A Star is Born…again, and again, and again.

As we near the start of the new year, the best films of the season are starting to be released and the buzz has begun. Oscar season is upon us, and with that, comes what seems to be a plethora of white stories. Nevertheless, I get sucked into the bubble every year, making it my goal to see every film nominated at the Oscars for best picture. This past weekend, A Star is Born (2018) was released, and as the media has made clear, it will be a top contender at the Oscars this year. It’s Lady Gaga’s acting debut, as well as Bradley Cooper’s writing and directorial debut. The publicity sucked me (and my boyfriend) right in! We saw the film in a crowded theater Saturday night, and I left in tears. But the more I reflected on the film, the more I was left with a bad taste. I knew the story coming in, but I still expected a stronger, independent female lead (Ally), and a less manipulative rock star (Jackson). In this essay, I will reflect on how A Star is Born employed stereotypes of submissive/dominant-female/male relationships, scopophilia, active/passive-male/female looking relationships throughout the film. I will also reflect on the lack of diversity, and the lack of awareness in the creation of the film.

A Star is Born (2018) is a remake of a film written in the 1930’s, remade three times (twice as films and once as a musical). The film revolves around Jackson Maine, a rockstar with an alcohol and drug addiction, who discovers a singer, Ally, and falls in love with her, while simultaneously starting her career. Ally eventually eclipses Jackson, and although they stay together, their relationship becomes complicated with Ally’s increase in fame and money, and Jackson’s decreasing celebrity and heightened addiction. They marry, and after an episode at the Grammy’s, Jackson enters rehab for his addictions. After coming home, Ally’s manager confronts him about his behavior, and he kills himself that evening. On its face, it’s an epic love story. Jackson is a tortured artist, reeling with the death of his parents when he was a child, and trying to deal with fame. Ally is a mousy woman, often told she’s too ugly to make, living at home with her dad who was an unsuccessful singer as well. Jackson and Ally found love with each other, but the complications of fame proved to be too much, and Jackson killed himself to spare Ally the future pain he would cause her. Ally, too in love with Jackson to hold him accountable for his behavior, stays with him and tries to please him for as long as she can. The last scene, when Ally sings a song Jackson wrote for her, at a memorial concert, was heart-touching and tear-jerking. Not to mention, the soundtrack of the film is simply amazing.

Although it was a well-made film and highly entertaining, I was disappointed. Ally was a submissive woman, manipulated and controlled by her partner Jackson, and her manager Rez. Jackson manipulated her emotions, inadvertently sabotaged her career, and expected Ally to clean up his messes and stay loyal to him. Her manager, Rez, controlled Ally’s career, dictating how she dressed, her makeup and hair, how she performed, and what she did in her relationship. Ally should have broken things off with Jackson the first night he disappeared on a bender, but she chose to stay with him. Knowing the advocate Lady Gaga is for being yourself and being a strong person, I was disappointed she took a role like this. Her character catered to the needs of men throughout the entire film. As a low-income woman like Ally, my oppositional gaze was triggered with her relationship with Jackson. I rooted for her, but it was for her to wake up and leave Jackson, rather than for her to be successful. As a Latina, I didn’t identify with anyone, except I saw my cousin in Ally’s gay Latinx best friend (and that’s because they’re literally twins).

There are several instances that employed scopophilia, which Mulvey discussed in “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” When Jackson and Ally have the first conversation at a bar, she talks about how nobody will sign her because her nose is too big, and she’s ugly. Jackson replied that her nose is beautiful, he’s been staring at it all night. He then asks if he can touch it, and the two share an intimate moment where Jackson strokes Ally’s nose softly and slowly. Later, at the end of their first night together, Ally is walking inside to her house, and Jackson calls out to her from his car. He says “hey!” And Ally turns around to ask what he wants. Jackson replies: “I just wanted to get another look at you.” And Ally makes a motion to her nose, and walks inside. In both of these instances, Jackson is displaying scopophilia towards Ally, finding pleasure in looking at her (Mulvey, 30). Jackson’s interest in Ally’s nose is essentially erotic.

As a white woman, Ally employs a sense of being incomplete, throughout the whole movie. “The White woman evokes lack, loss, and absence” (Hollinger, 194). This quote refers to how white women are viewed by white men compared to black men. The quote applies to the film, because in the case of Ally, she lacks the looks and confidence to be a star, she loses Jackson at the end of the film, and her mother and Jackson are absent from her life throughout the film.

