GWSS3307 Feminist Film Studies

Response to "The Final Girl"

2010-12-19T23:02:23Z

I completely agree with moroz008's analysis of Short's article on "Surviving the Slasher". It was typical of the 70's and 80's (all the way back to the earliest films) horror genre to feature a "morally pure" girl who survives the attack of a monster, and defeats it by the acquisition of a phallus.

Moroz008 makes an excellent point that recent horror films have shied away from this trend, by becoming sympathetic with the attacker to find its weakness. The recent remake of "Nightmare on Elm Street" fits this newer category. She survives until the end by unlocking secrets from Freddie Kruger's past until we begin to pity him. The twist end of the newer version (perhaps it is in the original as well) is that Freddie never was defeated, and it implied that he successfully kills the "final girl" as well.

An additional argument I would like to add here is about the relatively recent film "Teeth". Here we see an entirely new angle on this genre, in which the morally pure girl BECOMES the threat, in a sense, when she develops deadly teeth in her vagina.

Yes, the ridiculous outline suggests this is barely on the edge of the horror genre (the mutilated victims are quite horrific sights) but it is interesting to apply the earlier theories to this film.

The main conflict of this movie is between the morally pure side of the girl, and the darkness within herself (over which she initially has no control, and escapes as she is being raped). The interesting perspective on this film is that in the end, the morally pure side does not defeat the evil, but it comes to terms with it. The girl accepts her darker side and sets out to use it to rid the world of those men that would cause harm to defenseless victims. As crazy as the movie is, I must commend the writers for taking on this fascinating new stance.

Tangled

2010-12-19T22:19:42Z

This weekend I saw the new Disney film "Tangled". While overall I found it to be another step in the right direction as far as the stereotypical display of the feminine character, the film also managed to fit right in with all other Disney heteronormative fairy tale endings.

Following in the footsteps of Shrek, the lead female character is a princess trapped in a tower, but ultimately turns out not to be completely helpless as with most fairy tale princesses. Just as Fiona was shown to be able to kick some major butt, Rapunzel's hair has magical healing powers that allow her to contribute to the action somewhat. While this is no jaw-dropping development in the cause for feminine advancement, one can at least say that Disney has advanced at least a tad from its early helpless princesses of Cinderella and Snow White.

The plot of the film, unfortunately, follows just about every possible sterotype of a romance film. Rapunzel falls immediately in love with (assumedly) the first man she ever sees. She becomes determined to enter a relationship with him. Unfortunately, she is easily tricked into thinking he doesn't have feelings for her (oh, no!!) and is overcome with grief at the thought. After the cliche "falling out" scene is resolved and the hero male rescues her from an eternity of imprisonment (oh, and she brings him back to life), the two are allowed to live happily ever after in a white, heteronormative marital union.

We continue to yearn for a film where the female lead's only concern isn't finding a man, but apparently the heads of Disney believe that would upset the kids too much. Some day...

Tangled Blog

2010-12-15T15:46:58Z

I had a chance to view Tangled last week and finally am able to blog about it. Like most disney movies it is an enjoyable and fairly simple story. It does add some new interesting aspects to the classic disney story though. I was actually surprised by how quickly our "princess" fell in love with the hero.

In some of the other disney stories the "princess" is either searching for love, or is resistant to it and slowly opens up to the idea. In this disney movie the mother resisted the love and the "princess" was comfortable to move almost immediately to picture her hero as her love. This was interesting since it was neither of the characters goals to find love and the princess had a simple motivator of just trying to see the stars. This was interesting because once it happened they both comfortably fell into the role.

This was interesting as it made the love story an important aspect to the story after about halfway through, but was not a huge point impact until later in the movie. Although this was a departure Disney's goal did eventually move into the basic love story of girl meets hero, hero and girl fall in love, they overcome something and live happily ever after. This was an entertaining movie but not far from the recipe for a children. movie.

