up and make it more classical. We felt our past music was too trendy and too much for this topic we are about to discuss.
Sadie: Having trendy music while talking about women’s injustices during this episode would be super lame to us so here’s some nice piano music!
Mae: Where should we start Sadie, I’ll leave it up to you.
Sadie: Do you want to start us off by discussing the portrayal of women in The Kite Runner?
Mae: Yes so basically during the second half of our English class we learned about different types of dramas. One of my favorite dramas we read was The Kite Runner. This book I actually sat in my bed and read instead of going online for summaries. We also got to see the comic book style of it which was pretty cool and helped me visual what was actually happening. The Kite Runner is a story of Amir, a Sunni Muslim, who struggles to find his place in the world because of traumatic childhood events.The story takes place in Afghanistan with two important main characters. We have Hassan and Amir. Hassan has a mother named Sanabubar who is known to be very beautiful. The Soviets in the book, who are taking over their home land, always have something to say about women’s appearances with utter disrespect.
Sadie: Yes, men regard women as nothing more than objects for their sexual desires. For instance, in the novel, Hassan and Amir return from the theater and a group of the Soviets says offensive words about Sanaubar, who is Hassan’s mother. They discuss her in a degrading manner as her only purpose is to provide for the pleasures of men. The Soviets also do not ignore her appearance and in a way make fun of it because they know Hassan is standing right there. While the portrayal of women in dramas varies greatly from different time periods and cultures, there are common themes of oppression and one-dimensional representation.
Mae: Yeah I can’t imagine how the woman must have felt just wanting to leave their homes but being terrified of becoming a victim of rape or assault. One of the main issues throughout the book was how much power men had over women. In The Kite Runner, Baba and Amir were being transported from Afghanistan as refugees with tons of other women in the vehicle. The Russian soldiers would pull over each vehicle at different checkpoints so they could flirt and try to get five minutes alone with the woman/girls. If soldiers got what they wanted from the women then the vehicle would be able to continue the ride. In these situations women were scared of fighting back for themselves and knew if they spoke up nothing but bad would come out of it. This also relates to the book we read called “A Streetcar Named Desire” where women faced all the same injustices as in the Kite Runner.
Sadie: In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the portrayal of women shifts from the traditional, one-dimensional view to one in which the women are equally if not more complex characters than the men. We have the two main female characters, Stella and Blanche portrayed in different lights. Stella represents the more traditional view of women. She is mostly docile and subservient and it seems she doesn’t hold a fraction of the power that Stanley does in their relationship. On the other hand, Blanche is the stereotypical hysterical female character. She is dramatic, manipulative, and gets caught in multiple lies. While showing women as complex characters with their own issues and emotions is important, these polar opposite portrayals continue to skew the perception of and disempower women.
Mae: I think having watched the movie and the book, I thought Blanche was crazy but after analyzing all of her actions and motives it really makes sense why she acted the way she did.
Sadie: I agree because Blanche felt a lot of pressure to be beautiful while trying to achieve the best social status but with that, she felt as though she had to impress Stanley all the time which in the end made her go crazy.
Mae: The last scene in the movie will be one that I won’t be able to forget. Stanley is so frustrated with Blanche being there and taking time away from Stella and him that he rapes her out of anger. Because of all of his pent-up sexual frustration, he figures this is the best way to assert his power. I don’t even need to explain how wrong this is but this shows the reality women had to face so men could own all the power. People who want power will take power from wherever they can get it. People want power because it makes them feel good about themselves. Without power over others then they dislike who they are. That is why Stanley controls the woman in his life so they have no say.
Sadie: Throughout all these books they all have the same pattern and really highlight all the injustices each different woman had to face. But I agree with you, watching the scene with Blanche and Stanley really showed a completely new perspective of how it was back then.
Mae: And not only woman can face these injustices because going back to the Kite Runner, Hassan became a victim of racism, rape, and oppression. These dramas really help to show the severity and the lengths men went to, to feel like they can own anyone especially younger boys.
Sadie: Men are gross but it’s not like they have stopped acting that way now.
Mae: Thank you for addressing that, men need to take a step down and have the woman be in charge and be the boss.
Sadie: I totally agree with you.
Mae: Anyway, another character in a different book called the Fences also dealt with all the injustices we have mentioned today in the different segments. The Fences is about the life of Troy Maxson, a former Negro League baseball star who has a powerful figure which causes him to assert control in his life through his relationships with his wife and son.
Sadie: Troy’s wife, Rose, is the only female character in Fences with a comparable presence to the male characters. While the time period in which the novel takes place may contribute to the hues of sexism prevalent in the portrayal of Rose, the subservient portrayal of women is harmful nonetheless. The character of Rose is a male-fantasized and domestic housewife. This portrayal pushes the notion that women are supposed to be obedient to their husbands. We see many instances throughout the play where Troy talks disrespectfully to Rose. There is one instance where he calls for her and when she doesn’t come running to him, he says “You’re supposed to come when I call you, woman.” To this Rose replies by mocking the way he talks to her, telling him to shut his mouth and not talk to her like a dog. Though it may seem minuscule, dialogue like this begins to show women in a feministic light, despite the obvious oppression during the 1950s, when the play takes place.
Mae: I can’t believe men think they have the right to say things like that. It is disgusting and gross to call a woman like that to come over. Rose and Troy have completely different personalities which explains how he acts towards her. Rose represents the gentleness in the household and love. In opposition to Troy’s toughness and disrespect for Cory’s feelings and opinions, Rose is a source of understanding. Troy Maxson goes through life feeling compelled to assert his superiority over the people he knows. This leads to a downward trend with negative repercussions and eventually strips him of everything he ever loved. He loses Rose and his son Cory. In Fences by August Wilson, Troy Maxson’s desire to be dominant with his two sons and his friend Bono causes his life to be difficult, pushes his family away, and creates a lack of sympathy.
Sadie: The ways in which women have been portrayed in dramas and entertainment, in general, have undoubtedly changed over the years and greatly vary per culture. As we discussed earlier, in The Kite Runner women are portrayed as almost subhuman and are constantly oppressed by men and systems and groups in positions of power in Afghanistan like the Taliban. On the contrary, the portrayal of women in American novels like Streetcar and Fences shows women characters with more dimension yet still not comparable to the male characters. The cultural differences between Afghanistan and America are vastly different yet themes of oppression and mistreatment of women are universal.
Mae: Bye everyone, love you and I hope you enjoyed our podcast today! Let us know if you have any questions and if you enjoyed the classical music in the background.
About the author, Hopewell Valley Student Publications Network
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