There are not many movies out there that portray women as powerful. It has become such a problem that it has become typical in society today. So much of a problem that there was a test formed that represents women’s roles in movies. The bechdel test is a test for a movie that has two female characters speaking on something besides a man. The mako mori test is a harder test for a movie to past that requires at least one female character who has her own narrative and her narrative is not supported by a man. I found it rather hard to choose a movie that meets all of these requires but finally I settled on the new Disney Princess movie Moana.

Disney has really been trying to mix things up a bit and portray different races and body types of young women. They are starting to show different messages of independence in young women, showing that they no longer need to be rescued. Their newest princess, Moana, is a polynesian teenager on a mission to save her people from the destruction of the world. Moana is less of a princess and more of a chief to her people on her island of Motunui, which is an early settlement in the North island of New Zealand. She is heir to her father who grooms her into becoming a proper leader of their homeland.

The movie starts with showing a story of how the world was formed: in the beginning Earth was just oceans, until the island goddess Te Fiti came about and used her heart (a small green stone) to create life. Without it all life would die. Her heart was stolen by a shape-shifting demigod named Maui who wanted to give it to humans so that they would be able to create life on their own. Maui was then battled by Te Ka, goddess of lava, for the heart. He loses, leaving him and the heart lost in the ocean. The ocean chooses Moana a few years later to sail the oceans, find Maui, and have him return the heart.

The only problem with this quest — and, being a Disney movie, there has to be some kind of challenge — is that Moana doesn’t know how to sail, and her father won’t let her or anyone else leave the reef because of the dangers of the ocean. Moana finally decides to leave after the sudden death of her grandmother who tells her she has to save their island or it will die because the heart of Te Fiti has not been returned. The rest of the movie revolves around Moana setting out on her quest to save the world. With Maui, her pet rooster Hei Hei, and the ocean as her allies she is unstoppable. I believe the movie passes both tests. Moana is the main star of the movie and she has her own story that was not brought in by a man. Men are rarely brought up in the movie because shockingly Moana doesn’t have a prince nor does she need one. I think her not having a prince is what makes this movie so powerful. I believe she is the first Disney Princess to not have a prince of any kind and that’s important. It shows a change in the system and in the cultural norms of today’s society. Finding a man and being rescued is not the main idea of the story and that’s why I believe Moana passes the Mako Mori test and the Bechdel test.

The test that I would like to create is called the She-Stand test. The She-Stand test would require for two female characters to be in a movie together, not be against each other and each have their own story. I believe it is important for a film to meet this criteria because most of the time when two girls are in a movie together they have tension and I never understood why. I feel like it makes females look bad as though we can’t handle being around each other without it being a competition. I would honestly really like to see this stop. Sadly enough it was very difficult for me to find a movie that meets these requirement. Moana does not meet these requirements because she is pretty much the only female character consistently in the movie. Hopefully in the near future there will be more movies that meet the requirements for my test.

Overall I found the movie very enjoyable. I think that Disney did an amazing job portraying the culture and a young woman of color. Unlike earlier princesses of color like Tiana, Moana doesn’t look or act like every other Disney princess and I think that’s what makes her stand out a lot more. She is strong and doesn’t need a man or anyone else to rescue her, she is the rescuer of her own people. The movie completely exceeded all of my expectations and I applaud all those involved. It is a very good movie for children of different cultures, body types, and goals to watch.

