Laura Palmer

Laura Mulvey, in “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” (1975), reveals how traditional cinema is imbued with an active male gaze that communicates dominant and sexist ideologies. She argues that classical Hollywood movies reflect the patriarchal system in which they are produced, with women being “looked at and displayed” for the (assumed) male spectator’s pleasure. While the success of several recent female-led blockbusters seem to indicate a shift toward greater female representation, I…

Illinois. Looking back at the decisions he made, he realized he should've attended his Dream School and now wonders how his NBA career would be different. Just like in Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel argues that those who don’t follow their passion will have regrets In Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel argues that those who don’t follow their passion will have regrets. Tita returned to the ranch to take care of her ailing mother. She tried to give Mama Elena great care but soon…

The male gaze is the way in which visual arts depicts women for a masculine point of view. Mulvey suggests that visual media exposes a deep-seated drive known as “scopophilia”: the sexual pleasure involved in looking. Mulvey believed mainstream movies are filmed in a certain way in order to satisfy male scopophilia. Therefore, according to this theory woman are regulated to the status of objects to be admired for physical appearance. Mulvey argues that erotic scenes in films don’t have any…

3. PURPOSE a. The purpose of Mindy’s narrative is to educate her audience on how the filming industry and Hollywood portrays woman and set high standards and expectations to satisfy the male character. This illustrates one of the main themes known as ‘male dominance’ that is portrayed throughout her narrative. This theme is evident as Mindy describes each archetype; she ends each anecdote with each woman satisfying and being loved by a male character, despite any flaws or struggle that she may…

Magic Mike XXL, the sequel to the widely popular film shedding light on the male entertainment industry, is a film that is geared towards heterosexual women and their viewing pleasure. The audience follows Mike, a male stripper-turned-furniture business owner, as he reunites with his former stripper buddies and travels to Myrtle Beach for a final appearance at a male stripper convention. Delving into the themes of the sexualization of the male body and fulfillment of female pleasure, Magic Mike…

Thematic - Polanski’s depiction of Gender Roles and Voyeurism Polanski demonstrates and explores themes of voyeurism and gender roles in his films. Even one of his first student short films Uśmiech zębiczny (translated as ‘Teeth Smile’) (1957) explores these themes. In this short film, the man’s intense facial expressions and eagerness to stand on his toes to look through suggest that sexual desires is a warzone between men and women, and is something that has to be fought for. In this short…

In Linda Williams’s article “Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess”, she focuses on three film genres that have a certain power to excite, yet lack of aesthetic elements. Three film genres she discusses are pornography, horror, and melodramas. The reason she concentrates on these genres is because she believes that these films provoke primitive emotions (pleasure, fear, pain), which manipulate the body at a sensational level. In these films, there is the absence of proper aesthetic distance…

According to a case study ‘Gender Inequality in 500 Popular Films’ (Stacy, 2013) by University of Southern California, it examines the gender roles of speaking characters in top-grossing films, through the data to show the gender representation in the mainstream films. In the films that released in 2012, there are out of 4,475 speaking characters on screen, but only 28.4% are female which shows females are grossly underrepresented on screen, this result reflects Mulvey’s view “the character…

Nonetheless, ownership of property does not only apply to things, but also to people such as Maria. She is an asset to the studio that employs her as an actress until she is not. Maria is also a property of Carter as her husband, at least that comes from an actor in the elevator she meets. (Didion, 23). Helen May reaffirms this sentiment of property, like any other women in entertainment business, a statement mentions “That women are nothing more but a prop” (May, 9) taken from the word “use” in…

According to the FDA love is not an ingredient however, emotion still plays a large role in cooking. In the novel Like Water for Chocolate by Esquivel the main protagonist Tita faces many challenges in life. A narration by Esperanza, Tita’s granddaughter starts every chapter with a recipe. The recipes may seem like just a tradition being recorded but, they actually correlate with the emotions and challenges Tita faces in the chapter. Food is also used as a recurring motif with symbolic…