1) They have childcare responsibilities
2) It is a male dominated industry
3) Women are discouraged by so few other female directors
4) Women usually choose to conform to traditional gender roles
5) sexual discrimination within the industry
3 ways the number of female directors can be improved
1) To offer more media related subjects within schools
2) To give more media attention to female directors in order to motivate others
3) conjugal roles should be more equal within the household so that women can go out and pursue their careers while men lookafter the children and the house.
Tuesday 16 December 2008
Female Film Directors
Anita W. Addison
Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, Addison began working as a journalist before embarking on a directing and producing career. In the late 1980s, she worked as a senior VP of drama development at Lorimar before working as a producer at Warner Bros. Television. In 1989, she earned an Academy Award nomination for directing the short film Savannah.
* Eva's Man (1976)
* Freddy's Nightmares (1 episode, 1990)
* Knots Landing (1 episode, 1991) * Sisters (1 episode, 1991)
* There Are No Children Here (1993) * ER (1 episode, 1995)
* EZ Streets (1 episode, 1997)
* Judging Amy (1 episode, 2000)
Gurinda Chada
Gurinder Chadha, OBE, (born 10 January 1960) is a British film director of Indian origin. Most of her films explore the lives of Indians living in the UK. She is most famous for the hit films Bhaji on the Beach (1993), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Bride and Prejudice (2004) and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008).
* Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008)
* Paris, je t'aime (2006) segment "Quais de Seine"
* The Mistress of Spices (2005) (screenplay only)
* Bride and Prejudice (2004)
* Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
* What's Cooking? (2000)
* Rich Deceiver (1995), BBC two-part drama
* A Nice Arrangement (1994)
* What Do You Call an Indian Woman Who's Funny? (1994)
* Bhaji on the Beach (1993)
* Acting Our Age (1992)
* Pain, Passion and Profit (1992) (V)
* I'm British But... (1990) (TV)
Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron (born May 19, 1941) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, and blogger.
She is best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in Seattle. She sometimes writes with her sister, Delia Ephron.
Producer, director, and screenwriter
* (1996) Michael
* (1998) You've Got Mail
* (2005) Bewitched
* (2009) Julie & Julia
Director and screenwriter
* (1992) This Is My Life
* (1993) Sleepless in Seattle
* (1994) Mixed Nuts
Producer and screenwriter
* (2000) Hanging Up
* (1990) My Blue Heaven
Producer and director
* (2000) Lucky Numbers
Screenwriter
* (1983) Silkwood
* (1986) Heartburn
* (1989) Cookie (also executive producer)
* (1989) When Harry Met Sally... (also associate producer)
Leni Riefenstahl
Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (August 22, 1902 – September 8, 2003) was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker.
* Das Blaue Licht (The Blue Light, 1932) co-director: Bela Balazs
* Der Sieg des Glaubens (Victory of Faith, 1933)
* Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will, 1934)
* Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht (Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces, 1935)
* Olympia (Part 1 known as Fest der Völker/Festival of the Nations, Part 2 as Fest der Schönheit/Festival of Beauty, 1938)
* Tiefland (Lowlands, 1954)
* Impressionen unter Wasser (Underwater Impressions, 2002)
Dorothy Arzner
Dorothy Arzner (January 3, 1897 – October 1, 1979) was a pioneering American film director. Her directorial career in feature films spanned from the late 1920s into the early 1940s, a time period in which there were very few—if any—other women working in the field.