My film review is on the movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story using the Mako Mori test. The Mako Mori test is based on a character from the science-fiction movie, Pacific Rim. This test evaluates three things in a movie. First, the movie must have at least one female character. Second, the character must get her own narrative. And third, that narrative can’t be about supporting a man’s story. There is also the Bechdel test which focuses on needing two women who have at least one conversation that’s not about a man. These test are vital to movie culture for a couple reasons. First, the Bechdel and Mako Mori tests give movie directors a push to have a more diverse plot. This way we aren’t just seeing the same old recycled plot over and over again. Second, it shows that directors actually care about what light movies put women in. A movie being able to pass the Mako Mori test or the Bechdel test shows cultural progressiveness and shows that women can be more than something on earth for the sake of men. And third, the tests give moviegoers a higher standard for female actors, besides just being a wife who comforts her husband or other shallow and stereotypical female roles. The movie is centered on Jyn Erso (played by Felicity Jones), a woman who had her mother and father torn from her as a child. The Imperial forces, led by Director Orson Krennic, kill Jyn’s mother and takes her father with them to become an engineer for the Imperial force. She runs away before they get to her and gets taken in by Rebel extremist, Saw Gerrera (played by Forest Whitaker), who makes her into a great warrior. Fast forward many years later, she is now an adult. She joins the rebel alliance with the hope that she can find her father Galen Erso (played by Mads Mikkelsen). How does Star Wars, a famous $4 billion franchise—one that has spawned a Jedi religion followed by over 390,000 people— have relevance to a test that was inspired by a sub-par science-fiction movie? In this particular movie, Jyn Erso has detailed narrative arc that eventually leads us to the motive of the movie. She is the main character and while her story is about finding her long lost father, her narrative arc doesn’t lean on or support her father’s story. If anything, her father’s story is supporting her story. He makes this key to the destruction of the death star so that he can help defeat the Imperial Empire, but also so that he might one day see his daughter again and make the world a better place for her. To recap, the Mako Mori test needs one female character, which is accommodated to. One female character must get her own narrative arc, which is in a nutshell the plot of the movie. And finally, that narrative arc doesn’t support a man’s story, which is accommodated to. A new test that I would make would need a total of three things. The test is only applicable to superhero movies. First, it must have a female character. Second, that female character must have her own narrative arc. And third, the character can’t be a lover who is only there for the man’s needs or can’t be a sidekick. A movie that would pass this test would be Wonder Woman. She gets her own narrative arc and is there to save the world, instead of being Batman and Superman’s sidekick in the 2016 film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I believe this is important criteria because women aren’t represented as strong characters in superhero movies. When they are seldom cast a superhero, they are cast as in a small role where they are there to occasionally assist the protagonist.

A big thing that the women in the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention wanted to be the main idea taken away was that women wanted to no longer wanted to be possessions and also to be able to own possessions. The women that attended the convention clearly showed their wishes such as the ability to consult federal documents, the ability to vote, independency from their husbands, and equal opportunity to education and income. A difference I saw while analysing the real Declaration of Sentiments and the one made in class was that there was a similarity where they both wish for women to have a voice. Each in their own thorough way described what exactly they wished when it came to having a voice. In the classes Declaration of Sentiments we wish for a chance for freedom of any choice that wish when it comes to federal choices or domestic choices. The official Declaration of Sentiments speaks more on the perspective of the freedom the women wished to receive.

Gender studies Declaration of Sentiments Analysis and Reflection Naima DeBrest 10-5-16 Iron

I feel like the Seneca Falls Convention of July 1848 was a very necessary and powerful even in history. I believe that this took a lot of courage for this conference to be assembled and the topics were very personal and strict. This convention was going against centuries of oppression and unfair treatment that had been deeply rooted in everyday life. The women who organized this were very brave with their demands and tried to make it equal as equal as possible. Though some of these issues may seem outdated women are still forced to face some of them today.

For example resolution 1 Resolved, That such laws as conflict … with the true and substantial happiness of woman, are contrary to the great precept of nature and of no validity … Some women are not happy with the situation that has been forced upon them and they can’t change it. Women have been forced into a category of things that they are supposed to do like cook and clean even if it might go against what she wants to do to be happy. Women have also been pushed into a sexuality box.Where they are supposed to be married to a man and certain states would not allow them to live happily with the person that they loved.

Resolved, That woman is man’s equal—was intended to be so by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such. This is another issue that hits very close to home for women in the 21st century. All anybody ever wants is to be treated equal. Women and minorities especially because they have been majorly oppressed for centuries. This issue relates to today though because of the equal pay law. It has already been established that women can do cany job that a man can do and work as hard as a man can. So it seem barbaric that in 2016 women still have to fight for an equal wage to a man even when she does the exact same job.