Final blog

2010-12-08T21:20:11Z

I appreciated your powerpoint presentations, they were especially helpful towards the beginning of the class when I had no vocabulary with which to talk about or understand films. I would have liked you to give a lecture every class period. Your lecture from Nov 17th (liberal v. difference v. radical feminism) might have been more helpful in the first weeks, and then revisited for "Born in Flames".
I enjoyed the small group discussions as well, but felt they were often more productive after you had explained the topic a little to us. Some of the denser articles were hard to get started on until you laid out the basics of the author's argument. If the worksheets were passed out the week before, it may have been easier to know what to keep in mind while reading each article.
Psychoanalytic theory may historically be the basis of film theory, but I feel like there was too much emphasis on it. I would have liked to read more progressive articles, though I will concede that it's important to get an overview first.
Also, some tips on how to watch a film for class would have been welcome- the third week we watched a bit of "Daughters of the Dust" and really picked away at every aspect of the clip. The next week, when I watched "The Color Purple" I took pages of notes that were totally unnecessary!

Some concepts that were unclear:
Semiotics- theoretically made sense, but what are the applications in film?
Ontology, metonymy, episteme- from worksheets, never found in text.

Other thoughts on terms:
Diegesis- sound track v. character turning on radio example was very helpful in understanding this.
Intersectionality- applies everywhere, all the time. How do you talk about it without being cliché?
Breaking 4th wall- would like to know more random terms like this
Embarrassed "etc."- Yes! So true!

final blog

2010-12-08T20:31:03Z

I really enjoyed all the films and clips. In particular, I thought the daughters of the dust film was provocative and interesting. The best readings were by hooks. She is accessible and witty, while maintaining a really sharp discourse. The blaxploitation article was also very engaging.

The class structure bothered me only because it was so long. I was under the impression that most of the films were going to be screened in class. The small group discussion were helpful to split the time up and I liked the work sheets. It would be advantageous to show more clips though. I liked the segments of class devoted to analyzing the clips and discussing their relevance to the articles.

Overall, I had a good time in this class and I thought the material was engaging and enlightening. Thank you!

Final Blog

2010-12-08T17:51:10Z

I felt like the first week's articles were a little weighty for just starting out the class. It's more helpful to me to discuss the concepts first in class, especially if they're very theoretical and somewhat hard to understand. I found in general that I enjoyed the articles that were more focused on specific films, rather than the ones that were more focused on just theory, but that is just my bias. I understand that the theory articles are very important too, they're just a lot harder for me to work my way through and comprehend.

I didn't find the small group discussion very helpful a lot of the time. Oftentimes we would get stuck on a question, and end up wasting a lot of time flipping through the articles, trying to find an answer. It was sometimes very frustrating. I felt that the lectures afterward were much more engaging and helpful. Maybe if we had the questions with us while we were reading, we could think through our answers then, and be more prepared for the small group discussions.

I also wish that the quizzes/blogs were due on the day of the class, rather than earlier in the week, as that made them really easy to forget about - as evidenced by my late blog today! (whoops) I tend to think of my due-dates in terms of, "okay, what class do I have tomorrow?" and make sure I have everything done, which means that I tend to almost forget about the blogs/quizzes that are due on Monday/Tuesday. Granted, this is my fault, but it would still be helpful if they were due on class days.

Even though I didn't necessarily agree with all of the theories talked about in the articles (I'm specifically thinking about Freud/psychoanalytic theory here) I thought it was really interesting to see the different perspectives. I really enjoyed learning about the gaze and spectatorship theories, because while I had heard those terms before, and vaguely knew what they were, I didn't have a very in-depth conception about what they were and how they were applied. I feel like I can watch movies with a much more critical eye now.

My favorite units were when we talked about horror films and Disney films. I thought the articles were fascinating, and loved reading about the Final Girl theories. I was really looking forward to watching and discussing a horror movie for class, though, and was a little disappointed when we didn't. I also really loved the lecture you gave for the Law unit. I knew a lot of the background from my Business Law class, but I really enjoyed hearing it from a feminist perspective. I learned a lot about the history of sexual harassment laws that I hadn't known before, and I really appreciated it. I also liked the unit where we read the articles on Will and Grace and Ellen. I felt like I learned so much about how gay people are represented (or not represented!) in the media, and I used some of what I learned from these articles to write a paper for a different class.