* First Comes Courage (1943)
* Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
* The Bride Wore Red (1937)
* The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937) (uncredited)
* Craig's Wife (1936)
* Nana (1934)
* Christopher Strong (1933)
* Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)
* Working Girls (1931)
* Honor Among Lovers (1931)
* Anybody's Woman (1930)
* Paramount on Parade (1930)
* Sarah and Son (1930)
* Behind the Make-Up (1930) (uncredited)
* The Wild Party (1929)
* Manhattan Cocktail (1928) (lost, except for the montage sequence by Slavko Vorkapić)
* Get Your Man (1927)
* Ten Modern Commandments (1927)
* Fashions for Women (1927)
* Blood and Sand (1922) (additional footage) (uncredited)
Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, Addison began working as a journalist before embarking on a directing and producing career. In the late 1980s, she worked as a senior VP of drama development at Lorimar before working as a producer at Warner Bros. Television. In 1989, she earned an Academy Award nomination for directing the short film Savannah.
* Eva's Man (1976)
* Freddy's Nightmares (1 episode, 1990)
* Knots Landing (1 episode, 1991) * Sisters (1 episode, 1991)
* There Are No Children Here (1993) * ER (1 episode, 1995)
* EZ Streets (1 episode, 1997)
* Judging Amy (1 episode, 2000)
Gurinda Chada
Gurinder Chadha, OBE, (born 10 January 1960) is a British film director of Indian origin. Most of her films explore the lives of Indians living in the UK. She is most famous for the hit films Bhaji on the Beach (1993), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Bride and Prejudice (2004) and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008).
* Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008)
* Paris, je t'aime (2006) segment "Quais de Seine"
* The Mistress of Spices (2005) (screenplay only)
* Bride and Prejudice (2004)
* Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
* What's Cooking? (2000)
* Rich Deceiver (1995), BBC two-part drama
* A Nice Arrangement (1994)
* What Do You Call an Indian Woman Who's Funny? (1994)
* Bhaji on the Beach (1993)
* Acting Our Age (1992)
* Pain, Passion and Profit (1992) (V)
* I'm British But... (1990) (TV)
Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron (born May 19, 1941) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, and blogger.
She is best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in Seattle. She sometimes writes with her sister, Delia Ephron.
Producer, director, and screenwriter
* (1996) Michael
* (1998) You've Got Mail
* (2005) Bewitched
* (2009) Julie & Julia
Director and screenwriter
* (1992) This Is My Life
* (1993) Sleepless in Seattle
* (1994) Mixed Nuts
Producer and screenwriter
* (2000) Hanging Up
* (1990) My Blue Heaven
Producer and director
* (2000) Lucky Numbers
Screenwriter
* (1983) Silkwood
* (1986) Heartburn
* (1989) Cookie (also executive producer)
* (1989) When Harry Met Sally... (also associate producer)
Leni Riefenstahl
Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (August 22, 1902 – September 8, 2003) was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker.
* Das Blaue Licht (The Blue Light, 1932) co-director: Bela Balazs
* Der Sieg des Glaubens (Victory of Faith, 1933)
* Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will, 1934)
* Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht (Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces, 1935)
* Olympia (Part 1 known as Fest der Völker/Festival of the Nations, Part 2 as Fest der Schönheit/Festival of Beauty, 1938)
* Tiefland (Lowlands, 1954)
* Impressionen unter Wasser (Underwater Impressions, 2002)
Dorothy Arzner
Dorothy Arzner (January 3, 1897 – October 1, 1979) was a pioneering American film director. Her directorial career in feature films spanned from the late 1920s into the early 1940s, a time period in which there were very few—if any—other women working in the field.
* First Comes Courage (1943)
* Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
* The Bride Wore Red (1937)
* The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937) (uncredited)
* Craig's Wife (1936)
* Nana (1934)
* Christopher Strong (1933)
* Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)
* Working Girls (1931)
* Honor Among Lovers (1931)
* Anybody's Woman (1930)
* Paramount on Parade (1930)
* Sarah and Son (1930)
* Behind the Make-Up (1930) (uncredited)
* The Wild Party (1929)
* Manhattan Cocktail (1928) (lost, except for the montage sequence by Slavko Vorkapić)
* Get Your Man (1927)
* Ten Modern Commandments (1927)
* Fashions for Women (1927)
* Blood and Sand (1922) (additional footage) (uncredited)
Contemporary adverts
This advert illustrates the "female gaze" and how the man is objectified which shows a dramatic change in society compared to historical adverts such as galaxy. However the close up of the womens faces and the fact that they are all attractive still purports the idea that women are to be looked at despite the actual contents of the advert which supports Laura Mulvey's theory of the "male gaze" in the audience
This advert shows egalitarian roles in the household. However despite the fc that roles are shared equally, the woman still completes her task more fficiently thus suggesting that women's roles are in the kitchen and conforming to stereotypical views.
