March 8, 2011 was the Centenary of the International Women’s Day. This means that each year, since 1911, people all around the world have been celebrating “economic, political, and social achievements of women, past, present, and future.”
This year, the theme was “Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women.” At 2:30 pm HST, the International Women’s Day 2011 website displayed 1720 registered events organized all over the world. The United Kingdom ranked first with 464 events.
While watching the news on TV5 Monde, a French channel, on Monday, I heard about a two minutes video released for the event and portraying agent 007, James Bond. In the video, agent 007 stands and “speaks” for women.
The atmosphere of and lighting used in the video are in respect of the Bond movie. Two identical, yet contrasting scenes convey strong audiovisual information that makes the two minutes video effective in communicating gender relations regarding women’s conditions.
Both scenes take place in a bare, dark room partly lit by a fixed spotlight. In both scenes, the camera progressively zooms in on 007. Thus, the viewer starts with a global view of the actor but ends up with a focused image of the male character, going from head to torso. Finally, in both scenes, the male character walks and stands while a female voice gives facts about women in the United Kingdom (UK). This scene reminded me Bond’s female boss when she gives him information about a case or target before sending him to mission. In this case, the target is womanhood.
Now, let us talk about the differences. In the first scene, 007, the man, walks slowly yet with confidence. Imperturbable, almost arrogant, and glancing around him, the male character walks forward. Besides, his trajectory goes from the left to the right of the fixed light before he actually stands in the center, hiding the light. This attitude and this trajectory create depth, thus giving the perception of a large space. Before leaving, 007 turns his head with a conquering look.
In the second scene, James Bond speaks out “what it feels like to be a woman.” How? His body language says it all. In this scene, the disguised man walks slowly, straight, with hesitation, and without glancing around him (I should say her). The breathing is faster, almost audible. Hence, contrary to the first scene, this attitude and trajectory create narrowness and the perception that the space is closed. Before leaving, the no-man, no-woman looks down.
What are the social implications of the communication content of this video? Well, I counted three mains implications. First, in this world a person is either male or female. There is no other alternative. Only then can a person learn about the opposite sex and determine if he/she is able to bear the burden of that other self. As presented in the second sequence of the video, men cannot bear women’s burden. They cannot even pretend they can do it. This statement is made when the disguised character, 007, removes the wig from his head and the earrings.
Second, men and women live and experience two opposite worlds. While men have more opportunities and chances to succeed, women are still left with limited opportunities. These two different worlds are respectively characterized by the large space and the narrow space created through the look of the performing character.
Finally, men do care about women, their well being. This statement is proved in the first scene where despite his physical calmness, 007 betrays his being nervous. While the female voice gives the facts, he is playing with his right thumb and index.
In conclusion, men do care about women. Even the most macho ones, do care about women. However, they know that they cannot and will never be like women and they feel powerless because they do not know where and how to start in order to help improve women’s condition. Even the successful and conquering male hero is clueless. In the last sequence of the video, remember that the character, 007, looks down while leaving.
No comments:
Post a Comment