When I began this class, my only expectation of it was that I would have a better understanding of women filmmakers and would be able to see some of these different perspectives that normally aren't in the "spotlight" of major Hollywood films. Um...I couldn't have been MORE wrong. This class hasn't changed just the way I watch commercials, (because I definitely can't do that anymore without thinking about "the gaze" and how poorly the company is representing race, women, gender, sexuality or all of the above) it's changed the way I interact with other people and the way I view social situations.
Every time I go out, I see men gazing at fragments of women's bodies shamelessly--like they've been conditioned to believe that this fantasy life that the camera portrays actually means that they have a shot at any woman they see--as if each one is an available "product" to be sold to the highest bidder. I'm not saying I'm completely cynical, but as a person highly involved in DFL politics, it's interesting to see where our country is headed in terms of social politics. More and more, I do hear people scoffing at any type of attempt at "feminist" representation--like it's outdated, passe; a phase.
That's the idea I had in mind when I wrote this paper--not just whether the study of feminism through film and media is still relevant, but how the academic discipline as a whole contributes to the discussion and the effects it has on real-world politics and pop culture. In my reading, I read account after account of feminists talking about the different "waves," and how new groups are entering the discussion and new battles are being fought on multiple fronts. Even if the feminist name isn't attached to the tagline, you can bet it's in the bedrock of the discussion.
In my paper, I worked to incorporate the proposed questions about leading academic feminist and queer theory regarding the case for studying these topics through film and what makes it relevant for today. In making my point about why it's relevant today, I consistently pointed out how feminism has been on the forefront of almost every major sociopolitical debate in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and how these same major debates that have been fought in full view of the public consistently crop up time and time again with a new guise. I work to prove how the study of feminism has incorporated these major battles into its study, and how studying this gives this field the unique ability to detect and predict underlying cultural and political trends, and actually effect the outcome of these events by providing an academic check on the patterns they detect.
The majority of the criticism, I point out in my paper, comes from those either working to silence and marginalize groups or those who can't see that this area of study is so precious because of it's consistency in it's ability to interpret and even alter events not just in pop culture, but in the political atmosphere as well.
I worked to show that due to the chameleon-like ability of the program to shape and shift with relevant civil rights issues of every generation and every decade, the discipline is more relevant than most other static academic programs that are limited to the study of one aspect and is not as readily able to ebb and flow with political and cultural tides.
Before taking this class, I didn't understand how much this program stretches into so many areas that are constantly in the limelight of public policy and culture. However, studying it has enhanced my ability to read people, situations and interpretations of social and political atmospheres in a much more dynamic way.
In short, history repeats itself. If we don't continue to study the patterns of social and cultural psychology through a media venue, we neglect a study that is able to detect underlying aspects of every major cultural and political issue. Further, we would be doing a disservice to communities relegated to the sidelines of the social and political arena by not providing them with a forum to voice their ideas and put an academic check on the priorities of our leaders and the media.