Overall, I thought this was a great class that I would definitely recommend to others. Thanks for a great semester!

Final Blog

2010-12-08T05:29:46Z

I thought this class was a very interesting take on both film studies and GWSS. I was expecting more emphasis on one or the other, but I think it touched appropriately on both the film and GWSS aspects. I also appreciated the integration of recent films. It made the material more understandable from a first-hand perspective because they were from our generation's pop-culture. By the same token, it may have been helpful to incorporate older films (ex: Some Like it Hot) to understand what some of the authors were basing their film history on.
The readings were excellent choices, even if some were more challenging than others. They made for good discussions. More could probably be gotten out of those discussions though if the class met two times per week. I felt that most of the time the class got restless with the subjects before the last hour and exhausted all of their interest, so dividing the time would work better.
Overall, I enjoyed the class and think it will give me more perspective in other GWSS courses.

Final Blog

2010-12-08T00:34:02Z

Throughout this course, I generally found the readings to be both interesting and accessible (in terms of language, writing style, content, etc) and specifically, found the concept of the male/female gaze most useful. The whole concept was foreign to me but immediately made a lot of sense and it felt like something I had been trying to put my finger on for years but never really figured out. The objectification, etc of women in the media was previously visible to me but this concept explained it and named it. I find it very interesting to think of ways that this gaze can be modified to be a female gaze or just a neutral gaze not assigned to one gender/sex or the other.
While, on the most part, I enjoyed the articles we read for class I did feel that a couple of them were reaching a bit in terms of analysis and evidence. For example, some of King et al.'s arguments in "Beyond Snow White" seemed to be stretching. In particular, the analysis of Chicken Run and Ginger's need to be Americanized both confused and seemed irrelevant to me. Also, while I was interested in the point we discussed in class about how Fiona stays green when she falls in love with Shrek instead of him turning into a white human, I didn't buy King's argument that Shrek is read by audiences as white and thus Fiona's whiteness has nothing to do with how she looks.
In terms of class structure, I found class discussions very helpful in understanding the readings, I also found the worksheets with structured questions and ways of thinking about the articles to be helpful. Sometimes the small group discussions lagged on too long to be of help though and generally the whole class discussion aided my understanding of the article more than the small group discussions did.

Week 14 Blog - Class Reflection

2010-12-07T21:27:52Z

Beginning with a few thoughts on the course schedule and syllabus, I'd say first and foremost that I think this course would fit better in a schedule where it meets 2-3 times a week. The information and readings as a part of the course material are so heavy at times that they get to be a bit much for one single 2.5hr block of time a week. It would have been awesome to have the opportunity to still take on the same (and same amount of articles) per week, but to have space in between class meetings to better reflect on the ideas in the material in order to be able to ask more involved questions and discuss subject matter more in depth.
And on that note, it was very clear from the first couple of class meetings that Prof Moskow really knows this material and is able to both present it for our own benefit as well as comment on her opinions of it - I would have loved to have had more in depth lectures like we did during the first couple classes. I felt I learned some rich valuable information that I didn't know before taking this course, and as a result of the lecture, I felt more prepared and confident to form opinions on the readings during group discussions.
While the worksheets did serve a purpose of directing group conversations, it would have been great to have those worksheets AS we read the articles in order to serve a "reading guides" or a list of points to consider or search for while reading. With many of the articles (like the De Lauretiis from last week, especially), the style of writing or the content itself or one of many different factors lead to a density of the material that is extremely difficult to soldier through if you don't have a guide to help you through.
I also think that the format of the quizzes was helpful, but as with the worksheets, they only served to evaluate comprehension of an article that, based on the writer/theorist' style, I may or may not have been able to achieve.

