Subject: Feminist Film Theory, how women are presented in the film industry.
Review 1
Melanie Bell (2011) Feminism and women’s film criticism in post-war Britain, 1945–1959, Feminist Media Studies, 11:4, 399-416, 11 April 2011.
In the article, Melanie Bell highlights that there was feminism in the year of 1945 to 1959. A lot of people such as myself thought that feminism in cinema started in the 1960s. Bell argues that cross-media focuses on productive methods for generating insights into women articles agency. And women in film are presented on a broader scale when it comes to gender in British society.
In 1930s Hedda Hopper and Louella O.Parson who were columnists for film reviews were powerful American women. The famous film stars at the time were quite frightened of these film critics due to what they were going to publish about them in the newspapers. During the 1950s feminist film theory and female authors trailed off and did not re-emerge until the late 1960s.
By reading this article, I can see why a lot of women with respectable jobs were fed up with having negative stereotypes in films. The world was so dominated by men in the film industry that women were over-looked, and Men presented women as housewives and mothers who had to give up their employment opportunities.
This part of the article was quite sad to read because although women could do much more, it was all down to characterised gender and sexual politics.
The representation of women in film was negative and derogatory and was a product of Male fantasy witch lead women to be presented as either helpless and passive or as sexual objects.
Not only did Smith call for “women to be shown in a much wider variety of roles” which would “provide more constructive models for film viewers,” but she also expressed the hope that women’s active involvement across all filmmaking roles would go some way to correcting negative stereotypes (Smith [1972]1999, p. 15).
Review 2
Jean-Anne Sutherland & Kathryn M. Feltey (2017) Here’s looking at her: an intersectional analysis of women, power and feminism in film, Journal of Gender Studies, 26:6, 618-631, 04 March 2016.
Jean – Anne Sutherland and Kathryn M. Feltey analyse women in power and feminism in film. They explore what makes a film feminist from a sociological perspective, by looking into Gender, Race, Ethnicity and Social class in films about women.
The article researches on how much power do women have and how they are depicted in film. This revolves around stories about the ability of women finding the courage to confront challenges in film and individually. So when a strong woman is in a film, they are always represented as middle-class white women. But when there’s a woman of colour. They are mostly featured as having less power.
In the 1970s films always tackled the image of women and represented them as either in stereotypical roles or as positive role models depending on the narrative.
Some women show solidarity in their mutual circumstances, such as in the movie Thelma and Louise 1991. They know women and men filmmakers with feminist values will give women actors better roles. However, this unfortunately is not always the case.
Press and liebes-Plesner (2004) identify four key features: (1) women are present in central roles; (2) there is variation in age-range, size, sexuality, race, and appearance of women on screen beyond the usual narrow parameters; (3) women are seen in roles with power and status, and (4) there are variations from the hetero-normative depictions of family (14). Aside from the occasional independent film, Hollywood, according to Press and Liebes-Plesner, has not delivered feminism on the modern screen. Hollywood, in fact, ‘pays lip service to feminism’ by inserting stronger women characters who are limited by sexist stereotypes (p. 16).
Strong women in Hollywood films are sometimes not portrayed with traditionally feminine features such as compassion and sensitivity. They are sometimes described as successful but struggle with loneliness, and Isolation like Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada, 2006.
If they get more women as writers and directors, there would be more speaking roles for women and girls. Some black directors such as Spike Lee, although tell stories with black women actors the lead male actors still lead the story.
Overall this article concludes that women who are white middle class are never feminist and are often engaged in the exploration of others which is defined “The power over women”. Then there’s “power too”, where women find they no longer need to be dependent on men. And the last one “power with” where women struggle within the constraints of the oppressive system and show solidarity.
Review 3
Gilpatric, K. (2010). Violent Female Action Characters in Contemporary American Cinema. Sex Roles, 62(11-12), pp.734-746.
This article researches the content of the violent female action characters shown in American action films in 1991. Katy Gilpatric focuses on the three aspects of gender stereotypes, demographics, quantity and violence.
Women were portrayed in a submissive role tom the male hero in the film, and women characters were romantically linked to the hero. The women in the film were young, white and highly educated and unmarried. They engaged in masculine types of violence but still retained a feminine stereotype due to their submissive role.
The 1979 film Alien is a good example, starting Sigourney Weather playing L.T Ripley which is an icon in American pop culture. It was commonplace to see female action characters engage in combat by using weapons as this was the domain of male roles.
This representation has moved beyond traditional notions of feminist theory. There is a debating if these characters are empowering images for real women. Gilpatric has examined the gender stereotypes displayed by female action characters. Gilpatric’s research helps to reveal the contradictory nature of female characters appearing in mainstream American cinema.
This is worth looking into because of the potential influence on young target audiences and their idea of gender and violence. There is an imbalance between active/male and passive/female ways of looking at characters in the film. Gilpatric says in her article, females images serve as a design of visual pleasure for the male gaze.
However, in the article, she also provides evidence that the majority of female action characters shown in American cinema, are not empowering images and they do not draw upon their femininity as a source of power. Instead, they are operating inside socially constructed gender norms and rely on the strength and guidance of the dominant male action hero which re-articulates gender stereotypes.
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