Critical analysis on The Piano 1993
In my discussion I will talk about Jane Campion’s film, The Piano 1993, in this case I would argue for and against Laura Mulvey’s essay, and to define where her theorist brings awareness and where it collapses. I will also introduce Vivian Sobchack ‘What my fingers knew’ to argue against Mulvey’s argument. In Laura Mulveys essay, she argues that, women are the sexual objects that the male has control over the gaze, in this case I agree with her, famous Hitchcock films, which shows this are films such as Vertigo, Rear Window and Psycho. In ‘what my finger knew’’ I want to explain the relationship that we have with Ada and we think about the feeling and touch and the connection not thinking at Ada’s position is to be looked on.
Laura Mulvey argues that the uses of pleasure that is gaining from woman should be destroyed, and it’s used as a weapon in mainstream Hollywood cinema and what we gain looking for pleasure. ‘’Scopophilia was essentially active; indeed it was an activity which he associated with children who have a voyeuristic curiosity to see the forbidden areas of the body. It is a curiosity which extends to the question of the presence / absence of the penis and ultimately in Freudian method to the question of the primal scene. This pleasure in looking becomes a part of the human subject. At its extreme it can be a perversion in which sexual satisfaction can only come.’’
In The Piano, love scene from (01:13:31 – 01:15:13). We see Ada’s husband Stewart arriving on Baines front garden with his dog, he came there looking for Ada, as he hears groans from Baines house, he slowly moves forward to makes sure he was hearing right, he find himself looking on to Ada and Baines activity, re...
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...film, and begin to think is she going to attempt to talk again, because the piano was the only way of communication.
This essay has argued that Laura Mulvey’s essay has shown the power of make gaze, and how women are sexual objects it was clearly shown in this case. However Mulvey fails to fully acknowledge the significance of female gaze, how women can do it too and this has been shown in The Piano in a couple of scenes. This was to determine in both directions in Mulvey’s essay but being la little bit bias with Vivian Sobchack that not everything is voyeuristic but it’s the way we can connect with the characters through movement and touch. Sobchack , methods used for The Piano could be applied to other films, such as Bound 1996. She also applies her own thoughts, and uses it against her own body, to what she expresses in the love scene with Ada and Baines.
In the past few years, advertisement has changed significantly, and with it bringing many changes to our current society. Susan Bordo, a modern feminist philosopher, discussed in her article “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body” how current society has changed starting with Calvin Klein’s advertising campaign that showed men wearing nothing but underwear. Bordo argues how men are becoming the subject of the gaze, just as women were for centuries. This argument of the gaze is especially pronounced in John McTiernan’s film The Thomas Crown Affair, which focuses on two main characters, a man named Thomas Crown, who is a billionaire Manhattan financier, and a woman named Catherine Banning, and insurance investigator who is investigating Crown’s robbery of the 100-million-dollar painting, the “San Giorgio Maggiore Soleil Couchant”. The film addresses Bordo’s modern feminine and masculine gaze to target a wide range of adult audience.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” tries to shed light on the conflict between women and a society that assign gender roles using a patriarchal approach. Specifically Margaret Bauer highlights, that most of Chopin’s works revolves around exploring the “dynamic interrelation between women and men, women and patriarchy, even women and women” (146). Similarly, in “The Story of an Hour” Chopin depicts a society that oppresses women mostly through the institution of marriage, as women are expected to remain submissive regardless of whether they derive any happiness. The question of divorce is not welcome, and it is tragic that freedom of women can only be realized through death. According to Bauer, the society depicted in Chopin’s story judged women harshly as it expected women to play their domestic roles without question, while on the other hand men were free to follow their dream and impose their will on their wives (149).
