Media, Information and Technoculture 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Bechdel Test, Deconstruction, Laura Mulvey
18 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Media helped set the norms of gender and sexuality. Gender/sexual identities are cultural as well as biological. But the significance of those distinctions varies, depending on their representation. Which is coded or constructed, often by media. Argues that film audience is put into the position of watching from the point of view of male, heterosexual desire. Provides a baseline in some very important ways in thinking about how masculine and feminine roles have been defined by media and in particular by cinema. The lens that we look through in cinema is tinted by male, heterosexual desire. This division was also reflected in roles of watching and being watched. Presence of women in mainstream film texts is vital. But female character often has no real importance in herself. It is how she makes the male feel or act that is important. The female only exist in relation to the male.
