History of Feminist Theory in Film Feminist theory stems from the social movement of feminism where female politicians fight for women's rights in general and have in-depth discussions about the inequality we face today . In the aspect of cinema, feminists note the fictional representations of women and also machismo. In 1974, a book written by Molly Haskell "From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in Movies" argues that women almost always play only passive roles while men are always assigned active and heroic roles. Furthermore, the way women are portrayed in films is very important as it plays an important role for the audience on how to look at a woman and how to treat her in real life due to the illusionism offered by cinema. These images of women created in cinema shape what an ideal woman is. This can be further explained through an article "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" written by a feminist named Laura Mulvey in 1975. She uses Sigmund Freud's theories of psychoanalysis to analyze "Scopophilia", which is the desire to see. This explains how the audience gets hooked to the screen when a sexy woman is present. In the larger picture, where scopophilia comes from, “voyeurism” is also known as experiencing visual pleasure when looking at another. Narcissism, on the other hand, means identifying oneself with the role held. It is not difficult to notice that in classical cinema men often play an active role while women are always the object of desire of the male protagonists, presented as sexual objects and often as damsels in distress. Therefore, the obvious power imbalance in classic cinema shows how men are responsible for pushing narratives forward. Subconsciously, narcissism manifests itself among the public while they... middle of paper... for women to do the same. Gender inequality in Malaysia is far worse than in Western countries. This is demonstrated through the comparison of both films. Comparisons In Western films like Juno, feminism is more positive as female characters are made to be stronger and more career-oriented than female characters in Malay films. In Juno, the female protagonist has a mind of her own, she makes her own decisions, which is the exact opposite of the female protagonist in Ombak Rindu. Feminist culture in Western countries is ahead and strengthening compared to the times of classical Hollywood cinema. However, Malaysian films still try to keep the tradition alive even in modern films by reinforcing patriarchy and never forgetting to remind women not to stray from their traditional roles. These two films are very different in terms of feminist culture as well as tradition.