How far does a spectator’s
gender affect their viewing experience in contemporary cinema?
intro
Gender
plays a big part in alignment in contemporary cinema as it does in life. Women
tend to see things in more of a positive light where as men seem to be more pessimistic
about life. So I believe that applying this to contemporary cinema it will be
the same. But as a male teenager I can only say it through my own point of view
and only guess what women are going to align with in contemporary cinema.
Paragraph
1
A
person’s development in personality is powered by those person’s events in
early childhood. For example a super hero film will not apple to a female
audience as much as it will to men. As the film is an escapism for men as
through out there childhood they have been taught not to be violent even though
violence is a masculine trait. This will help them align with the character as
this is something they have wanted to experience them self as superhero’s all
seem to be hyper masculine.
Paragraph
2
The
mirror stage in film is when the audience become omniscient. When the audience
know more than the characters in the film. The only way the mirror stage can be
broken is if the audience have a say on how the events in the film are going to
take place. A good example of the mirror stage is the film crash.
Paragraph
3
The
male gaze plays a big part in a lot of films. “Men act and women appear” this
will mean that as women are in films to be looked at, this would mean that a
women would find it harder to align to a female character in a film as they are
just there to be looked at. A good example is Naomi Watts in King Kong although
she is one of the main characters in the film all her character seems to do is
scream and play the damsel in distress. I would say that it is quite a negative
stereotype for the female audience. Where as a male character would be easier
or a male spectator to align with as they are normally the dominant ones in the
film and have all the power and are in charge and the characters are normally
something a western straight white man has wanted to be at some point in his
life.
Paragraph
4
Black
swan I would say that the alignment of this film would be heavily to do with
the gender of the spectator as it is about swan-lake and ballet dancers. As a
male spectator the only things that kept my in the film was when Nina stabs
Lily just before the performance as she sees her getting ready to play the
white swan and also the lesbian sex scenes but these are all in her head.
But
I suspect that a female spectator would take it differently as a young girl
stereotypically would want to be a ballet dancer at some point.
Conclusion
All
the points I have made back up my answer in my introduction. That gender
effects the alignment of a spectator as majority of films are made with a male
audience in mind.
"Women tend to see things in more of a positive light where as men seem to be more pessimistic about life." ????? Evidence? On what basis or relevance from our core texts have you studied this conclusion?
ReplyDeletePara 1 - but increasingly you have female fandoms and what about spectacle of the female gaze looking at men or identifying with string females?
Para 2 A good example of the mirror stage is the film crash. - why?
Incomlete - emotional responses, recognition or identification? Spectatorship is complex and has factors that affect it - we started the course looking at these yet none of this is considered. A very rushed and superficial response Pete that doesn't do your understanding justice.
E