Chapter 9

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                                         WOMEN AND FILMS   

FEMINIST FILM REVOLUTION – Making Feminist Film Accessible

  Feminist film theory and practice in the early period up to 1980 had been a joint ideological struggle; film theory analyzed the patriarchal conventions that mainstream film worked within and film practice was physically able to break these rules.  In the exceedingly, male dominated world of film-making women were not seen as artists or film-makers and feminist art was seen as a possible challenge to patriarchal society.

  Becoming an area of debate in the next decade, feminist film practice is generally seen as separate from mainstream film. Mainstream films can be defined as commercial films that are made by major entertainment studios or companies that are owned by international media conglomerates. On the other hand, feminist film theory is theoretical film criticism derived from feminist politics and feminist theory. Feminists have many approaches to cinema analysis, regarding the film elements analyzed and their theoretical underpinnings.

  Whereas the focus was on representation in film and media at the beginning of the 1970s, the attention was being diverted to the concept of “pleasure” by the end of the decade. Some feminists expressed the concern by denying the pleasures of mainstream cinema. Thus, it can be stated that feminists all agreed that feminist film theory had a significant role on raising consciousness as to the marginalization of women in patriarchal society.

  REASSESSING FEMINIST FILM THEORY

Feminist film theory has emerged in the past 20 years to become a large and flourishing field. Its dominant approach, exemplified by such journals as Screen and Camera Obscura, involves a theoretical combination of semiotics, Althusserian Marxism, and Lacanian psychoanalysis.      

Feminist film theory was going through a similar period of reassessment which also seemed to suggest feminist ideas could be expounded using mainstream cinema. In 1981 Mulvey published an article, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. In the article Mulvey develops two lines of thought: first, examining whether the female spectator can gain a deep pleasure from a male oriented text, and second, how the txt and spectator are affected by the centrality of a female character in the narrative.

 Feminist film theory has been especially influenced psychoanalytic theory and particularly, Freud and Lacan. The strong and powerful female can exist within mainstream film, yet, for instance; Hitchcock is potentially not a feminist film maker and his films seem to express Freud’s assertion that the male contempt for femininity is an expression of the repression of their bisexuality. Woman is a threat who must be destroyed: “the male object is greatly threatened by bisexuality, though he is at the same time fascinated by it; and it is the woman who pays for this ambivalence, often with her life itself.”(Modleski,1988)

 FEMINIST FILM THEORY IN THE 1990s

The development of feminist film theory was influenced by second wave feminism and the development of women's studies within the academy. In the late 1990s, feminist film theory appears to be thriving; many books have now been published on the subject and it is an established area of study on higher education courses.

Feminist film studies could be seen as being in danger of fragmenting and becoming disunified. Yet it is the subject’s heterogeneity, its ability to incorporate a range of theories from psychoanalysis to postmodernism, which should continue to ensure, its useful contribution to a deeper understanding of film studies and women’s place in society.

Reel Feminism vs. Real Feminism, Feminist Film in the '90s
by Leora Tanenbaum

 Yet some feminist film theorists such as Jackie Bvars have reworked psychoanalytic theory to give a feminist perspective. Her analysis of melodrama suggests the woman can exist as a spectator in a positive way she explains that in All That Heaven Allows  the gaze is strongly female. In addition, the reworking of psychoanalytic theory may provide a new model from which feminists could work. Mulvey’s theories, based on Freud an Lacan, have had considerable impact in enhancing our understanding of the role of the spectator in the film and how media texts place the viewer in a particular position.

Alternatives to psychoanalytic feminist film theory raise new questions about the representation of women in films because of their different accounts of the self, agency, identity, and the cultural surroundings of the subject. They reflect more textured and nuanced views about the self's complexity and emphasize the film viewer's potential to construct critical readings.

 Female Representations and the Female Audience Feminism : The feminist movement is related to the idea of gender and sexual equality in society. You have probably heard of The Suffragettes in the early 20th Century. They have spoken out against pornography, stereotypes of women and male domination of society/ patriarchy. As media representations are one of the mains ways that such messages are transmitted - the media and feminist activists often come to blows!

 A stereotype is a thought that may be adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of doing things, but that belief may or may not accurately reflect reality.

One of the more common stereotype examples is stereotypes surrounding African Americans. Saying that all African Americans are good at sports is a stereotype, because it’s grouping the race together to indicate that everyone of that race is a good athlete.

Men and Women

There are also some common stereotypes of men and women, such as:

·         Men are strong and do all the work.

·         Men are the “backbone.”

·         Women aren't as smart as a man.

·         Women can’t do as good of a job as a man.

·         Girls are not good at sports.

·         Guys are messy and unclean.

