Author: Scott Thompson
How do feminists critique
representations of women in cinema and have these representations changed over
time?
During
the 20th Century there have been a number of waves of feminism, a
movement founded by white-middle class women who wanted to break down the
barriers that were in front of them who sought universal suffrage and political
equality.
We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil
and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States, be guaranteed to us
and our daughters forever.
(Susan B. Anthony, Declaration of Rights for Women, July
1876, www.feminist.com, 24/03/2014)
Susan
B. Anthony argues women are human beings too and therefore should equality over
civil and political issues. She suggests that equality should be granted to all
citizens of the United Sates and that this equality should continue to be
passed down through subsequent generations.
Feminists
of this time aimed to find equality for women to go to work and theoretically
have the similar civil rights as men. This
movement aimed to, and successfully, enabled women to vote, sign legal
documents, attend university, serve on juries, refuse to have sex with their
husbands, gain legal custody of their children and, if necessary divorce their
husbands.
Although
some feminists argue that the feminist campaign has continued throughout, there
have been three “recognised” waves of feminism; each wave challenging a new
problem in society due to a change in cultural and social attitudes of any
given time specific code.
During
these three waves the media has played a role in how women are represented in
society through its portrayal of female roles within their media products. From
the early days of the suffragettes the depiction of them in print media texts
consisted of negative imagery in which the women of this feminist movement had
large unattractive teeth with a loud and intrusive voice. Everyday objects
women commonly used, such as an umbrella, would be drawn as if it were to be
wielded as a weapon. Other print media texts would also see these women as weak
and unable where others seem to condone punishment towards these women supporting
the cause of the suffragettes.
As
the feminist movement journeyed thorough the last of the 19th
Century, through the 20th Century and into the 21st
Century the other waves of feminism took on different challenges with the
culture of that specific time. The second wave of feminism during the 1960s to
the 1980s saw feminists challenged broader issues including sexuality, family,
the work place and reproductive rights. They also challenged the patriarchal
regime over domestic violence and the introduction of marital rape laws which
saw rape crisis and battered women shelters becoming available to women as well
as changes in custody and divorce laws.
The
term third-wave feminism came about after an essay written by Rebecca Walker in
1992. Being a bisexual African-American woman she is seen to be a
representation that second-wave feminism failed to recognise in that women are
from numerous races, backgrounds and sexuality. Third-wave feminism, starting
in the 1990s to the present day, aims to promote women of all kinds and that
they too have a voice. During this time social attitudes were changing again
and becoming more liberalised when it come to an individuals sexual preferences
and increasingly more accepting of multi-racial communities. Women of variant
social backgrounds, regardless of their race or sexuality wanted the right to
be treated with equality within the dominant patriarchal society.
Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.
West’s view argues women
are not recognised with having equality and suggests that women aren’t even
recognised as people at all. Could this be the result of how women have been
represented throughout the 20th Century in Hollywood
cinema? Has the threat of feminism challenging the patriarchal society meant
that producers of filmic texts tried to place women in stereotypical roles to
ensure the male dominance?
It is thought that media perpetuate sex role stereotypes
because they reflect dominant social values and also because male media
producers are influenced by these stereotypes.
(Van Zoonen, 1991, page 35-36).
Van
Zoonen suggests portraying women in stereotypical views mirrors the dominant
psychology of the masses in society. Van Zoonen further suggests that the
producers of media texts use these stereotypical representations when
conceptualizing gender roles within a product. This may mean that producers of
media text find it easier to use stereotypical representation of gender as it
may relate closest to the spectator and their relationship with that media
product.
Film
Noir movies of the 1940s and 1950s placed women at the centre of the story and
were the focus point of the narrative. This is was in contrast to the gangster
film which often saw women in the background.
The film noir world is one in which women are central to
the intrigue of the films. (Kaplan, 1980, p.2)
Kaplan
may be suggesting that film noir offered women an opportunity to be able to
promote strong women within society. By having a role in which the narrative of
the story which heavily featured a woman in a prominent role showed women could
function outside the social patriarchy system.
