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Gender identity
female/woman/girl
male/man/boy
other genders
Gender expression
female, masculine, other
Sex assigned at birth
female, male, intersex
Physically/emotionally attracted to
women, men, other
Sexual essentialism
assumes that sex, sexuality, and gender exist prior to our exposure to culture
Social constructionism
assumes that identity is both culturally and historically situated
Judith Lorber, “The Social Construction of Gender”
Gender
taken for granted
so pervasive in our everyday lives that we often assume it’s simply the outward manifestation of genetics and biological sex
constantly being created and recreated out of human interactions and social life
a human production that depends upon everyone constantly “doing gender”
When and why do we take notice of gender?
A deliberate disruption of our expectations regarding how men and women are supposed to act to pay any attention to gender’s status as a social construction
gender signs and signals are so ubiquitous that we usually fail to notice them unless they’re missing and/or ambiguous
Gender as a process
creates social differences that define the social dichotomy between woman and man
Gender as stratification
normative gender politics typically place men above women of the same racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds
Gender as a structure
gender divides work in homes and in economic production, legitimizing those in authority and organizing sexual and emotional lives
Gender inequality
has social functions and a social history
not a result of sex, procreation, or anatomy
produced and mainstreamed by social processes and built into both social structures and individual identities
Blackface
inherited from vaudeville/minstrel shows
The Tom
inherited from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin
an older black man who was almost always desexualized, harassed, enslaved, and insulted, but kept his faith, never turned against his white masters, remained generous, selfless, and submissive
The Coon
subject of ridicule/a black buffoon
The Pickaninny
played by black child actors
generally harmless initiators of screwball comedy
The Pure Coon
unreliable, lazy, good for nothing caricatures that were almost subhuman
The Uncle Remus
older, harmless black man distinguished by comedic philosophizing
The Tragic Mulatto
usually made likeable/sympathetic as an unaware victim of “racial inheritance”
The Mammy
typically large and fiercley independent black women
The Aunt Jamima
sweet, good-tempered black women who aren’t as outspoken as The Mammy
The Black Brute
barbaric black men solely out to raise havoc
typically nameless characters setting out on rampages
The Black Buck
big, violent, oversexed black men who lust after white women
played on the myths of the black men’s high-powered sexuality
white womanhood was seen as the ultimate in female desirability (symbol of white pride, power, beauty, and the American South)
Asian Americans
continue to be perceived as entirely foreign, regardless of their national orgin
19th Century Asian laborers
known as “sojourners”
reflected a desire that they return home when their services are no longer needed
Studying Asian American media representation
important within a U.S. national culture that often conceives race in “black-and-white terms”
the model minority thesis elevates Asian Americans as “honorary white”
denies structural inequalities that systematically disenfranchise people of color
Asians in early American films
represented Asians as racial inferiors who would benefit from U.S. rule
suggested that Asians were either passive peasants or villainous tyrants
Asia served as a backdrop for several Hollywood films centering on white characters
Two central propositions
there’s no such thing as positive or negative representation
representations created by non-Asian American filmmakers are not necessarily progressive
Manifestation of institutionalized racism of the American film industry
role segregation
role stratification
limited dimensionality (stereotypes).
Asian women in Hollywood cinema
represented as either blushing lotus blossoms or domineering dragon ladies
Discourses of Asian Culture Inferiority
sexual and racial stereotyping are mutually implicated and embedded
Cultural Assimilation
the dominant media industry often invites Asians and Asian Americans to participate in the American body politics at the expense of their agency and individuality
Process of stereotyping
a value-neutral psychological mechanism that helps us categorize and make sense of the overwhelming vastness of out world (difference v. sameness)
2 categories of stereotyping
makes value judgments
assigns negative qualities to individuals or groups
Stereotyping
category making + ethnocentrism + prejudice
ethnocentrism
“we/us” (in-group) are the center of the universe
Prejudice
“they” (out-group) are inherently not as good because “they” are different
11 theses about stereotypes
Stereotypes are applied with rigid logic
Stereotypes may have a basis in fact
Stereotypes are simplified generalizations that assume out-group homogeneity
Stereotypes work at far too general a level to be worthwhile predictors
Stereotypes are uncontextualized and ahistorical
Repetition tends to normalize stereotypes
Stereotypes are believed
Stereotyping goes both ways
Stereotypes are ideological (power dynamics/relationship)
The in-group stereotypes itself
The antidote to stereotyping is knowledge
Socialization
In-group members acquire stereotypes as preexisting cultural categories
3 consequences of in-group v. out-group interaction
Cooperative
mutually beneficial relationships
out-group typically assimilates into the in-group (melting pot effect)
Stratification
