Feminist Film Theory PDF

FEMINIST FILM THEORY WOMEN’S CONTEXT MOVEMENT FIRST WAVE 1800s – early 1900s Focus - political inequality Inspired by abolitionism – women’s rights as an extension of human rights A concern in United States as well as other countries Movement led by Caucasian women Right to vote...

FEMINIST FILM THEORY WOMEN’S CONTEXT MOVEMENT FIRST WAVE 1800s – early 1900s Focus - political inequality Inspired by abolitionism – women’s rights as an extension of human rights A concern in United States as well as other countries Movement led by Caucasian women Right to vote granted: 1920 (United States) 1928 (Great Britain) SECOND WAVE 1960s – 1970s Focus - social inequality Catalyst (US) – The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan (1963) Women’s role in workplace / right to work / post World War II Reproductive rights Movement incorporated more diverse groups (racial) Timeline (US) Timeline (GB) FEMINIST FILM THEORY – LAURA MULVEY b. 1941 British film theorist & filmmaker Writing influential in development of feminist film theory “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” – essay Published 1975 Argument - classical Hollywood / mainstream cinema privileges the male in terms of both narrative and spectatorship Uses aspects of psychoanalysis in argument PSYCHOANALYSIS Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Originally neurologist Began to wonder about relationship between mind and physical ailments in patients Shifted to treating patients with psychological issues Work on unconscious mind that emphasized early childhood experiences SCOPOPHILIA Defined as love of looking In his “Three Essays on Sexuality,” Freud identified scopophilia as one of instincts of sexuality He associated scopophilia with taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling gaze Considered significant to childhood process of forming a personality MIRROR STAGE Jacques Lacan (1901-1981) French psychoanalyst Originated concept of the “mirror stage” 6 - 18 months age Child first recognizes self in mirror Sees that image as better, more perfect version “IT IS SAID THAT ANALYZING PLEASURE, OR BEAUTY, DESTROYS IT. THAT IS THE INTENTION OF THIS ARTICLE.” Laura Mulvey  Mulvey’s Essay – Point 1 Contradictory Ideas Mainstream (Hollywood) cinema encourages two contradictory ideas: 1) Scopophilia 2) Identification (with the image)  Tying into Sigmund Freud Separation from object onscreen 1) Scopophilia Creates circumstance for objectification Conditions of screening – dark theater – add to the sense of voyeurism 2) Identification Tying into Jacques Lacan Identification of oneself with the image onscreen (with the image) Akin to Lacan’s mirror stage  Mulvey’s Essay – Point 2 Gendered Dynamic in Films Man Woman The active one The passive one Carries the narrative A distraction, yet indispensable The one with whom the male Interrupts narrative flow with spectator identifies her presence His “screen surrogate,” akin to Must be incorporated into the Lacan’s mirror stage narrative to resume flow River of No Return  Mulvey’s Essay – Point 3 Deeper Problem According to Mulvey, woman’s presence onscreen creates castration anxiety for male viewer Castration anxiety – a derivative of Freud’s castration complex  Mulvey’s Essay – Point 3 Deeper Problem Two ways of dealing with this in a film: 1) Voyeurism – demystify the woman involves devaluing her, punishing, or saving her 2) Fetishistic scopophilia – turning woman into a fetish to make her reassuring instead of threatening Cause and Solution According to Mulvey, mainstream cinema a patriarchal institution Technological advances allow for an “alternative cinema” that challenges mainstream film Mulvey co-directed films with then husband, Peter Wollen Criticisms Fails to account for feminine enjoyment of mainstream cinema of Essay Fails to account for other spectatorial positions such as LGBT spectatorship