This advert heavily challenges the conventions of the historical adverts as the men are shown to be pleasing the women. The idea of men doing housework is something which could never be imagines back in the 70s. Despite being presented as "the new man" the main character still holds masculine attributes such as watching football.
Historical Adverts
Similar to the coffee advert, women are presented as housewives and "gossips" whose main aims are to keep the house clean, please their husbands and their children. Their facial expressions reveal aspects of "false consciousness" as they are happy yet unaware that they are somewhat being exploited by society and thus conform to the roles designated to them.
The women in the adverts are depicted to be the typical "madonna" stereotypes whose only aims are to please their husbands. The first advert which shows the man standing up and looking down at his wife illustrates his superiority in comparison to her inferiority thus conforming to traditional ideologies of the time, that women should be housewives and caregivers.
The advert portrays the woman as sexually provocative, due to her dark clothing and seductive facial expression. The galaxy chocolate can be considered as a phallic symbol which insinuates the theory that women's main job is to please men. The woman is a victim to the male gaze due to her attractive looks and the way in which she removes items of clothing and thus is perceived to be a "whore". The fact that she is receiving pleasure by eating the chocolate challenges stereotypes during the time which as women should not be able to give into temptation and indulge in things which pleasure them.
Tuesday 9 December 2008
1990s...
Fatal Attraction
Basic Instinct (1992)
Both films see the evolution of the "dominant woman" originating from the 1940's genre of "film noir". The films portray sexually active females who will stop at nothing to get what they want, much like "Sunset Boulevard". However despite being portrayed as powerful it can be perceived that the only time women in film can be presented as more dominant is when they are playing negative rolls and stil sexually objectified due to their promiscuity. The films conform to the events transpiring in the 1990s where there was a male backlash according to "Susan Faludi", and men were against womens liberation and equality in the work place.
Basic Instinct (1992)
Both films see the evolution of the "dominant woman" originating from the 1940's genre of "film noir". The films portray sexually active females who will stop at nothing to get what they want, much like "Sunset Boulevard". However despite being portrayed as powerful it can be perceived that the only time women in film can be presented as more dominant is when they are playing negative rolls and stil sexually objectified due to their promiscuity. The films conform to the events transpiring in the 1990s where there was a male backlash according to "Susan Faludi", and men were against womens liberation and equality in the work place.
1980s...
Three Men and a Baby (1987)
This film highlights issues which are becoming more relevant in recent years as captures the zeitgeist of the time and the evolution of the "New Man" who is in touch with his feminine side. This thus challenges the dominant stereotypes that a man should be masculine and strong and repress his feelings much like "The Terminator".
The Terminator (1984)
"The Terminator" is a prime example of how the media portrays women to be in need of security and protection of a man. The terminator's strength and and power can be considered as a binary opposition compared to the womans susceptibility and vulnerability.
This film highlights issues which are becoming more relevant in recent years as captures the zeitgeist of the time and the evolution of the "New Man" who is in touch with his feminine side. This thus challenges the dominant stereotypes that a man should be masculine and strong and repress his feelings much like "The Terminator".
The Terminator (1984)
"The Terminator" is a prime example of how the media portrays women to be in need of security and protection of a man. The terminator's strength and and power can be considered as a binary opposition compared to the womans susceptibility and vulnerability.
