Film Analysis: Hidden Figures

This essay is about the in-depth analysis of the film Hidden Figures. The film

highlights the racial discrimination of the time in America and is still present in America

to this day. The film's main characters are Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and

Dorothy Vaughan. They are depicted as black women who work in different

departments in NASA, a space agency. Dorothy is a woman who I would say be able to

cope in most circumstances due to her obedient and mature nature, but despite that,

she was denied the chance to work as a supervisor due to her lack of experience. While

Mary Jackson, on the other hand, is brilliant but a little condescending, and she aspires

to be both an engineer and scientist. But to top all of that, I believe the most intelligent

main character would be Katherine Johnson, as she was granted the position of being

the laboratory's first employee, which shows her intelligence and competence.

Despite their lives working in NASA, they have come across struggles. During

the time period in the film, it was the norm for prejudice to take place against men and

women of color, more so if you were a woman. Indication of this present in the film is

when the main characters are referred to as colored throughout the film. It started off as

name-calling, but as the film progressed, it became more prevalent of the prejudices.

There were instances where they blatantly ignored them because of their race. But also

the struggles they faced in a patriarchal work environment during those times felt
oppressed as a woman, and because of these struggles have led to a negatively

significant impact on their health and opportunities.

The factors that affected these women's struggles are plentiful, but I would like to

state a few important ones. I believe one of the factors that led to their struggles is the

normalizing of gender roles and blatant racial discrimination due to their historical past.

This has led to the breeding grounds for indifference and animosity. The women

regarded themselves in the story heavily due to the environment they grew up in. Due to

them being part of the ethnic minority, they have to carry a disproportionate share of

problems. Unfortunately, these instances continue to be prevalent in today's society.

Even after laws and regulations have been set up to prevent such actions and ideation

from spreading, it still persists. Racism and prejudice against other beings based on

race are still quite prevalent. An example of this is Anti-Semitism against the people of

Asia, which has become worse due to the effects of the pandemic and where it

originated and has become the leading reason for Anti-semitism in other countries. A

good instance of this is on June 28, 2022; AP news reported over 2700 Antisemitic

incidents for 2021 due to the pandemic. Because of this prejudice and unreasonable

hate, Asians are not able to feel safe in foreign nations around the world.

The main characters made a plan that included effort and the perseverance of

the women. A plan to overcome the struggles and adversities they faced using the

following ideations. I believe that if they were overwhelmingly competent and

knowledgeable, they would be recognized no matter what, and so they did just that and

later would prove to others they were truly competent and superior. With this plan, they

would be able to lower the animosity and intolerance against them and feel a sense of

solidarity and the feeling of being included while providing significant contributions to the

space agency.

I believe when it comes down to gender discrimination in the workplace, we

should suggest or promote a bill of legislation that protects the rights of everyone in the

workplace regardless of gender. For this legislation to be properly upheld, I would like to

establish an independent governmental agency so it can deal with the incoming

complaints. Aside from this, I believe that to fix a problem in society, we should first

come to its roots, and since that kind of gender discrimination has become a part of the

work culture, I believe the Education and holding of seminars not only for children but

working professional adults is a must. It is to enlighten and warn people of doing some

from discrimination in a professional environment. A good example of this

Implementation is Japan's Educational system, where they teach young kinds from the

infantile range to the elementary stage about courtesy and etiquette as a way to show

respect. This should be the standard we should hold to counter gender discrimination to

teach at a young age how to be respectful to people regardless of gender.

Before watching the film, I believed that the racism against African - American

was better and had gained rights to prevent this kind of hate from manifesting but after
watching the film, I believe that even though there are laws preventing this hate crime to

committed, there subtle ways to show such prejudice such as blatantly ignoring not

giving a specific race an opportunity because I now realized even though there are laws

to prevent instances of this from happening if the root of the problem is not eradicated

then it will only repeat if racism is ingrained in a person at a young age, it will only

spread the prejudice more so. I believe that we should first educate and foremost before

setting up more legislation. Another instance would be before watching the film, I

thought gender discrimination did not really affect the workplace, but after watching the

film, I now know that it has more impact on your work life and environment than you

think. The loss of opportunities due to this form of prejudice is depraving and quite

depressing, which showed me why we should give more importance to the fight against

gender discrimination. Another learning and might be the most important one is that we

all should work together and actively help and protect minorities and the affected from

any form of hate pointed towards them is our responsibility to create an orderly and

peaceful environment for all.