Female Spectators Research Articles

Sobre mascaradas y disfraces en “Los celosos” de Silvina Ocampo

In this article, I will analyze the short story “Los celosos” (1988) by the Argentine writer Silvina Ocampo. In this story, the protagonist is a woman named Irma Peinate who uses a great deal of wigs, false eyelashes, high heels, and makeup to satisfy her husband. One day, her husband sees her without any accessories and does not recognize her. I propose that the sacrifice the woman undergoes is a kind of “masquerade” of femininity. This masquerade is to be accepted by her husband, but also by a society that aspires to the prototype of European beauty. The theories put forward by Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex (1953), Luce Irigaray in The Sex Which is Not One (1985), and “Masquerade Reconsidered: Further Thoughts on the Female Spectator” (1989) by Mary Anne Doane have been central to examining the concept of “feminine masquerade.”

Intersectional Feminism and the Woman Spectator: A Historical Perspective

To what extent does a woman relate to the female on screen when she sits in front of it? Who establishes her image in the public eye and what misogynistic roles suppress her individuality both on and off screen? Many feminist cinema theorists have written extensively about the evolution of the female spectator throughout the years, including Diana Anselmo, Laura Mulvey, and bell hooks. However, a recurring issue in this lengthy discussion is the junction of multiple identities. This investigation is made more complex by intersectional feminism, which acknowledges that racial, class, and gender intersections all influence how women watch. This study uses intersectionality theory to conduct a critical analysis of movies such as La Souriante Mme Beudet (1923), Stella Dallas (1937), Imitation of Life (1959), La Noire de... (1966), and Thelma and Louise (1991) through the lenses of psychoanalysis, feminist theory, post-colonialist theory, and critical race theory. This theoretical framework challenges and examines the ways in which films uphold or question societal injustices in addition to illuminating the ways in which women from diverse backgrounds interact with the medium.

The Eve Made from the Rib of Female Spectators: The Construction of Rudolph Valentino’s Effeminate Screen Characters Under the Female Gaze—Case Studies of Three Films Starring Rudolph Valentino in 1921

The objective of this essay is to analyze the construction of Rudolph Valentino’s effeminate cinematic characters in the early 1920s Hollywood cinema, specifically case studying three films, namely, Camille (1921), The Sheik (1921), and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). Through textual analysis, it would illustrate how these characters were crafted in terms of three pivotal aspects: melancholic romanticism, ethnic exoticism, and meticulously designed aesthetics, which together foster the sense of otherness and objectification that imitate the common situation of womanhood, and thus evoked profound resonance among female spectators. Through referring to the gaze theory of Laura Mulvey and the mirror theory of Jacques Lacan, this essay would further distinguish the male and female gaze, arguing that Valentino’s on-screen presence facilitated a reversal of the conventional looking pleasure and created a unique form of female gaze that mirrored their subjective projection and the experience of being gazed upon. This positioning of Valentino’s characters as both the object and the embodiment of feminine sensuality and suffering also symbolizes the self-awareness and empowerment in female spectatorship.

Scenting Sapphic Elegance and Queer Promises: Advertisements for Amaryllis du Japon (1891–94)

Abstract: This essay examines the advertising campaign for Amaryllis du Japon, the signature fragrance of the perfumery Delettrez at the fin de siècle, as a case study of the homoerotic dynamics of visual culture for middle-class women of the period. I argue that the campaign’s central motif, the kimono-clad coquette, seduced female viewers and prospective consumers by evoking the intersecting discourses on Japanese femininity, floral scents, and olfactory arousal. The japonesque coquette promised exotic pleasures associated with the sapphic sensuality attributed to fashionable Parisiennes , both real and imagined. Using an analytical framework that ventures outside a heteronormative construction of female spectatorship demonstrates the advertisement campaign’s homoerotic appeal as well as a period concern for it.

