As The Last Man on Earth (1924), a silent comedy that presented one of the very first female presidents to screen, celebrates its centenary, it is really important to look back and see how this has influenced cinematic storytelling with women leaders. The movie established a comedic and whimsical atmosphere – for example, focusing on a president who cared more about stray cats than ruling – but the movie did open up doors for female leadership in film, sometimes in exaggerated and dystopian settings.
In the last hundred years since The Last Man on Earth, women presidents continued to appear and disappear in film, depending on how public opinion shaped societal influences that viewed women in power. The plot of women assuming power only through force is repeated. Female presidents in so many films come to power in times of crises or after the deaths of their male predecessors. For instance, Geena Davis, in Commander in Chief (2005), and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, in Veep (2012-2019), navigated the nuances of leadership but were, oftentimes, worse versions of their counterparts.
Furthermore, these representations have often made women a double-treacherous entity of priority and have ideologically divided her into being both for political ambitions and family responsibilities. Most recently, this pattern is represented in the cinematic work of Don’t Look Up (2021) in which more private shortcomings compromise Meryl Streep’s portrayal of leadership rather than gender itself.
Yet, there are clear indications of change. More female presidents are now appearing on the 21st-century screen-and with a more serious handle than their predecessors. More importantly, their portrayal would betoken a level of competence they never achieved in cinema. Characters like Alfre Woodard as Constance Payton in State of Affairs show women in power, doing justice to leadership, free from gender stereotypes.
Real-life events also shape the transformations of representation. More and more, female political figures-the most notable being Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid-exist in public life; therefore, filmmakers create more sophisticated stories about female leadership. This kind of interplay between real and fictional women in politics suggests a feedback loop: increased visibility can lead to more robust media roles.
As we reflect on the cinematic past of female presidents, it is clear that those early descriptions, such as those in The Last Man on Earth, gradually resorted to absurdity. The future could easily mean so much more diverse and meaningful portrayals of women in power, reflecting real politics of the day but also appropriately reflecting changing perceptions of women in society.