Home> Archive> 2014> Volume 4 Number 4 (Jul. 2014)
IJSSH 2014 Vol.4(4): 303-307 ISSN: 2010-3646
DOI: 10.7763/IJSSH.2014.V4.368

Grand Hotel: Portrayal of Women in Golden Age Hollywood

Dan Li

Abstract—1930s is defined by many scholars as the golden age of Hollywood. Women’s roles were changing along with the social transformations. Film became a powerful tool to portray women’s images. This paper analyzes women’s images on screen in 1930s using Grand Hotel (1932) as an example, as well as some other representative films, aiming to explain how and why women were portrayed in certain ways on screen in golden age Hollywood. It interweaves key principles and methodologies including feminist theory, gender studies, spectatorship, and film history. It is found that the most influential factors are female filmmakers’ status in the industry, psychological needs of the spectators, and the controls on motion pictures.

Index Terms—Feminist theory, film studies, gender and communication, women studies.

Dan Li is with the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 USA (e-mail: danli@utexas.edu).

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Cite: Dan Li, " Grand Hotel: Portrayal of Women in Golden Age Hollywood," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 303-307, 2014.

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