What do you think of gender roles in the movie Vertigo?

It is an old movie.

Sex roles by the way.

The movie was made the ‘50s and it was highly stylized. And contrary to what many “critics” said/say, I don’t consider it Hitchcock’s best movie. “Rear Window,” Dial M for Murder,” Suspicion,” “Notorious,” “Lifeboat” and others were at least as good and most—in my opinion—were better.

I too agree gender stereotyping was common in movies of those era. In most movies women were the objects of the male gaze and they most likely become ‘damsel in distress’ at some point or other. Most of the time I just can’t make out if he was representing women in a positive way or a negative way. In some movies they tend to be powerless at the beginning and in the end they come out with lot more control. At times they seem mere sex symbols full of treachery and weakness,but luckily he doesn’t kill them all.

Hitchcock had a thing for certain types of women. He liked to cast actresses with a similar “look” to play similar roles. It’s not surprising that his female characters lacked complexity or depth. I don’t think he understood them very well.

Google “Hitchcock’s women” and you’ll find any number of people having written on this topic.

@Smitha @glacial @Pachyderm_In_The_Room

is fetishism and sadistic voyeurism present in Vertigo though? how??? i know in rear window it is

Yes, @illusionslies, both purported to be among director Hitchcock’s dark personal tastes. The character ‘Scottie’ Ferguson, played so well by Jimmy Stewart, exhibited both, as did, to some degree, his jealous friend Midge, played a bit spookily by Barbara Bel Geddes (who much later played the long-suffering matriarch on TV’s “Dallas”).