During the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention, my group was playing the role of the middle and upper class reform workers. Our paper that we received were women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and the Grimke sisters speaking about the problems they faced during their time. The problems that this group of women were facing played a big role in how the other women during that time, especially the slaves were treated. For example, during that time, women were not allowed to attend universities, so they didn’t have the same right to an education, as men did. This affected the slave women, because if they were to someday be released, they wouldn’t be able to attend universities simply because they were women. This is why, I agreed with our decision to demand that women be accepted by all or at least some universities. By saying that women weren’t allowed to go to universities just like men implied that women were supposed to stay at home and cook and clean for the men. In today’s society, women are still seen as the ones who have to stay home and take care of their children, while the men are ones that do the “hard labor.” Another problem that was big during that time was that women weren’t allowed to sign anything, even if they’re husbands, who were the ones in charge, let them. This affected the enslaved women as well because their masters were in charge, so they weren’t allowed to sign anything, and even if something was signed, it almost always was destroyed, so that there wouldn’t be any actual evidence in favor of the enslaved women. The resolution was to demand that women be allowed to sign any contract, with or without permission of their husband. This affects today’s society because nowadays, almost everything in a man’s name. For example, when you receive mail, it says, Mr. and Mrs. with the last name of the male. I personally don’t think the wives should receive the last name of their spouse and only be seen as that. For example, a man typically has everything written in his name, almost as if a women is forbidden to sign anything. In conclusion, in today’s society, women still have a long way to achieve equal treatment.

Overall the Sentiment of Resolutions is an amazing document that did made many big moves for the rights of women. This document is a big part of our history due to the fact that women had almost no rights not too long ago. Although we’ve evolved there are still some people who live an old fashioned life style. Some of the declaration throughout the first few paragraphs were very harsh. It’s almost amazing how far we have come from where we started. “He has endeavored … to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect, and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.” Although this was written many years ago this seems to be a tactic some men use to control women often in today’s society. The resolutions made by the women who built the stepping stones for me and many other women, gave many women a chance at a better life. The resolution saying that men and women are equal. We as women have been fighting for this for years and still are. The fact that we’ve been fighting for it for so long gives us background on what we need to do to change how we raise awareness now. The Declaration Sentiment of Resolutions is one of the biggest steps women took towards equality and has has a large impact on the way I now think about feminism and how we as women are impacted today.

I feel as though our roleplay activity in class of the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention, was a good way for us to get a perspective on what women had to face during specific eras of time. Something different about our document, compared to the actual historical document is that our document splits up the women in different sections. I feel as though this is a good thing because it caters to each group of women. Another difference is that the actual document mentions” That woman is man’s equal—was intended to be so by the Creator, and the highest good of the race demands that she should be recognized as such”. Our document just states what women want, not they are equal. I feel like the actual document is very specific as well, and ours is kinda vague. Something that surprised me were the factory conditions that the mill women had to work in. When I was younger, I learned about women working in the mills during the Revolution and finally being able to have the same jobs as men. I didn’t really think about the conditions in which they had to work. I also didn’t know that it was legal to beat your wife. I knew that violence against women during this period of time was common, but I didn’t know that it was what was expected of men to hit their wives. I also felt like the roleplay of the convention did a good job highlighting important aspects of being a Cherokee woman as well. Although the Cherokee women were treated with respect by men, white men and women disrespected them. They had to give up their land for these people, which wasn’t fair at all. I’m surprised that the convention talked about the rights of women of color and not just white women. I feel like that’s an issue that is still prevalent today. I feel like we talk a lot about female empowerment, that we sometimes forget about racial inequality. I feel as though those subjects are both equally important, and have the same amount of spotlight. We talk about wanting to make men and women equal, yet we live in a society where not even all of our men are equal to each other. Another issue that is still prevalent today is women working in horrible conditions. Over time, conditions in factories have gotten better, but other conditions in the working world in general have gotten difficult. There can be a lot of sexual harassment in the working world for a woman nowadays.

The role play of Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention was major way of acknowledging not only the different ways women were mistreated in 1848, but also the variety type of women that were mistreated. Some of those women include, mill workers, mexican women, Middle & Upper Class White Reform Workers, and etc. A lot of things were similar and very few different from the historical document that out of the convention. A lot of things surprised me about the oppression of the women prior to 1848 and the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions that kicked off the movement now known as “ First Wave Feminism.” For example, it took me by surprise to find out that white women were treated different from black women. Not only was there a disrespect and utterly hatred towards women, but racism slid into the picture too. Women had no ownership of themselves, and anything that be included. The men took control of everything including their money, bodies, and the clothes on them. One of the main conditions that women faced as an issue that I think is still prevalent today is the condition that women can’t handle things that men do. For example, men in today’s societies are more likely to get hired for a construction worker job or a physical job. Not even a physical job, but in the presidential debate Donald Trump told Hillary Clinton did not have the stamina to be president. In a way, he was saying she didn’t look like she was in the position to become a president. That goes back to how things were, women were very vulnerable people and still are to this day. Very little things have improved, but even though the issues of feminism are not put in the spotlight all the time, they still exist.