A space for the female viewer? The spectatorial gaze and damaged masculinity in Tre metri sopra il cielo and Ho voglia di te

In this article, I analyse the narratives of Tre metri sopra il cielo (Three Steps Over Heaven) (Lucini 2004) and its sequel, Ho voglia di te (‘I desire you’) (Prieto 2007) through the gendered paradigm of the spectatorial gaze theorized by Laura Mulvey. These films, I argue, subtly shift the active/male, passive/female paradigm of looking by displacing Step (Riccardo Scamarcio) as the focalizing subject, thereby empowering the films’ female protagonists – Babi (in Three Steps Over Heaven) and Gin (in Ho voglia di te) and female viewers. By subverting norms associated with the gendered gaze, I contend that these films reimagine heteronormative gender roles in Italy in a way that resonated primarily with its female audience. By focusing on women who transgress traditional gender norms, and by presenting a damaged form of masculinity, these films successfully create a space for the female spectator.

Sull’utilità della Storia delle donne per rileggere il protagonismo di Adelaide Ristori

I propose to rethink Adelaide Ristori in a hitherto unconsidered context: a History of the actor that places the category of gender at the centre, not as an add-on but as a problematic function, in order to investigate the specificity – if it exists and how it is configured – of the experience and acting of theatre actresses, starting with the body. Ristori plays a central role in this perspective, in particular in relation to the following aspects: work on the character, definition of repertoire, construction of celebrity. On the one hand, the choice and performance of exceptional female characters must be investigated, since they strike the audience on an emotional level and are fixed in the memory by emblematic images, as well as they propose non-masculine models of strength and authority to female spectators. And, on the other hand, the intelligence, originality, and tenacity with which Ristori represents herself should be analysed, such as to configure an early divine construction, before Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse and the cinema itself. A construction that cannot take advantage of the possibility of films to reach large masses, but which cleverly links the public and private spheres, almost evoking the horizontal action of the present-day media.

Grey sweatpants and the #Challenge: Recuperating the Black penis

The social media-based #GraySweatpantsChallenge called for men to don a pair of grey sweatpants and share photos of how well the garment showed off their endowments. The accessibility and current social acceptance of sweatpants as a stylized garment allowed men of all races and classes to participate in the challenge. The Black men who participated received significant amounts of likes, shares and comments from female spectators who openly expressed their appreciation of the images on social media. This garnered the attention of predominantly White men who quickly co-opted the challenge by posting self-images with absurdly large objects shoved into their grey sweatpants. Although many people found these photos to be amusing, the takeover can be viewed as an extension of the scopic dismemberment of the Black penis that is connected to lynching photographs in the nineteenth century and to the myth of the ‘big Black dick’. Part fear and part fantasy, this myth is responsible for the continued fetishization and symbolic castration of the Black penis which can be seen in the creation of art images (particularly those by Robert Mapplethorpe), and racialized pornography (specifically gay). The #GraySweatpantsChallenge photos, however, do provide an opportunity for Black men to attempt a recuperation of the penises that had been literally and symbolically stolen from them for three centuries.

Esther Fernández. To Embody the Marvelous: The Making of Illusions in Early Modern Spain

Esther Fernández. <i>To Embody the Marvelous: The Making of Illusions in Early Modern Spain</i>

Analysis of Female Gaze in Lesbian Films from the Perspective of Camera Language —Taking Portrait of a Lady on Fire as an Example

Western feminist film theory was formed in the 1960s and 1970s and it has been widely discussed since then. With the help of Freud’s psychoanalysis, Laura Mulvey analyzes the interweaving of erotic pleasure in film, its meaning, and the central place of the image of the woman. At the same time, the improvement of film technology and photography methods provide more chances for female spectators to seek pleasure as counterparts in films. The lesbian film is a category that crosses many film genres and highlights female subjectivity. Both female characters and spectators can be the subject of different kinds of gaze, looking at others while experiencing the story about a woman’s affection. Based on Freud’s psychoanalysis and Laura Mulvey’s theory, this paper analyzes how camera language embodies the female gaze in Céline Sciamma’s esbian film Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019). The study of interaction among the camera, the character, and the spectator is of great significance in the realization of the female gaze, which can be inspired for future films, especially feminist films, to stress the value of female roles and pay attention to female spectators’ emotions.

