Gender in Science

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Gender in Science 

Introduction

For very many years, men have been known to dominate in the world of science, but this is something that has been changing over the past years. Looking at the movie, we can say that it tries to give expectations of what may be happening in the next forty years to come. In the film there are a number of scenes whereby we see how the Director of the film is keen in ensuring that he gives some expectations to women when it comes to matters of the developing world. This work hence analyses how this movie represents gender towards Science and Space Exploration. The paper also tries come with discussions that affirms that the film is a not a representation of the decade it was produced but a work of fiction filled with the anticipation for the next century.

An Overview of the Movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey

One of the outstanding things about the Odyssey is that it is a film, which is a pure work of fiction trying to emulate what, is anticipated come the year 2001, as the name suggests. It is known that such movies are usually full of imagery towards the fields of fiction, science and technology. They try to come up with creations so that we may believe that they are the anticipated happenings, which look possible and at the same time questionable. Such movies also involve recreation of the elements in the environment, which are common to us and magnify them so that they make a bigger sense to us than we usually understand them. Anyway, most of the imagery applied in many films usually refers to man and his sole behaviours towards the surrounding world. Such movies are necessary because they help people extend the boundaries that limit his inventing intelligentsia. That is exactly what the Odyssey movie is.

2001: A Space Odyssey is a movie that was produced in the year 1968, and was since then referred simply as the 2001[1]. One thing about this movie is that it was based much on work of science fiction and its Director was Kubrick Stanley, it was written down by the Director and Clarke. One outstanding thing from this movie is that it dealt greatly with thematic such as evolution of man, the existence of human super-intelligence, technology, engineering and post-terrestrial life. The movie is up to this day known for its realism in science and its ability in pioneering a number of peculiar effects, adoption of ambiguity and unrealistic imagery and above all, the use of classical dialogue.

Another outstanding thing about the film is that it had one of the most reputable soundtracks. The soundtrack was because of a mixture made by Kubrick between the motion of satellites and the waltzes dance[2]. This soundtrack has been suggested to portray the evolution of man, something the movie appears to agitate. It has been agreed by many people that this movie was a success in itself. However, the movie also received a number of mixed reactions from different people over the past years. Many people, though, have recommended the film as still the greatest movie that has ever been created by mankind and the reasons why for several occasions it has been ranked among the top twenty greatest film productions of all times. It would also be fair to note that there are also a number of critics against the movie.

Representation of Gender in Connection With Science and Space Exploration 

All films or novels known to integrate science and fiction are seen to be associated to the creation of new ideas, technology and information, which can be useful in shaping the future. Many experts of technology may find it useful to copy and bring about an invention from such a work of fiction[3]. This is so because such materials of literature and movie industry tend carefully to explore the nature of machines on how they may be useful to man in the coming days. In that case, it becomes easy for man to come up with a quick invention through work of creation, and by so doing coming up with an idea on how a given machine may be helpful to him one day. This tends to give an insight when inventing. This information hence tries to help man in developing new machines and the roles they will play in his life[4].

In that case, we see that men play the greatest role in this film as compared to women. As we see in the movie, the term humankind has been used frequently. Although it appears to refer to the entire humankind as a species, despite the gender, we see that that is not the case. The most interesting thing is that the women seem to play minor roles as well as subservient duties in this film[5]. That means there is a very little conception as to what the potentiality of the woman can be and disgraces her potentiality of being officers or leaders upon entry to the 21^st Century. What we see is that man is given supremacy in most of the duties and he is key to the achievement of developments come 21^st Century. We see women having limited number of roles like in the scene whereby we have women in the Space station 5 and others being part of the crew.

It will be seen that, upon the release of this movie, it was very disturbing to talk of 2001 because the movie was nothing but a work of science and fiction. From the movie, we can see that there was the suggestion that a machine can not exactly do all the duties that it has been instructed to and at the same time man was not doing anything to see this become true. Today, we are all used to new visions of future machines, which can even alter human existence in his planet[6]. That has been a common occurrence with such movies. In that case, the movie did not seem to portray more women involvement in fields of invention and technology in the coming days.

