Essay Development: The Representation of the 'Power Woman'

Essay development; For my essay I'm looking at the development of a stereotype relating to women's place within the workplace, arguing the point that women are denigrated to submissive positions due to the representation of powerful women as manipulative through the sexualisation of their bodies.

Im analysing the films 'Working Girl' (1988) which portrays a powerful woman as the stereotypical femme fatale, her power genereated from the evil use of her body to deceive men. This connection between female desire, their body and the attainmnet of power is an attitude that I believe continues to exist today, heightened by the overt sexualisation of the femle body is mass media. 

The movie 'The Proposal" (2009), portrays the female authority as a social outcast, whose power prevents her from relating to men or women as her ruthlessness has led to being shun by both groups. The overt sexualisation of her body, seen through the tight fitting garments, again presents her power as a product of the female body, and the manipulation of masculine desire.

These films, both present models for how women should dress within the workplace, ultimately promoting an attitude of the negative effects of female power. 



sources include both fashion, feminist observation and film critics.