America on Film Final Review

The Bechdel Test

A cinematic metric used to measure female representation. The test requires a film that has at least two women who talk about something other than a man. Important to film in America through the emphasis on broader female representation in film and media.

Kathryn Bigelow

First woman to win the Oscar for Best Director for The Hurt Locker. Important to film in America through the female representation at award ceremonies.

Alice Guy-Blache

One of the most important filmmakers of early international cinema. The first woman to tell a fictional narrative on film as well as experiment with sound film technology. Important to film through the representation of women in filmmaking roles.

The Buddy Film

Film genre that usually centers on two men as they travel the nation or engage in other action–adventures. Important to film in America through the representation of men and male relationships in film.

Camp

Type of negotiated reading that mocks and revels in a text’s artificiality. Originated in gay male culture in order to “denaturalize” societal norms of gender and sexuality. Important to film in America because it draws attention to issues of gender and sexuality.

Cis-gender

People whose internal gender identity does match their outward biological sex. Important to representing America because cis-gender is the most common gender identity.

The Cold War

Antagonism between the United States and the Soviet Union from the late 1940s to the late 1980s. Involves mass paranoia that homosexuals were now thought to be secretly passing as straight in order to infiltrate and corrupt America. Important to America through the false representation and negative treatment of homosexuals in America.

Connotative Homosexuality

The way classical Hollywood style suggested certain characters might be gay or lesbian without directly asserting as much. Important to film in America through the subtle representaiton of sexuality in film.

Decoding

When a reader makes sense of a text; dependent upon the reader’s own social and historical positioning as well as on how the text has been encoded by its producers. Important to film in America through the understanding of meaning in films which have subtle messages.

The “dumb white guy” comedy

Hollywood films of the 1990s and 2000s that negotiate masculinity by focusing on male characters whose traditional masculinity is compromised in some way. Important to film in America through the representation of masulinity and male relationships in film.

Encoding

Process by which the producers of a cultural artifact place both conscious and unconscious meanings into a text. Important to film in America through creation of meaning in films.

Femininity

Cultural expression of female gender. Femininity is associated with passivity, nurturing, and emotionalism. Important to film in America through the representation of women in film, usually portraying them only in a certain light.

Feminism

Movement promoting equal rights regardless of gender. Important to film in America through the positive and uplifting representation of females in film.

The “femme fatale”

Woman who leads a male character to his death; common character type in film noir. Important to film in America through the specific representation of women in film.

Film noir

Genre or style characteristic of 1940s postwar films, in which obsessed and greedy individuals double‐cross one another amidst shadowy sets and distorted camera angles. Important to film in America through the specific representation of gender and sexuality in film.

The Gangster Film

Film genre that focuses on the rise and fall of a violent mobster figure. Important to film in America through the representation of masculinity in fiilm.

Gender

Social role assigned to males or females in any given historical culture. Important to film in America through the representation of different genders and gender roles in film.

Gender inversion

Historical model of homosexuality that theorized that gay men were actually women’s souls trapped in a male body and that lesbians were really male souls trapped in female bodies. Important to film in America through the skewed representation of gender and sexuality in film.

GLAAD

(Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation): media watchdog group monitoring film and television images of queer people. Important to film in America through the upholding of correct representation of sexualtiy in film and television.

Heteronormativity

The structures and ideologies that privilege exclusive heterosexual monogamy (including marriage and child‐rearing) as the only acceptable form of heterosexual relations. Important to representing America becaue heteronormativity is the most common ideology about sexuality in the country.

Heterosexuality

Sexual attraction to members of the opposite sex. Important to representing America because heterosexuality is the most comon sexual identity in the country and seen as the norm.

Hollywood Supports

Support group founded in the 1990s to deal with AIDS in the Hollywood workplace. Important to film in America through the treatment of homosexuals during the AIDS crisis in Hollywood.

Homosexuality

Sexual attraction to members of the same sex. Important to how sexuality is represented in film in America.

Inclusion rider

Recent addition to some Hollywood contracts that would require the cast and crew of a project to achieve a certain level of racial and gender diversity. Important to film in America through the inclusion of different races/genders in Hollywood.

Intersectionality

A framework for understanding how both individual and group identities are necessarily composed of various interconnected aspects, including race, class, gender, ability, etc. Important to representing America because America is the culminatinon of different identites.

The Kinsey Report

Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male revealed a much higher incidence of homosexual behavior among white American males. Important to representing America through the awarness of sexuality identity in the country.

