“In a world of thin models, we could stand to see a few more women with curves.
Photographer Victoria Janashvili hopes to spread the gospel of average body size in a crowdfunded coffee table book called “Curves.” The book was created with the help of plus-size models Denise Bidot and Marina Bulatkina.”
http://elitedaily.com/news/world/photographer-curves-kickstarter-all-bodies/886484/
An interesting article about one way to get closer to gender equality in the workplace.
http://www.theverge.com/2014/12/5/7291295/from-here-to-paternity-how-paid-leave-for-dads-will-help-women-at-work
Not sure if anyone else has been following this, but there has been a recent trend in social media that is absolutely appalling called #GamerGate. I’ve been trying to figure out what its all about, and this video has been the first to give me a clear idea of what the trend really is. #GamerGate ambiguously touches on so many topics that it is hard to define a central focus for the movement. Part of it deals with the ethics of video game journalism, part of it deals with representation of women characters in video games, and part of it deals with the harassment of women gamers in the online community.
Recently Anita Sarkeesian, an active voice in the gamergate movement, was brought onto the Colbert Report to talk about some of the issues brought up by the #gamergate trend. Sarkeesian has been victim to an onslaught of online harassment, including most notably the threat of a shooting at Utah State University if she was allowed to speak, because of her stance on feminism in the gaming community. In her segment with Colbert, they discuss various examples of the how video game community can no longer be viewed as a “little boys club” and of how women are “challenging the status quo of gaming as a male dominated space.”
During the interview Colbert makes a great comparison between the ethics of gaming journalism and Hollywood journalism. His comparison insinuated the lack of ethics in Hollywood journalism and raised the question of whether or not gaming journalism should be held to the same standard. Sarkeesian responded to Colbert’s comparison by explaining that in journalism ethics are not necessarily the issue, the issue is that men are explicitly going after women in hostile and aggressive ways for nothing other their involvement in the video game industry as a profession or as a hobby.
The interview concludes with Colbert asking Sarkeesian a question that has come up in class on several occasions:
Colbert: “As a man, am I allowed to be a feminist?”
Sarkeesian: “Do you believe that women should have equal rights to men, and that we should fight for those rights?”
Colbert: “Sure, sure.”
Sarkeesian: “Great. Then you’re a feminist.”
Felicia Day, an actress known for her roles in various TV shows (“Supernatural” and “Eureka”), her web series “The Guild,” and her starring role in the popular “Dr. Horrible Singalong Blog,” also wrote a response to the #gamergate trend on her blog. Her post was extremely enlightening to the effects #gamergate has on her daily life, and thus on women in a more general context: http://feliciaday.com/blog/crossing-the-street/
Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera (E. Ann Kaplan)
The avant gardes in Europe and the USA
Questions:
Can films about female bonding can lead to a less objectifiable representation of female characters in cinema? Or is the representation of women in films inherently co-opted by the assertion that in a patriarchal society female sexuality is, at least for male viewers, representative of an Oedipal regression?
What advantages does the avant garde bring to women filmmakers? What disadvantages do Hollywood, European, or other styles of film bring to women filmmakers? Do these limitations account for female filmmakers desire to stray from classic styles as to search for an independent definition of film semiotics?
When Sam mentioned this article in class I was immediately reminded of a moment that my senior class had in high school. In high school we had assemblies almost every other day in which the whole school would gather in the gymnasium for what we called chapel. But, there was one day in particular when my class, the seniors, were asked to stay after chapel because our deans wanted to talk to us. This class meeting began with our dean reprimanding us for a prank in which some kids stole a street sign from the neighborhood near our campus, but then something interesting (and related to this article) happened. The deans asked the all of the male students to leave because there was something they wanted to talk to the girls about. A little bit confused, but more than happy to get out of the endless assembly, all of the guys left. Not long after when the girls were released, we found out that the the girls had been told that they were dressing too promiscuously and needed to wear clothing that was more appropriate because they were supposed to be role models for the underclassmen. At the time I remember laughing with my friends, male and female, about the absurdity of having being held into our lunch period to tell the girls in the class that they were dressing inappropriately. Looking back on the class meeting, it applies quite nicely to the discussions we’ve been having in class regarding rape culture.
