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Running 12 miles today.
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Meetings, workshops, one more Celsius, no slowing down.
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To celebrate International Women's Day, which falls on March 8th, Baba Bam is replaying Do You Really Know?
Episodes which look at the struggle against inequalities between women and men all week long?
Refresh your knowledge about these ideas and concepts which promote female empowerment.
Happy listening!
What is the female gaze?
Thanks for asking!
The term female gaze has been used in recent years to describe art that subverts the male perspective.
The concept is seen as a response to Laura Mulvey's 1975 essay about the so-called male gaze.
Historically, this has been the dominant way of viewing art forms, with the male creator and male character catering to male viewers.
The rest of the characters often exist mainly to serve the male lead, his interests and his story.
As a result, women have often been objectified or ignored, with their characters oversimplified.
Why has this happened?
Well, men are over-represented in the film industry.
So over the years, most lead characters have been male.
Even as recently as 2018, just 24% of protagonists in the 100 highest-grossing films were female.
To compound that issue, they're generally surrounded by elements which appeal to male audiences.
The female perspective has traditionally been suppressed.
So when a female filmmaker brings a different viewpoint, we talk about the female gaze.
Phil Dissemlian, global film editor at Time Out, said I find the female gaze easier to define in terms of what it isn't rather than what it is.
It's not about objectifying the female form or replacing fully realized female characters with loose avatars for male sexual fantasy.
It's not framing sex scenes with tropes common to pornography aimed at men.
It's not about automatically relinquishing power and control to men in storytelling.
I think I get it now.
It's about reversing the roles and objectifying men rather than women.
Like in Magic Mike.
Well, actually, it's more complicated than that.
It's true that men are sometimes also objectified on screen, even if it's way less consistent than the presentation of women as sexual objects.
But the female gaze is not just about asserting female dominance by ogling guys with rippling pecs and washboard abs.
This is more akin to reversing gender discrimination than creating equality.
The female gaze is about having a different perspective on screen to highlight the story's emotions and characters.
What are some examples of female gaze films then?
Well, you've got Titanic, where the viewer is plunged into the experience of the heroine Rose instead of simply objectifying her.
Even in a blockbuster with a male director, it's possible to avoid reducing the female body to an object.
The female gaze can be produced whether the director is male or female, and female directors don't necessarily create the female gaze in all their films.
Another more recent example is Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a period drama from French screenwriter Céline Charma.
The film has already generated a lot of buzz and won awards in France, drawing international attention in the process.
So things are heading in the right direction at least, are they?
There's still plenty of progress to make, but the male gaze is gradually becoming less pervasive.
Women are speaking up, especially in recent years, thanks to social media movements like Me Too, and Ask Her More.
Hollywood seems to finally be taking notice and action to ensure more female-led films are produced.
A host of Hollywood actors followed the lead of Tessa Thompson in joining the 4% Challenge in 2019.
They committed to working with at least one female director within the next 18 months.
Then leading studios like Universal and MGM also signed up.
With greater representation among producers, directors and writers, the female gaze should become more and more prominent.
There you have it.
Now you know what the female gaze is.
In under three minutes, we answer your questions.
What would you like to know about?
Use the comments section to ask your questions.