·         Men who spend too much time on the computer or read are geeks.

Stereotypes are often confused with prejudices, because, like prejudices, a stereotype is based on a prior assumption. Stereotypes are often created about people of specific cultures or races.

 Media represents information to its audienceswho are encouraged by the main stream to see its output as a “window on the world”, as reflecting reality.

Women and Femininity Women have often suffered from a narrow set of representations in the media. They are often linked to the domestic situation - women as housewives or mothers . OR as sex objects ( sexualised and objectified) represented to entertain and titillate the male audience. In non- fictional media - women’s roles tend to be smaller and fewer than their male counterparts.

Patriarchy is a social system in which the father or eldest male is head of the household, having authority over women and children. Patriarchy also refers to a system of government by males, and to the dominance of men in social or cultural systems. It may also include title being traced through the male line.  Men make the rules and dominate in business and government. It is said to be a "man's world", men make the rules and dominate in all forums outside the home. A woman's main value is to support a man (behind every good man is a good woman), bear children and housekeeping duties. This is how it is and has been for millennia in most cultures.

In Fictional Media Due to the Patriarchal nature of our society - women are less likely to be the source of leading news stories (politics, business, law and religion stories.) Since their roles in these areas tend to be fewer in number.

Femininity Femininity like masculinity is a cultural idea not a biological one. So it differs from culture to culture In Western societies ( like the UK) some aspects of feminine representations in the media have changed drastically in recent years - while others have remained unchanged.

 The psychoanalytic view holds that there are inner forces outside of your awareness that are directing your behavior. For example, a psychoanalyst might say that James misspoke due to unresolved feelings for his ex or perhaps because of misgivings about his new relationship.

The founder of psychoanalytic theory was Sigmund Freud. Feminists rejects this theory. Laura Mulvey's now-classic essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" [Mulvey, 1975], was the feminist claim that men and women are differentially positioned by cinema: men as subjects identifying with agents who drive the film's narrative forward, women as objects for masculine desire and fetishistic gazing.

Women as Sex Object Women are often represented as sex objects in the media.The Male Gaze - (1975) Laura Mulvey Mulvey claimed that women are turned into sex objects through how they are shot in the media (cinematography.) That by showing only body parts and not the whole body ( including face) they are turned on to objects for male pleasure. She called this fragmentation that leads to objectification .

Structuralism is the name that is given to a wide range of discourses that study underlying structures of signification. Signification occurs wherever there is a meaningful event or in the practise of some meaningful action. Hence the phrase, "signifying practices." A meaningful event might include any of following: writing or reading a text; getting married; having a discussion over a cup of coffee; a battle. Structuralism first comes to prominence as a specific discourse with the work of a Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure, who developed a branch of linguistics called "Structural Linguistics." Saussure’s demand for a general linguistics is what leads to his most startling insights. Previously there had been many explanations of language but there had always been something missing and, thus, the absence of a ground to explain all of language

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry based upon a materialist interpretation of historical development, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis of class-relations within society and their application in the analysis and critique of the development of capitalism.

While Marx primarily examined the role of economics in perpetuating the status quo or ideology, observing that The ultimate condition of production is therefore the reproduction of the conditions of production, for Althusser, the reproduction of the conditions of production is not simply guaranteed by perpetuating existing material conditions such as wages (Norton 1483); rather, he believed that such conditions are achieved more and more outside production through the concept which Althusser deems as the state apparatus (1491).

WOMEN IN THE MAINSTREAM FILM INDUSTRY

   Although the number of women working in the roles in the film industry was still very small, by the late 1980's ,an increasing number of women were entering these areas after receiving training in a film school or gaining experience in the growing number of film workshops. The National Film School, for instance, increased its intake of female students from one out of twenty-five when it first opened in 1971 to around 30 per cent by the mid-1980's.

    By the 1990s more women were working in previously male-dominated areas like; directing, camera, sound and lightning.

   

The advent of Channel Four  in  1982 proved beneficial for women and film.Apart from a number of film and video workshops,the company also employed women in key positions.Channel Four screened a series of films by women from all over the world.Entitled "Woman Call The Shots"  , it was a repponse to the wealth of cinema made by woman that is rarely seen by a large audience

FRAGMENTATION OF THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT

    Feminist film theory was in the early period,especially concerned with representation and sexuality and its relation to the dominance of the male power structure within a patriarchal society .A number of women , often from an academic background,encouraged this development, but it was perhaps Laura Mulvey and Claire Johnston who were the pregenitors of feminist film theory.

    Anumber of support agencies for women film-makers hhave been established which aim to provide the female equivalent of the "Old Boys Network" , "Women in Film and Tv" helps women in the mainstream sector and in the independent and workshops sector , groups like "Real Women" hold regular seminars and screenings, while "Networking" provides information and support for all women interested in film and video.

