The Filmic Representation of Women: Paradigm Versus Perspective in the Depiction of Women in Funke Akindele’s Two Selected Works
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2025.711Keywords:
Film, Women's image, Paradigm, Perspective, Akindele, Nigerian CinemaAbstract
Funke Akindele's holistic portrayal of women in She Must Be Obeyed and A Tribe Called Judah has transcended the biases of just putting women in the limelight given the multifaceted nature women, like men, possess. Subjecting the two films to a close viewing and placing the analysis drawn side by side with the backdrop of the parameters of feminist film theory, pushes for evaluating Akindele’s ideologies. The study found that Akindele prioritizes perspectives over paradigms in women's image projection in her works, making the works more inclusive in their representation of realities, a shift described as realistic-feminism.
References
Aakash, S. (2024). (Re)Looking at the women of Indian cinema in the praxis of conventional rendering. Knowledgeable Research, 3(1), 1–9. https://knowledgeableresearch.com/index.php/1/article/view/280
Akindele, F. (2023). A Tribe Called Judah [Film]. Filmhouse Cinema IMAX Lagos.
Akindele, F. (2023). She Must Be Obeyed [Film]. Filmhouse Cinema IMAX Lagos.
Alola, M. I., & Alola, U. V. (2020). Gender stereotypes in Nigerian films as a portrayal of African womanhood: A feminist perspective. Labour and Society, 23, 221–243. https://doi.org/10.1111/wusa.12465
Alzahrani, F. (2016). The portrayal of women and gender roles in films. International Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, 7(4), 533–534. https://ijser.org/researchpaper/The-portrayal-of-Women-and-Gender-Roles-in-Films.pdf
Arundyuty, B. (2022). Representation of women in movies and advertisements (Undergraduate thesis, BRAC University).
Chatterjee, R. (2015). The idea of the ‘male gaze’ as a tool of feminist film theory. North Face: Academic Journal of Darjeeling, 1(1), 1–6. https://www.dgc.ac.in/userfiles/file/North_Face_Volume_1Issue12015.pdf
Doghudje, R. V. (2019). Balancing gender stereotypes in Nollywood: A consideration of Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart. Ekpoma Journal of Theatre and Media Arts, 83–97. https://doi.org/10.4314/ejotmas.v7i1-2.6
Erens, P. (1990). Issues in feminist film criticism. Indiana University Press.
French, L. (2007). Centring the female: The articulations of female experience in the films of Jane Campion (Doctoral dissertation, RMIT University).
Jimi, K., et al. (2022). An appraisal of the dominant depiction of women in Nigeria Nollywood movies. Covenant Journal of Business and Social Sciences, 13(2), 90–111.
Lei, C., & Mustaffa, A. (2024). “Everything Everywhere All at Once” through Mulvey’s feminist perspective. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 14(7), 707–715. http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v14-i7/21963
Nwanya, A. N. (2022). Conflicting framings: Commoditisation of female body in film and challenges of insecurity in Nigeria. Global Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, 10(2), 29–38.
Olayiwola, A. (2023). Gendered Nollywood: The crisis of femininity in contemporary Nigerian films. International Review of Humanities Studies, 8(1), 182–190. https://scholarhub.ui.ac.id/irhs/vol8/iss1/15
Ruddick, S. (1989). Maternal thinking: Toward a politics of peace. Beacon Press.
Smelik, A. M. (2007). Feminist film theory. In The cinema book (3rd rev. ed., pp. 491–504).
Soetan, O. (2021). Transactional agency, Nollywood feminist auteurs, and patriarchy. In Transnational Africana women’s fiction. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003177272-10
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Sanjo Ilori, Adewale Oyewo, Olamiposi Oyeleye

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
- Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
- The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
- Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
- The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a prepublication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
- Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
- The Author represents and warrants that:
- the Work is the Author’s original work;
- the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
- the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
- the Work has not previously been published;
- the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
- the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
- The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
Revised 7/16/2018. Revision Description: Removed outdated link.
