Feminist Film theory 

In this article/essay, the author writes about how women are represented in the film industry. The beginnings of feminist criticism was directed at the stereotypes of women, mostly in Hollywood films.
The article states that Hollywood films created endless, repetitive representations of women that were considered derogatory and had a negative effect on the female audience.
 They mainly focus on classical cinema in the beginning. The discussion here is that women were just represented as sexual objects for the male characters/audience. 'In classic cinema, voyeurism connotes women as 'to-be-looked-as-ness.' This suggests that the women were just there as eye candy for the male characters/audience, they weren't used, for example, to portray a certain message or they weren't there for any importance; they were just there to make the place look nice.
It states that the male characters are represented to be 'more perfect, more complete and more powerful...' compared to the representation of female characters which suggests that they are 'passive and powerless.' The audience is then said to 'identify with the male character rather than the female character in the film.' This suggests that males are superior to females, and that females couldn't think for themselves, defend them selves, or have their own opinions. They were basically there to be seen but not heard.

The author states that in classical cinema a female character 'has to be found guilty' of something usually resulting in two endings; death (an example: alfred hitchcock's psycho) or marriage (in alfred hitchcock's Marnie). This suggests a closure on the woman. They won't be able to make their own decisions again as they are either dead or tied down in a marriage where the husband is the superior person in the relationship. This also suggests that a woman is only used for a small amount of purposes in a film; as something to look at or someone that has done something wrong, so the males can rectify the problem. This significantly lowers the female independency level suggesting that they rely on men solely.

The article talks about 'the male gaze' which is the idea that women are only in films to be looked at by both male characters and male audiences. The author states that as a result of this female audiences 'may negotiate masculinisation of the spectatorial position in Hollywood cinema...' Which I think basically means that the female audience will begin to question the fact that the way that females are presented in films will begin to make the target audience primarily male. Also, the industry will realise that they can draw in large male audiences if they portray women in a slightly provocative way.

Many other topics were covered too including female subjectivity, female desire, on masculinity. Other topics covered in less detail were things like The Final Girl which appears in horror films. It is where the girl 'fights, resists and survives the the killer-monster'. Also, the subject of gay and lesbian criticism.


I thought that some of the things mentioned were interesting to read, particularly the things that I mentioned. I found that I could relate to some of the topics raised because I felt like the things that were said were correct in my eyes. The article went into great detail in each subject which allows you to understand each thing clearly. I also liked the way the author incorporated films in it too, it made you able to visualise the film and and compare it with the theory so you are able to contextualize/understand it. I think that the use of photos in the article was good too as it made it more interesting and easy to visualise in your mind. The use of years (years of films and theories etc) in the article is useful because it is always useful to know years and dates of different things.

some words i didn't know:
narcissistic: having eccesive interest in oneself and one's appearance
psychoanalysis: a system of psychological theory and therapy that  investigates the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind.
patriarchal: characteristic of a system of society or government controlled by men.
omitting: leave out or exclude (someone or something), either intentionally or forgetfully.