How Women Are Represented in Get Carter
Glenda
Like most women in the film, Glenda is only viewed through the eyes of men, with men and for men. She is only seen as a sexual object who is there to please men on the orders of men. When she does these things they're on the order of Kinnear and she doesn't have a choice as whether she actually wants to do them or not. Even when she is providing Jack with information, this is on the order of Kinnear. Glenda and women in the film do not only benefit men but also benefit the audience as well. Well, only the heterosexual men in the audience as this film was made by straight males for straight males with the likes of straight males at heart and at focus. This was how many films were at this time in the 1970s. Thankfully today as a society we have moved on and women in film are able to take on dominant roles in film such as Katniss in the Hunger Games and Rey in the new Star Wars film.
The scene in the film where Carter makes his way into Kinnear's house, he sits around with the men who are all playing cards together. Glenda comes over and talks to him in a very flirtatious manner and she seduces him in this scene (or attempts to) while also wearing really revealing clothes too. Again, the fact she is doing this in the first place is on the orders of Kinnear. He basically owns her body and he can control her to do things as well, this shows that the 'Swinging Sixties' was a mere myth and it took a long time for women to actually finally be liberated. When she serves Carter a drink and gets it wrong, she is told off by Kinnear. When she asks Carter to put her glass down, she has to use her femininity to do so otherwise he probably wouldn't take an interest and would say no to her.
How Glenda is represented in this film shows how Britain in the 1970s is still a patriarchal society and women are really not liberated at all. Their only purpose is to serve men as they're seen as second class citizens and that they don't deserve any respect from the men in their lives. When we're introduced to Glenda, it's just shots of her body and not her whole frame. She's shot differently to the men in the scene in Kinnear's house and even when she is in the scene, she's always shot with a man. Glenda is never in a shot on her own, there are shots of Carter, Kinnear and Harry on their own in that shot but never Glenda, she's always with a man. Even when Glenda has something important to say to Carter about the Fletcher brothers and her boss Kinnear, he should realise that she's telling him important information and that he's being set up but because she's a woman he doesn't really take notice of her or what she is saying. Her voice is even drowned out by Kinnear telling Harry he'll raise him £600 in a game of cards, this is showing us that even when women have something important to say, it's never as important as anything men have to say, even if what they're saying at that time is just basic chatter about a bet in a card game.
When she's driving in the car with Carter, the camera is constantly on close ups of her body which are also from the POV of Carter. Right before they have sex we see close up shots of her bum and legs, this is solely for the pleasure of the straight heterosexual men in the audience, not women or gay men - there is nothing for them in this scene (or the entire film for that matter). At the end of the sex scene as well, Glenda just looks lifeless, depressed and almost like she's just dead inside. It is clear that Glenda really didn't want to perform these acts on Carter but she has no choice as she's the less powerful submissive female whereas he's the more dominant male in the situation. She is even ordered to do this by another male, Kinnear, for whom she works for (most likely against her will too - but she doesn't have the choice).
How Glenda is represented in this film shows how Britain in the 1970s is still a patriarchal society and women are really not liberated at all. Their only purpose is to serve men as they're seen as second class citizens and that they don't deserve any respect from the men in their lives. When we're introduced to Glenda, it's just shots of her body and not her whole frame. She's shot differently to the men in the scene in Kinnear's house and even when she is in the scene, she's always shot with a man. Glenda is never in a shot on her own, there are shots of Carter, Kinnear and Harry on their own in that shot but never Glenda, she's always with a man. Even when Glenda has something important to say to Carter about the Fletcher brothers and her boss Kinnear, he should realise that she's telling him important information and that he's being set up but because she's a woman he doesn't really take notice of her or what she is saying. Her voice is even drowned out by Kinnear telling Harry he'll raise him £600 in a game of cards, this is showing us that even when women have something important to say, it's never as important as anything men have to say, even if what they're saying at that time is just basic chatter about a bet in a card game.
When she's driving in the car with Carter, the camera is constantly on close ups of her body which are also from the POV of Carter. Right before they have sex we see close up shots of her bum and legs, this is solely for the pleasure of the straight heterosexual men in the audience, not women or gay men - there is nothing for them in this scene (or the entire film for that matter). At the end of the sex scene as well, Glenda just looks lifeless, depressed and almost like she's just dead inside. It is clear that Glenda really didn't want to perform these acts on Carter but she has no choice as she's the less powerful submissive female whereas he's the more dominant male in the situation. She is even ordered to do this by another male, Kinnear, for whom she works for (most likely against her will too - but she doesn't have the choice).
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