As I said before, this is the third film remake of this story, but Bradley Cooper did no better than the previous filmmakers in making it more inclusive, or less misogynistic. This film only had one lead female character, and there were two supporting men of color in the cast, with minusculeA parts and no character development. In “It’s Just a Movie: a Teaching Essay for Introductory Media Classes,” Smith argues that films are highly scrutinized, carefully constructed, and have huge political economies behind them that enforce their power, which means that everything about them has been thought out. The film is really just meant to be consumed and enjoyed, but there are so many problems behind it. I question why this film couldn’t be better for women or people of color? There was talk that Beyonce had originally been linked to play Ally, but why wasn’t she in the final cast? Instead of a film about a white, dominant-submissive couple, couldn’t there be another story told?

 

Sources:

 

Hollinger, Karen. (2012). “Feminist Film Studies and Race.” In Feminist Film Studies, 194.

Mulvey, Laura. (1975). “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Screen 16(3), 30.

Smith, Greg. (2001). “’It’s Just a Movie”: A Teaching Essay for Introductory Media Classes.” Cinema Journal 41(1), 127-134.

Analyzing the Erotic Image Portrayal of “The Office” Character

Cinematic history has had, and still does have, a record of unequal representation of certain groups of people in film. Majority, or culturally dominant groups are over represented in film while other minority, or culturally dominated groups have had very little representation in mass produced or popular film. Domination of certain groups comes from privileges in regards to categorical divisions of race, gender, sexual orientation, cultural ideology, among many other types of categorical divisions. As a result of such an under or inaccurate representation of certain groups in film and film history, a concept known as the oppositional gaze has been developed from such societally dominated groups. In this paper, I will discuss the oppositional gaze and how I have employed it when viewing an episode of the popular sitcom television show titled The Office, for the episode titled “Business Ethics” to elaborate on this episode’s use of sexual exploitation of women in order to further the plot of the episode.

Much of film and film history has been dominated in a majority by one or a couple dominant groups. Aspects such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and etc on screen have all been regulated by a commanding subset of people within each aspect. Racial systems of hierarchy influence the inclusion of people of different races within cinema. White supremacy reins supreme here, as well as in many other contexts, with drastic underrepresentation of other groups that are not white. Gender is also a major system of segregation on filmic representations of people. Generally, cis, binary ways of seeing gender are considered the normal or accepted representations of gender in film. Stepping outside of these bounds would be considered odd and could lead to less favorable outcomes in the popularity of that motion picture. Often times in cinema, there is a patriarchal or repressive element driving the gender relations between the characters seen on screen. Mulvey touches a little on the effects this patriarchal dominance status plays on the representation of women in television or movies. It is explained that generally, a woman has two levels on which they can function in within a film. One level in which the woman is used is as an “erotic object for the characters within the screen story” whose purpose is to be a sexual object with no real purpose to the plot of the story. The other level woman characters typically are allowed to function on is as the “erotic object” for the spectator within the audience (Mulvey, 33). Sexual orientation is another area for which films have yet to really diversify representation within. In this area, cis, heterosexual individuals are generally depicted in large through the implementation of discrimination towards any classification that is deemed not normal or average. In all of these categories, regulations of which groups of people are considered acceptable by the dominant group are allowed to be represented in mass media films or television shows while others’ such representation are restricted or allowed only under certain contexts which promotes harmful stereotypes.

From the inaccurate or marginalized representations of specific groups within cinema, an oppositional gaze emerges. This oppositional gaze takes a critical look at representation of certain groups of people and resists the allowance of such depreciation in mass media. Taking an oppositional gaze to something can often time mean analyzing the true intentions behind a piece of work and discussing, or renouncing, its problematic elements. This can also include replacing those elements with those that are more productive in achieving equality. In regards to the specific example of oppositional gaze I alluded to earlier, i.e. the “Business Ethics” episode of the television show The Office, I applied the oppositional gaze in this instance to the demeaning representation of one of the female characters. The character I am referring to is Meredith Palmer.

Meredith is a continuously represented as an erotic object through which the her presence was used to “serve– enhance and maintain… the phallocentric [male] gaze” (hooks, 251). Specifically in this episode, she again becomes the erotic object, alluding to Mulvey, by creating the main plot of the episode through which the other characters work to resolve. In this scenario, Meredith’s sexual experiences which resulted in the trade off for company discounts for her job and also Outback steakhouse coupons comes to light and is highly scrutinized. The main plot of this episode centers around what to do about this specific scenario and whether any action should be taken against it. Such an exploitation places Meredith as the bridgeway to the rest of the episode which she does not actually play a significant role in.

