User:Stephmtz13/sandbox

Critiques of the Female Gaze

In No Such Thing Not Yet: Questioning Television Female Gaze, Caetlin Benson-Allot discusses the lack of representation of minorities in the Female Gaze. She argues that although the “Female Gaze” presumes a universal experience based on shared gender. It tends to ignore minorities, choosing instead to focus on the lives of white middle class women. In the article she specifically focus on the small screen which has been getting a lot of attention for enacting the female gaze. In it she uses examples from the TV shows I Love Dick, GLOW and Insecure. She argues that although I Love Dick and GLOW introduce characters of color, they do so by casting them in supporting roles which never destabilize the white protagonist. Insecure on the other hand she argues, provides a model for future feminist television. The show follows Issa and her friend molly and focuses on the self-defeating impulses in their personal and professional relationships. The story line also focuses on Issas job working with at- risk youth which helps in exploring the racial dynamics of Los Angeles. Using anti racist comedy Insecure challenges the focus on white feminism and neglect of black women.

Zoe Dirse a cinematographer also criticizes the reproduction of the female gaze and the under representation of women in technical areas of filmmaking. Using her experience in the documentary genre, she focuses on the female gaze at the point of production. Dirse focuses on the dominance of the white middle class male in the film industry. Women are often shut out of the film industry due to its profitable nature. This created a lack of females producing for the female viewer or reproducing the female gaze she uses examples of excerpts from films to explore the need for female directors and technical crew in properly reproducing the female gaze. One example she gives is that of the film Forbidden Love, which focuses on the stories of lesbians coming out in the 1950s. In it the feminist, lesbian directors manage to subvert the male gaze in favor of the female one. Creating a view in which the actors are not objects of male desire, but of female desire. She argues than when there is feminist filmmakers, the film creates feminist elements. She argues that it is crucial for women to take control of their art in order to accurately reproduce the female gaze

In Chick Flicks and the straight female gaze, Natalie Perfetti- Oates explains how the heterosexual female gaze can become problematic with the rise of male sexual objectification. This is due to the use of sex negativity when enacting this gaze. Sex negativity occurs when men are trapped as solely sex objects. Chick flicks that cast their male leads solely as sex objects for the female viewers, serve to reverse gender discrimination rather than creating gender equality. Oates explains how more and more action movies and Chick flick films create the heterosexual female gaze through showcasing male’s bodies. In her article Oates uses examples from films such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall, New Moon and Magic Mike. In Magic Mike for example, Mike only becomes a love interest after he quits his job as a stripper. Thus illustrating Mike as a sex object or love interest, but not both creating sex negativity. She argues that progress towards equality will be made not when men become objectified just as women. Rather it will be done when both and women can move freely between the position of subject and object.

In Jessica Taylor's Romance and the female gaze obscuring gendered violence in the Twilight Saga. Taylor criticizes the emerging female gaze and how it interacts with romance to portray violent male bodies as desirable. She focuses on the very popular Twilight Saga which she describes as seemingly retrograde and naive in its use of romance conventions. To explain how to female gaze works to create violent male bodies as desirable. She looks back on the work of Mulvey and her essay “Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. Specifically she focuses on “fetishistic scopophilia” that was previously used by Mulvey to explain how the anxiety inducing female body becomes fetished and a source of pleasure for the male viewer. Leading female viewers towards hyper-desirability gaze of the bodies of the male characters. Pushes the female audience to desire the powerful, violent male body rather than fear it. Examples that she gives are the way in which the body of both Jacob and Edward are manipulated. By categorizing them as visually desirable “boys”. It reduces the threat of violence and neutralizes the potential threats to the female viewers. Taylor argues that the use of a limited and specific female gaze can re-code incidents of gendered violence and violent male body as both reassuring and desirable.