Child Psychology Film Analysis Assignment Help

1. Provide basic information about the movie, and a sense of what your review will be about. Include:

2. Brief (1-2 sentences) introduction to the movie. Don't go in great details. 

3. Make sure to discuss the movie's thesis / theme / purpose?

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Introduction

“Iron Jawed Angels” is the movie selected for analysis in the current part of the report. The movie is all about the struggle for equality and fight to eliminate gender discrimination in availing the legitimate rights in the nation. The movie is a celluloid depiction of Alice Paul and her agitation for getting women citizen ship as well to gain voting rights (Ford, 2018) by women in the country. The movie centers on the fierce struggle by Alice Paul and few other protestors against the conservative forces in the nation in materializing the nineteenth amendment (Kay, 2018) to the constitution. The current write-up analysis more the psychological patterns depicted in the movie with more support from the theoretical basis and will provide more insights into the relation between the theoretical framework of psychology and the actual movie depictions by the director and the actors. The central theme of the movie is the fight for gender equality (Breitenbach et al., 2016) and struggle of legitimate voting rights by women. The analysis presented in the following part of the write-up contained in presentation of content from two different perspectives, the first is from psychological perspective and the second is from the general perspective. However still the message of the movie, the impact of the same, possible inspiration to the new generation, appreciation of the cinematic values makes up the analysis and review in the following parts. There is special focus on the analysis that worked on to focus and highlight several psychological frameworks within the framework of feminism (Rouse, 2018). 

Analysis:

Explanation of the movie

“Iron Jawed Angels” is the metamorphic title employed to refer the strong will and rare commitment for the cause and the strength of the feminists fighting the movie for their legitimate rights for women citizenship. The director and the writer were successful in bringing out the title to resemble well the overall spirit of the struggle in the movie.  The movie is directed by German filmmaker Katja Von Garnier, which made the original film for HBO productions. The movie is inspired by the original story of key milestone in the history of America. The lead role of the movie is the real depiction of the Alice Paul play who is an American feminist and fought risking her own life for the cause of women’s citizenship. She is instrumental in establishing the separatist National women’s party in the country. Alice Paul has written the first draft for amendment of the constitution and presented the same for congress to consider.  Another social reformer and feminist who joined Alice in the struggle for equality is Lucy Burns and both of them played a key role in turning the events for historical turn in United States of America. It happened for Paul to fight with the conservative forces very intensely to materialize the 19th amendment for the constitution (Helms, 2016).  There are several instances of expression of the resentment and appeal for equality. The first of them is the parade during the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, the president of United States of America. There was opposition faced by them even from the old guard of National American Women’s Suffrage association. The feminists got arrested and then they went for hunger strike, which obtained maximum attention from the public of the nation. Their commitment and strength is reflected in their refusal for eating and this spirit has derived them the recognition by getting the name of iron Jawed angels. 

The movie started to the set the stage by the starting the events occurred in the fall of 1912. The start up of the movie indicates the ideological differences in the feministic approaches towards equality. There is a divide seen within National American Woman Suffrage Assn(Little,2019), one still adhering to the old guard by Carrie Chapman Catt and the other by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns. While Carrie supported the content to allow the legislation based on state by state consideration, the other team wanted a mandatory amendment to the constitution. This changeover and questioning the leadership to make NAWSA and subsequent takeover of reins under different title as national women’s party marks the change of operations of NAWSA from a simple ladies club to an activist group. This part of the division carefully represented the difference in opinion mainly between the two generations of the women, the orthodoxy and conservative old generation like Carrie and the new generation who are carving for more freedom and equality(Hume,2016). 

