The Representation of Gender and Gender Stereotypes in Ghostbusters Anonymous College

Ghostbusters was released in 2016, starring Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, and Leslie Jones. The film challenged typical stereotypes in the first place by placing women in the center, while also depicting men in ways that are normally applied to women – for example, in the case of Kevin, who is attractive and comic but also needs to be rescued. The movie certainly challenges the beliefs about what men and women typically do and how they feel or behave.

First of all, the definition of representation itself offers a solid basis for analyzing the movie from the point of view of gender and gender stereotypes. According to Hall, “representation means using language to say something meaningful about, or to represent, the world meaningfully, to other people” (Hall 81). This representation is, however, not only an important factor because of what viewers can take away from witnessing that strong female characters can be intelligent, think for themselves and save themselves – or in this case, the world, as well –, but also because of the mere fact that those characters are, in fact females. According to Smith, Choueiti, and Piper, “Women comprise only 33.5% of speaking roles in Hollywood films in 2015” (Smith, Choueiti,...