Film Studies 1022 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Feminist Film Theory, Molly Haskell, Laura Mulvey

• School: Western University
• Department: Film Studies
• Course: Film Studies 1022
• Professor: Barbara Bruce

Document Summary

Came in the late 1960s as a result of second wave feminism. View was to shift the debate from class to gender (second wave) Concerns of white middle class of women only. 1918 canadian women right vote, 1928 women recognized as humans (first wave) Question of how women are represented in film. Norms and assumptions of the patriarchy written into cinema . Molly haskell (american film critic): film reflects its societies ideologies and perpetuates them. Women is either the virgin or the whore. Virgin: good girl, rewarded for not challenging anything, ex. Whore: bad girl, challenges patriarchal norms and is punished. Film also constructs the spectator use of semiotics, marxists, and psychoanalytical theories to enhance feminist analyses of film. Feminist critics began to read how women are constructed in genre films/iconography. Often the femme fatale, seductive strong women. Such women must be oppressed to maintain patriarchal order . More of the other side of western culture.