Florence Cléo Cleo 5: The Role Of Objectification In Film

Women’s roles in movies have changed dramatically throughout the years. As a result of the changing societal norms, women have experienced more transition in their roles than any other class. During the period of classical Hollywood cinema, both society and the film industry preached that women should be dependent on men and remain in home in order to guarantee stability in the community and the family. Women did not have predominated roles in movies such as being the heroin. The 1940’s film Gilda wasn’t an exception. In Gilda, the female character mainly had two different stereotypes. The female character was first stereotyped as a sex object and the second stereotyped as a scorned woman who has to be punished.

One of the main concepts when it comes to understanding film noir, first is the understanding of the definition. Film noir is “a cycle of postwar films that employed low key lighting and were literally dark” (Nichols, 500). In this particular genre, we are in a world where there is a lack of honesty and trust, many cases of seduction and betrayal, and darkness submerges people (Nichols, 250). Moreover, film noir reflects a tone of darkness, “exploring themes of seduction, betrayal, and murder” (Nichols, 58). In this film, we will learn more of how seduction and betrayal is used to express the darkness of the film. Some other traits of film noir that should be understood before exploring the two scenes is understanding the setting. In most cases, “film noir takes place in public spaces such as urban streets, cafes,

Regardless of race or gender people in today’s society have probably seen something on the media and have strived to be more like that image. Women objectification is very common like in Alabama’s sorority recruitment video, they only showed the prettiest of girls with the nicest body; the whole video did not tell of any offers or why an individual should come to their college, instead it only showed girls playing around in bikinis or minimal clothing (WKRGNews). Although this recruitment video was later taken down due to the controversy it caused, it shows that women objectification is out there and very common. Men are similar to women in the fact that they are also objectified. Objectifying men is seen as not as big of a problem than female objectification but it is equally important. Magic Mike XXL objectifies men by portraying Mark Wahlberg and other actors with great bodies by dancing and other classic chick flick scenes (WarnerBrosPicture). Actors in movies like Magic Mike XXL make the average man look plain disappointing as well as women in magazines or other movies. The average person in today's society can differentiate between flawless and average but none the less objectification of men and women occur frequently in the

Ann Cahill describes in her book, Overcoming Objectification: A Carnal Ethics, that women are merely playing roles projected by men. Implying that a woman is not a separate entity. That she is bereft of her own intelligence and rites to passage. That she is not truly other but a man 's inverse. Here Cahill moves past the term objectification and introduces a concept called derivatization.

This way of positioning deliberately substantiates the ideology that “male are active subjects who look upon female characters as passive objects (Ott & Mack, 2010).” Females are not able to escape this gaze, for they are situated similar to a circus performer being displayed to amuse the viewers of the show. Satine is being contained in this inescapable world where she is responsible to please those around her. Men use their gender to their advantage, for they know their role in the society is more superior to those of the females. They take pleasure in gazing at Satine’s immaculate curves and remarkable good looks. Fetishism, which is the “psychic structuring of an object or person as a source of sexual pleasure (Ott & Mack, 2010)”, is prevalent during the entire scene. Satine recognizes this power of manipulation she has on those fetishizing over her beauty. In the past, the male gaze is also apparent in the media. Madonna uses the male gaze to manipulate men to supply her with material objects. Material Girl becomes an anthem of women who are willing to be objectified for the sake of actualizing their luxurious desires. Both Madonna and Satine utilize beauty and glamour to their advantage. Although Satine’s position of having superiority as opposed to the other female characters may be apparent, this frame of reference is entirely fallacious. The objectification of Satine by

Today’s filmmakers have three areas to focus on: the event or theme of the film, the audience who will be watching the film, and lastly, the individual characters and the roles they play and how they are portrayed and interpreted. Many of these films bottom line objectives are to focus on the “erotic needs of the male ego.” The focus on fetishistic scopophilia tend to slant the view such that we see the world as being dominated by men and that woman are

She clearly shows that she’s not that important in the relationship and does not have a voice in it. Women are perceived differently in the movie as compared to the

Since the 1940’s, movies have predominately portrayed women as sex symbols. Beginning in the 1940’s and continuing though the 1980’s, women did not have major roles in movies. When they did have a leading role the women was either pretreated as unintelligent and beautiful, or as conniving and beautiful: But she was always beautiful. Before the 1990’s, men alone, wrote and directed all the movies, and the movies were written for men. In comparison, movies of the 90’s are not only written and directed by women, but leading roles are also held by older and unattractive women. In this paper I will show the variations and growth of women’s roles in movies from the 1940’s though the 1990’s.

