FEMINIST THEORYWays of making meaning for audience for feminist audiences, especially from the perspective of feminist politicians.

Including:Roles and functions of female charactersContextNarratives and Genres Representations

THE THEORY…

She suggests that women are presented as objects consistently by the media

Classical Hollywood films positioning the audience as male, through identification with male protagonist.

The idea is that the female body is being used to gain pleasure by men, or other women.

Thus the term ‘gaze’ or ‘look’ personifies this ideology.

THE GAZE..

The spectator’s gaze: the audience looking at subject on the screen.

Male gaze: male viewing the female voyeuristically.Female gaze: accepts that women can gain voyeuristically

pleasure from looking at subject.Intra-diegetic gaze: when one character in the text

looks/gazes at another character in the text.Extra-diegetic gaze: when one character in the text looks out of the text at the audience, breaking the fourth wall.

DEVELOPMENTS OF THE GAZE..

Originally, the theory assumes the film audience is a heterosexual male – denies possibility that women can

enjoy the gaze in the same way.Original assumes the protagonist in text is male.

It is widely recognised now that a male audience can identify and relate with a female protagonist.

UPDATING THIS…