Ultimately, The Gender Knot provides explanations regarding misogynistic practices, and the protagonists of “Girl” and “Mona Lisa Smile” demonstrate how damaging these practices are. The caustic effects of the limitation of female sexuality are observed in the multitude of rules for women in “Girl,” and in the prohibition of birth control in “Mona Lisa Smile.” These two works also provide insights into the ways that gender roles constrict the lives of women. Through Johnson’s theories, one can come to a better
The second wave of feminism starting in the late 1960s presented new ways of thinking about female rights and roles and gave greater attention to the issues affecting the various groups of women in the feminist movement. One of the essential topics that rose was the debate over female sexuality. From this point on efforts were made for changes in how women were expected to express their sexuality, which was controlled and adapted to the standards of men . These changes were also seen in the music area of which women sought to control their own representation and agency. Women began to challenge any models forced upon them based on preceding gender norms and traditions, and began to express their own identities according to their own comforts . The shift from traditional industry to the new media age in the 1990’s was a period of rapid transformation regarding female representations, of which females have claimed the freedom of expression through music, mainly seen through the sexual appearance of the female body. Nevertheless this achievement has been debated over most predominantly between liberal and radical feminists. This Essay will discuss the distinct views of radical and liberal feminists regarding the development of women’s freedom of expression and opportunities over time. Liberal feminists believe that women are in control of their own sexuality and have the right to express it in any way they choose. In contrast, radical feminists believe that female artists who expose their body in a sexual way and believe they have full control over themselves, are actually still trying to satisfy their predominantly male audience, therefore giving them control . To exemplify the different views on female development over time this es...
Film scholar and gender theorist Linda Williams begins her article “Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess,” with an anecdote about a dispute between herself and her son, regarding what is considered “gross,” (727) in films. It is this anecdote that invites her readers to understand the motivations and implications of films that fall under the category of “body” genre, namely, horror films, melodramas, (henceforth referred to as “weepies”) and pornography. Williams explains that, in regards to excess, the constant attempts at “determining where to draw the line,” (727) has inspired her and other theorists alike to question the inspirations, motivations, and implications of these “body genre” films. After her own research and consideration, Williams explains that she believes there is “value in thinking about the form, function, and system of seemingly gratuitous excesses in these three genres,” (728) and she will attempt to prove that these films are excessive on purpose, in order to inspire a collective physical effect on the audience that cannot be experienced when watching other genres.
Leibovitz photographs women of remarkable accomplishment: senators, supreme court justices, astronauts, athletes, opera singers, firefighters, a philanthropist maid, basketball stars, movie stars, elementary school teachers, weightlifters, and performance artists, as well as those who happen to fall in the viewfinder, sitting in the back of a pickup truck playing with Barbie dolls, or seeking shelter from domestic abuse at the local YMCA. Viewing this seemingly objective portrayal of women, we must consider the statements being made. Carol Duncan, in her essay “The MoMA’s Hot Mamas,” describes the modern art museum and a vast array of modern art in general as “a ritual of male transcendence, if we see it as organized around male fears, fantasies, and desires (118).” One might assume that Leibovitz, a respected and established photographer, might take ...
“It is said that analyzing pleasure, or beauty, destroys it” written by artist-historian, Laura Mulvey, she discusses the issues that arise when studying beauty. Examining and focusing on feminine beauty to the point of destroying it, has been a constant theme in cinema for decades. Director, Alfred Hitchcock’s has created 65 films in his 50-year long career, Hitchcock is now a common household name, being one of the most widely influential directors of the 20th century. Nicknamed “The Master of Suspense,” he made a name for himself by his incredible ability to visualize his subconscious fears and desires and turn them into a masterpiece. Throughout Hitchcock’s successful career, his films have a common theme of objectifying women through the
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
By doing so, they can clear their conscience by believing the woman to be a “sight”, nothing more than a viewing implement to sate their desires, “thus turning herself into an object…and most particularly an object of vision: a sight” (1972:47). Jenny Saville in her piece “Propped” also uses a mirror but as a tool of empowerment, rather than a process of demeaning herself. Saville, also the viewer, has positioned the mirror between both aspects of herself, allowing the mirror to break the voyeurism of the male gaze. With an insubordinate expression on her face, she dares anyone to try and take away her own right to her body. Berger, through exploring Reuben’s work completely describes the intention of Saville “her body confronts us, not as an immediate sight, but an experience” (1972:61) declaring Saville to be more than an object or sight, to be a woman capable of knowing her own self and mind. Scrawled across the mirror, reflected on to Saville’s body is the quote “If we continue to speak in the sameness, speak as men have spoken for centuries, we will fail each other again” (Noel, 2013). She has done this to remind women that men have judged the “perfect” female form too long, that it is time for
In Laura Mulvey’s article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” she uses the concept of scopophilia, or pleasure obtained through looking at things, to discuss the portrayal of women in film as passive sexual objects, while inferring that it is the active male “gaze” that objectifies them. Mulvey’s ideas are extremely relevant to Stanley Kubrick’s final film Eyes Wide Shut, in which the themes of sexuality and voyeurism are abundant. The gender roles are very clearly defined in Eyes Wide Shut. The men control the “gaze” and obtain scopophilic pleasure by looking at women. The women, on the other hand, are all presented as highly sexualized objects, or things that exist simply to be looked at. Furthermore, when they do have
Simone de Beauvoir, the author of the novel The Second Sex, was a writer and a philosopher as well as a political activist and feminist. She was born in 1908 in Paris, France to an upper-middle class family. Although as a child Beauvoir was extremely religious, mostly due to training from her mother as well as from her education, at the age of fourteen she decided that there was no God, and remained an atheist until she died. While attending her postgraduate school she met Jean Paul Sartre who encouraged her to write a book. In 1949 she wrote her most popular book, The Second Sex. This book would become a powerful guide for modern feminism. Before writing this book de Beauvoir did not believe herself to be a feminist. Originally she believed that “women were largely responsible for much of their own situation”. Eventually her views changed and she began to believe that people were in fact products of their upbringing. Simone de Beauvoir died in Paris in 1986 at the age of 78.