1970s
Alien
The film "Alien" was the first movie to have a woman playing the central role and thus opposing the stereotypes enforced upon them, the woman is portrayed as strong and fearless which contradicts the females in star wars and helped to aid the equal allocation of roles in movies during the time and even today.
Star Wars
The female is portrayed s vulnerable and in need of the males protection, whereas the males are illustrated as the powerful species who can overcome anything, thus conforming to stereotypical ideologies that women are inferior and weak which complies with the context at the time.
The film "Alien" was the first movie to have a woman playing the central role and thus opposing the stereotypes enforced upon them, the woman is portrayed as strong and fearless which contradicts the females in star wars and helped to aid the equal allocation of roles in movies during the time and even today.
Star Wars
The female is portrayed s vulnerable and in need of the males protection, whereas the males are illustrated as the powerful species who can overcome anything, thus conforming to stereotypical ideologies that women are inferior and weak which complies with the context at the time.
1960s...
The Sound of Music
"The Sound of Music" portrays the lead character as a stereotypical motherly figure and the somewhat "ideal housewife" due to her maternal instinct and her connection with the children which is visible in this sequence. She is depicted as the "Madonna" and in turn is still considered to be inferior to the male counter part due to patriarchy and power of males during the time.
Goldfinger
The depiction of the woman here, completely juxtaposes that of "The Sound of Music" as her revealing clothing insinuates her "whore" like character, despite being portrayed differently she is still objectified when Bond intimately leans over her, without her objection thus making her a victim of the "male gaze"
"The Sound of Music" portrays the lead character as a stereotypical motherly figure and the somewhat "ideal housewife" due to her maternal instinct and her connection with the children which is visible in this sequence. She is depicted as the "Madonna" and in turn is still considered to be inferior to the male counter part due to patriarchy and power of males during the time.
Goldfinger
The depiction of the woman here, completely juxtaposes that of "The Sound of Music" as her revealing clothing insinuates her "whore" like character, despite being portrayed differently she is still objectified when Bond intimately leans over her, without her objection thus making her a victim of the "male gaze"
1950's...
High Noon (1952)
High Noon predominantly conveys ideas of patriarchy and how men are more dominant, assertive, confident and make the decisions. The open space is an epitome of their freedom and no female character is present in the opening which thus opposes their own freedom and the fact that men have the ascendancy over them.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Sunset Boulevard illustrates the women to be more powerful due to her confident expression and the way in which she contains herself, having the man under her control. Nevertheless, it still allows her to be objectified as she plays the role of a "femme fatal" and can be considered as the "whore" due to her provocative dress sense and her promiscuous ways.
High Noon predominantly conveys ideas of patriarchy and how men are more dominant, assertive, confident and make the decisions. The open space is an epitome of their freedom and no female character is present in the opening which thus opposes their own freedom and the fact that men have the ascendancy over them.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Sunset Boulevard illustrates the women to be more powerful due to her confident expression and the way in which she contains herself, having the man under her control. Nevertheless, it still allows her to be objectified as she plays the role of a "femme fatal" and can be considered as the "whore" due to her provocative dress sense and her promiscuous ways.
Book Research
Feminism and Film
Contributors: Maggie Humm - author.
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press.
Place of Publication: Edinburgh.
Publication Year: 1997.
"From Jane Fonda's brief flirtation with independence and inevitable marriage to
Klute in the 1970s, to Dead Ringers' masculine appropriation of repro
duction in the 1980s, to today, every Hollywood woman 'is someone
else's Other' ( Gentile 1985)" -P3
"Liberal feminism argues that women's liberation will
come with equal legal, political and economic rights, following Betty
Friedan's attack on media's 'feminine mystique' which, she argues,
prevented women from claiming equality ( Friedan 1963)"- P6
"The work of Laura Mulvey, Annette Kuhn, E. Ann Kaplan and bell hooks, I suggest, describes how the eroticisation of women on the screen comes about through the way
in which film assumes the spectator to be a white male and encourages
his voyeurism through specific camera and narrative techniques
( Mulvey 1975; Kuhn 1985; Kaplan 1980; hooks 1992)." -P39
Women and Film. Volume:4
Author: Janet Todd
Publisher: Holmes & Meier.