Rebellious Eliza: The Ingenious Schemer’s Veiled Subversion of Passions and Emotions in The Female Spectator

Rebellious Eliza: The Ingenious Schemer’s Veiled Subversion of Passions and Emotions in The Female Spectator

“Take Here This Prospective”: Specular Reflections of the Female Spectators in Samuel Daniel’s Vision of the Twelve Goddesses (1604)

The subject of the female spectators at the beginning of the seventeenth century in England must be envisaged within the particular context of a variety of theatrical situations. The place of the spectators was different according to the venue, from a social as well as from a spatial point of view. This article is devoted to Samuel Daniel’s masque, The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses (1604), the first real masque of the Jacobean period with women from the court participating as silent actors. Masques are generally characterized by a great permeability between the stage and the audience. In The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses, Daniel laid the stress on the question of the gaze and curiosity. He seemed to be directing the female spectators’ gaze by mediating it through an optical instrument (the “prospective”), which allows them to see better, according to Daniel’s interpretation of his masque. This article examines the relation between the female actor and the female spectator. Did Samuel Daniel give a privileged place to female spectators in his masque, on stage and off stage?

“Fright the ladies out of their wits”: Gendered passion and the English stage

This essay discusses female spectatorship from within Shakespeare’s plays as performed in his lifetime. Several plays such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet or King Lear address the issue of female spectatorship, providing comedic and tragic illustrations of how women reacted to theatrical performances, and how playwrights seemed to address the needs of female spectators. Interpretation of female spectatorship is rendered difficult by the scant evidence pertaining to actual women spectators at the time, pointing to the problem of interpreting how such spectatorship and gendered emotions could be performed and received by Elizabethan and Jacobean audiences. The essay shows that gendered constructs of spectatorship rarely followed accepted norms, and that men were as likely as women to be frightened “out of their wits”. The plays are as fictional as the gendered differences between female and male spectators.

Experimental plays, conventional endings: Gender normativity and the female spectator of Shirley’s The Doubtful Heir

Critics have frequently argued about whether early modern plays like Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night are ultimately subversive or conservative in their attitudes towards gender and sexuality. Stephen Greenblatt, for example, claims that Twelfth Night’s conclusion confirms the desirability of both heterosexuality and traditional gender roles, whereas Valerie Traub suggests that the play is more disruptive and unconventional than that, since its ending is undermined by the previous deconstruction of gender and sexual binaries and exposure of them as essentially ‘arbitrary’. The question, therefore, is the extent to which a conventional, heteronormative conclusion may or may not work to ‘shut down’ the potentially subversive energies of a play which otherwise explores the non-hetero and the gender nonconformist.This paper explores these questions through a study of James Shirley’s c. 1638-9 tragicomedy The Doubtful Heir, and argues that this play’s ending is, in these terms, both conventional and subversive. Although, as in Twelfth Night, the last act of The Doubtful Heir works to reaffirm traditional gender roles, the effect of this is complicated or problematised by the way in which the play works to frame its hero, Ferdinand, as an object of desire for female spectators, and its encouragement both of the female gaze and of female fantasies of empowerment.

Commanding Eyes: Female Spectators and the Restoration Theatrical Repertoire

This article explores the impact of women on the theatrical repertoire of the later seventeenth century in England. Female theatregoers at this time were largely anonymous, defined by their venue rather than by their names, however comments by playwrights indicate that pleasing this female audience, especially the elite women in the audience, could have a powerful effect on whether plays succeeded or failed upon the stage. The ladies were avid theatregoers, and their presence in the theatre auditorium was remarked upon, both positively and negatively, and their response to what they watched was studied and judged by those around them. For this reason, women frequently wore masks to the theatre in the early decades of the Restoration, in part to avoid being surprised by a bawdy play, such as William Wycherley’s The Country Wife. The article examines mask wearing within the theatre as it relates to female response to performance. Couched in terms of hypocritical mask wearing, Wycherley’s irate response to the ladies in his final play The Plain Dealer suggests that these elite women had the potential to negatively impact a play’s success. Paratexts from the end of the century indicate that playwrights perceived the ladies’ presence at theatre could assure a play’s success. In this way, the female audience was able to shape the theatrical repertoire.

