TO BE or NOT TO BE... FEMINIST?
I have learned that feminism is like politics there are some people who pull strongly to one side, feminists, and some who pull strongly to the other side, anti-feminists. Just like politics though, many fall somewhere in between. Many filmmakers don't want to associate with feminism because it may take away from their work, but in reality they may actually be projecting the ideals of feminism in their work. Although they are being cowardly and not standing up for what they believe in sometimes this does have advantages. People who would have never gone to a feminist movie will go see these movies that are not classified as feminist but may actually be.
I don't have a definition of what feminist media is, because from what I have learned from this class I believe if you analyze and critique correctly then you will see that feminism is all over the media although it is not labeled directly. Now don't get me wrong, I know many Hollywood films don't present feminisms well, but I would argue that in almost any film with females we could pick out some sort of feminism. Whether women are being misrepresented or if they are given power a feminist interpertation could always be taken away from films. So I don't think that filmmakers have to label their film as feminism, but if they choose to include feminist thought or theory than more to them.
Many filmmakers don't call themselves feminists but they create feminist films like Andy Tennant. He has directed many films including Hitch, It Takes Two, and Ever After. He doesn't call himself a feminist but he created a feminist piece of work with Ever After, which is acutally a post-feminism interpertation of Cinderella. Now here are some examples of filmmakers who actually declare themselves as feminist filmmakers that I have come across this semester: Claire Denis, Jane Campion, Neema Barnette, Byron Hurt, Callie Khouri, and Kimberly Pierce. This is a pretty amazing list too, because at the beginning of this semester I couldn't list one feminist filmmaker! This class has definetly opened my eyes not only to feminism and media, but also how they work together.