Place of Publication: New York.
Publication Year: 1988.
"When dealing with American commercial cinema, the critical project has
unmasked the absence of woman as a viable, active force and dis
covered instead an empty space that has been filled in and articulated
by filmmakers with the stereotypes created out of male fantasy and
fear. Women do not exist in American film. Instead we find another
creation, made by men, growing out of their ideological imperatives.
Gaye Tuchman has called the phenomenon the symbolic annihilation
of women, the replacement of reality by the patriarchal fantasies of
subservience or its opposite, the fantasy of the voracious, destructive
woman (who must, in her turn, be destroyed)"- P30
All That Hollywood Allows: Re-Reading Gender in 1950s Melodrama
Author: Jackie Byars
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press.
Place of Publication: Chapel Hill,
NC. Publication Year: 1991
Heidi Hartman: "Biology is always mediated by society.Sex we're born with; gender we learn."- P2 ( Hartman, "The Family as Locus of Gender, Class, and Political Struggle"p. 371.)
Issues in Feminist Film Criticism
Author: Patricia Erens
Publisher: Indiana University Press (January 1991)
(Gaylyn Studler in "Masochism and the Perverse Pleasures of the Cinema)
"Studler asserted that film viewing relied on a regression to the preoedipal stage rather than the later oedipal stage discussed by Mulvey. As such, the image of woman, tied to the child's earliest view of the mother, had a significantly different symbolic value. Rather than representing the threat of castration, women represented memories of plentitude." P-xxi
"feminist scholars have taken a closer look at several Hollywood genres, including film noir, the womans picture, and the maternal melodrama, films which either depicted a strong, sexual heroine or seemed to address a female audience......Gentlemen prefer Blondes, Stella Dallas and a Letter from an Unknown Woman. In all of these works the central characters are female. Furthermore, in A Letter From an Unknown Woman, the story is narrated by the heroine. Such films intrigued feminist critics because they focused on women's issues( home, family, emotionality), presented subversive heroines who went against society's norms, and seemed to provide a feminine discourse." -P xxii
"in its own way, the women's film is capable of accomplishing much the same work as a deconstructive cinema: revealing women's plight in a sexist society and subverting the traditional propaganda that reinforces this ideology." -P xxii
Feminist Film Theory: A Reader
Author: Sue Thornham
Publisher: NYU Press (April 1, 1999)
"sex role stereotyping"
- In her account, films both reflect social structures and changes and misrepresent them according to the fantasies and fears of their male creators. P10
(The Image of Women in Film: Some suggestions for Future Research- Sharon Smith)
Notes on Women's Cinema
Author- Claire Johnston
Publisher: Society for Education in Film and Television (1973)
"From the outset the Women's movement has assumed without question the importance of film in the women's struggle...The reason for this interest in the media is nor difficult to locate: it has been the level of image that the violence of sexism and capitalism has been experienced"
Cracks in the Pedestal: Ideology and Gender in Hollywood
Author: Green, Philip
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
"The triple male gaze" is the key to an initial understanding of the production and consumption of visual culture (cinematic visual culture, at any rate). The triple male gaze is the gaze of the camera, which (via the cinematographer/ director) chooses what is to be shown on the screen; of the male protagonist on the screen who directs our gaze to the female objects of his gaze, and, most crucial, the gaze of the male viewers in the audience, whose fantasies it is uniquely the intention of classical cinema to activate. As Mulvey described it, male voyeurism therefore controls both what is shown on the screen and what is seen emanating from the screen." -P10
Popcorn Venus: Women, Movies and the American Dream
Author: Marjorie Rosen
Publisher: Avon (1973)
“films have been a mirror held up to society’s porous face. They therefore reflect the changing societal image of women—which, until recently, has not been taken seriously enough.”