Despite being a popular, comedy sitcom television show, The Office, has some problematic elements within it that require an oppositional gaze to recognize. The popularity of the show could possibly stem from the “gaslighted” viewing positions in which viewers completely disregard any critical or analytical skill they possess to watch this TV show without issue of its content (Hollinger, 196). The other two viewing positions that could possibly be taken are the refusal to watch completely or the oppositional gaze, which was employed in this context (Hollinger 196). I chose to use the oppositional gaze through a gendered lens for this example because that is one of the categories in which I experience marginalization within.

The dominant interpretation of certain groups of people, leads to the under and misguided representation of such groups within cinema. These dominant interpretations sometimes result in the use of an oppositional gaze. The oppositional gaze is used as a tool for resistance to such hegemonic ways of filmic portrayals so as to call out the unjust ratios and ways of individual depiction. The way that I have used the oppositional gaze was in context of a gendered lens through which an episode of The Office was analyzed. In this specific episode of The Office titled “Business Ethics”, a scrutinizing view of one of the female characters was presented that called out the exploitation of that individual as an erotic image. Becoming an active viewer of film is important in the defiant resistance of complicity in watching the continued representation of a dominant interpretation continually on screen.

Oppositional Gaze Blog: Does my skin color scare you? I promise I won’t murder you….

As a child I grew up in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. Juarez and El Paso are side by side on the border, about the same distance as Saint Paul and Minneapolis. Growing up I never paid much attention to the color of my skin or felt that I was different in any way. I believe that was because I was surrounded by people who looked like me. When I was about twelve years old I moved to Minnesota. I attended a middle school where I could count in one hand all the Mexican/Hispanic kids including myself. From the moment I started my life in Minnesota, I noticed how the color of my skin affected the people around me. Students, store clerks, and just random people would take precaution when they would see me. As if I was some sort of threat to them or their establishment. Parents wouldn’t let their kids come to my home, due to the fear/assumption that all my family was part of the drug cartel. Just for the record my family never sold drugs or live that kind of life. But that goes to show how much impact the media has on society. TV shows such as “Queen of the South” portrait Mexican people as drug dealers, rapist, and dangerous. Just because Mexico has some “famous” drug lords, does not mean that all Mexican people live that kind of life. Therefore, being Mexican does not automatically make me dangerous.

Queen of the South is based on the story of Teresa Mendoza and how she became one of the first female drug lord. Teresa grew up having a rough life and not having people that she trusted or supported her. Having a sad story seems to be a stereotype that many people have when it comes to the drug dealing world. She ended up meeting a drug dealer called “El Guero”, who ended up changing her life, which according to Teresa was for the better. “El Guero” was the first to introduce Teresa to the drug dealing world. He was also the first person that she trusted and fell in love with.

This show isn’t all about Teresa and “El Guero’s” love story, he ends up getting killed a year after they meet. After “El Guero’s” murder the show because more violent and starts to portray how “dangerous” Mexican people can be. They show scenes that involve rape, murder, and torture. There’s a lot of conspiracy that plays a big part of the show. With the only person that Teresa trusted (El Guero) gone, she doesn’t know who to confide on. Teresa’s journey to becoming a well-known female drug lord include a lot of violence and struggles. Her struggles don’t only revolve around the life style she has chosen, but also because she is a female. Being a female, Teresa must prove her strength and capability more than a male would have to. She was also sexually abuse, which shows how “easy” a man can show they are superior over women.

Clip for Queen of the South trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLOohWlpxKA

Oppositional gaze is shown in Queen of the South by the media portraying Mexican people in a certain way, them being dangerous. In her article “The oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators”, Hooks talks about how white slave owners had taken the gaze away from black slaves. She also talks about how important a gaze is. Hooks quotes “not only will I stare, I want my look to change reality” (hooks, p.248). I find that quote to be very inspirational to me. I want to stare at society and make them see that what the media portrays isn’t reality. Queen of the South, although based on the true story of Teresa Mendoza, is fictional on how they portray Mexican culture.

 Queen of the South also projects the male gaze as discussed by Mulvey. Mulvey talks about how “the male gaze projects its fantasy into the female figure” (p.33). Females have always been used as a sex symbol. No matter if it’s and add, tv show, or movie the female is almost always portrayed as such. In Queen of the South Teresa Mendoza is portrayed as the “perfect” Mexican female, with the perfect body. She has the natural look that many men are attracted too. At the beginning of the show Teresa wears very tight clothing that’s a bit revealing. Considering that Queen of the South shows male gaze, this is the perfect example of how the media would grab the attention of the male.

