Daughters of the Destruction of Visual Pleasure In 1991, Julie Dash directed an independent film classic, Daughters of the Dust, a narrative revolving around three generations of Geechee women preparing to migrate to the north, dealing with themes such as history preservation, tradition vs modernity, and black feminism perspective. Not only did Dash garner critical acclaim for being the first black female director to project a film for theatrical distribution, but also one of the few films to feature women of color as agents of change in the non-linear narrative, rather than excessive character additions. A recurring conflict in cinematic industry stems from how filmmakers construct men as protagonists and women as spectacle of objectification and source of erotic pleasure. Additionally, misrepresenting women to satisfy the male gaze establishes a problematic cinematic expectation on the roles normally fulfilled, constructing this unfair myth that psychologically and methodically reoccurs in the mindset of both male and female audience members, flawed by the illusion that the film represents truth. In her feminist film theory essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", Laura Mulvey uses psychoanalysis to criticize and scrutinize the fetishism, scopophilia, and eroticism in Hollywood mainstream cinema.
Emily Poole J320 3/9/2018 Final Paper The Other Feminist Film Theory During the mid-20th century, second and third wave feminism swept the nation. The feminist movements focused on combating the roles associated with being a woman and, in turn, lead them to critique how women are represented in media. The feminist movement emerged in media as Feminist Film theory, where the leading women of the mid-20th century analyzed representations of women in film(media). Unfortunately, the leading feminist film theorists where white women and their fight against gender oppression in media left out non-white women. The early feminist film theorists categorized race and gender as separate systems of oppression, and by doing so they universalized the white woman’s experience as representing the oppression experienced by all women.
The purpose of this ethos is how female characters are perceived by the public. Highlighting the word “equality” in McDougall’s last paragraph, and make a compare to gender equality - a problem that has been highly valued and hotly debated. When referring to this issue, is there going to be some audience who think that there 's a gender inequality in a movie where the female characters are not as strong as the male characters? The answer is negative. Michael Scott’s claimed a point in goodreads, and I think it would be a good critical way to give an explanation of Mcdougall’s idea; she saying “a female character is strong is a double standard because it’s the same thing as saying that women are, by default, weak”, continually she added “to love them for all their strengths and in spite of all of their weaknesses” and the most important is “to courageous humans who struggle with both their powers and their defects, who frequently make mistakes”
We could well see this representation as a liberation for the woman, her character in the cinema is no longer limited to that of a graceful woman, discreet, constrained by the standards of the society. On the other hand, this new female character is seen as an antagonist and her sexual freedom is a symbol of villainy. Later in the 1950s, Marilyn Monroe, physically inspired by Jean Harlow, became a blonde bombshell and her photograph made the first cover of Playboy magazine. She is then
Women were indeed at one stage purely, or for the most part to put it rather crudely, objects to ogle at on screen, ‘objects of the look’. Their place as a real world character with depth and conviction came only secondary to their physical appearance or attributes and ability to woe male spectators. And their part to play in being in front of the lens was quite simply that. Feminist film theory however challenged that mindset, with the second wave movement which took place in the 60’s, a serious shift began to take place. As stated in, An Introduction to Film Studies, “The importance of feminist film theory in opening up debates around spectatorship,
In Kathleen Karlyn’s third chapter of Unruly Girls, Unrepentant Mothers, she states how Girl World is ambivalent. Not only is Girl World unruly because the films place female desire as a focal point in the film, thereby validating the existence of female desire, while also being manufactured by the ideologies of patriarchal and postfeminist cultures with female power stopping at basic normative femininity. The film The Devil Wears Prada (2006) finds itself in agreement with both of these ideas. On one hand, women like Miranda Priestly and Andy Sachs are at the helm of their own desires and power, while on the other hand are also punished in the universe of the film for stepping out of normative femininity and trying to have it all. During
The reading that best supports this view is the Laura Mulvey reading “visual pleasure and narrative cinema” (Mulvey 1975). Although this reading is dated it does raise some interesting issues with regards to gender representation in cinema. Mulvey discusses the male gaze in cinema and outlines how woman are portrayed on screen from a male view point. She discusses how this could influence media in such a way that it may lead to the female section of the society to be misrepresented. The mention of scopophilia in Mulvey’s study is focused mainly on females and it is outlined that in most films by most directors the woman is the object of desire or the damsel in distress.
Thus, according to Michael，the gender perpectives and favouritism can influence particular film’s image and the way to emphasize the impact of each gender of characters in movies. People would like to think the roles of princess should be weak and waiting for rescued from men. Feminism According to the previous films, Disney princesses have changed from lack independence to be braver. Hence,
In this attempt to engage with the broad problematic of a feminist film criticism in Malayalam cinema we must deconstruct gender as a constitutive element in film production. Cinematic traditions all across the world have given cause for concern among feminists and film critics owing to the dexterity with which
BEING AN INDIAN WOMAN. Indian cinema has come a long way since its first movie ‘Raja Harishchandra’ in 1913, when Dadasaheb Phalke1 had to settle for a man to play the women character, as in those time portrayal of cinema was something of disreputable and lowly profession. Though the attitude towards the profession has changed dramatically, in terms of technicality, production but what has remain almost constant in all the transience of glam and glitz is the portrayal of women characters. Iconic veteran actor Sharmila Tagore puts it, “in the portrayal of women I feel the changes are merely cosmetics.” Today, film industry is the massive source of entertainment