Pan's Labyrinth

“Being a woman entails having within one’s body a secret labyrinth of power and mystery”

Pan’s Labyrinth represents women in a negative stereotypical way.

Pan’s Labyrinth is a magical fairy tale set in 1944, five years after the Spanish Civial War. Ofelia’s stepfather hunts the Spanish Maquis who fight against the Francoist regime in the region.

Throughout the film, women are portrayed in a stereotypical way, as being weak and incapable of doing what men do, this adds realism to the film as this was the attitude in what people thought in that time period.

From the very beginning women are shown as un-capable and vulnerable as the Captain demands Mercedes to get their luggage, she does not hesitate and retrieves them immediately. Throughout the whole film the Captain demands Mercedes to do many tasks that he could do himself. This makes the audience believe she is not able to stand up for herself. However, we see her smuggling medicine and food the Spanish Maquis and telling them the Captains next move to try and capture them. The Captain does not suspect anything as he does not believe a stereotypical woman would be smart enough or brave enough to do something like that. Even though he does question her about there being a copy of the key which she is truly hiding, he doesn’t find out because she is good at lying and acting like a stereotypical woman.

Carmen (Ofelia’s mother) is also presented as weak, as soon as she arrives to her new house; the captain makes her get into a wheelchair as she is pregnant even though she says she if fully capable to walk(stereotypical role of women which is to take care of the children). Before the baby is born the Captain is convinced that the baby will be a boy, implying that women are less important and unwanted.

She has fallen very ill with this pregnancy, this shows that women don’t have the strength to fight of something as minuet as an illness. Before she is about to give birth, the captain says to the doctor if you have a choice save my son. This tells us he thinks that a baby boy in the world is more important than his wife and men have more importance to live. As she dies after giving birth, this creates the impression she was over powered by the baby who happens to be a boy.

At first it looks like Ofelia is doing something empowering like not calling the Captain ‘father’ and turning up late for dinner with her new dress covered in mud, but when she meets the Fauno she is doing all the tasks he is setting her, so she is still taking orders off of a male. Even at a young age women are taking orders from men, and with a role model like her mum taking orders from men she doesn’t know much different.

The only time Ofelia didn’t follow her orders was when she ate the fruit she was specifically told not to eat, this shows that women are portrayed as irresponsible and cannot follow simple instructions.

By what the women wear is also a huge factor in what sex is considered best, women wear a lot of really dull colours, like brown, cream and white. Mercedes wears clothes that always look really dirty and unwashed, but all the men take pride in what they wear. Wearing blues and blacks all in uniform which make them all an equal but still look better presented than the women, this makes them look different to women which make them stand out and look better.

Websites used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan's_Labyrinth