    So much of the future for women  in film seems to be dependent on funding; in the independent sector on government support for the arts,and in the mainstream sector on confidence and continuous investments in the industry.

    Feminism has perhaps changed the way we look at film, and there is a great awareness of how gender is represented in the media.


   Feminist interventions: Some of the  female directors whose aims are also to emphasize the role of the (male) artist for the emergence of a feminist awareness

     I Shot Andy Warhol (1996, Marry Harron)

    Titus (1999, Julie Taymor; based on Shakespeare’s play Titus Andronicus

    Orlando (1993, Sally Potter; based on Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando)

 CASE STUDY 1 : RED FLANNEL

   

    Red Flannel was a women's film and video production group based in South Wales.It was formed in 1984.It was provisionally franchised by the ACTT(the union for the film and TV industry).In 1977  Red Flannel folded,unable to survive in such a competitive climate.The group has always been concerned with portraying the lives of women in South Wales.Members defined themselves as being socialst,feminist , and Welsh.The political slant to their work ensured that issues were examined from a woman's perspective, drawing atteintion to areas which are often ignored by the mainstream media.Channel Four also helped to Red Flannel economically,enabled it to operate with an enormous amount of freedom ,they provided an everyday running budget,a generous budget to produce one documentary a year and money for community work ,which Channel Four encouraged.

    As a feminist and socialist group,Red Flannel had tried to work cooperatively whenever possible.This has been most successfully in documentary programmes where everyone can be involved in the research side,rather than individually conceived,expressionistic piece like Otherwise Engaged (1991) where an author is needed.

CASE STUDY: MAM(1988)

      The Welsh 'mam' has played a central role in the social, cultural and economic life of the South Wales valleys for generations. In literature and film, she has been portrayed as a powerful matriarch within the confines of the miner's home and family. Through interviews, drama and archive films, we can look behind these myths to examine the reality of Welsh women both past and present. This reality involves oppression and subordination, which serve to reinforce the myth.

   Research for Mam (Red Flannel Productions, 1988) revealed how little material was available on women's involvement with political and social life in South Wales, through two world wars and massive strike action. Even at the miners' library, most of the interviews with women were about their fathers and sons. To redress this imbalance, the filmmakers became simultaneously producers, collators and distributors of this history. Women have always played an active role in the transmission of culture, telling stories, passing on rituals and traditions, creating myths and constructing imaginary worlds for their children. This film is a testament to these stories. Multiple women's voices are represented, in an attempt to undermine the perceived objectivity of the documentary format.

    Mam was made in a workshop situation, and its production was both a shared activity and learning experience for women in South Wales. The first screening of the film was to a full house at the Parc and Dare in Treochy. The response has been described as tremendous and inspirational. It was used in schools and colleges, and screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival and eventually acquired by the British Council and shown internationally.

WOMEN AND FILM

Feminism: This is the based on the belief that we live in a society where women are still unequal to men; that women have lower statues than men and have less power, particularly financial power.

Patriarchal society: A society in which it is men who have power and control. Women are generally disadvantaged and have lower statues.

These two significant subjects associate with each other. In patriarchal society, women should stay at home, deal with housework, loyal to the husband, not have economic power and be silent.Therefore, the feminists started to discuss the role of women in society and defended their civil rights. Then the sense of feminism subjected to the films especially it was depicted by feminist film makers such as, Marlene Gorris Sally Potter, Jane Campion. In Marlene Gorris' film "A Question of Silence", three women who are challenging the male authority and the film questions the women's condition in patriarchal society because they do not have rights to become powerfull and they should keep their mouths shut.These three women are treated by men for example, Ann is a barmaid,so she exposes to sexist insult, Andrea is secretary, she has to put up with her boss sexist insult, and Christine is a housewife, so her husband uses her like a servant. Because of the unequality the three women kill a man to show their anger and power to the male dominated society.In addition, in "Orlando" by Sally Potter, a man whose name Orlando changes his gender and becomes a female, so in this film the difference between male Orlando and female Orlando. While male Orlando has no problem in society, the female Orlando is labelled as a creature because she loses her home, her financial power. The last example is about the power of patriarch which is depicted "The Piano" made by Jane Campion, the main character of the film Ada's father arranges a marriage to Stewart whom she has never met. It is expected from her to marry and be obedient to father, and when Ada falls in love with Baines, Stewart tries to get under control her. Also Steawart attacks Ada and cuts her finger with an axe.All of these examples shows the representation of women in patriarchal society, and feminist film makers tried to show the unequality between men and women,and how patriarchy is treating and intimidating.