As for the films and how they were organized into sections in the syllabus, I never really understood too clearly the separation of the course into units and how those various sections flowed together from week to week. For me, each class ended up being it's own separate topic examining a specific area of feminist film theory; I don't know if the division of the course into units was necessary. And with the films we were to view, I feel like some hit the mark specifically in wrestling with feminist film theory, while some were not the most helpful in examining the topic. Films like Adam's Rib and Born in Flames were great examples of films that allow an in-depth stylistic analysis as well as an openness to a feminist approach. However, the films Princess and the Frog, Legally Blonde, and Clueless may have touched on these areas, but I feel that an introduction to other films could have provided a more analytical approach to discussing the theory in addition to introducing us as students to potentially lesser-known (or simply less mainstream) filmmakers. But this is just possibly my own personal taste in what I'm looking for in a class that approaches film as a topic.
With the articles, I felt that a really engaging and thoughtful array of voices were chosen, but if I could pick out one thing that was missing, it would be Judith Butler. Again, probably my personal taste coming out, but I feel like an understanding of at least some of what Butler confronts in her writings is crucial to the development of ideas and discussion on the topic of feminism and film.
All in all, I feel like I've definitely been introduced to a variety of writers whose materials will come in useful in forming ideas and arguments in the future, and I think that was the most important aspect that I was expecting when I signed up for the course.

Final Class Thoughts

2010-12-07T18:17:11Z

Overall, I think I gained a lot from this class. Compared with other film classes I've had, it was nice to look at everything from a feminist or woman's perspective. Although the class was not quite what I expected (I thought it would be more of watching film and analyzing them while slightly incorporating the readings into what we watched), I learned a lot and enjoyed it. The lessons I particularily liked were from Jackie Stacie, Carol Dole, Gayle Wald, Jennifer Reed, and Battles. Those articles were easy to follow and analyze. It was easy to understand and make my own perceptions as well as disect theirs. I think it interesting and beneficial to be able to take third-wave feminism theory and how sexual preferences are portrayed and viewed upon in society. It is all around even if you don't initially see it.

My favorite parts were watching the film clips and then discussing them. It was great that the film clips were online for prior viewing too. I thought the powerpoints and class discussions were useful. I enjoyed the small group discussions but were less useful for taking notes and analyzing the material. It was most enjoyable to watch clips and talk about current films. Watching Thelma and Louise, Princess and the Frog, Legally Blonde, and Will and Grace were easy to understand because people could relate with them more. I think it was easier to contribute to class discussion this way.

I think I've gained a broader perspective on female spectatorship and the role of a woman in cinema. We mainly focus on the male point of view in other classes. Some of the articles were taken from different points of feminist views, which I can now relate to the films I view in the futre and compare them with points of views from a male perspective. It was a fun class to go to and engage with.

Final Blog

2010-12-07T15:06:42Z

I thought this class was a very interesting one. Especially a departure from the classes that I normally enroll in. Despite the readings being frustrating at times they were useful and helped with in class discussions. I think the giving us the reading purpose or what your goal of the readings were might help the class discussions since students could prepare their arguments a head of time. Other wise handing out the work sheets a head of time so that less of class was blankly searching a 20 page article for a though you had 2 days ago. Although I think the small group discussions were great with some forethought they would have been even better.

The large class discussions were good but they were pushed at times and this may have been due to students not wanting to voice their opinions or otherwise they may not have fully understood the readings. I think some of the most beneficial discussions happened when we discussed the films and not the readings. When clips where showed and then discussed was really beneficial.