Women and Film: Both sides of the Camera
Author: E. Ann Kaplan
Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (December 31, 1990)
"Using psychoanalysis to deconstruct Hollywood films enables us to see clearly the patriarchal myths through which we have been positioned as Other (enigma, mystery), and as eternal and unchanging. We can also see how the family melodrama, as a genre geared specifically to weomen, functions both to expose the constraints and limitations that the capitalist nuclear family imposes on women and, at the same time, to "educate" women to accept those constraints as "natural", inevitable- as "given"." - P25
Contributors: Maggie Humm - author.
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press.
Place of Publication: Edinburgh.
Publication Year: 1997.
"From Jane Fonda's brief flirtation with independence and inevitable marriage to
Klute in the 1970s, to Dead Ringers' masculine appropriation of repro
duction in the 1980s, to today, every Hollywood woman 'is someone
else's Other' ( Gentile 1985)" -P3
"Liberal feminism argues that women's liberation will
come with equal legal, political and economic rights, following Betty
Friedan's attack on media's 'feminine mystique' which, she argues,
prevented women from claiming equality ( Friedan 1963)"- P6
"The work of Laura Mulvey, Annette Kuhn, E. Ann Kaplan and bell hooks, I suggest, describes how the eroticisation of women on the screen comes about through the way
in which film assumes the spectator to be a white male and encourages
his voyeurism through specific camera and narrative techniques
( Mulvey 1975; Kuhn 1985; Kaplan 1980; hooks 1992)." -P39
Women and Film. Volume:4
Author: Janet Todd
Publisher: Holmes & Meier.
Place of Publication: New York.
Publication Year: 1988.
"When dealing with American commercial cinema, the critical project has
unmasked the absence of woman as a viable, active force and dis
covered instead an empty space that has been filled in and articulated
by filmmakers with the stereotypes created out of male fantasy and
fear. Women do not exist in American film. Instead we find another
creation, made by men, growing out of their ideological imperatives.
Gaye Tuchman has called the phenomenon the symbolic annihilation
of women, the replacement of reality by the patriarchal fantasies of
subservience or its opposite, the fantasy of the voracious, destructive
woman (who must, in her turn, be destroyed)"- P30
All That Hollywood Allows: Re-Reading Gender in 1950s Melodrama
Author: Jackie Byars
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press.
Place of Publication: Chapel Hill,
NC. Publication Year: 1991
Heidi Hartman: "Biology is always mediated by society.Sex we're born with; gender we learn."- P2 ( Hartman, "The Family as Locus of Gender, Class, and Political Struggle"p. 371.)
Issues in Feminist Film Criticism
Author: Patricia Erens
Publisher: Indiana University Press (January 1991)
(Gaylyn Studler in "Masochism and the Perverse Pleasures of the Cinema)
"Studler asserted that film viewing relied on a regression to the preoedipal stage rather than the later oedipal stage discussed by Mulvey. As such, the image of woman, tied to the child's earliest view of the mother, had a significantly different symbolic value. Rather than representing the threat of castration, women represented memories of plentitude." P-xxi
"feminist scholars have taken a closer look at several Hollywood genres, including film noir, the womans picture, and the maternal melodrama, films which either depicted a strong, sexual heroine or seemed to address a female audience......Gentlemen prefer Blondes, Stella Dallas and a Letter from an Unknown Woman. In all of these works the central characters are female. Furthermore, in A Letter From an Unknown Woman, the story is narrated by the heroine. Such films intrigued feminist critics because they focused on women's issues( home, family, emotionality), presented subversive heroines who went against society's norms, and seemed to provide a feminine discourse." -P xxii
"in its own way, the women's film is capable of accomplishing much the same work as a deconstructive cinema: revealing women's plight in a sexist society and subverting the traditional propaganda that reinforces this ideology." -P xxii
Feminist Film Theory: A Reader
Author: Sue Thornham
Publisher: NYU Press (April 1, 1999)
"sex role stereotyping"
