Hidden Figures Eassy

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Hidden Figures Essay

Introduction

Gender inequality has been a critical issue all over the world. This problem is primarily faced by females in almost every sector of society. Since the very beginning of times, females have been greatly underestimated and considered inferior to men. It has always been considered that men are superior to women and can perform much better than their female counterparts. And this is not true for any specific field; in fact, men are considered superior in every field as compared to men.

The fields of art and media have laid great emphasis on this issue and a lot of work has been done in this respect via various forms of art. Hollywood has also made a number of movies that are based on the themes of gender inequality and gender discrimination. A comparatively recent example of such a movie is “Hidden Figures” that is based on the novel penned down by the author Margot Lee Shetterly CITATION Hen16 \l 1033 (Melfi), by the same name. Hidden Figures, the movie was directed by Theodore Melfi and was released in the theaters on December 10, 2016.

Discussion

“Hidden Figures” is a unique and powerful movie in this respect that it raised the voice for the awareness of gender inequality in a very different way.

Plot of the Movie

Margot Lee Shetterly’s "Hidden Figures" is based on the real-life accounts Mary Jackson Christine Darden, Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan who worked in NASA as “human computers” or “calculators”. The duty of these human calculators was to solve complex mathematical problems. These four ladies enter the headquarters of NASA, in Virginia, just to find out that they are not welcomed there. They explore that they are the only black females employed in the department and are not much liked due to their gender and skin tone.

The ladies join different teams in the department who are working at a common and very important project “Project John Glenn”. It is a project to land a spaceship on the moon. The ladies work very hard and despite facing discrimination and rude comments along the journey, finally succeed in making the employees at NASA realize that females are no less than any men and race or skin color does not matter when it comes to performance.

Theme of the Movie

The movie “Hidden Figures” is based on the real-life untold stories of three females, who faced multiple issues in getting recognized in their professional circle. These females worked at NASA, the biggest space research institute of the world, where every person looked down upon them and considered them inferior due to two reasons; their gender and their skin color. Everyone, even their teammates thought that a job in NASA is extremely tough and technical and a female cannot do it as it requires complex calculations. The movie ends in the note that gender or skin tone does not matter but it is the intelligence and the caliber of a person that makes them win the race.

The film promotes equality, whether it is on the basis of gender or on the basis of race. It cleared many concepts in mind regarding gender inequality and the roles that a female can play in this society. The movie has clarified many misconceptions in my mind and now I am completely convinced that females can perform any role in society. They can work at home and in the office both and can handle both the jobs very well. Moreover, contrary to a popular belief, the females cannot perform difficult jobs especially, which include complex calculations, it is very much evident from this movie that women are no less than men. They cannot even perform the complex calculations easily but can also do it very well as compared to the men.

From the movie, I can relate the most to “Mary Jackson”. Mary Jackson is a hard working woman who does not give up no matter whatever the circumstances are. She goes through a lot of stress when she comes to know that she is eligible for a post of an engineer in his office but she cannot join because she is slacking an important course that is required for this post. She tries her level best to get admission for that course but it is offered in an all-white school where she is not even allowed to enter. Even then she does not give up and continues to impress people within and out of her department.

I learned the same things in the class discussions, which revolved around the ideas that females are not inferior to males and the society should start accepting them as a strong an integral part of the society. They are equally important for the growth of a society just like men and are equally intelligent as well. They should be respected and given credit for their hard work, I respective of their skin tone.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, the movie “Hidden Figures” is an excellent piece of work that explains that women are no less than men in any field, even the toughest of jobs. They can do anything, no matter how hard the task is, in a much better way than men. The movie also clarifies many concepts regarding racism, and strongly denies any such claims that any race or nationality is inferior to some other race. It promotes equality and gives the lesson to love and respect all.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY \l 1033 Hidden Figures. Dir. Theodore Melfi. Perf. Taraji P. Henson, et al. 2016.