However,
it may appear the roles in which women often portrayed in film noir movies saw
them continuing in the stereotypical female roles such as a home-maker or as a
threat to patriarchy.
In film noir women are primarily constructed in two roles;
the redeemer and the destroyer.
(Janey Place, ‘Women in Film Noir’, in E Ann Kaplan, (ed),
Women in Film Noir, (London: BFI Publishing, 190), pp. 35-55, p. 35.)
Place attempts to argue that the two roles of “redeemer
and the destroyer” are the main roles in which women feature in film noir
movies. The role of the redeemer is often played as the woman who is dutiful
stay-at-home wife, which is representative of the stability within the
patriarchal, but is seen as conventional and boring. The femme fatale, however,
brings new excitement into the life of the male protagonist by displaying her
ambitious independence and an assured confidence in her femininity and
sexuality.
In
the film noir movie Double Indemnity (1944), Phyllis Dietrichson entices an
insurance salesman, Walter Neff, into helping her to kill her husband so that
she can gain financially from the death of her husband. Walter Neff succumbs to
her strong femininity and sexuality to carry out an illegal act which
eventually leads to the demise of both characters to reaffirm the patriarchal
system.
They played women of dubious ethics or unconventional
femininity who were likely to be found on the wrong side of the law.
(Molly Haskell; 1987, p.191)
Haskell
argues that women who were not playing by the rules of the patriarchal society
or by using their femininity in a manner which was deemed to be acceptable
would be deemed to be a threat to the patriarchal system and therefore must be
punished. It may be the case that the femme fatale was therefore depicted as
dangerous and untrustworthy.
…Phyllis Dietrichson, a dame with no redeeming qualities
by Hollywood moral standards, but aesthetic
standards…
(Molly Haskell; 1987, p.197)
Haskell
suggests that iconic portrayal of Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity did
not have any endearing personality traits of which were in contrast to Hollywood’s usual
depiction of women and that her looks and physical appearance were the main
focus of the character. This could be seen as an example of the ‘male-gaze’
which feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey wrote about in her well-revered 1975
essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative
Cinema.
Traditionally, the woman displayed has functioned on two
levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen story, and as
erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension
between the looks on either side of the screen.
(Laura Mulvey, ‘Visual Pleasure
and Narrative Cinema’, in C Penley, (ed), Feminism and Film Theory , (1998,
Routledge, London), pp. 57-69, p.62.)
Mulvey
may be suggesting women may not have an important role in the narrative of the
story but is characterized for the pleasure of the male audience. The female
character is also an object for the male character to fantasise about.
Film
noir movies aim to reaffirm the patriarchal society by damning the actions of
the femme fatale and also the actions of those who are entangled with her. This
also expresses the myth of which rules society should be following to ensure
conventional way of life to endorse the patriarchal system.
In film noir we observe both the social action of myth
which damns the sexual woman and all who become enmeshed by her…
(Place in Kaplan, 1980, p.36)
Place
argues that by ensuring the demise of the femme fatale and by destroying her
sexual empowerment as well as the men who come into contact with her, such as
Walter Neff in Double Indemnity, the audience sees the threat to male dominance
being decimated. However, this threat to the male dominance seemed to be very
real to at the time when film noir was popular with audiences.
The attitudes toward women evidence in film noir – i.e.,
fear of loss of stability, identity and security – are reflective of the dominant
feelings of the time.
(Place in Kaplan, 1980, p.37)
Place
suggest that men, at the time of when film noir was in it popularity, was
mirroring the feelings and emotions of men in that they were losing their place
in society. This was a result of men leaving the stability of their lives to
fight in the Second World War and when coming back coming to the realisation
that women had now found their own independence.
…the depiction of women in these films, by a complex and
circuitous network of mediation, reflects such social changes as the increasing
entry of women into the labour market.
