Monday 2 May 2011

Gender Studies Exam Practice

"The male gaze dominates Hollywood movies". Using the top 5 films of the week, would you agree with this statement?

1) Fast and Furious 5 (12A)



2) Source Code (12A)



3) Little White Lies (15)



4) Submarine (15)



5) Scre4m (15)



It can be argued that the male gaze does in fact dominate Hollywood, as women are constructed in the films to be seductive and alluring objects of the male gaze. Evidently, in Fast and Furious 5, women such as the models are dressed in scantily clad clothing and are fetishised through the use of close up shots of their hips, breasts and other exposed areas. In this film, women are represented as eye candy for a male audience who are empowered and made to believe that women desire men and are subservient. However, the representation contrast with the Scre4m trailer, where women are dominant characters and can kill the hooded villain and can be dupliticious, as signfied where one woman is wearing the scream mask.

Yet, in films such as Source Code, women are not presented as objects of the male gaze and are not that influential in the films. In the trailer for Source Code the female protagonists only serve a romantic diversion for the male protagonist, as much of the plot revolves around the male protagonist , with the female protagonist only serving as a romantic interest to him.

Conversely, the trailer for Little White Lies can be seen to be exempt from the Hollywood films, as it is foreign and has traditional family ideologies which are not signified in the other films. Similarly, the trailer for Submarine contrasts to the Hollywood trailers, as it is focuses on a boy's journey through relationships and explores life through his eyes with no objectification of women for the male gaze.

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