The total movie theme consists of the happenings right from the formation of the split in NAWSA and take over the same to the final materialization of the nineteenth amendment to provide voting rights to the Women in 1920. In-between these two milestones, several dramatic developments that turned and made the shape and profile of the movement make up the key content of the movie. Notable events in-between these turning points in the movie include, discussion and interventions of the male counter parts of the female roles, who are either chauvinistic or liberal intellectuals as well.  The feminine activists shown in the movie have sacrificed their family, children and personal life to achieve what they wanted in life and their dedication is shown well in several scenes of the movie progression. The struggle for equality has not actually a cakewalk, there are several twists and turns that originated and escalated the formation of conflicts in the movie. For example Emily Leighton role is representative of women who are not supportive to the cause of the struggle at the outset. She is wife of a senator and is not interested to join the struggle at the beginning. Her reluctance to join the movement has become the source of conflict and manifested in self doubt in the agitation. However in the due course of time, it got overcame and the movement continues. 

Some of the strong scenes in the movie are the times of the World War I, where in the suffragettes brazenly started protesting the president Woodrow Wilson in front of the white house. There were jeers by the pedestrians and passers, but the protest continues. It is one of the catchy and impressive representations of the protest by suffragettes.

At several occasions of the movie there is better indication of the psychological maturity of women in the movie, there is clear depiction of the female friendship as well as solidarity for the cause and vision too. They got highly inspired for the cause of the mission and shared the spirit equally and reflected the same in the fight throughout in the movement progression. 

Finally the feministic protestors were arrested by trumped charges and based on these charges, they were arrested and prisoned. In the prison the protestors start hunger strike and faces violent tortures as well as force feeding to nullify their agitation. It was not known to the general public apart from other inmates of the Occoquan workhouse. However when the suffragettes were subjected to the force feed by raw-egg and milk by paid guards of the prison, there is witness to the scene, Emily, wife of one of the senators of the congress that time. When at later time, senator visits his wife in the prison, she managed to pass the entire information to the senator and finally it reaches the public and the public cry made Wilson to call for an action and all the protestors Alice, Lucy and others got released from the prison. The dramatic events that occurred in between include pressure mounting on the president from national and international agencies to pass the rights. NAWSA finally joined NWP and this added to the national pressures. International press insisting the president to consider the ratification of the rights of women rights in line with the developments in Europe called for president initiatives to approve the change. Also the dramatic telegrams received by the Tennessee senator from his mother during the ratification of the bill, and his changeover of the will resulted in the final approval of the bill and for granting the rights for the women to vote in the country.  The dedication and fight by the suffragettes finally drawn the interests and approval of all stakeholders and paved way to materialize the women citizenship and voting rights.

The key observations in the movie include conflict between the traditional norms and the change. The resistance to change is seen from the psychology and response of NAWSA leaders in not accepting the advances of Lucy and Paul and resulting in bisection of the Assn and eventually forming the AWP. The persistence and courageous actions of Alice and Burns worked on to get depicted in the formation of a  struggle for freedom and rights and spirits of zeal for equality and freedom have played a key role in shaping the dedicated and commitment fight by them for the cause. The landmarks in the movie include the mental and physical abuses of the agitators in prison after they participated in the protest at the white house gates. The movie presented well the dominant norms and views prevailing at the times of the movie further there is careful indication of the gender roles and their role in materializing the equality and rights for women in the movie. Race, gender, class and citizenship are some of the psychological aspects of importance shown thoroughly in the movie progression. Reductive and transformative potentialities making up the hegemony and the collaborative change of the events in the era makes up the key part of the movie. The reflection on the lives of the women from the start of the 20th century and continuation of the core values till today makes up the central plot of the movie.

Analysis:

Psychological perspective

The movie got applauds and is screened in Sundance film festival in 2004 and later is screened in television premieres of HBO. It is a worthy subject of historical significance as well the intentions of the movie are quite noble too. However the movie is slightly melodramatic, the level of emotions is little bit more exaggerated than in the reality, nevertheless it adds to the overall strength of the drama narration and noble intentions expected to get conveyed to the viewers through the movie.

From psychological perspective of critique, the movie is successfully in bringing forward the core theme of struggle for gender equality. Gender discrimination by not awarding women citizenship is the root cause of the agitation and resentment from women community.

