F06 :: Feminist Film Studies

I watched the episode “Heavy Petting� from The Girls Next Door which is a show about the lives of Hugh Hefner and the playmates that live in the mansion. During this episode, there were two parties. The first was for all of the dogs; some of the girls decided to throw a birthday party for all of the dogs. They bought a dog cake and dog pizzas and everyone ate out of dog bowls. The second party was the Easter party where thousands of eggs are hidden and the children of old playmates and friends go Easter egg hunting. Overall, the show revolved around the animals and getting ready for parties.

What bothered me about the show were the outfits. All of the girls, no matter what they were doing, wore shirts that accentuated their chests. Hair and makeup was always done perfectly. Every girl’s hair was platinum blonde and most wore pink all the time. They all spoke about wanting to be mothers or that they felt motherly because they took care of the animals. There were no persons of color in the house; even at the Easter party there were no guests of color. It was a white, rich, male-dominated event.

The camera did not look only at the girls’ faces. If there was a close up, it was always the girls’ face and chest. There were many chest shots when the girls were doing something or even as a transition to another shot. The gaze of the camera, according to Laura Mulvey, was scopophilic. According to Mulvey, Freud “associated scopophilia with taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze� (Mulvey 37). This opinion describes accurately the nature of the gaze upon the girls. This scopophilic gaze, “arises from pleasure in using another person as an object of sexual stimulation through sight� (Mulvey 39). Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze is apparent within the filmic construction of this show. The women on screen are there for a male’s pleasure in looking.

These girls are searching for feminine fulfillment. All associate the future as being married and having children and the mansion is just a stepping stone to getting there. Some don’t see marriage but only see children and becoming a mother. Being a mother is very important to them. Betty Friedan describes the housewife in Feminine Mystique: “She had found true feminine fulfillment� (Friedan 199). Friedan describes housewives from the 1960’s as those who were told that, “all they had to do was devote their lives from earliest girlhood to finding a husband and bearing children� (Friedan 198). I believe that this ideology runs within the girls from the show. They see their future as a housewife with children and with ‘true feminine fulfillment.’