Women are constantly exposed to contradicting messages of sexuality, and none of these messages allow women freedom of expression to be exercised without extreme scrutiny. On one hand there are people, as in the article and even at my own high school, who tell young women that their dressing promiscuously has a direct correlation to how they are treated by men. And on the other hand there is the media which has an amazing ability to perpetuate the sexualization of women. i.e. Women are told not to dress promiscuously in order to avoid enticing sexual harassment by men, but media conversely depicts an unrealistic and overtly sexual image of how women should look in order to be successful.
When dealing with a rape, or sexual assault, there is terrible habit that people fall into of blaming the victim. When a woman is raped the mentality that “she was asking for it” is all too often used as an excuse to justify the rape, and this excuse is further defended with examples of how slutty she was dressed or how intoxicated she was. However, this excuse just isn’t fair no matter how you look at it. The “she was asking for it” excuse unjustly teaches girls that it is their fault they are sexually harassed by men because of some misconceived notion that men cannot control themselves. Not only can this be detrimental to a woman’s self-image, as she may simply be dressing up for herself (I mean who doesn’t like to look good?) not because she’s asking for it, but can also be harmful to how women view themselves in relation to men.
There is an interesting social construct which I have found comes up from time to time that highlights one of the issues being brought up here. The construct is that women who are sexually active are seen as being slutty, but women who aren’t sexually active are perceived as prudish, whereas men who are sexually active are seen as players verses men who are not sexually active are considered to be not masculine. For women this social construct is a no win scenario and for men there is immense pressure to be overly sexual.
To connect the dots… Women are told from a very young age that their sexuality is something that needs to be hidden or repressed through messages that often manifest themselves in seemingly benign moments such as a high school asking the girls to dress more appropriately. These messages of sexual repression are then confirmed when a woman is sexually harassed by a man and the instigator tries to place blame on the victim through some ill-conceived rational regarding his belief that she was asking for it. And to further complicate things, the rational of the instigator is perpetuated by the very social construct that defines sexually active women as slutty and non-sexually active men as emasculated. Because male fear of emasculation exists, men are pressured into fulfilling the ‘macho man’ stereotype which includes the objectification of women as a means of sexual pursuit. However, the pressure to fulfill the ‘macho man’ stereotype is often overlooked in the wake of sexual assault, and in many cases is mistaken for, or replaced with, the “she was asking for it” excuse. Although both are undeniably poor justifications for sexual assault, one reason the macho man excuse might be mistaken for the “she was asking for it” excuse is because the macho man is going to look for and pursue a woman who is dressed provocatively, regardless of the woman’s intention behind said attire, because she is aesthetically sexually stimulating (think male gaze) and therefore she can more easily be targeted as an object of sexual desire. Now a woman who dresses up to look good is not necessarily asking for men to sexually objectify her, but it is an unintended consequence when taking into consideration the societal construct which pressures men to be more masculine. These unintended consequences are then used to justify the messages of sexual repression women are so often exposed to.
All of this bring us full circle – The media perpetuates women’s desire to assert sexuality as means of personal expression > men succumb to fear of being emasculated as a side effect of social constructs > instigators of assault justify their actions by deferring blame onto victims > women are presented with messages of sexual repression > wash, rinse, repeat.
What do all of you think about this? How do we deal with the constant bombardment of contradicting messages of femininity and masculinity in our lives and in the media? What can we do to break this vicious circle?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/22/emma-watson-recruits-men-to-make-the-world-safer-for-women-with-heforshe-campaign/
Emma Watson recently gave a speech at the UN regarding a new initiative called HeForShe. She brings to attention the many misconceptions behind feminism and how it is all too often associated with “man-hating.” She speaks to how feminism is by definition “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.”