Theoretical basis

It is against the international human rights to involve in gender stereotyping(Fiske, 2018) and gender stereotypes. Ethical and moral principles form the basis for gender stereotyping, gender based discrimination is unaccepted and equality in treatment and consideration for all genders makes up the basis for the theory of gender stereotyping and for elimination of the discrimination. The plight of the struggle in the movie synchronizes with the contemporary human rights commission’s philosophy to eliminate the discrimination based on genders. Gender stereotyping (Morales et al., 2016) in the form of refraining the women citizenship and curbing their voting rights is limiting the capacity of women to take choice in their own lives. It is violation of fundamental freedom rights of women. This gender stereotyping activity is rightly questioned and fought against by feminist community in the story; this implicit discrimination if allowed to continue will change the behavior and attitudes of the female population forever.  Incongruity theory of bias can be said to be basis for the continuation of the current trend and behavior in the gender discrimination and continuation of the same since long times, the possible risk and hostile reactions that the people can face when they do not confirm to the routine gender stereotyping makes up the basis for the continuation of the current discrimination in the society for a long time. Benevolent sexism, where in the women are just treated and confined to maternal and domestic realms is traditionally supported by men in the society. Egalitarian values of people are mostly limited to oral oaths, actually when it comes to the elimination and supporting the gender bias, people are not as committed as they are expected to be, the movie successfully pictured the same by indicating the long fight which the key roles in the movie faced in getting their dreams fulfilled. The lead roles struggled for enforce accountability in the systems for gender equality, impose and sustain the fairness in culture. Worked on to screen out the bias, question objectivity in the policies, achieved mitigation of identity disparities based on gender.

The stigma of gender isolation, disengagement and self silencing are some of the traits which normally seen in the nation from long times of gender discrimination (England,2017). The milestone in the form of the ninth amendment worked on to stop this ailment and turned the attitude towards proactive progression. A change in perspectives and the change in the policy have created a framework towards social belongingness (Bergin,2016) (by being considered equally as men and taking up an equal role in the society) this can result in value affirmation(Howell,2017) in female gender in the society.  Feminism, which makes up the philosophy for empowering women in the society and thereby to eradicate sexism and women lives betterment, makes up the central theme of this movie. The characters in the role followed the equality feministic route map to achieve the ultimate equality of the roles; difference feminism (Mansbridge, 2017) is not embraced by them it is just the case of fight for equality and liberal feminism (Prakaso, 2015) is the theme of the movie. There is no emphasis on special consideration for females for their specific and special characteristics. First wave feminism which emphasizes the political equality made up the plot of the movie, there is no much agitation towards social, political and cultural inequalities and it is all about the political equality.  The revolt is mainly from the hard core suffragists and the feminist groups. The revolt can be considered to be a revolt against oppression (Ali and Gordon, 2018) barring them to enter into the public spheres. As a part of their movement, it happened for them to face the public and private harassment. The psychological portrayal of society, during the movement included denial of mental, physical and emotional connectivity with these women with the fear of portrayal as weak is covered commendably.  Historical subservience (Belliottim2016), patriarchal society from several generations, just keeping women subordinated is the legacy questioned and revolted against in the movie. Other not very emphasized facts in the movie include showing the mundane interests of the agitators like Lucy Burns include desire to have a partner and a family in life. This interest makes up the portrayal of the zeal just as a desire to be equal to the men, not to exhibit domination. Other features like racial bias(Hill et al.,2016), where in blacks are not at the receiving end, preference given to the white women first to get voting makes up interesting and significant issues shown in the movie. 

Chauvinism (Fenrich et al.,2019) shown in the context of wife of the senator and refraining from joining the struggle and moving ahead in the later times. Another incident of proactive change depicted when one of the senator casted his vote in the favor of the bill after getting a letter from his mother. Persistence and sheer determination and strength of the psychology of women shown during their resistance to force feeding in the prisons.