Cléo from 5 to 7, directed by Agnes Varda, is a film about one woman’s struggle to come to terms with the possibility of her potential illness. Not only is Cléo struggling with her physical health, but she is also dealing with her beauty and the consequences of being an attractive woman in the modern world of the 1960s. When examined through the lens of Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” theory, another aspect of the film comes to light. The film seems to objectify Cléo and thus trivialize her struggles with others’ perceptions of her throughout the film by adhering to the construct of the male gaze. Although Cléo from 5 to 7 appears to play into the construct of the male gaze through the repeated objectification of Cléo, it actually subverts this idea and instead confronts the viewer, and the notion of women as passive objects to be viewed.

The Italian image in Hollywood is very simple. Whening hear some typical Italian names, we can know that the person must be a Mafia underworld or rogue bully. From "The Godfather" , "West Side Story" to "Public Enemies", as long as a Italian appears, he must be a gangster. As an alternative Western country, Italy cannot enter the mainstream of the American society anyway.

Theorist, E. Ann Kaplan in her work, “Is the Gaze Male?”, analyses the portrayal of women in film using Laura Mulvey’s “Gaze’ theory and psychoanalysis. In addition, Kaplan states that historically, females have been the central focus on only the melodrama genre, and while melodrama exposes the constraints and limitations that the family places on women, at the same time, gets women to accept those constraints as inevitable and normal. Kaplan argues that our culture is deeply rooted in “masculine” and “feminine, and dominance-submission patterns. In the end, she concludes that the exclusion from male culture provides an avenue to affect change in film and society. I partially agree with Kaplan that some women take pleasure from being the object of the male gaze as I think that is not entirely true, and specifically, this generalization does not apply to lesbians.

The male gaze puts his fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled, in a unique sort of way. In this traditional exhibitionist, role women are continuously being looked at and their appearance is delivered to the male gaze in such a way as a strong visual and erotic impact and provides male desire. The presence of a woman in a normal narrative film is the key of the movie. However, the key of the narrative film works against the development of the story-line and stops the action due to the erotic gaze. Butt Boetticher said: “What counts is what the heroine provokes, or rather what she represents. She is the one, or rather the love or fear she inspires in the hero, or else the concern he feels for her, who makes him act the way he does. In herself the woman has not the slightest importance”.

Agnès Varda made several films during the New Wave that were pertinent to women. She herself is in an atypical profession in the male dominated industry of film. She continues to challenge male-dominated filmmaking and creates films and characters that also challenge the traditional role of women. Any preconceived notions of what a woman should be are nowhere to be seen in Varda’s films. Feminism is manifested in many of Varda’s films. She shows the journey of different women in a male dominated society. Cléo in Cléo from 5 to 7 goes through her journey trapped by the male gaze, imprisoned. However, Mona in Vagabond chooses to be free from it, the camera and its gaze does not bind her. These films seem to be strongly interested in the

Objectification of women was one branch of male chauvinism in 1950’s America. During the 1950’s, the world had changed from a women-oriented industrial force, to an entitled male society. Women were further pushed from the American scope as men took back jobs after the military, and women were seen as objects to the men once again. In the article “The 1950’s” by Gary Rosencrans, he exemplifies the thoughts of society regarding women with his quote, “The redefinition of economic status quickly followed the way of other norms and values. Conformity to the prescribed role

In society, women are often perceived as the weaker sex, both physically and mentally. In modern times women have leveled the playing field between men and women, and feminism is a highly discussed topic, but for years, women faced discrimination and prejudice both in life and in the workplace, due to their sex. This way of thinking flooded into the world of film. In their works, the authors of each of the various sources address the limitations and liberations of women both on and off the screen in nineteenth century Film and Cinema. Not every source is completely filled with information related to the research topic, but they do cover and analyze many of the same points from different perspectives. Prominent points addressed in each