She makes some great points regarding gender equality for both women and men. Theres a 15min video, which I think is definitely worth the time to watch, and the article nicely summarizes her speech.
Last week we were talking about unequal pay between genders in the work place. I recently came across this sketch where John Oliver satirizes that very topic. I thought it was pretty funny, take a look if you have the chance!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z46JXK92e0
Christine Gledhill’s article focuses largely on the subversive and often distorted image of the woman in cinema, especially within the film noir genre.
“Frequently the female figure exists as a crucial feature within a dangerous criminal world which hero struggles with in the course of his investigation and as often as not constitutes the central problem in the unraveling of truth. Woman becomes the object of the heroes investigation. Thus the place of the female figure in the puzzle which the hero has to solve often displaces the solution of the crime as the object of the plot; the process of detection…are submerged by the hero’s relations with the women he meets…” (77)
“Rather than the revelation of socio-economic patterns of political and financial power and corruption which mark the gangster/thriller, film noir probes the secret of female sexuality and male desire in patterns of submission and dominance.” (77)
In the case of Alan J. Pakula’s Klute, we can see Gledhill’s argument play out quite clearly. In the movie Klute’s initial suspect (and only lead) is Bree, and even as the two of them go person to person investigating Tom’s disappearance, Klute never takes Bree off the suspect list. For a while their relationship is fairly platonic, but it isn’t long before Bree finds her way into Klute’s bed. In the scene where Bree wakes Klute up because she doesn’t want to be alone, she finds herself slipping into Klutes bed only to sleep with him and walk out. This scene is quite interesting as it establishes non-platonic dynamics into their relationship.
Bree’s relationship with Klute is then further analyzed in a later moment when Bree is talking to her therapist. Bree mentions how she feels comfortable with Klute around because she’s been on her own for so long and now there is someone there watching/protecting her. Her discussion with the therapist can be read in multiple ways. In the context of this class, I think it is valid to look at the conversation as a commentary on how films seem to depict women as needing a male presence in order to be comfortable/happy. However, I also feel it is fair to make the argument that Bree has been working as a call girl for so long that she has forgotten what it is like to have a real relationship, and Klute has given her the opportunity to be with someone on equal footing (that is be with someone who is not paying her to be with them).
Going back to Gledhill’s analysis of film noir… Bree’s sexuality is put into question as the longer she is with Klute, the more she seems to fall for him. However, the dynamic in the relationship between Bree and Klute is undermined as Klute is unable to take Bree off the suspect list. Looking at Klue and Bree’s relationship we can see some of the qualities of film noir at work. Although Bree is not our standard femme fetal, it is clear that she is a source of “female sexuality and male desire” as Gledhill explains is common in the noir genre.
Female sexuality is constantly being questioned within this movie. Bree uses her sexuality as a call girl and even explains that she enjoys being a call girl because it gives her confidence by placing her in situations where she is able to put on an act and be in control of the person she is with. But, then at the end of the movie there is an interesting twist placed on Bree’s occupation. When Bree is finally approached by Peter Cable, he makes a statement that I thought was extremely controversial: “[You] Make a man think that he’s accepted. It’s all a great big game to you. I mean, you’re all obviously too lazy and too warped to do anything meaningful with your lives so you prey upon the sexual fantasies of others.” When I heard Peter saying this I was shocked to hear such a blatant verbalized description of a call girls work. All too often do we hear that being a call girl is wrong because its association with prostitution, but here we get a different perspective. In this scenario we have Bree who has admitted to enjoying the control that her job gives her being contrasted with a man who has felt the negative consequences of that very control.
So in this movie we have a woman who sees opportunity to make a living by demonstrating her sexual control, confidence, and prowess doing something she enjoys being contrasted with a man who fell for the allure of a call girl then felt that his sexual fantasies were exploited causing a dark part of himself to be awakened. Subversive? I’d say so!