General Perspective

The movie is successful in bringing forward the reality of plight of the people participated in the agitation and also is successful in bringing on to the screen, the real fear, real feeling and real situational factors on to the screen. The movie is successful in bringing the strong characters on to the screen. The characterization and screenplay of all the major character roles in the movie was done meticulously good and appreciably. Hilary Swank, as Alice Paul should be given the first appreciation for her commendable performance in the movie. She brought life to the Alice Paul character in the movie. Frances O’ Connor as Lucy Burns played an equally meritorious role and played the role of accomplice of Alice Paul in the movie. Robbie Greenberg played an intelligent cinematography role by bringing back the history on to the celluloid, much to do with the type of set-ups and other equipment employed in those days and bringing them to light on to the screen make up the reality more closely and viewer gets a unique experience. Being feminists and their attachments towards loyalty, disagreements, violence and personal sacrifice makes up the story them and is done to meet its objectives wonderfully. 

Non-violent Resistance to oppression is the channel selected and succefully employed by the lead roles in the movie to achieve the equality they are looking for. It took a long time to change the intransigence of the male centered government of United States of America that time and worked on to change the philosophy, Suffragist militancy is the word employed to appropriately describe the seriousness of the fight of iron jawed angels and movie can be a good historical overview of new generation people (Roberts and Elfer, 2018)

Basically Garnier employed the documentary drama type of presentation in the current movie. He employed the caring and the sorrow in the movie is beautifully conveyed by using the right combination of real life and music. Emotions will get hiked in the movie during scenes like refusal of feeding in the prison by Alice Paul, Lucy Burns and others.  Two aspects of the agitation between 1912 to 1920, the enthusiasm towards a new path of life and towards a new optimistic vision for life is beautifully depicted and the second part of the agitation is the suffering experienced by the feminists, the  loss of family, the physical and mental agony faced during the oppression.  Iron Jawed Angels worked on present well the start of the turn of the change in the ideology, the friction and change from the veteran activists for equality and with new generation suffragists makes up the starting scene of the movie and in several occasions the agitators are shown like much ahead of the new generations, they are more like twenty first century female. 

Some of the scenes of psychological significance, which portrays the change of the psychology of people with time and how they do get convinced to fight for the cause inspite of bitter opposition at first are decently managed to get shown in the movie. It is a depiction of real psychology of people. Angels are shown as people with fears, insecurities and doubts co-existing along with the anger, commitment and passion for change. They are just like any other human beings but with different levels of dedication and commitment for the cause and are ready for self sacrifice for the noble vision.  They are ready to take up this risk and willing to sacrifice for the objectives of the mission. There are instances where in the people who are afraid of angering their husbands and refrained from joining the movement and finally got their consciousness raised and came to join in the movement and started fighting for their rights. 

The movie has all the features that can inspire the viewers and is good to watch the same with children particularly girls, who can draw the inspiration, the zeal and capacity to stand for their rights.  Further, the brutality in prisons during the force feeding on the agitators can have strong psychological impact over the viewers and this inturn will draw appreciation towards the sacrifices made by the pioneering feminists in the history. 

Conclusion

Finally it is a daring and successful act of pushing the boundaries by enabling the voting rights for women and enabling the political equality as well. The struggle against the suffocation by endangering their own lives by two angels remained splendid in the history of United States and it will remain inspirational to everyone who watched the movie. One thing that is sure in this historical timeline is the fact that the agitation is not just for the sake of voting rights, it is a change towards the equality in several aspects, it is a dawn of struggle for equality in social, economic and political domains. It is a move towards comprehensive change for gender equality. Still the people are not same and the rights of equality were not achieved between the two genders, if the struggle has not initiated that time, even this level of current equality would not have been achieved.  The Iron Jawed Angels when viewed from non-cinematic values, there is needed to focus on few psychological values; the first is the fact that the psychology of the oppressed classes and historical fact of revolt and unstoppable resentment is vehemently clear in the movie. The second is the fact that the psychology of the agitators as unique combination of determination and commitment with common person fears, desires and ambitions makes up a picture of reality. However still Garnier successfully managed to bring the gender inequality, oppression, stereotyping, feminism, chauvinism, psychology change, fear, apprehensions brutality all on to the screen successfully. The movie exemplified the theory of gender stereotyping and feministic struggle for freedom and equality with high cinematic and screen play standards.