Feminist Film Theory

 

Feminist Film Theory:

Women, Gaze, and Representation

Introduction

Feminist Film Theory analyzes how cinema constructs gender roles, power dynamics, and female identity. It questions how women are represented — and often objectified — within patriarchal film traditions. Emerging in the 1970s, it brought together film studies and feminist politics to challenge the dominance of the male gaze.

Historical Background

• Rooted in second-wave feminism and psychoanalysis.
• Pioneered by Laura Mulvey’s essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (1975).
• Critiqued classical Hollywood cinema for presenting women as passive objects of visual desire.

Core Concepts

• The Male Gaze: The camera, director, and audience often adopt a male point of view.
• Voyeurism and Objectification: Women are displayed as spectacle, not as full subjects.
• Agency and Voice: Feminist theory seeks films where women are active narrators of their own stories.
• Intersectionality: Later feminist scholars included race, sexuality, and class in representation studies.

Examples

• Vertigo (1958): The male obsession with controlling female identity.
• Thelma & Louise (1991): Rebellion against patriarchal norms.
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019): Female gaze and mutual subjectivity.
• Barbie (2023): Mainstream feminist satire of gendered capitalism.

Key Ideas to Remember

• Representation shapes reality — how women appear on screen affects real-world perceptions of gender.
• Feminist critics advocate for diverse, complex female characters beyond stereotypes.
• Modern filmmakers like Chloé Zhao, Greta Gerwig, and Ava DuVernay continue this redefinition.