As the show progresses and she moves up the drug lord chain, her outfits become more sophisticated but still provocative. No matter how much power Teresa gets, she is still portrayed as a sex symbol. Her outfits seem to also show signs of masculinity. As a viewer I took that as the media implying that a female can’t be powerful without somehow representing a male.

Having a Mexican background people always assume that I have a relative that is part of the drug cartel, or that I have some knowledge about it. Honestly, I know as much as the next guy. Being Mexican does not mean that I am an expert on how the drug cartel works or who is a current drug lord. I also don’t have weapons in my home or know where to “get one”. I’m a “normal” Mexican female that is just trying to graduate from college. I don’t have the “perfect” body and I am not considered dangerous. Simply because my skin color is a little tanner than most, does not mean that I am a threat to anybody. Shows such as Queen of the South are created to entertain people. That doesn’t mean that people should use it as a blueprint and apply it to whomever they think fits the description.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

Bell Hooks “The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators” Pg. 248

Laura Mulvey “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” Pg. 33

 

 

White Savior Complex in (& as a result of) “The Blind Side”

The Blind Side was released in 2009 and my racist grandmother still talks about it. She loves it. I have no doubt it will serve as talking point in future conversations between her and my four year old black baby brother.

This film capitalizes on that “Based on a True Story” affect, but again the sides of the story told are given different attention, affect, and value.

It (sorta) aims to tell the story of Michael Oher and (but definitely) the Tuohy family. Michael, a black teenager is struggling with housing insecurity and accepted into a new school shortly before his father dies. Importantly from a far, Leigh Anne Tuohy notices Michael outside one night and she invites him to sleep in their spare room. Over the course of the movie, Leigh Anne takes Michael in as much as she takes him on as a sort of project, representing the white savior complex and perpetuating its idealization to the masses.

In a movie where someone is struggling with housing and food insecurity, death of a parent, on top of every systematic piece of oppression, as is a common trend of white savior complexes in movies, the film guides viewers to empathize with the white woman saving the black child rather than the black child as an individual. This is done throughout the film.

It has been a few years since having watched the film in its entirety however I distinctly remember SO many scenes that depict a close up of Leigh Anne and her expressions as she is watching Michael from afar; from the moment she notices him outside in the cold from inside her luxury car, to when he is playing on the field and she is on the sidelines. This separation between Leigh Anne and Michael is important in facilitating the white savior complex. At the same time that it separates Leigh Anne and Michael from each other, it separates viewers from Michael further too, realigning them more closely to Leigh Anne.  It’s important to note how much of Leigh Anne’s “good deeds” are decided in these moments of separation. This includes how when her racist friend’s had “concerns” for her daughter Collin’s safety with Michael in the house, and after talking to her daughter, Collins ultimately end up being the reason Leigh Anne asks him to stay. She decides to do all of these things for Michael without ever really engaging with him.

If we look just at the above movie poster, so quickly did Michael Oher’s “extraordinary true story” become anyone’s but his own, with Quinton Aaron’s name not even making the poster credits. Michael’s story truly is “subservient to the white protagonist” as Julien Gignac discusses in their piece on white savior complexes in films with indigenous characters (or lack thereof). It quickly became Sandra Bullocks character’s “extraordinary true story” and subsequently middle-aged white women clung to it dearly. I just recently watched the 2nd season of “American Vandal” on Netflix with my brothers and the show never continues to surprise me with their surprisingly well landed satire given the plots of the season. Set in a school with only two black students, Mrs. Montgomery, the English teacher, is “obsessed” as described by other students, with DeMarcus, one of said black students. In Mrs. Montgomery’s interview for the documentary, after reading her framed poem written by DeMarcus she says:

“I think of myself as Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side. Um…And just being so connected [inhales deeply] with my students, the way Sandra was connected with, um…ah the black kid in that movie. [with a dismissive shake of the hand] He was great. Love him.”

This white savior mantra was quickly adopted by so many because everyone wanted to be Sandra Bullock (who still, despite Michael being the one to make it big and overcome, is depicted as the hero and the triumphant one), no one was actually paying attention to Michael nor his well being, nor the societal systems that were at play (racism, capitalism, education disparities etc.). And no one was paying attention to those things because again, they weren’t what viewers were made to care about, because they weren’t what would get as many viewers into the seats, as many times, and for how long that they have.

Nearly 10 years my grandmother has clung to this movie and I know why much more than she.