- In her account, films both reflect social structures and changes and misrepresent them according to the fantasies and fears of their male creators. P10
(The Image of Women in Film: Some suggestions for Future Research- Sharon Smith)
David Gauntlett: Media, Gender and Identity
*"advertisers have by now realised that audiences will only laugh at images of the pretty housewife" P57
Notes on Women's Cinema
Author- Claire Johnston
Publisher: Society for Education in Film and Television (1973)
"From the outset the Women's movement has assumed without question the importance of film in the women's struggle...The reason for this interest in the media is nor difficult to locate: it has been the level of image that the violence of sexism and capitalism has been experienced"
Cracks in the Pedestal: Ideology and Gender in Hollywood
Author: Green, Philip
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
"The triple male gaze" is the key to an initial understanding of the production and consumption of visual culture (cinematic visual culture, at any rate). The triple male gaze is the gaze of the camera, which (via the cinematographer/ director) chooses what is to be shown on the screen; of the male protagonist on the screen who directs our gaze to the female objects of his gaze, and, most crucial, the gaze of the male viewers in the audience, whose fantasies it is uniquely the intention of classical cinema to activate. As Mulvey described it, male voyeurism therefore controls both what is shown on the screen and what is seen emanating from the screen." -P10
Popcorn Venus: Women, Movies and the American Dream
Author: Marjorie Rosen
Publisher: Avon (1973)
“films have been a mirror held up to society’s porous face. They therefore reflect the changing societal image of women—which, until recently, has not been taken seriously enough.”
Women and Film: Both sides of the Camera
Author: E. Ann Kaplan
Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (December 31, 1990)
"Using psychoanalysis to deconstruct Hollywood films enables us to see clearly the patriarchal myths through which we have been positioned as Other (enigma, mystery), and as eternal and unchanging. We can also see how the family melodrama, as a genre geared specifically to weomen, functions both to expose the constraints and limitations that the capitalist nuclear family imposes on women and, at the same time, to "educate" women to accept those constraints as "natural", inevitable- as "given"." - P25
Thursday 4 December 2008
David Gauntlet - Media Gender & Identity...Representations of Gender in the Past
Women and Men on TV
Gunter(1995) Elasmer et al. (1999)-
Gunter(1995) Elasmer et al. (1999)-
- In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s only 20 to 35% of charcters were female.
- 1980s- more leading females
Miles (1975)-
- nearly equal proportions of men and women in situation comedies- humour was still traditional & sexist
- only 15% of leading charcters were women in action adventure shows
- a study shows that women more common in comedy programmes (43%)
Davis (1990)-
- action adventure shows- women doubled their showing to a still low 29%
Gunter
- studies in 1970's consistently found that marriage, parenthood and domesticity were more important for women than men
McNeil (1975)
- womens movement largely ignored by television- main role was housewives
Woman and film, Sharon Smith: “Women, in fully human form, have almost completely been left out of film. . . The role of woman in a film almost always revolves around her physical attraction, and the mating games she plays with the male characters. On the other hand a man is not shown purely in relation to the female character, but in a wide variety of roles”
Kathi Maio, 1990s:“Women are not only given less screen time, when we’re up there on the screen we are likely to be portrayed as powerless and ineffectual...Where are the triumphant woman heroes to match the winner roles men play constantly?”
Hegemonic vs Pluralistic...
In my opinion, the pluralistic model holds more value than that of the hegemonic model as it implies that all media texts have multiple interpretations and active audiences are able to challenge and oppose particular texts if they wish to. However, the hegemonic theory perceives the audience to be passive as they adhere to the ideologies of the ruling class and thus are unable to interpret the media in any other way, absorbing and conforming to the medias subliminal messages.
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