Portrayal of the Movie

It would be true to say that the Odyssey film is a work of fiction that was not at all based on its time of creation, rather it was a kind of work that served for the future. The work combined the philosophy of that time, technology and projection for what would be expected come the next century, which is evident today[7]. We will therefore agree that the director of the movie relied much on his historical lessons and visions in an attempt to come up with the future expectations in the field of science and technology. From the movie, we can see that it begins with an epic nature, whereby we have Homo sapiens’s intelligence, then the birth of the galaxy that would be symbolic for the new era of humankind and technology. For instance, we had no powerful computers by that time, but we have computers in the film dominating most of the scenes and operations[8]. We can hence say that this work was a flawed genius that gave a prediction and a prophecy to the future, the 21^st Century. There is also a lot of hindsight in the movie concerning modern technology and knowledge, which are evident this day. This was hence a technological sort of premonitions integrated to human expectations.

It would be agreeable that the movie, from its name, predicts a 2001 year, which should be extremely enigmatic as well as free, in the universe where it is set in. This is hence an expectations rather than an analysis of the present situation[9]. Therefore, we would see that this film tends to combine the past and the present, then integrating the two to come up with the future. We will also argue that the film does not give women priority in most of their roles, hence something that signifies the attitudes that were still preserved while at the same time yearning for a beautiful future full of technological advances. In that case, not all the thoughts were opened so as to meet the requirements of the future. We will say that this most parts of this film are works of fiction that anticipate the future and not an interpretation of its current situation, which is the time it was directed.

The Director's Intentions for his Inclusion of 3 Females in the Space Station 5

In the film, it will be seen that there are three learned women with Ph.D.s in the Space Station 5. In that case, it should be agreed that the director of this film had a number of intentions for this inclusion. But different people will argue this differently, but the real picture of the intention will have to come out clearly. As it appears to Dr. Floyd after he encountered the group of these Russian scientists, it will be noted that the shock is there since women are not seen to be people who can do such things and be educated in such a big way. This has been used by the Director as a trick in ensuring that no much criticism is met after the release of the film. It will be agreed that most of the roles in this film are left for men, but at this very incident, we see women being scantly represented.

The other reason for inclusion of women was that gender representation would be attained in the film. This is in contrast to the old roles of women whereby they are seen to take the role of being peacemakers and mothers. This can hence be taken to constitute one of the very many expectations or anticipations through which this movie seems to have been based on. It would come true that at the same period we would have highly educated women who can even be accommodated in complex activities of engineering, aviation and technology. This was a key thing by the director in ensuring that, even though the anticipation here is relating to men’s superiority, women would also be given a share of this superiority.

In that case, it would be nice to argue that the director wanted to bring some sense to the viewers of his movie that, as people dreamed of technological advancements, it would be very true that such advancements in technology were to come in with the realization of women as part of them[10]. This is so because the indication of having three women in such a station shows that such people were capable to do whatever men could do, and sometimes better than them. We see that the ratio of men to women being reversed so that such women have dominance over the station, something which is a shock to Dr. Floyd.

Conclusion

Finally, it will be concluded that films and their genres have been evolving over the past years. This is both through their developmental features and the use cinematographic deception techniques. In addition, the use of special super-effects and integration of computer graphics have helped people come up with features that bring about divergent works of science and fiction. This has also been used in the creation of games and obeys. In that case, we can agree that the use of movies or literature can play a big role in transforming and pushing technology to its next level[11]. This will be so since these graphics displayed in such movies tend to influence the way people think hence becoming the exact prototypes from which future technologies are based on[12]. It would therefore be necessary to come up with features, which seem unachievable by man through films and novels in form of classical science-fiction films, and this would definitely result in the retransmission of issues and ideas that become the subject for men to solve. Posses have always known each given film its theme, each Director to possess his or her own fantasy or idea, and this is what people need to come up with new developments.

References

Bizony, Piers N. 2001. 2001 Filming the Future. London: Sidgwick and Jackson.

Chion, Michel K. 2001. Kubrick's Cinema Odyssey. London: Sidgwick and Jackson.

Clarke, Arthur K. 2002. The lost worlds of 2001. London: Sidgwick and Jackson.

Michael, Jerome G. 2001. The Making of Kubrick's 2001. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Richter, Daniel J. 2002. Moonwatcher's Memoir: A Diary of 2001: A Space Odyssey. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers.

Stanley, Kubrick 2008. 2001: A Space Odyssey: New Essays. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.

Wheat, Leonard F. 2000. Kubrick's 2001: A Triple Allegory. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

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