The Male Gaze

Theory that argues that all the looks associated with classical Hollywood cinema – the look of the camera, of the characters at one another, and of the spectators at the screen – are either male or assumed to be. As such, women can only be “looked at” and objectified by the male gaze. Important to film in America becuase the male gaze shapes how gender/sexuality is seen in film.

The Mannish Woman

The main method of representing female homosexuality in early American cinema. Important to film in America through the representation of homosexuals in ealry film.

Masculinity

Roles and behaviors associated with being male. In contemporary Western culture, masculinity is thought to include strength, leadership ability, and the restraint of emotional expression. Important to representing America through the representation of gender, specifically males, and their gender roles.

#MeToo

Social media movement to call attention to issues of sexual violence in culture, and to support survivors. Important to film in America because of the awarness of sexual violence towards women in film, television, and beyond.

The Method School

School of acting where actors are trained to create their roles from within, to become the character in the way they thought and felt. Important to film in America through the representation of gender and gender roles in early and modern film.

Narrowcasting

A practice in contemporary television production and distribution that targets specific audiences rather than a general one. Important to the representation of differnt races, genders, and sexualities in film in America through the creation of specific medias for specific groups.

New Queer Cinema

Movement of independent filmmaking in the 1990s that use concepts drawn from queer activism and queer theory. Important to film in America through the representation and awarness of gender/sexuality identity in film.

Objectification

Turning a person into a sexualized object. In Hollywood film, the male gaze is said to objectify women. Important to film in America through the representation of gender in film, specifically how films are catered towards the male perspective.

The Pansy

Common classical Hollywood stereotype of an effeminate male homosexual. Important to film in America through the ealry representaiton of homosexuality in film.

Patriarchy

A culture in which men and masculinity are valued above women and femininity. Important to representing America through the representation of gender, specifically, how patriarchy is the dominant ideology in film.

The Production Code

Self‐censoring set of rules and regulations that Hollywood adopted in1930 and imposed upon itself from 1934 until the Code was replaced by the Ratings System in the late 1960s. Important to film in America through the discrimination against different races and sexualities in film.

Queer

People and artifacts commonly found outside compulsory heterosexist ideologies. Important to representing America through the awareness and belief in other ideologies other than the dominant ideology.

Shonda Rhimes

One of the most powerful showrunners in the TV industry with programs centered around strong career‐minded African American women. Important to film in America because of her prominence as an African-American women in showbusiness.

The Romantic Comedy

Genre of Hollywood filmmaking that usually centers on a man and a woman falling in love, overcoming complications, and achieving a happy ending. Important to film in America becuase of the usually one-sided representation of gender and sexuality found in certain films.

Rosie the Riveter

Propaganda figure of World War II that promoted women as strong and capable of working in a factory. Important to representing America through the representation of women as something other than what was seen before.

The Sexual Revolution

Psycho‐sexual and social changes of the 1960s, when men and women felt freer than in previous decades to explore their sexuality. Important to representing America because the era signifies a change in culutre and perscetive on sexuality.

Sexuality

State of being sexual; commonly used to describe sexual orientation. Important to representing America through the representation of different sexualites.

The Slasher Film

Popular 1980s subgenre of the horror film, centering on a knifewielding maniac. Important to representing America through the tabooization of expressing sexuality in film during the time. Additionally, important becuase of the violence against women being put on display.

Time’s Up

A movement calling for a full‐scale revamping of how sexual harassment and gender issues are handled in the industry. Important to representing America through the awarness of violence agaisnt women in the film industry.

Transgender

An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural and social expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth. Important to representing America through the inclusion and representation of different gender/sexual identities in American culture and film.

Underground Cinema

A movement of American avant‐garde filmmaking of the 1960s that often explored sexual subcultures. Important to representing America through the representation of sexualitiy in films.

Rudolph Valentino

Actor of Italian descent who became the most famous Latin Lover of the 1920s. Important to representing America through the inappropraiate representation of races, specifically Italians and latinos, using stereotypes.

The Western

Genre that centers on a cowboy hero as he attempts to tame the wilderness, including its Native American inhabitants. Important to representing America through the sometime inapproprate representation of gender, race, and sexuality in early films.

The woman’s film

Genre that focuses on alleged “women’s issues” such as romance, courtship, and parenthood. Important to representing America through the representation of women and gender roles in early films.