Abstract
When looking at representations of women, one is faced with the way such representations were conditioned by the prevailing mentality of a particular age, that is to say, how they were ‘framed’ by it. In this article we start by carefully looking at how, in spite of having had frames imposed on them in a constraining way, women have successfully resisted and reworked them, shockingly catapulting traditional iconography to a new sphere; namely popular icons. A ‘damsel in distress’ is, definitely, a ‘framed’ woman. She has been, throughout history, a common archetype in myth. Always helpless, she is in need of being rescued by a male figure; an idea that must have done wonders to the egos of male writers and readers alike. For that reason, we will be looking at ‘damsels in distress’ along history. More specifically, we apply the notion of frame to representations of gender and explore how popular culture is frequently capable of ‘unframing’ those representations. Our case study is the 1987 post classical romantic comedy Moonstruck an intersemiotic and intertextual product with traces of both Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Puccini’s opera La Bohème, three stories in which ‘damsels in distress’ play the main role in the plot in order to deconstruct the above mentioned stereotype of ‘the damsel’ with the ‘help’ of strong female characters, one of them being Loretta, the character played by Cher.
Highlights
When looking at representations of women, one is faced with the way such representations were conditioned by the prevailing mentality of a particular age, that is to say, how they were ‘framed’ by it
In spite of being engaged, she meets and falls in love with her fiancées’ brother, a baker with a tempestuous character who goes by the name of Ronny (Cage). Such awakening is symbolically linked to the image of the wolf, a subject of distress since it is a predator feared by the female characters in the classic tales
Certain performances are definitely deconstructive of ‘framed’ representations and the roles played by Cher and Olympia Dukakis in this romantic comedy undoubtedly prove this assertion
Summary
Resumo: Olhando para representações de mulheres ao longo dos tempos, deparamo-nos com o modo como estas foram condicionadas pela mentalidade dominante de uma determinada época, isto é, como elas foram “emolduradas” ou “enquadradas” por esta. Zipes showed that many adaptations are linked with cultural stances pertaining to the roles of males and females in society He further refers how Perrault and the Grimm Brothers have produced versions of the Little Red Riding Hood that drastically changed the oral tale and erased the positive references to sexuality and feminine power. In spite of being engaged, she meets and falls in love with her fiancées’ brother, a baker with a tempestuous character who goes by the name of Ronny (Cage) Such awakening is symbolically linked to the image of the wolf, a subject of distress since it is a predator feared by the female characters in the classic tales.
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