Final Blog

2010-12-07T15:06:42Z

Week 14 Blog

2010-12-07T06:27:11Z

I may be in the minority here, but I found last week's reading by De Lauretis to be the most interesting. I enjoyed the way that article brought film theory within the larger project of feminist criticism to more clearly express the conflicting impulses of feminist thought that have arisen since the women's movement. I also really enjoyed the viewing and discussion of Akerman's Jeanne Dielman. It was helpful to apply directly topics of class discussion to actual film footage (in this case, Akerman's commentary about feminist film in the De Lauretis article), and I appreciated the large group discussion where we identified which aspects of the film, technically and thematically, were subversive or feminist. I remember feeling similarly when we viewed clips from "Daughters of the Dust" and discussed spectatorship and identification in one of the first weeks class.
In general, I enjoyed large group discussions the most, and found them especially beneficial when we could watch film clips as a class and discuss them together. That being said, I also think I would have enjoyed small group discussions more if the worksheets could be made available before the class period. I think a lot of time was wasted in simply trying to locate specific points in an article--not to mention how difficult it often is to synthesize the aspects of a complex argument into a few sentences while sitting in a room full of 60 people at 7pm. Some of the articles were dense and filled with complicated theoretical claims, and I think having those questions at hand while reading would have helped to remind me to pay attention to and keep track of the basic argument being made.

Final Blog

2010-12-07T05:58:41Z

Overall, I really enjoyed the class but perhaps not the structuring of the class (although this was my first time taking a night class.) Class sessions seemed repetitive even though each week a new topic/film was discussed. I think incorporating more in class quizzes would have been more helpful to classroom learning in general. Also I found small group discussions particularly helpful in that we were able to review the readings and figure out by talking with the group what the focus or argument of the reading was if it was unclear or difficult.
One of my favorite sessions was when we discussed depictions of feminisms (third-wave) in films such as Clueless and Legally Blonde. This may be due to that these films were more current or contemporary films compared to others we watched in class. The films and the readings just appealed to me more. Also I found it was easier to analyze films that I had already seen (such as Clueless and Legally Blonde) most often I didn't have time to re-watch films that I had not seen prior to this course. I also enjoyed the reading on Disney film Princesses titled "Beyond Snow White," which discussed femininity and women's roles in these films. Perhaps this was because we only had one reading for class that week so I was able to focus more on the one specific reading (and again because this article discussed films I have seen prior to reading the article i.e. Lilo and Stich, Mulan, etc.). I understand the class only meets once a week, but it was difficult for myself to get a good understanding of the concepts from the three different authors.
Many of the Unit One readings I found fairly boring and often difficult to grasp. The whole idea of the analytic theory and the relationship to Freud still seem slightly confusing. I like the later readings that involved more discussing the visual aesthetics in specific films rather than early readings that introduced the female gaze (Mulvey) and discussed the audience and the spectator among other topics.
In general I'm really glad I took this course.

Week 14 blog

2010-12-07T05:45:41Z

Overall, the course was different from what I expected, but interesting. I especially enjoyed Unit One more than Unit Two. The readings were difficult for me to understand at points, but the theories and parts I found difficult to understand were thoroughly discussed in class. For example the female/ masculine gaze and the theories behind these concepts became very interesting to me and the short video clips you provided in class, like the James Bond clip and the clip showing all the films that are shot in a male gaze was very shocking and helped me understand more deeply the types of theories and articles we were discussing in class that week. However, as the readings went on the less there seemed to be smaller associations you made in class with short video clips and such. I am a very visual learner, so these small parts of class were very helpful and allowed me to better connect what was being discussed. In Unit two I seemed to learn more about character types more and smaller pieces of film like from the Will and Grace article, I seemed to better understand the audience and small judgements that are made on what the character can do as far as going to far for an audience to stop watching, as what happened with Ellen Degeneres' character. Both units had broad concepts that helped me better understand how films are watched and why they are viewed that way by different people. However, I would have liked to learn more about how films are viewed by audiences and how a director or writer can understand what the viewer's response will be.
The blogs and quizzes were always helpful because they forced me to do the readings, however, the blogs helped me to look deeper into the information, the quizzes were not so helpful, in the fact that even if I did read the readings assigned well, it was difficult to pull out the small facts that were not that important at times with the concept as the reading of the whole. The quizzes did not help me learn the material. However, the worksheets were helpful, if everyone in the group had done the readings, which wasn't always the case. The group discussions would be more engaging and worthwhile if there was points for the worksheets or some motivating factor for everyone to do the readings if there isn't a blog or quiz assigned.