(Harvey in Kaplan, 1980, p.23)
Harvey argues the underlying narrative indirectly
challenges the cultural changes in which women were finding their independence
and entering and maintain positions within the workplace. However this threat
of female independence had the male dominance concerned.
…the femme fatale can be seen a cultural indicator of
contemporaneous concerns of male anxiety and the paranoia over the independence
of women.
(Tim Tallack, www.knowledgeeater.blogspot.co.uk, date
19/04/2014)
It
could be argued that film noir representation of women and the producers of
media texts use narrative to see their demise may have been an attack on
feminism. This may be because the thought of women being more independent may
upset the status-quo of a traditional nuclear family with Western cultures.
…film noir use women to communicate an unqualified
pro-family message. They reward women who play traditional roles in the nuclear
family, punish women who refuse to stay in their proper place, and convert or
castigate women who openly question the validity of the nuclear family and
female gender roles.
(John Blaser, www.lib.berkeley.edu, 25/03/2014)
Blaser
seems to argue that this is the case. He suggests that by using female roles in
film noir the women that play the traditional role of women who are faithful
and dutiful to their husbands and families will be rewarded as a symbolic
authentication of the patriarchal society. In contrast the femme fatale must be
punished as she is a direct threat to the male dominance.
…her longing for financial independence by way of sexual
initiative that makes her so threatening to traditional phallocentric authority.
(Boozer 1999:21)
From
Boozer’s perspective the femme fatale uses her “sexual initiative” to be able
to get men to fall for her to be able to manipulate him for her own gains. This
could also be seen as a weakness in men and as it is a threat to the
“phallocentric authority” in which masculinity is the traditional source of
power and dominance. Although it is argued that it is not the threat to
masculinity that we remember of the femme fatale.
It is the image of the powerful, fearless, and independent
femme fatale that sticks in our minds when these movies end, perhaps because
she — unlike powerful women in other Hollywood films of the '30s and '40s —
remains true to her destructive nature and refuses to be converted or captured,
even if it means that she must die.
(John Blaser, www.filmnoirstudies.com, 26/04/2014)
It
could be seen that Blaser is suggesting Film Noir denounces feminism in its
portrayal of women as the “powerful, fearless, and independent femme fatale… must
die”. The refusal of the femme fatale to follow convention and her refusal to
be “converted or captured” suggests to the spectator feminism is damaging to
traditional patriarchal attitudes. As society changed and evolved from the end
of the Film Noir era of the late 1950’s and into the 1990s feminism had seemed
to start making a positive impact not just in social attitudes and culture but
also in the cinema.
Feminism and its impact on the way women are portrayed and
employed in Hollywood film have made it plenty
clear that change is happening.
(Abby Osman, www.sbccfilmreviews.org, 25/03/2014)
Osman
argues that feminist movement has had a positive effect in cinema by the roles
that women have portrayed and employed. She suggests if the feminist movement
had not been effective at promoting the positive roles of women then change
would not have been possible, but as Osman declares “change is happening”. The
way that women were being portrayed during this time and the better employment
opportunities in cinema may have been a reflection of the changes in social
culture and the positive steps women took in the male dominated world.
…back then American women were experiencing something like
momentum: Anita Hill stood up for herself at Clarence Thomas's confirmation
hearings, Callie Khouri won an Oscar, and, when four women were simultaneously
elected to the United States Senate, 1992 was dubbed the "Year of the
Woman."
(Raina Lipsitz, www.theatlantic.com, 19/04/2014)
Lipsitz
suggests women in the early 1990’s were fighting back against the dominant male
social structures as “Anita Hill stood up for herself”. Her emphasis on the
election of four women into the American political forefront and that 1992 had
been given the accolade for Year of the Woman suggest that Lipsitz saw a
positive change in women’s role and importance in society and that women seemed
to be challenging the Hollywood protocol as “Callie Khouri won an Oscar” for
the screenwriting for Thelma and Louise. This movie re-opened the debate of
feminism in cinema.