dominant groups create stereotypes of subdominant groups
Oppositional
dominant groups feel threatened by subdominant groups, typically vis-a-vis a battle over resources (fear and hatred erupt into violence)
In-group v. Out-group
systemizes and simplifies our environment
represents and preserves important social values
explains large-scale social events
justifies various forms of collective action
preserves “in-group” (good) v. “out-group” (bad)
Actors of color…
balance taking jobs that seem shallow
attempting to do “something more” with those roles
Substituting racial groups in and out for each other
retains the original work
marks any changes as superficial (if anyone can play this part we’ve entered the realm of plasticity)
“Representation matters”
a popular catchphrase circulating around diversity in film and television
Meaningful diversity
occurs when the presence of different-looking bodies appear on screen
visual signifiers carry a great amount of symbolic weight for many audiences (quantity > dimensionality)
Potential Pitfalls of “Representation Matters”
any representation that includes a person of color automatically becomes a sign of success and progress
hiring racially diverse actors becomes an easy substitute for developing new complex characters
Plastic Representation
a combination of synthetic elements put together and shaped to look like meaningful imagery, but which can only approximate depth and substance because ultimately it’s hollow and can’t survive scrutiny
flattens expectations to desire anything more
quantifiable difference often overdetermines benchmarks of progress
Actual progress looks like…
dimension and specificity to roles
diverse bodies shaping these roles at the level of production and writing
Sex perversion
the connotation of homosexuality was both implicitly/explicitly forbidden
“don’ts and be carefuls” officially gave way to the formation of the PCA code in 1934
attempted to constrain viewers’ potential impressions of, among other things, homoerotic content
PCA’s explicit prohibition
produced/encouraged workarounds
visual and narrative codes structured “inferences” about the existence, force, and significance of desire between women
Hollywood studio films
the U.S.’s most significant mass cultural products for the first half of the 20th century
specific film genres and stars were constructed for an addressed to women and presumed women’s interests
Apex
90 million movie attendees weekly in 1946
turn-of-the-century American consumer culture
created a profile of female audiences that was presumptively heterosexual
gender-conforming familial roles
ability to purchase goods and services for domestic use
access to public forms of leisure
non-normative gender and sexual identities were constructed within these representations and institutions
Homosexuality decoding classical Hollywood films
a structuring absence
same-sex female desire was central to how movies worked institutionally and historically despite absences and erasures mandated by the PCA
Michel Foucault
censorship is productive of knowledge, and of sexuality as an object of knowledge
Catholic Legion of Decency
enforced the code after a widely publicised campaign in the early 1930s spearheaded by Code overseer Joseph Breen
Queen Christina (1933)
violation of the code ran up against the imperative to release an expensive studio production that exploited inferences that were extremely profitable
Lesbian visibility
became veiled in feminine display, rather than embodied in the cross-gender identifications offered by the invert or the butch
Female sex perversion
commented upon by film censors and the popular press involved what Havelock Ellis referred to as “artificial lesbianism”
protagonists were noticeably mannish
Being “faithful” in Hollywood
not in Hollywood’s best interest when it came to adaption
industry’s role was reaching audiences with conformed expectations
the love that dare not speak its name…at least explicitly
Female cross-dressing in the U.S.
in the early 20th century it was understood largely as a cosmopolitan, European import (associated with decadence and nightlife)
increasingly linked to “sexual deviance”
continued to symbolize modernity, autonomy, and disregard for convention
Voice pitch and gender
women with low-pitched voices never generated the concern that men with high-pitched voices did (seductive rather than mannish)
Exploitation of female cross-dressing
film studios gradually began to exploit female cross-dressing’s sense of transgression, deviance, and the fluidity of sexual identity
Same-sex kiss in Morocco
passed without public comment largely through its association with the exoticism of North Africa
Marlene Dietrich fashion craze
Began wearing pants to public and formal events in 1931
catalyzed a fashion craze that symbolized freedom, autonomy, leisure, and wealth
Crushes and kisses between women in the early 20th century
were considered normal at first
critical debate about what such on-screen scenes between women meant thrust lesbianism into public discourse
Industrial dilemma
lesbianism was a greater risk for mass-market Hollywood by the early 1930s, but was also a potential box-office draw
Warner Bros. in February 1933
studios began to crack down on female performers wearing “mannish” attire in public
fan magazines asserted that trousers were chic and appealing, as well as practical and comfortable
Major industrial turning point
In 1934 studio relations committee (SRC) became the production code administration (PCA), helmed by Joseph Breen
every company in the MPPDA agreed not to distribute or release a film without a PCA seal
Post-WWII America
suburbanization (white middle class)
baby boom
labor struggles and “corporate liberalism”
further growth of print media, advertising and radio
