Gender, Women and Pop Culture

Flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the lecture on gender, feminism, and visual culture.

The Gaze

A theoretical framework examining how gendered representations in film serve a patriarchal society's pleasure.

Active Male Gaze (AMG)

The male gaze that interprets female bodies as objects to be viewed and consumed by male viewers.

Passive Female Gaze (PFG)

The experience of female viewers who see themselves both as subjects and objects within visual media.

Scopophilia

The pleasure derived from looking, particularly from a male perspective at female bodies.

Narcissistic Scopophilia

The female viewer's pleasure in identifying with the image of herself on screen while also recognizing herself as an object.

Patriarchal Unconscious

Underlying societal norms that depict women as objects of the male gaze, influencing popular culture representations.

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975)

An essay by Laura Mulvey arguing that popular cinema is structured around male viewing pleasure.

Objectification

The treatment of a person, typically a woman in this context, as an object devoid of agency.

Polysemy

The ability of images to have multiple interpretations or meanings, particularly significant for female viewers.

Subjectification

The process by which individuals make sense of their identity and agency in the context of objectification.