She Speaks…Female Voice in films

When we ask questions like is there a separate view and voice of women writers, filmmakers? Can it be independent enough to be called as their own? Is there something called as ‘female voice’ in films? Kaja Silverman elaborates upon this concept. She say different connotations are constructed according to different level voices used in films of women. According to her, very few films have moved above and beyond the segregation of female voice denouncing the gender in them and moving away from female stereotypical aspect of their usage of voice. It is mostly a clear demarcation on the basis of created genres of women, like voice of mother, lover, wife, child, mistress, vamp and many more. According to her the voice of female in films is directly entwined with the way their physical image is projected on screen. It is almost like a suppressed and subdued language of women that is reflected in cinema.

Voice ia a way to create ones existance known. So when we ralk about voice of women in films, we nean their capacity to show that in whagt form do they exist in reality for films many times are reflection of reality and not figment of imagination. Their projection sometimes even close the gap between who the signifier is and what is being signifies through projection of female characterization. The voice of women in films encompasses their physical, emotional projection along with the pitch and tonality of their dialogue delivery.

Teressa de Lauretis stresses upon the idea of creating a contradictory image of females in films…Either they are the damsel in distress that need to be pitied upon or taken care of, or if otherwise they are the vamp and all that is negative in so call character sketch of independent , strong women. According to her one hardly sees an image creation of woman that is grey and there is almost no smooth transition between the two. The imaginary expectations bar is so high in the reel world that it becomes almost impossible to bridge the gap in order to touch the realms of reality. Also there is a need to create that specific ideal female character who is made worthy of respect and eligible to be called as woman only is she is  made to realise her femininity  by a male counterpart. At the end it is the male only who come to rescue her and bring an ideal woman out of a woman. This is an aspect of female voice that the director of filmaker many times projects as the personality trait of women in general that ends up having an identification in real life as well!

Whether its a damsel in distress, a sedcutress, or independently agressive go-getter; audience will understand through the movie medium, the kind of feminine voice the director is trying to portray on screen. For instance if a woman is strong, beautiful, cunning, sweet-natured, her voice needs to be reflecting that particular aspect of her personality or if a nagging character of woman is developed in films then her voice need to be high-pitched and irritating enough for the character to developed. This is another take supporting the physicality of the female voice in cinema. This makes the identification for the audience in understanding the plot easy. Howver on the downside, it ends up generalising and stereotyping them in real life. The pattern is set in such a way that manytimes its casts the similar impression of the personality in real life. This is how powerful the medium of cinema is!