Second Entry

Devin Lewis

Blog Entry #2

Weeks 3

During week three we took a slight shift in gears in what we were learning, we were still learning about personas and how they helped the actors and actresses become more noticed in the industry. But now we started talking about different categories of people and their personas, basically which group they fit into. So basically we stepped back from looking adjust Marilyn Monroe and then we started looking at other stars in the industry, to see how they would be portrayed in their movies, and the main star that we focused on was Marlene Dietrich. Dietrich, she changed the idea of women in the film industry during this era because in this time women were known for using their bodies and their sexuality to help them further their careers. But Dietrich was able to change this stereotype because her character in Blonde Venus was a more mysterious women but still were able to use her body just a little bit to get what she wanted. Dietrich’s character was just a women who was able to be mysterious but was still able to get what she truly desired and that was to be loved. This showed us that women could be seen in a different light and how women could manipulate men, and this was by her character being a Femme Fatale character. A Femme Fatale is basically translated to dangerous woman, and this gave a whole new perception and connotation to women in this industry; this is because they went against the norms of women being able to out think and over smarting men trying to get what they want. This goes against the norm because at this time in society, the society was still very patriarchal and ran by men in this country and want them to be seen as the dominant sex. But with Dietrich doing this, it went against everything that the community and society stood for at this time. And with this it gave women a sense of empowerment because it showed them that they were able to stand and fight against the patriarchal society they lived in but  they just needed a push or a helping hand to help guide them into taking a steps towards a world of equality and gender neutrality in the way we live in the states. Also we talked about how stars wanted to have different stories so they tried to be unique in their own ways. The stars wanted to find their own path with their life, they wanted to separate from their costar counterparts in the film industry.

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