In today’s world, men and women are perceived equally by the society. In the past, authority and control define men while women are given the characteristic of helplessness. Men are able to get hold of high positions while women usually are subservient to them. In movies, we would usually see women portray roles that are degrading due to the stereotypical notions they associate with this gender group. Moulin Rouge, a movie set during the 1900s narrates the story of a courtesan woman, Satine, as she undergoes hardships to earn money, experiences love but unfortunately, due to her irrational choices, faces tragic consequences at the end. Satine is a symbol of how women are being treated by the society during the era before post-feminism, where men have superiority over women. As the plot develops, Satine transforms from a worthless prostitute to someone who is courageous and willing to face her fears in order to attain her aspirations. Psychoanalyst theory and feminist analysis are apparent throughout the film. The male gaze, fantasy and feminism are three topics that will be covered in depth in this essay through relating it to the movie.
Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour is a brilliant short story of irony and emotion. The story demonstrates conflicts that take us through the character’s emotions as she finds out about the death of her husband. Without the well written series of conflicts and events this story, the reader would not understand the depth of Mrs. Mallard’s inner conflict and the resolution at the end of the story. The conflict allows us to follow the emotions and unfold the irony of the situation in “The Story of an Hour.”
The movie, “Mona Lisa Smile” is an inspirational film that explores life through feminism, marriage, and education lead by a modernist teacher at the end of a traditional era. It begins by introducing the lead character, Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), a liberal-minded novice professor from California, who lands a job in the art history department at a snobbish, all-girl college, called Wellesley, in the fall of 1953. Despite warnings from her boyfriend Paul that a Boston Brahmin environment was out of her element, Katherine was thrilled at the prospect of educating some of the brightest young women in the country however, her image of Wellesley quickly fizzles after her first day of class, in which, was more like a baptism by fire. Her smug students flaunted their exhaustive knowledge of the text and humiliated her in front of a supervisor. However, Katherine, determined not to buckle under pressure, departs from the syllabus in order to regain the upper hand. She quickly challenged the girls’ idea of what constituted art and exposed them to modern artist not endorsed by the school board. She dared them to think for themselves, and explore outside of their traditional views. This form of art was unacceptable by the students at first however, overtime Katherine penetrated her student’s distain and earned their esteem.
Feminist theory was derived from the social movement of feminism where political women fight for the right of females in general and argue in depth about the unequality we face today. In the aspect of cinema, feminists notice the fictitious representations of females and also, machismo. In 1974, a book written by Molly Haskell "From Reverence to Rape: The treatment of Women in Movies" argues about how women almost always play only passive roles while men are always awarded with active, heroic roles. Moreover, how women are portrayed in movies are very important as it plays a big role to the audience on how to look at a woman and how to treat her in real life due to the illusionism that cinema offers. These images of women created in the cinema shapes what an ideal woman is. This can be further explained through an article 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' written by a feminist named Laura Mulvey in 1975. She uses psychoanalysis theories by Sigmund Freud to analyze 'Scopophilia' which is the desire to see. This explains how the audience is hooked to the screen when a sexy woman is present. In a bigger picture, where Scopophilia derives from, 'Voyeurism' is also known as feeling visual pleasure when looking at another. Narcissism on the other hand means identifying one's self with the role played. It is not hard to notice that in classical cinema, men often play the active role while the women are always the object of desire for the male leads, displayed as a sexual object and frequently the damsels in distress. Therefore, the obvious imbalance of power in classical cinema shows how men are accountable to moving the narratives along. Subconsciously, narcissism occurs in the audience as they ...