Women and their Theories of Cinema

Feminist Film Theories go way back in the 1970s. Their emergence caused upheaval for the perception of films in the eyes of audience. Let us zero our interest on some of the path-pavers whose work brought about a revolutionised change in the mindset of many. They provoked and enticed people to study them, their, work and study the cinema in general as-well-as in particular. The thinkers like Laura Mulvey, Barbara Creed, Kaja Silverman, Teresa de Lauretis opened up new avenues to study films. They zeroed upon concepts that were of extreme importance for analysing a film keeping in mind the male gaze, queering desire, the monstrous feminine, the female voice, masculinity in crisis, technologies of gender. Since 1970s was the time when feminist film theory made great interesting findings in the film industry, the filmmaking was also deeply influenced by it. Though today it may seem that the effect has loosened its lustre, still its study is very important to know about the rise and fall of this empire and how fast is its currency in today’s cinema.

 HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE… HIS GAZE

Whenever we see a movie and when a woman comes on screen, According to Mulvey the is a creation of physical, psychological, emotional, hypothetical gaze that identifies male view. The way they dress, the way they talk, their body language, what they represent id in a way dictated by how men would want to perceive them. Even the women in audience try to identify themselves with the image created for them. That is their unconscious identification and agreeability wit how men want them to be consciously or unconsciously. The visual pleasure is quite dominant right from creation of character to its visual consumption on screen leading further to offscreen identification as well. This develops into scopophilia, a narcissism that viewers identifies with. This consumption is spread throughout the three looks in cinema, the look of camera of real world, the look of audience of the final result, film; and how the characters look at one another. Even if it is the narrative where a female  is driving the film, it is in fact the ideals of how her visibility in real life should be, in a way the male perception of her consciously or unconsciously governs. Be it voyeurism or fetishism, the duality of feminism is visible at the top because it is almost always female spectators’ views are subconsciously dominated by male confirmation to the feminism that they give approval to so as to move forward in its level of acceptance by the audience at large. You may differ in the opinion or may come up with something more. However this base cannot be denied and river may flow ahead and may divide into diverse streams from here but its origin remains!