Subaltern: the lower or colonized classes who have little access to their own means of expression and are thus dependent upon the language and methods of the ruling class to express themselves.

Otherness. it is a concept that describes how minority or less powerful groups are positioned as inferior to dominant groups. It is a marker of difference that is imposed, not adopted. Religious groups are not self-stigmatising.

Orientalism: the process (from the late eighteenth century to the present) by which “the Orient” was constructed as an exotic other by European studies and culture. Orientalism is not so much a true study of other cultures as it is broad Western generalization about Oriental, Islamic, and/or Asian cultures that tends to erode and ignore their substantial differences.

Diaspora: the voluntary or enforced migration of peoples from their native homelands.  Diaspora literature is often concerned with questions of maintaining or altering identity, language, and culture while  in another culture or country.

Exoticism: the process by which a cultural practice is made stimulating and exciting in its difference from the colonializer’s normal perspective. Ironically, as European groups educated local, indigenous cultures, schoolchildren often began to see their native lifeways, plants, and animals as exotic and the European counterparts as “normal” or “typical.”

Mimicry: the means by which the colonized adapt the culture (language, education, clothing, etc.) of the colonizer but always in the process changing it in important ways.  Such an approach always contains it in the ambivalence of hybridity.

ACTIVITY 1

• 

• 

• 

ACTIVITY 2

Megan Fox – Transformers

She is the image being objectified by wearing a crop top and short jeans.

Chris Pratt – Guardians of the Galaxy

ACTIVITY 3

Marriage Story by Noah Baumbach – Nicole played by Scarlett Johansson

In Marriage Story, Scarlett Johansson’s character isn’t over sexualised in Marriage Story and seen as an equal to Adam Driver’s Charlie. This is shown as she wears very normal clothing such as shirts and long trousers as seen above. She is also not seen as a victim as she breaks the stereotype of the passive woman and not being gazed at, as she eventually becomes more powerful than the man (in the sense of gaining more custody of their child). Baumbach also gives her a larger role in the film as one of the leads rather than the ‘side female character’ in the film. This is shown through her large part in the film as viewed as she is on par with her ex-husband. Sexist stereotypes are also broken down as although she is still very caring and gentle, she can be as ruthless and aggressive as Charlie. This is evident as she presses for more custody of their son while also caring for Charlie after his breakdown when he is seen as the more fragile one (as seen below).

Even after this, neither person is to blame for the divorce and so this once again gives both male and female lead equal responsibility, adding to a more female-centric approach.

EXAMPLES OF THE MALE GAZE IN ANIMATION:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

KAKEGURI

Kakegurui is set in a high-class elite school housing the children of Japan’s most wealthy and influential people and with many future leaders and professionals among the student body. However, the student hierarchy in this school is not determined by academic performance or athletic ability, but rather by gambling. The Male Gaze is employed in this anime by the story writers making the female protagonist and other female characters “get off” on the thrill of gambling and the animators giving the characters a very revealing design (short skirts, large chests).

• 

• 

• 

• 

JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE

A good example of the Female Gaze in animation is Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Each of the eight protagonists is a member of the Joestar family, who each possess a star-shaped birthmark above their left shoulder blade. The plot of each part generally consists of JoJo gathering a group of allies, mastering their supernatural ability, battling various enemies and villains. Straight off the bat, the animation team made all characters overly muscly due to that style being popular in the 80’s and 90’s, when Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure was first being published. Author Hirohiko Araki states in several interviews that many character designs were based off of popular movie stars, who were all super ripped at the time. However, they slowly lose muscle mass over time, most notable in part 5. This was part shift towards realism and part shift to a more effeminate, 2000’s style.

• 

• 

• 

• 

WOLF CHILDREN

Within the anime sector of film, I feel that Wolf Children is best fit with the authors argument because it is about a single mother’s life with her struggle of grief, depression and dealing with her children who are also part wolf. Yuki and Ame (the children) constantly switch between their human and wolf forms, and Hana has to hide them from the world. After she receives noise complaints and a visit from social workers concerned that the children have not had vaccinations, Hana (the mother) moves the family to the countryside away from prying neighbors. She works hard to repair a dilapidated house, but struggles to sustain the family on their own crops. With help from a strict old man named Nirasaki, she learns to farm sufficiently and becomes friends with some of the locals. At the end of the film, Ame goes on to live as a human and goes to attend a boarding school and Yuki decides to live as a wolf in the forest, Hana, living alone now, reflects that raising her wolf children was like a fairy tale, and feels proud to have raised them well. Although the film has elements of fantasy, other single mothers can be able to relate to this film and be empowered by this film knowing that they’re not by themselves and alone but instead part of a community of other single mothers and should embrace it.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Hidden Figures

