A gun of one´s own: gender representation in contemporary westerns

Abstract

This research dissertation deals with issues of gender representation in contemporary film Westerns. The classic view of the Western as a male genre that marginalizes women has been contested in the last twenty-five years. A trend of films has challenged the idea of the feminine as inferior to the masculine within the Western landscape. Reversal of roles, violence, and the exposure of oppression are used as strategies in order to allow the Western to accommodate feminist discourse. It can be argued that the impact of this research can be found within the current political and social debates around feminism, the necessity to equal women´s rights to men´s, and the pervasiveness of masculine gender violence. Proving a feminist reversal in a traditionally masculine film genre would help it to maintain social relevance, on the one hand; and, on the other hand, could result in some valuable dissemination of feminist ideology.