Female Objectification In Cameroon Cinema: A Representation Of Women In Victor Viyouh’s Ninah’s Dowry And Ngang Romanus’ Bed Of Thorns”
Mémoires
Paul Animbom Ngong, 2020 à Bamenda
2020
Female Objectification In Cameroon Cinema: A Representation Of Women In Victor Viyouh’s Ninah’s Dowry And Ngang Romanus’ Bed Of Thorns” (2020)
Female objectification is a predominant representation of women in Cameroon cinema. The filmmakers enhance this representation of women through the projection of patriarchal oppression faced by women within the family, not leaving out the manipulation of certain aspects of our culture (head of the family, dowry, and patrilineal heritage) by men, resulting to female objectification. It is well established that the Cameroon society is grounded in a patriarchal culture, which has defined our perception of life and the world at large. This cultural aspect is reflected in Cameroon cinema as seen in the film understudy. This study aimed to examine the various narrative and cinematic tools used by filmmakers to project a visual representation of women as objects, while also emphasizing on patriarchy as the root cause of female objectification through its cultural malpractices.To test the hypothesis that, Cameroon filmmakers use film as a medium to expose the shortcomings of our culture through its representation of women, content analysis was chosen as a suitable methodology. Content analysis allows the researcher a lot more freedom in reading and analyzing the texts at hand, guided by related research and relevant theory.The result showed that the family is patriarchal‟s chief institution, where women are oppressed, exploited, violated, marginalized, and subjugated. These results also confirmed that patriarchy is the root cause of female objectification with its diverse cultural malpractices. Through cinema, filmmakers can sensitize and conscientize the audience on these societal ills.