Banners, Banter and Boys: Feminism and Historical Distortion in Iron Jawed Angels

This paper investigates the relationship between the 2004 film Iron Jawed Angels and the historic events and figures it purports to represent. As a major film on the national women’s suffrage movement in the US, Iron Jawed Angels had great potential in terms of educating viewers on the lives and accomplishments of America’s suffragists. However, this paper argues that in modifying the character and story of activist Alice Paul to appeal to female, conservative, and American audiences, the movie diminishes Paul’s achievements and assumes that female spectators require the tropes of a “chick flick” to sustain their interest.

Female Spectatorship and Unsportsmanlike Conduct at Football Stadiums: Case Study from the Czech Republic

Football is the most popular team sport in the world. It is entertainment, primarily for men, but nowadays, it can be said that the number of women at football stadiums is steadily increasing. Given the long history of spectator sports events consumption, it is not a surprising fact that there have also been serious manifestations of spectator aggression. The paper aims to analyze the relationship between women visitors’ verbal and other expression and their violent behavior on an example of SK Slavia Prague football club. Primary data were collected by a questionnaire survey mainly at the Eden stadium and other selected Czech football stadiums in 2015/16 and 2016/17 seasons. A total of 120 respondents (aged 25.01 ± 10.20 years old) participated in this research, and all of the respondents were attending the matches in a stand of home team supporters. We state that there are correlations between women visitors’ verbal and other expression and their violent behavior; e.g., the surveyed respondents had no experience with demolishing stadiums and other riots. The respondents also consider it to be the most serious activity at 82.58%. The racism display noted similar results. We state that the results are adequate for women visitors.

Chinese female desire, gaze, and identity construction: A case study of “Boys Love”

ABSTRACT In recent years, there are few studies on Chinese female identity construction, female gaze, and sexual desire, as seen via the consumption of Boys Love (BL) media, or the tanbi genre. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and Deleuze’s idea of desire, this paper notes that expressions and alterations regarding sexual desire by Chinese female spectators are reflected in their imagined projections and consumption of BL media as part of their identity construction. These are situated in an imagined community of BL fans in Online Social Media (OSM). Using the trajectory of responses and exchanges of Chinese female audiences on the light Thai BL comedy, 2gether the Series (2020), which is introduced via fan-subtitling, I explore the dynamics of these female spectators as a case study. To a great extent, this represents a process of evolving their own gender values, sexual desires and identities through the consumption of BL media and writings based on the former. This paper thereby attempts to explore how Chinese female spectators project masculinity in homoeroticism and demonstrates that female identity construction is autonomous, proactive, and creative. Also reflected here are their strong beliefs in egalitarian love relationships, regardless of sexual preferences.