I believe that hidden figures supports the author’s argument. Based on a true story, this historical film tells the story of three African American women who worked at NASA and eventually helped launch the astronaut John Glenn in space. While history views this women as invisible, the movie works to celebrate their contribution to American History. Hidden Figures is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder. It is loosely based on the 2016 non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly about black female mathematicians who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Space Race. The film stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who calculated flight trajectories for Project Mercury and other missions. The film also features Octavia Spencer as NASA supervisor and mathematician Dorothy Vaughan and Janelle Monáe as NASA engineer Mary Jackson, with Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Glen Powell, and Mahershala Ali in supporting roles. Not only does Hidden figures feature an all female main cast, these women are simultaneously African American women, it is a cultural turning point as well as a turning point in the film history, hidden figures is so important for modern culture because it details a little known but vitally important part of American history. It’s a good-hearted look at a time of great change both in the American cultural shifts in the space race and in terms of race and how African American women made their mark at NASA.

Male Gaze vs. Female Gaze

The Wolf of Wall Street deploys the traditional ‘Male Gaze’. The film was praised upon release while simultaneously being criticized for supposedly glorifying the debaucherous actions of the characters. The filmmakers intentions of these portrayed actions were misconstrued as supporting these actions rather than displaying the juvenile ‘frat boy’ nature. Throughout the film the main character (portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio) indulges in sex, drugs and many other condemnable feats, the most prominent of which is the continuous objectification of women, the film failed to send the message it originally set out to achieve.

• 

Creed, released in 2015, was directed by Ryan Coogler, the film deploys the newer ‘Female Gaze’ thanks to its director of photography Maryse Alberi, despite being a very ‘macho’ film about men punching each other the camera does not often objectify these men but rather displays them in full stature and size by moving the camera back and viewing them from outside of the ring and from an audience member’s point of view. At a pivotal point in the film there is a single shot sequence, the camera rotates around the two characters in the ring as the fight progresses, the two minute scene focuses solely on the characters faces, with shots rarely moving below the shoulders.

• 

Science fiction posters

• 

• 

This week, we will be looking at our final area of theoretical focus – Postcolonialism.

The teaching slides contain three tasks (definitions/ film identification and justification/application of theory) for you to complete independently.

Remember, that every slide contains hyperlinks to explanatory videos or film clips/trailers which should boost your understanding of the ideas presented.

The due date for this work is Tuesday the ^2nd June.

The first two tasks (definitions and justification) should go on the blog and the essay task should be e mailed to me as a word document with a word count and reference list of quotations/citations used.

This topic links to both the Textual Analysis and Comparative Study Assessments (worth 40% of the course) which require a lot of knowledge of theory and the ability to apply that theory to specific films independently.

Examples of male gaze in posters:

Example of male gaze: Suicide Squad

In Suicide Squad, the character of Harley Quinn is seen through the male gaze. In a scene in the film all of the characters get their confiscated items back. She is shown to be getting changed and during this the camera pans up from her legs to her face when she is in her underwear. This is an example of scopophilia as the audience are looking at her and are expected to be attracted to her from this as it is from a heterosexual male’s position. It then shows the other characters reacting to her doing this. This is part of the twin mechanisms as this is showing the audience identification of what they are feeling from characters within the film.

Example of female gaze: Birds of Prey

The same character of Harley Quinn, in Birds of Prey, is still wearing revealing clothing, but the camera does not focus in or linger on her exposed skin at any point and instead follows her face, her actions or her entire body. This is an example of the female gaze as she is still wearing clothes that people may find attractive, but it is not a key part of any of the scenes and is not the main focus of anything. The male characters in this may also be seen as attractive to the audience however, the camera does not focus on them as well and films their actions. This means the audience sees the film from the position of a woman rather than a heterosexual male.

Example of a film that is more female centric:

I think that a good example of modern filmmakers attempting to take a less sexist and more female centric approach is Midsommar by Ari Aster. It is about a woman visiting a cult in Sweden after the death of her family. The director is male which shows that men are creating more stories with women who are complex characters in the centre of the story and are not just a passive woman which creates a sense of scopophilia, or as someone who has no faults and is unobtainable. In the film the camera never focuses on Danny’s (the protagonist) bare skin or individual body parts that would evoke more of scopophilia. Even when women’s bare skin is shown in the film during a scene where the cult tries to get Danny’s boyfriend to impregnate a woman in the cult, it is not lingered on and is shown as all of the scene unfolding rather than just the woman. When bare skin of any character is shown on screen it is not focused on and is a part of the background, and the focus is placed onto the plot or to something that the audience would find disturbing as it is a psychological horror film. I think this shows that filmmakers are using less scopophilia of women as anytime nudity is shown it is because of the plot rather than showing it for no other reason than to create scopophilia.

This week in IB Film we’ll be looking at the Feminist Film Theory concept The Male Gaze.

Read through the slides and complete the three tasks then put your work up on the blog.

If you are thinking of incorporating ideas or concepts relating to the representation of women in film for your Comparative Study,   then you may want to undertake some additional reading on Feminist Theory here.