Film, Gender & Ideology – Key Concepts Review

A comprehensive set of question-and-answer flashcards covering major terms and theories related to film form, gender studies, ideology, and media spectatorship.

The social system that recognizes only two, opposite, and mutually exclusive gender categories—male and female.

What does the term “binary gender” refer to?

How is capitalism defined in socio-economic terms?

An economic system in which private individuals or corporations own the means of production and operate for profit.

In media studies, what is meant by censorship?

The suppression, control, or regulation of speech, images, or information by authorities or institutions.

Who is described as cisgender?

A person whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth.

What characterizes the Classical Hollywood Style?

A continuity-editing, cause-and-effect driven filmmaking mode that emphasizes linear narratives, clear protagonists, and narrative closure.

What is a linear narrative?

A story told in chronological order from beginning to end.

What does the phrase “narrative closure” mean?

The resolution of a film’s plot so that major story questions are answered by the end.

Define connotation in film analysis.

The additional, culturally loaded meanings an image or word suggests beyond its literal sense.

Define denotation in film analysis.

The literal, surface-level meaning of an image or word.

What are the elements of film form?

Mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, sound, and narrative structure.

What does feminism broadly advocate?

Political, social, and economic equality of the sexes and critique of patriarchal systems.

In visual theory, what is “the gaze”?

The power dynamics inherent in who is looking, who is being looked at, and how that look is structured in media.

What is the male gaze?

A cinematic viewpoint that situates audiences to identify with a heterosexual male perspective, often objectifying women.

What is the female gaze?

A perspective that centers female subjectivity and resists the objectifying logic of the male gaze.

Define the queer gaze.

A viewpoint that disrupts heteronormative looking relations and centers LGBTQ+ subjectivities.

What is an oppositional gaze?

A critical look adopted by marginalized viewers to resist and reinterpret dominant visual narratives.

How is gender defined?

A socially constructed set of roles, behaviors, and identities associated with masculinity and femininity.

What is a gender role?

Cultural expectations about behaviors and traits deemed appropriate for men and women.

What are genre conventions?

Common themes, iconography, plot patterns, and stylistic elements that characterize a film genre.

Which three genres are blended in an Action-Adventure-Thriller?

Action spectacle, adventurous quest, and suspenseful thriller elements.

What is a defining feature of the horror genre?

Its intent to evoke fear, dread, or disgust through the monstrous or uncanny.

What narrative focus typifies a romcom?

Romantic relationships depicted with comedic situations and an eventual happy ending.

Explain heteronormativity.

The ideology that heterosexual relationships and binary gender identities are the default or normal.

In film theory, what is identification?

The psychological process through which viewers align themselves emotionally or cognitively with on-screen characters.

How is narcissism relevant to spectatorship?

The viewer’s pleasure in seeing an idealized or mirror image of themselves on screen.

Define ideology.

A system of ideas, values, and beliefs that shape how people understand the world.

What are Ideological State Apparatuses according to Althusser?

Institutions like schools, media, and churches that propagate ideology through persuasion rather than force.

What distinguishes Repressive State Apparatuses?

Institutions such as police and the military that enforce ideology through coercion and violence.

What is the dominant ideology?

The prevailing set of beliefs that benefits and is promoted by those in power within a society.

What is meant by encoding in media communication?

The process by which producers embed meanings and ideology into a media text.

What is decoding?

The process by which audiences interpret and make sense of a media text.

What is a preferred reading?

An interpretation that aligns with the intended message and dominant ideology encoded in the text.

Define a negotiated reading.

A partly accepting, partly resisting interpretation that blends the viewer’s own experiences with the text’s preferred meaning.

Define an oppositional reading.

An interpretation that actively resists or rejects the dominant ideology of the text.

What does intersectionality analyze?

How overlapping identities—such as race, gender, class, and sexuality—create unique modes of discrimination and privilege.

Name three overlapping social identities often analyzed in intersectional studies.

Gender, sexuality, and race (others include class, ability, etc.).

List three systems of privilege and oppression.

Sexism, racism, and ableism (others include classism, heterosexism, nativism, etc.).

What were Jim Crow laws?

State and local statutes enforcing racial segregation in the U.S. South from the late 19th century to 1965.

What was the Lavender Scare?

The Cold War–era moral panic that targeted and purged LGBTQ+ individuals from U.S. government positions.

In horror, what is a monster typically symbolic of?

Cultural fears, anxieties, or societal taboos embodied in a non-human or transgressive figure.

What did the Motion Picture Production Code regulate?

U.S. film content from 1934 to 1968, restricting depictions of sex, violence, and ‘immorality.’

Define the nuclear family.

A household unit typically consisting of two parents and their biological or adopted children.

What is objectification in visual culture?

Treating a person as an object of visual pleasure or use rather than as a full human subject.

How does voyeurism operate in film spectatorship?

The pleasure derived from secretly watching others who are unaware of being observed.

Explain orientalism as coined by Edward Said.

A Western discourse that exoticizes and stereotypes Asian and Middle Eastern cultures as backward or mysterious.

What is othering?

The process of defining and devaluing a group as fundamentally different from and inferior to the dominant group.

What is patriarchy?

A social system where men hold primary power and dominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, and control of property.

What is a subjective POV shot?

A camera angle that shows the scene through the eyes of a character, simulating their viewpoint.

How is the term queer used in contemporary theory?

An umbrella term for non-normative sexualities and genders and a critical stance challenging heteronormativity.

What is an objective or omniscient camera viewpoint?

A neutral perspective that observes the action without aligning with any single character’s consciousness.

What was the Red Scare?

Periods of intense fear of communism in the U.S., notably after WWI and during the early Cold War.

Distinguish sex from gender.

Sex refers to biological attributes (chromosomes, hormones, anatomy), whereas gender refers to socially constructed roles and identities.

Define sexuality.

A person’s patterns of romantic or sexual attraction and behavior toward others.

Name one common stereotype of Black women in classic Hollywood film.

The ‘Mammy’ figure—nurturing, asexual, and devoted to white families (others include Jezebel and Sapphire tropes).

Who is considered transgender?

A person whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

What is the (cinematic) unconscious?

The hidden desires, fears, and ideological messages operating beneath the surface of film texts and viewers’ psyches.

Define xenophobia.

Fear or hatred of foreigners or people perceived as culturally different.