Roller Derby: The History of an American Sport

Roller Derby has a long and fascinating history. It began as an endurance fad in the 1930s, a Depression Era entertainment, and then transformed into a full-contact game with an appeal to both in-person spectators and television audiences. Yet it eventually evolved into a women's sport with a feminist do-it-yourself mentality. Michella M. Marino's Roller Derby: The History of an American Sport expertly weaves a chronological story of this trajectory, providing a “contextual history of the sport through a critical feminist lens” (5). This contextualization is bolstered by one of the strongest parts of this text: Marino's use of oral history interviews from a variety of people involved with the sport from a number of different eras.Marino's work, over the course of six chapters, begins with the origins of Roller Derby, founded by Leo Seltzer (also known for promoting dance marathons) in Chicago in 1935. She highlights both the sport and spectacle nature of the pastime. Marino also carefully constructs the sport around one of its unique qualities—the coequal inclusion of women in the sport from its very first contest. As Marino continues the narrative of Roller Derby's history, she explores how television contributed to Roller Derby's boom in the 1940s and 1950s (and later bust), the rejuvenation of the sport in the 1960s and 1970s through its move to California and Jerry Seltzer's (Leo Seltzer's son) takeover, the competition Roller Derby faced from other outfits, such as RollerGames, and finally, concludes with the revival of the sport in 2001 and the formation of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA).Perhaps the most important contribution by Marino, though, is her attention to Roller Derby with a critical lens. She illustrates both the positive effect the sport had for women and the ways that traditional disempowering notions of femininity were sometimes reinforced. Unlike most other sports of the time, Roller Derby included women from its earliest iterations. Leo Seltzer believed that women participants would drive female spectators to the sport, expanding the audience. Women continued to play an important role as the sport evolved, often becoming the main attraction. Eventually, in the 2000s, the sport was reintroduced by women looking for “empowerment and opportunity” (164).The Roller Derby rink remained a place committed to equality and nondiscrimination, distinguishing it from other sporting pastimes. Both Leo and Jerry Seltzer did not tolerate discrimination and sought to create an open and supportive environment for all skaters, regardless of their gender, race, or sexual orientation. Marino skillfully discusses the ways that Roller Derby was different. It provided a place for parents to remain athletes (both mothers and fathers) and even encouraged a family atmosphere, with many skaters bringing their young children on the road with them. Roller Derby also did not suffer from some of the structural racism built into other traditional sports, with Black skaters entering early in the development of Roller Derby, some with great success and stardom. Additionally, Roller Derby also generally accepted gay and lesbian skaters. The younger Seltzer, Jerry, partially attributed the inclusive atmosphere of Roller Derby to the fact that the skaters traveled and lived together—discrimination and abuse would have negatively affected both the aggressor and recipient of harassment.Despite the fact that Marino paints Roller Derby as a relatively progressive part of sport and entertainment history, she does not view it through a rose-colored lens. She underscores that, while Roller Derby organizers and skaters might have been more inclusive and tolerant of Black and gay skaters, these accounts came mostly from white derbyists. Additionally, Black and gay skaters existed in a world where they would have faced racism and other harassment in their everyday lives. Furthermore, Marino works from a critical feminist perspective, emphasizing the ways that traditional notions of femininity were still normalized for skaters (through Roller Derby Queen contests, for example), the ways that female derbyists had to contend with views on beauty and femininity, and, later, how the WFTDA (and its women-centered leadership) had to contend with traditional, male-led international organizations as they fought for governance over the sport.Roller Derby is an exceptional work that not only illuminates the history of a sport that remains on the margins of sport history but also offers a feminist examination that transcends Roller Derby itself. Marino's use of oral histories brings insights otherwise unavailable. Her narrative of Roller Derby, alongside shrewd analysis of the world of sport makes this book an excellent read. This text should be of interest to anyone who is drawn to histories of popular culture, sport as Americana, and women's sport history.

Asta Nielsen Filmvorführungen in Istanbul

Audiences in Ottoman Istanbul first had the opportunity to watch films in 1896, after the first public film screenings circulated in the world. As a result of the implications of the Ottoman–German alliance on cultural life during World War I, documentary and feature-length films that were produced in and about the German Empire, including the films of Asta Nielsen, were screened at movie theaters in Istanbul. Although there are studies which deal with the screening of Asta Nielsen films in Europe and some parts of Asia, no study has been conducted yet on the prevalence and recognition of these films in the Ottoman Empire. This article, which aims to fill this gap, focuses on the reception of Asta Nielsen’s female characters through her two prominent films. The article evaluates the interest shown in and the comments made about Nielsen’s films, as she represented a new type of woman in the film community during her time. This article also discussed and problematizes female roles and the historical status of female spectators in Istanbul in relation to these female images. The influence of the images of modern women portrayed by Asta Nielsen on female spectators at a time when the public presence and visibility of women began to be discussed in the Ottoman Empire and the experience of female spectators who went to the movies at Péra in relation to these images give important clues about the place of cinema in the process of secularization. Therefore, the article contributes to the monography of Asta Nielsen and Ottoman/German cinema and cultural history with a focus on the screening and reception of Asta Nielsen films at Péra.

Unruly female spectators at the Melbourne Cup in Australia: media discourses about women and alcohol consumption

ABSTRACT This paper critically examines competing media discourses about women’s alcohol consumption as spectators at the Melbourne Cup, a historically prestigious annual Australian horse race. Taking a feminist poststructural lens, this paper identifies how print media representations of the female drinking subject can provide a multitude of subject positions that can be contradictory and subversive, offering possibilities for resistance to idealised middle-class gendered norms about women and drinking. This paper provides new insights into print media portrayals of “unruly” female spectators and their alcohol consumption at public events such as the Melbourne Cup.