Emerging Sheroes On Their Way To Liberation

Women characters in Hollywood films have long been an intriguing site for scholars to examine patriarchal values and women's experiences in the patriarchal world.Clint Eastwood,an actor-turned-director who has produced films of diverse genres and themes so far,also deals with women's issues extensively in his women trilogy,namely,"The Bridges of Madison County""(1995),"Million Dollar Baby"(2004),and"Changeling"(2008).However,existing literature pertinent to the three films is limited in number and is not done in depth.To bridge the research gap and reveal Eastwood's true take on women's issues,this thesis decides to apply Simone de Beauvoir's feminist philosophy and borrows her concept of "situated subjectivity" as its theoretical framework to analyze the three films.Contending that women experience the world in a unique manner,Beauvoir in The Second Sex expounds on the concept of "situated subjectivity" from three dimensions-autonomy,situation,and "ways to attain liberation.First,she retorts the idea that women are only the Other in relation to men and maintains that women are autonomous agents that not only have their own pursuits but also assert their autonomy by extending freedom to others.Second,she emphasizes that despite their free will,women often find themselves confined by constraints and hindrance in the patriarchal society as they further their pursuits.Lastly,Beauvoir suggests that to remove obstacles and live authentically,women should better work collectively with both other oppressed women and affirm brotherhood with their male counterparts.Adopting this three-dimension theory to the films,the author finds that Eastwood has actually portrayed his female protagonists in the women trilogy as emerging sheores on their way to liberation.First,he affirms women's increasing autonomy.For one thing,Francesca in "The Bridges of Madison County",Maggie in "Million Dollar Baby" and Christine in "Changeling" are consciously striving for what they want at family,in work settings and against institutional injustice in the social sphere respectively.For another,they also make great efforts to help others as they insist on their own projects.Second,Eastwood is also aware of the limiting situations imposed on women.Although Francesca,Maggie and Christine have different goals to accomplish,they,without exception,face many obstacles and are obstructed socially and economically.Third,Eastwood proposes ways for women to seek liberation,and he suggests that liberation can be best gained when women join hands with both their peers and male counterparts.Specifically,that Francesca fails to flee her family during lifetime and can only unfold her story upon death is arguably because she has no alliance with women and only gets limited help from men.Maggie achieves a partial success in the end for the reason that she is only able to ally with her trainer,a male industrial insider,constructively.Christine is the only one who achieves her pursuit in a real sense,which may be attributed to her success in collaborating fruitfully with both women and men.