GWSS 3307: Feminist Film Studies, Fall 2008

Montage
It most often refers to collage including photo-montage and sound-collage.

Montage is also a technique in film editing.

A montage sequence, is a segment which uses rapid editing, special effects and music to present compressed narrative information.

Glass ceiling:

A term used to describe when a person who may be a woman or a person of a certain sexuality, race, religion or gender is unable to be promoted or achieve a certain status that they deserve when the person may have all of the qualifications and may be the better person for the role. What they have worked so hard for or deserve is in sight but there will always be something in the way because of prejudice.

Patriarchy

Patriarchy is a type of social organization which is based on a traditional nuclear family where the father is in charge.

Femme (Lesbian):
A lesbian woman who dresses and acts like a stereotypical woman. Some may say that most femme lesbian women are attracted to butch lesbian women.

For example, she would enjoy stereotypical things women like to do including shopping, looking good, pink, pastel colors, flowers and so on.
Where as a lesbian women who has stereotypical masculine traits (butch) would be interested in sports, darker colors, cars and more.

Androgyny
Someone is androgynous if they do not resemble/portray/show/etc. the normally prescribed ideas of what culture has defined as one gender or another. Therefore, they have either no elements of what is stereotypically "male" and "female" or an equal mixture of both and gender cannot be determined by any outward characteristics (e.g. dress, mannerisms, etc.).

Mise-en-scene
Refers to the specific arranging or placement of everything in a particular shot on film; all components of the shot including the actors are positioned according to the preference of the director.

In French "mise" is a form of the verb "mettre" which means "to put" or "to place," "en" means "in" or "on," and the word "scene" means stage, so this is a very literal term (in French anyway).

Sex-Positive

Meaning you are "pro-sex" or open about sexuality and the aspects of it.

Being sexually active does not automatically make you sex-positive and being abstinent doesn't make you anti-sex either. It's a personal choice.

Parody
imitates familiar people or events, with an unexpected comedic twist

Examples are "Blazing Saddles", "Airplane", "Austin Powers", "Best in Show"

http://www.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK//video/screenplay/vi4038721817/

Pan

Pan (or panning) refers to the horizontal movement of a camera on its axis. In other words, the camera “looks� either left or right while remaining stationary. It does not refer the camera looking up or down (that’s tilt) nor does it refer to the entire camera physically moving across space (that’s dolly). A good example of panning are the scenes in “That 70’s Show� when the characters are smoking weed in the basement. The camera pans as it shifts from different characters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfNMzXbJmww

Castration Complex:

Also known as "Castration Anxiety" is an idea by Sigmund Freud. Freud says that a Castration Complex is a fear, in small boys, that usually develops during the phallic stage of sexual development. The Complex makes the boys think, when seeing female genitalia, that she had her penis cut off as a form of punishment. The Complex turns into an anxiety as the boy thinks the same will happen to him.
On a more profound level, Freud thinks that the boy fears he will ultimately lose his power in society via the loss of his penis.

**I would like to credit MSN Encarta Dictionary for helping me with this term.

Glass Ceiling:
An invisible barrier that inhibits the advacement of certain individuals, usually women and non-caucasian people and prevents these people to exceeding others expectations. "something these people cant get past" Glass ceiling is an entity created by our society.

An Independent (Indie) Film is one that is created without the help of a major movie production company. This usually implies that the budget is much lower and that the initial distribution will be limited to a smaller circle than those films created by media moguls. However, some indie films do reach a wider range of distribution if they are shown at film festivals. Some indie films become cult classics through word of mouth and after a time may even become as recognized as some films shown nationally in theatres. Since indie films are not produced by the mainstream media they are also not limited by it, so the independent film market is much more diversified. Often popular actors play in indie films, because of the availability of roles they would not usually find in Hollywood.

Fat Positivity Movement: A movement which, while gaining a good deal of momentum in recent years, argues that weight is wrongly used as a basis for discrimination and ill-treatment. The Fat Positivity Movement also promotes self-acceptance and confidence regardless of size, directly moving against the dominant ideas of our weight-obsessed culture. Many people who are part of this movement also hold that being overweight is not neccessarily indicative of health problems and that many individuals suffer direct and incredibly harmful consequences of varying degrees due to the sizism present in our culture -- sometimes even coming from healthcare practitioners, affecting the quality of healthcare received by those who are either percieved as or are overweight. The movement, among other things, also works to address and critique harmful depictions of physical size and weight in the media.

Size and fat positivism is something that has long been important to me and something that has been really wonderful to watch develop as a widespread community on the internet. Way back when, in high school, I contributed to a now-defunct online 'zine about size positivity. There are a lot of really great blogs about this if you're curious about reading some more - one of the most famous is the Big Fat Blog.

Parody:

An imitation of a person or event with a comedic twist.

Some examples of movie parodies are "Austen Powers", "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", "Young Frankenstein"

Flashback- this is a scene which is interjected into the present sequence of events to fill-in or recap important details which have happened previously in the story.
(wikipedia)

Scopophilia- literally "love of looking", also known as voyeurism. In feminist film criticism the term is used to refer to the "male gaze," which turns women into objects for viewing from a male perspective. (Dictionary.com)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFTdjhPDDSA

Refers to the specific arrangement or placement of all visual elements (props, actors, etc) in a particular shot according to the director's preference.

In French "mise" is a form of the verb "mettre" which means "to set," "en" means either "in" or "on" and "scene" means "stage." So put together it means "to set on stage," so it's actually a quite literal term (at least in French).

Penis Envy- envy of the male sex organ by woman. According to Frued, it is universal to women as a defining moment in their sexual development and parallel to boys' castration anxiety.
*Information from Wikipedia

Penis Envy- envy of the male sex organ by women. According to Frued, penis envy is universal to women as a defining moment in their sexual development and parallel to boys' castration complex.
*Information from Wikipedia

Cinematography- The art or science of motion-picture photgraphy! Understanding how to make lighting and camera choices. The first attempt was for the movie Roundhay Garden Scene!

**Wikipedia helped me out with this one

Avant Garde - With arts, culture and politics in mind, avant garde refers to the group of people active in the invention and experimenting of new techniques in a given field.

sources: wikipedia.org, dictionary.com and answer.com

Intersexed (intersexuality):

A person that cannot be categorized as either male or female. The individual may have both male and female characteristics including genitalia, secondary sex characteristics, and sex chromosomes (or a combination of all three).

CINEMATOGRAPHY- is overall the work and art of photography that is used in making films. Cinematography includes both the shooting and the development of a movie.

I recently watched a horror movie, 'The Descent' which in my opinion, had amazing cinematography!

Transsexual:

A transsexual person is one whose biological sex does not reflect their inner identification of gender. This person may physically alter their body and/or outward appearance in order to fit the gender they identify with the most.

FRAMING (in film) - the way the set of a film makes a frame around the subject, in most cases women. This can be created by things such as: windows, doors, mirrors or even less obvious things like wilderness or a body of water.

FEMINIST SEXOLOGY:
Feminist Sexology is a relatively new field of study that focuses on the various ways women convey their sexuality. Feminist Sexologists focus on reproduction rights, acknowledgement of lesbian and transgender orientations, same-sex marriage, and pornography. It focuses on multiple culturally constructed groupings that interact (intersectionality) and form systems of coercion.

Good Job! Very nice and usefull glossary!