Identities: Feminist and gender theory
1) What are the two texts the article focuses on?
The TV series 'Pan Am' and the music video for Beyonce's 'Why Don't You Love Me?'
2) What examples are provided from the two texts of the 'male gaze' (Mulvey)?
During its focus on Pan Am, the article says that our introduction to the main character Laura is through an image on a magazine cover, an image which has clearly been doctored and is highly unrealistic in its representation of women, with one of its sole purposes to be "visually enjoyed by men."
While focusing on 'Why Don't You Love Me?' the article makes it evident that there are many aspects of the video that reinforce Mulvey's 'male gaze'. It states that the dress-codes are "highly sexualised" and that she is overtly "submitting herself to sexual objectification", essentially welcoming the 'male gaze' herself.
3) Do texts such as these show there is no longer a need for feminism or are they simply sexism in a different form?
I think that although these texts are aiming to portray women as having much more control and dominance over men, they do so in a way that still stresses the necessity for this control to rely hugely on their sexuality and therefore I think this still suggests sexism and that there is still a need for feminism.
4) Choose three words/phrases from the glossary of the article and write their definitions on your blog.
- Post-Feminism: An ideology in culture and society that society is somehow past needing feminism and that the attitudes and arguments of feminism are no longer needed.
- Third Wave Feminism: Was a movement that redefined and encouraged women to be dominant and sexually assertive.
- Nostalgia: A sentimental longing for the past, often only remembering the positives of the time.
The TV series 'Pan Am' and the music video for Beyonce's 'Why Don't You Love Me?'
2) What examples are provided from the two texts of the 'male gaze' (Mulvey)?
During its focus on Pan Am, the article says that our introduction to the main character Laura is through an image on a magazine cover, an image which has clearly been doctored and is highly unrealistic in its representation of women, with one of its sole purposes to be "visually enjoyed by men."
While focusing on 'Why Don't You Love Me?' the article makes it evident that there are many aspects of the video that reinforce Mulvey's 'male gaze'. It states that the dress-codes are "highly sexualised" and that she is overtly "submitting herself to sexual objectification", essentially welcoming the 'male gaze' herself.
3) Do texts such as these show there is no longer a need for feminism or are they simply sexism in a different form?
I think that although these texts are aiming to portray women as having much more control and dominance over men, they do so in a way that still stresses the necessity for this control to rely hugely on their sexuality and therefore I think this still suggests sexism and that there is still a need for feminism.
4) Choose three words/phrases from the glossary of the article and write their definitions on your blog.
- Post-Feminism: An ideology in culture and society that society is somehow past needing feminism and that the attitudes and arguments of feminism are no longer needed.
- Third Wave Feminism: Was a movement that redefined and encouraged women to be dominant and sexually assertive.
- Nostalgia: A sentimental longing for the past, often only remembering the positives of the time.
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