Women of Monty Python
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Like most British comedies, the plots of Monty Python's films are male-driven, with female characters playing a supporting role, almost to the point of being reduced to pieces of scenery. Monty Python's particular comedic style portrayed the female characters in an interesting way. They chose to use both male actors dressed as women and actual women to portray the female roles in their films. When men play the roles of females, women are presented in a different way than when women actually play the female roles themselves. In nearly every instance in the three Monty Python films, the males in female roles depict women as overbearing mothers. Meanwhile, the women in female roles are continually shown as whores or objects of sexual desire who are only meant for viewing pleasure. An examination of the prominent female depictions in their three films - Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life - shows the mother/whore dichotomy and the gaze theory to be evident.
The mother/whore dichotomy is a feminist theory that suggests the tendency of Americans to think in terms of "dualistic categorization" (Thornham, 97) or cataloging that includes only as good or bad with no middle ground. This dualism reflects notions of gender possessed by the Western world. These beliefs have been connected with the double standard of sexual behavior in which males suffer no consequence for being promiscuous yet a female is more or less shunned by society if she commits the same acts (Speyrer, 1)...