The Cold War
between 1941-1950, average take home pay doubles (consumerist lifestyles and leisure)
Late 1940s/early 1950s urban, “ethnic” comedies
The Goldbergs
1926-1946 radio
1949-1956 tv
written, produced, and starring Gertrude Berg
Ethnic specificity common at the time
Life with Luigi (1952), Mama (1949-1957), The Goldbergs (1949-1956)
no coincidence, as TV is reaching mainly urban Americans
Lispitz
the focus of these series initially seems counter-intuituve
extended families with ethnic roots
working-class struggles
urban settings
Looking closer at early TV series
are about nostalgia
families are marked as part of the past
characters get “white” over the years
pushed consumerism as distinctly American
Late 1950s America
new domesticity associated with life in American suburbs
nuclear families stressed
media spectatorship shifted to the home
“urban clutter” (regarding race and class) was whitewashed
TV aided in these shifts
commercial TV both fit and reinforced cultural trends
Selling TV in the 1950s
TV was praised as a “safe” babysitter for kids
a “window to the world” in your own suburban home
living rooms became home theaters
By the mid 1950s, U.S. TV was very influential
typically watched communally
programs drew huge percentage of viewers
gave voice to perspective on social issues
Spigel
TV programs modeled idealized suburban life
the life of a housewife
new friends and community
TV programming in the late 1950s
less “diverse”
shifts in popular genres (westerns, quiz shows, suburban family sitcoms)
Suburban family sitcoms
focus on idealized suburban life (episodic sitcoms)
housewives were restricted in both roles and space
families were shown as leisurely, often based upon consumer purchases
reaffirmed the “American Dream”
Ideology and the suburban family sitcom common concerns
how to be a “good” father, husband, mother, wife
the “American Dream”
a national ethos
meanings have evolved over time
idea of the U.S. as a meritocracy
possibility of a “good life” for all
Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"
published in Screen in 1975
Central project of “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”
to demonstrate the ways in which mainstream narrative film (specifically Classical Hollywood) “reflects, reveals, and even plays on the straight, socially established interpretation of sexual difference which controls images, erotic ways of looking, and spectacle”
“Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" is a critique on phallocentrism
phallocentrism paradoxically depends upon the image of the castrated woman to give order and meaning to its world
only because women supposedly desire the power of the phallus does the phallus become a structuring presence at all
in patriarchal culture, woman stands as a signifier for the male other
women become the bearers, not the makers, of meaning
Penis
literal/material
Phallus
metaphorical/symbolic
Scopophilia
pleasure derived from the act of looking
mainstream narrative films typically portray a…
“hermetically sealed world which unwinds magically, indifferent to the presence of the audience, producing for them a sense of separation and playing on their voyeuristic phantasy”
the sexual imbalance of scopophilia
pleasure in looking has typically been split between active/male v. passive/female
how do you solve a problem like a castrating woman?
even though the scopophilic pleasures of film have typically been structured around active/male v. passive/female, women still present male spectators with the problem of sexual difference and consequent threats of castration
two solutions to a castrating woman:
fetishistic scopophilia (less common of the two)
“builds up the physical beauty of the object, transforming it into something satisfying in itself
two solutions to a castrating woman:
voyeurism
has strong associations with sadism
pleasure lies in asserting control and subjecting the guilt person to judgement/punishment
3 different cinematic looks
the camera as it records what’s in front of it
the audience watching the final product
characters looking at each other
first wave of feminist film criticism
sociological approaches that counted and evaluated “positive” vs. “negative” images according to vogue criteria (goal was to see fully autonomous, independent women)
second wave of feminist film criticism
influenced by psychoanalysis, critics sought to uncover how meaning is produced in films (not simply quantitative, but also qualitative)
films can be decoded using psychoanalytic methods
Overarching questions to consider…
is the gaze necessarily male?
could we structure things so that women own the gaze?
would women even want to own the gaze?
what does it mean to be a female spectator?
E. Ann Kaplan, “Is the Gaze Male?” main takeaway
the prevalence of the dominance-submission pattern as a sexual turn-on
Analyzing and celebrating what gives us sexual pleasure
may be too easy and problematic
need to analyze how it is that certain things turn us on and how patriarchy has produced and standardized sexual pleasure in the form of dominance vs. submission
dominance and submission structures both male and female sexuality
…but men have a wider range of possibilities within this dichotomy, ranging from supreme control to supreme abandonment
women are more “consistently submissive, but not necessarily excessively abandoned”
possibilities for reversing the gaze
when women are in a dominant position, are they also in a de facto masculine position?
can we think of a female dominant position that would quantitatively differ from male forms of dominance?
…or is it simply that both sexes now occupy solidified positions we’ve come to know as masculine and feminine?
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