The film places our heroines on a path of liberation,
freedom, and exultation.
(Abby Osman, www.sbccfilmreviews.org, 18/04/2014)
Osman suggests the theme
of Thelma and Louise is about breaking off the shackles of the patriarchal
system and for women to rejoice in their independence of their own choices.
This could be seen as a positive step for the feminist movement in cinema as
two women held the lead roles and was a film about women and their journey.
When women have been allowed to demonstrate grit and
physical courage, it is usually in crypto-male action roles.
(Peter Rainer, www.articles.latimes.com, 24/03/2014)
Rainer
argues that the lead roles in Thelma and Louise are not a positive step for the
feminist movement but reinforces the male dominance. He suggests that women in
“crypto-male roles” are concealing their desire to be part of the belief system
in which the patriarchal system should maintain its dominance. However, this
seems to have been rebuked:
It's about escaping, however fantastically, the agonizing
constraints of gender, class, time, and place.
(Raina Lipsitz, www.theatlantic.com, 19/04/2014)
As
Lipsitz suggests women are still continuing to reluctantly live in the confines
of social conventions. Women are also conforming to what is expected of them by
conforming to the stereotypical attitudes of female behaviour in which they
relate to their social background. Thelma and Louise, Lipsitz suggests, is a
film in which women can escape their reality and believe in new opportunities.
Rainer pours scorn on this view by writing:
It's a sick joke that actresses can only assume dominant
roles now by co-opting male action parts that, in many cases, aren't worth
playing anyway.
(Peter Rainer, www.articles.latimes.com, 24/03/2014)
Rainer
argument seems to suggest the roles of Thelma and Louise do not offer any
importance in cinema. He suggests the “dominant roles” in which women portray
in cinema are watered-down roles of male actors would turn down as the
characters lack any strength or depth. I could be seen that Rainer is therefore
suggesting that feminism lacks any threat to the male dominance in society.
…even smart, educated people are disturbed by female
characters who assert control over their lives and bodies and aren't punished
for it.
(Raina Lipsitz, www.theatlantic.com, 19/04/2014)
Lipsitz
appears to address Rainer’s argument by suggesting women in films make their
own choices in life and have freedom of thought over their body is a threat to
the male dominated world. Those women who are strong enough to have choices and
live by those choices also threaten intellectuals who continue to support the
patriarchal system.
Thelma and Louise has been used as a statement of female
empowerment and self-assertion.
(Abby Osman, www.sbccfilmreviews.org, 18/04/2014)
Osman
suggests Thelma and Louise has had much positive impact on feminism and that it
is symbolic in the attitudes of women who wish to take control of their own
destiny. She argues that women could now
be in the position to challenge societal norms and by doing so express one’s
opinions whether that is for their own personal objective or for the objective
of others.
As Janet Maslin explained in the New York Times in 1991, the real objection to Thelma &
Louise was neither its violence nor its protagonists' purported misandry;
rather, it was "something as simple as it is powerful: the fact that the
men in this story don't really matter.
(Raina Lipsitz, www.theatlantic.com, 19/04/2014)
Osman’s
view seems to be supported by Maslin, cited by Lipsitz, as the men in the film
“don’t really matter”. This according to Maslin was the most offending aspect
to the male supremacy and not the violence and the hatred shown towards men.
Maslin suggest that now men, through Thelma and Louise, have experienced the
symbolic representation of repression through cinema that women have endured
for many years, they have appeared to be agitated by it and therefore speak
out, indirectly, at the threat of feminism.
“Thelma and Louise” did was unexpected and thrilling….And
it forced this feminine perspective onto the popular culture at gunpoint.
(Carina Chocano, www.nytimes.com, 23/04/14)
Chocano
implies the feminist views in Thelma and Louise were imposed onto societal
attitudes. She suggests women were now able to challenge conventional social
opinion and could do so loudly and proudly. By doing so women could free
themselves from being dominated by men and find a place of their own in society
as opposed to accept what is ideologically expected of them.
