What Meets the Eye: An Overview of Feminist Film Theory

Abstract

Cinema is a cultural practice where myths about women and femininity, and men and masculinity, in short, myths about sexual difference are produced, reproduced, and represented. The stakes of feminist film theory are therefore high. In the early years of feminist film theory Laura Mulvey wrote that women would be better off discarding patriarchal cinema altogether. Women would welcome the destruction of ‘the satisfaction, pleasure and privilege’ that only serves repressive mechanisms in Hollywood cinema (Mulvey 1975/1989: 26). In the same vein Claire Johnston wrote that if a women’s cinema is to emerge it should be ‘paving the way for a radical break with conventions and forms’; such a revolutionary strategy, however, must also embrace visual pleasure by working through desire in the use of the entertainment film (1973/1991: 4 and 31). From the very beginning, therefore, feminist film theory contains an inbuilt tension between politics and pleasure. This tension has been very productive considering the tremendous development that feminist film practice and feminist film theory have undergone in the past twenty years. In this chapter 1 will outline some of the developments 1 consider most significant in feminist film theory.