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Women, cinema and society: A Stereotypical Portrayal of Women in Cameroon

Cinema

SIBENSON SHIELA NYAH

UBa21AP037

University of Bamenda

TTFA7210 Culture and Media

Prof. Muluh Henry

31st may 2022

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Women, cinema and society: A Stereotypical Portrayal of Women in Cameroon Cinema

Introduction

For a woman to build up a significant career in the media industry, she has to navigate through
the archetype of the film director being a man’s privilege (Jean,2012). In a male-dominated
industry, women pursuing careers within the industry were primarily actors. This trend has
changed in recent years with women making their mark as directors, producers editors and
screenwriters but their numbers are still much smaller in comparison to their male counterparts.
Women are thus very sparse in number behind the scenes of this film industry. In an industry
with so few women working within it, it seems fair to assume that the portrayal of women
onscreen by male directors and other male professionals will have gender biases and constraints
and may not necessarily explore women’s worldviews, perceptions and subjective realities. What
roles women play onscreen is more often than not, the male director’s notion of what roles
women ought to be playing. This notion is based on the director’s beliefs, attitudes and values,
combined with what the director thinks viewers want to see. What viewers want to watch is
something that conforms to their beliefs, attitudes and values, which come from the social
framework within which they live, which is the same social framework in which directors, live.
At a time when women seem to have broken free from the shackles of patriarchy and family set-
up into the world, and are ready to challenge stereotypes, it is surprising that this social change is
yet to be portrayed in a majority of Cameroon films. The phrase “portrayal of women” could
refer to both women pursuing film careers offscreen and actresses onscreen. The study focuses
only on the onscreen roles of lead actresses.

This study seeks to answer the following questions: What kind of roles have women been
playing in Cameroon cinema over the last decade? What is the fundamental nature of these
roles? The subject of this study can be placed within the framework of Feminist media theory,
while using textual analysis of the selected films as suitable methodology. The films understudy
are: The Fisherman’s Dairy (2020), Ninah’s Dowry (2012) Bed of Thorns (2018), Kiss of Death
(2016)

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Feminist Media Theory

According to McDougall (2012), Feminist Media Theory is a complex range of approaches.
Central to this range of approaches is the questioning of powerful gender norms that are
reinforced to a greater or lesser extent in media and the relationship between media
representation of gender and inequalities in broader social life. At the center of this theory is the
concept of feminism. McDougall (2012,p.178), stated that the word is often misunderstood as an
extreme, militant politics. “Feminism is nothing more outrageous than the belief that we should
oppose media texts that represent women as in-equal to men or as mere unthinking objects for
male scrutiny.” Scholars like Humm (1992,p.403) explained that historically, people and
movements have been called feminists when they recognized the connections between social
inequalities, deprivations and oppressions and gender differences. To McQuail (2010), the
concept of feminism is a political as well as a cultural project.
According to many feminist scholars, the mass media have the power to influence people’s
thinking and for that reason, certain stereotype representation of women have the tendencies of
encouraging some of the stereotype representations of women to thrive in the society. McQuail
(2010,p.123) outlined the following which form the basis for the argument in the feminist media
theory:
 Media have marginalized women in the public sphere.
 Media purvey stereotypes of feminity and masculinity.
 Production of content of media are gendered.
 Female perspective offers alternative criteria of equal.
 The personal is political.
 Media offer positive and supportive as well as negative role models.

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Stereotypical portray of women in selected films

There is no disputing the fact that the media mirror’s society. This therefore means that
representation in Cameroon films is a subtle suggestion to the world that this is exactly what is
happening in Cameroon. The question is do the actually depict the current image of a Cameroon
woman? Barber (1987) said “The views that ordinary people express may be false consciousness,
but they are also their consciousness . . . conservative and misogynist, and sometimes
frivolous . . . the people’s arts represent what people do in fact think, believe, and aspire to.” The
stereotypical representations of women in selected films as exemplified below are actually as a
result of Socio-cultural and historical factors – the power structure in society, patriarchy and the
dominance of male fantasy that governed the Cameroon society. Some of the stereotypical
portrayal of women in Cameroon films include: housewife, object of barter, victims of sexual
violence, illiteracy among women.
The housewife
This is the most favored stereotype in Cameroon Cinema, the housewife exists only to support
her husband and children. In line with the patriarchal nature of the society, a good wife by
Cameroon standards is one that is totally submissive to the husband in his struggles in life. This
is limited to taking care of the house or the kitchen as many men will say a woman’s place is in
the kitchen. We see this role being played by Ninah in Ninah’s Dairy, Eka in Fisherman’s Dairy,
Bih in Bed of Thorns and Nayah in Kiss of Death
The object of barter
This represents women as objects that can be used for exchange by their parents when
indebted to a rich man and cannot pay. In some cases, it is as a result of the parent’s greed for
material things that they will compel daughter to marry the man she does the not like. This is
seen in the films Ninah’s Dowry where Ninah’s father barter to Memfi in echange of 50.000frs
he borrowed to buy zinc. In Bed of Thorns Bih’s uncle gives her to Bobe Tohsam in echange to
the debt he owes him, same in The Fisherman’s Dairy where Eka’s uncle uses her to cover up his
debt with Sule. Not leaving out Kiss of Death where Nayah faces the same faith in the hands of
her Father.
Victims of Sexual violence
This stereotype portrays women as easy targets for sexual violence by men. In most cases, the
helpless girls thrown into early marriage are defenseless in face of these men who ends up using

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them to satisfy their sexual gratifications. There is a reoccurrence of rape scenes in the selected
films.
Conclusion
Stereotypes can be both positive and negative. It is time Nigerian filmmakers started looking the
way of positive stereotype representation of Nigerian women in films, instead of continuous
inundation of the market with negative stereotype representation. So many positive things about
women have been going on around the country. These things are capable of bringing good scripts
that will portray women in good light. There is no denying the fact that such issues reflected in
Cameroon films like sexual violence, early marriage, are truly things that happen in society. But
it should be noted that the more they project these things on a daily basis, the more members of
the audience will see them as the norm, thereby increasing the chances of their flourishing. Good
research will help in taking the minds of the audience away from such negative stereotypes and
focus them on other issues happening in the society. Women should be involved in film
production as directors and producers instead of allowing men to dominate the industry. Their
own side of the story will always give the type of representation they want. This trend is
beginning to happen as many female producers and directors are beginning to be involved in the
Cameroon cinema. People like: Syndy Emade, Brenda Elung, Stephanie Tum among others have
worked on award winning movies as producers and directors. Having more of them in the
industry will turn negative representation into positive ones that will make the society to treat the
women as equals and sisters.

Works Cited

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Barber, K.(1987). “Popular Arts in Africa.” African Studies Review 30. 3: 1–78.
Enah Jonhnscot (2020) The Fisherman’s Dairy, Kang Quintus Films.
Humm, M. (1992). Feminism: A Reader. London: Harverster Wheatsheaf
Jean, T. O. (2012). Women in film in Cameroon: Therese Sita Bella, Florence Ayisi,
Oswalde Lewat and Josephine Ndagnou. Jounal of African Cinemas, volume 4, number 2
, p. 191 - 206.
McDugall, J. (2012). Media Studies: The Basics. London: Routledge
McQuail, D. (2010). McQuail’s Theory of Mass Communication. London: Sage
Musing Derick (2016) Kiss of Death, Edith P Studios/Allaleo Entertainment
Ngang Romanus (2018) Bed of Thorns, A Flash Light Production.

Victor Viyouh(2012) Ninah’s Dowry, Fintu Films Production.