…unapologetic femininity and unchecked rage were linking
arms and skipping through the popular culture, snarling at everyone.
(Carina Chocano, www.nytimes.com, 23/04/14)
Chocano
has gone on further to suggest that women were no longer being reserved about
their femininity and that staring were openly expressing an opposing view in
contrast to conventional societal views. She seems to argue that women have now
united in their rally to promote feminism and to ensure that movement
maintained and gathered pace with women being in unity.
It smuggled its politics in under the guise of two
happy-go-lucky gals taking a road trip together…
(Raina Lipsitz, www.theatlantic.com, 19/04/2014)
Lipsitz
seems to argue in favour with Chocano. Thelma and Louise has, in Lipsitz
opinion, managed promote feminist values. She has describe the two characters
as “happy-go lucky” and that their journey is a “road trip” both have
connotations of turning their back on conventional society and its attitudes,
which is usually associated with men who want to live the dream and get away
from the norm. Something that women aren’t expected to believe.
The expectations of feminism have gone bust, and in its
place is a righteous, self-immolating fury. The women in this movie reinforce
each other's rage towards men.
(Peter Rainer, www.articles.latimes.com, 24/03/2014)
Rainer
argues Thelma and Louise is a man-hating movie and depicts “rage towards men”. He
suggests that Thelma and Louise have damaged the feminist movement by being
over zealous in attempting to fight for change. In doing so, the characters
sacrifice the feminist movement for their own personal wrongdoings. This could
be seen as a mirror of how the Film Noir movies depicted feminism. So have
things changed in the representations of women in cinema?
Thelma and Louise shows how feminism impacted the film
industry by challenging Hollywood and the social patriarchy, providing women a
voice, and changing how spectators view how women are looked at through women’s
eyes and their experiences.
(Abby Osman, www.sbccfilmreviews.org, 18/04/2014)
Osman’s
opinion seemingly supports that things have changed for women and that feminism
has provided the backbone of this change. Women are now, according to Osman,
able to be viewed differently, that Hollywood
is able to depict female characters as strong, independent people. Osman
suggests this would not have happened without the feminist movement “challenging
Hollywood and
social patriarchy”.
By every significant measure of social, political, and
cultural power, today's women are losing ground.
(Raina Lipsitz, www.theatlantic.com, 19/04/2014)
Despite
her previous string arguments for feminism, Lipsitz seems to concede nothing
much has changed at all. She may be suggesting that women are still oppressed
and that they are falling further behind. She goes on further to say:
In today's movies, getting a ring from a man has replaced
authentic moments of personal transformation and spiritual awakening as the high point of women's
lives…
(Raina Lipsitz, www.theatlantic.com, 19/04/2014)
Lipsitz
suggests today’s movies women committing their future to a man is the holy
grail to a woman’s life and that she should not seek personal growth and
enlightenment. The representation of marriage is, as Lipsitz may be suggesting,
restrictive and controlling and reinforces the societal norms of the
patriarchal society and therefore dispelling feminist views. Lipsitz maybe making
an argument that movies today do not support feminist views.
…it has been shown
how the recuperative nature of Hollywood
cinema seeks to keep woman in her place in the interests of maintaining the
hegemony of patriarchy. This was achieved by demonstrating how a
woman-structure informs Hollywood cinema
through the pattern of investigation of the guilty object, with the ultimately
aim of recuperation or punishment.
(Tim
Tallack, www.knowledgeeater.blogspot.co.uk, 19/04/2014)
Tallack
argues that a Hollywood movie, despite the
challenges it has faced from feminism, still supports the dominant patriarchal
society. He suggests women are still seen as a threat to the male dominance and
that the “recuperation” of keeping women in their place pushes back the
continued threat of feminism. It therefore seems that although there may have
been brief changes in cinema to it approaches towards feminism very little has
changed at all.
Bibliography
Books
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in Film Noir, British Film Institute, London
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