Name

Instructor

Course

Working Thesis and Bibliography

Date

Working Title: Gender and Sexuality in the Fairy world

Film: Maleficent (2014)

Aspect working within: Represents Gender and Sexuality issues, including women

empowerment and patriarchy.

Working Thesis: The film industry has prevalently proliferated gender inequality through themes

that promote gender inequality and patriarchy. In the movie, Maleficent (2014), gender

inequality and patriarchy are articulated by the relationship between characters and their actions

towards each other, resulting in gender inequality.

Outline:

First Main Point: The main character portrays leadership and heroic roles. In this case, the

character is put in a ruling and heroic position, giving the viewer a more feminist view.
Supporting scene(s): Maleficent is the ruler of the enchanted fairyland of Moors.

Maleficent protects and makes choices on behalf of all the creatures in Moors.

Maleficent leads the attack on King Stefan.

Second Main Point: Other characters deliberately oppress female characters due to patriarchy,

which leads to gender inequality.

Supporting scene(s): King Stefan betrays maleficent.

King Stefan steals Maleficent’s wings.

Maleficent’s anger leads her to curse King Stefan’s daughter, Princess Aurora, to prick her finger

on a spinning wheel and fall into an endless sleep.

Third main point: The unity of female characters such as Maleficent and Princess Aurora is

perceived to close the gender inequality gap and end patriarchy.

Supporting scene(s): Maleficent takes care of Princess Aurora and forms a motherly bond.

Maleficent kisses Princess Aurora on her forehead, which turns out to be a true love kiss that

saves her from the curse.

Maleficent takes back her wings and gets revenge by killing King Stefan.

Princess Aurora learns about Maleficent’s side of the story. Finally, she can understand

Maleficent’s evilness and forgives her for the curse she put on her.

Princess Aurora takes Maleficent’s side and fights alongside her.

Bibliography:

Ahmed, Sara. The Cultural Politics of Emotion. NED - New edition, 2 ed., Edinburgh University

Press, 2014. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g09x4q. Accessed 18 Aug. 2020.

Bennion-Nixon, Lee-Jane. “We Still Need a Woman for the Job: The Warrior Woman,

Feminism, and Cinema in the Digital Age.” Senses of Cinema. Issue 57, December 2010.

Dean, James Joseph. “Gays and Queers: From the Centering to the Decentering of

Homosexuality in American Films.” Sexualities. Vol. 10, no. 3, 2007, pp. 363-386.

Garnets, Linda D. “Sexual Orientations in Perspective.” Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority

Psychology, vol. 8, no. 2, 2002, pp. 115-129. doi:10.1037/1099-9809.8.2.115

Pick, Anat. “New Queer Cinema and Lesbian Films” Edited by Aaron Michele. New Queer

Cinema: A Critical Reader. Edinburgh University Press, 2004. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctvxcrw2f. Accessed 18 Aug. 2020.

Risman, Barbara J. “Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism.” Gender and

Society, vol. 18, no. 4, 2004, pp. 429–450. JSTOR,

Smith, Stacy L., and Crystal Allene Cook. “Gender Stereotypes: An Analysis of Popular Films

and TV.” The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, 2008.