The Manifestation and Development of Femininity in 21st Century Cinema: A Gendered Reading of Divergent (2014) and Aliens (1986) Anonymous College

The movie titled Divergent (2014) can be seen and analyzed as a groundbreaker if considering the gendered readings in connection with it. The movie is based on Veronica Roth’s bestseller book series and follows the increasing tendency of having a heroine who has traditionally masculine features, just like in the case of Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games. In this way, masculinity, femininity, and the question of identity are introduced. In this essay, the development of femininity is analyzed in the 21st century cinematic representations through Divergent while also introducing the basic gender stereotypes and refuting those based on the character of Tris. Besides Divergent, analyzing James Cameron’s Aliens (1986) will also offer a new dimension to look at the human – most precisely, female – body and the self from Hollywood’s fighting heroine point of view (Tasker 14).

First of all, it has to be stated that these movies are not tools for rebellion but more likely a ground for change that can be seen throughout many other American films recently. They stand for a lot of things that go against the original gender-stereotyped way of representation in cinema, such as, “challenging social hegemony of class division and...