Women in Get Carter

How are women represented in the films you have studied in this topic?

The film Get Carter is a true reflection of how women were treated in 1960 society, it stays true of Laura Mulveys ‘Male Gaze’ theory, in which she stated that women were placed on screen only for male pleasure, either that of the character on screen, or the audience watching, her belief was that mean have the active role, where as women are treated as passive. This film proves Mulveys theory to be true through the representation of 3 different characters in the film, Edna, Anna and Glenda.
Glenda is the first character we see in the film, however immediately she is dominated by Carter by the simple use of framing, charter is standing at the window staring out, and Glenda is sitting behind him in the background of the frame, connoting her unimportance. Glenda plays an active role in the narrative of the film, however as soon as her purpose is fulfilled in revealing some of the plot, she is easily disposed of. Along with the other two women Glenda represents how women in the 60’s were objectified by men, and only used as sexual objects, this is shown when Carter has his first meeting with Kinnear, Glenda is used as an object by Kinnear as he wants her to sleep with carter in order to distract him. We see this immediately take action due to the provocative nature of Glenda, she sits provocatively with her legs exposed, this further backs up the ‘Male Gaze’ theory, as we know she is only seen as an erotic object for the men. Glenda’s face is hardly shown in this specific clip, and when it is, its never shown alone, she’s always surrounded by men, we never really hear her speak either, however when we do her voice is quickly drowned out by the sound of Kinnear, this presents to audience how submissive women were, and how no matter what men were always seen as the dominating sex.

The next woman we see to be a perfect representation of women’s attitude in the 60s is Edna. Edna id the landlady who’s house Carter is staying in, almost immediately we can see how much Edna is dominated by Carter, simply from the line “make us a cup of tea” this presents how Edna’s role in the film is to look after Carter and take care of him, however, it also represents how women were thought to have been ‘domesticated’ and only fit for house old duties, this is the role in which men viewed women in 1960’s society, the presentation of this in the film shows that although women fought for liberation in the 60’s it was not immediately successful and women were still seen as the weaker and less powerful of the two sexes, in conclusion, Edna’s main purpose in the film is to represent the typical ‘house wife’ role of women in society.

The final character use to connote ideas about 1960’s society is Anna. Anna is only seen once in the film, however her one scene presents a lot to audience about how women are used as sexual objects, the scene also further proves the ‘Male Gaze’ theory to be true. In the scene, when we first see Anna, she is topless, before moving to the bed and getting a phone call from Carter. Carter cannot see Anna, so there is no apparent reason for us to see her topless, however this proves that, if women are not used for the sexual pleasure of characters, then they are used for the sexual pleasure of audience, as we see her voyeuristically.

In conclusion to this, The film Get Carter greatly represents how although women fought for liberation in the 60s when the film was set, the process was slow, and they were still viewed as the submissive, domesticated women, whereas men were viewed as dominant.