Sandra Bullock's recent Oscars speech labeled her as an mother above all else. She gushed, "I would like to thank what this film is about for me which are the moms that take care of the babies and the children no matter where they come from." In the film, she plays a woman with the ideal family: a devoted husband and two loving biological kids. She is the perfect mother: her children appreciate everything she does for them, and she is able to extend her love to a child from outside the family. She is an empowered woman, but she is first and foremost a mother.
This becomes particularly interesting when exploring her personal life, especially during her present marital troubles. She has never had the natural nuclear family, but she has gone to great lengths to try to do so. Over the course of her 5-year marriage to Jesse James, she has suffered from two miscarriages. She had assumed the "mother role" for Jesse's daughter (tabloids are now playing up the fact that her absence is causing the child distress). And while she has never had children of her own, she had maintained the image of being in a happy, healthy marriage (though it has been revealed recently that Jesse has been less than faithful).
Thus, it is very interesting to contrast the image she tries to build in her on-screen performances and in her public appearances - her star image - and her real personal issues. Do her characters "make up" for her troubles at being a mother in the eyes of the public? What personal motivations lay behind Sandra's movie choices?
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I really want to discuss this in class. It does seem like Bullock has felt the need in interviews to explain why she got married "late" (in her 40s I think) and whether she can be happy not having kids of her own. It does show how much happiness for a woman is defined in our culture by being married and having kids. It is interesting to think about how her roles "fill the gap" in her personal life.
There was an interesting story on Marketplace about how more women are single now but advertising is still depicting the "average" woman as married with children.
An excerpt here:
Kai Ryssdal: The Census Bureau says women control something like 80 percent of all the household spending in this country. Retailers and marketers being fairly quick on the uptake, they have geared a healthy proportion of the ads we all see to women. Ads that are pretty heavy on images of motherhood, family and happy couples. Unless, of course, they are cat food commercials, which seem to be almost entirely the province of the single woman.
Thing is, more women are single now -- getting married later, if at all, or becoming single again later in life. Ashley Milne-Tyte would sure like to know why more marketers haven't caught on to that.
Full story here:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/03/25/pm-single-women/
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