Military Orientalism and Quantico

Hasian uses Zero Dark Thirty to demonstrate his idea of military orientalism: promoting the concept that the only way for military or law enforcement to be successful in protecting the American people is by breaking the laws and rules they’ve sworn to uphold.

This concept is perpetuated in Quantico as we constantly see FBI agents going outside the law to protect us from a “greater evil” or to protect themselves.

Season one’s main villain, Liam O’Connor, uses his role as a Deputy Director and Quantico instructor to gain information to frame Alex (the main character) for a terrorist attack. We then see Alex repeatedly break into FBI facilities, bypass security measures, and lie to superior officers in order to protest the lives of people she cares about. She even gets arrested. So not only is the villain operating outside the law, so is the hero.

Alex saves the day in every instance.

“What we are left with is a mass-mediated production that allows U.S. audiences to celebrate their views on American exceptionalism” (Hasian, 465).

Quantico isn’t real agents. It’s what the government would like you to think. Our FBI is exceptional, regardless of following the law.

White Savior Complex in Game of Thrones

The white savior narrative can be defined as when people of color are placed as victims and their savior is a selfless, heroic white character. This is usually a ploy to simply advance the white character’s arc. In his article, “The Revenant’s white-saviour complex,” Julien Gignac is able to perfectly characterize this trope, as people of color “seem ultimately subservient to the white protagonist.” This trope is clearly seen in the Game of Thrones episode where Daenerys, a white queen, frees the indebted slaves of a city. In the scene, her advisor tries to tell the slaves that it is khalessi to whom they owe their freedom, but as a selfless, humble leader, Daenerys stops her and declares that they owe their freedom only to themselves. Upon the conclusion of Daenerys’ digression, the colored slaves literally begin lifting their ‘white savior’ above them while calling her “mother.” This example shows the concept in it’s most pronounced form. A white protagonist selflessly providing salvation to subjugated people of color.

Picture source

Dolce & Gabbana

I made the strategic decision to place the picture before any text as a means of cultivating an energy in your mind. As soon as I saw the picture I immediately made a face and I’m sure you did too. Mine was pretty similar to this incredible gif.

It is a known fact that many advertisements exploit women. Yet it still blows my mind that these types of photos somehow pass through several levels of approval and filtration to be presented to the public. Thankfully Dolce & Gabbana took down this display due to the extremity of the backlash that was received. I use the word display because that is the entirety of the picture. The promotion of the clothing is completely overshadowed by the context of the picture. Even though they appear to be in a well lit area, their clothing is dark and slightly disheveled which sheds all the more light on the gang rape positioning of the people. Mulvey condenses the issue with women’s place in media, “In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness” (Mulvey, 33). Mulvey’s theory of “woman as the image” and “man as bearer of the look” is at place in this piece, given the looks and facial expressions of the models. Along with where and how the woman is positioned, there are FOUR men who are all pensively gazing at her in a way to give them power. Structure wise, the location of the men yields more dimension developing a sense of dominance. Overall, I am appalled that this advertisement was published and cannot even believe the model in this photograph allowed such demeaning actions to take place.

 

White-Savior Complex in Film

The white savior complex in cinema describes a trope in which a white person/people rescues a black person/people, portraying the white person as being selfless, and the black as a helpless victim. Typically, this involves a white person going to a foreign country and “helping” the native people there or appropriating another culture.

McMahon’s VICE article criticizes the white-savior complex in The Revenant, how Glass tries to avenge the deaths of his indigenous son and wife, and suggests that

“it’s time the world step back from the historical ‘white gaze of Hollywood’ and allow indigenous peoples to tell them who they are.”

Another popular film which embodies this concept is the 2016 film La La Land, where Ryan Gosling’s character Sebastian aspires to “save” jazz, which is an apparently dying genre of music. Even more interesting, Seb sees the one main black character as having contributed to the corruption and ruin of modern jazz, calling him a sellout, which is extremely problematic because jazz originated with African Americans.

 The video shows a clip of Ryan Gosling jokingly (?) responding to the “saving jazz” controversy in an SNL monologue.

 

Source

Selma’s introduction

Hi! My name is Selma Håndstad. I’m an exchange student from Norway. I’m majoring in comparative literature, but while I’m here I take mostly GWSS classes, which is also my minor. I thought that taking a feminist film class would be fun just because as a litterateur student you kinda get a little stuck in the book analyses. I really like the analyzing part and it would be a new and different challenge to write film reweaves, which I have never really done before. Also, of course, I didn’t want to just take any film course, so femfilm sounded and still sounds perfect.

PS: I’m really friendly, like really friendly, even though it doesn’t seem like that!

Apparently, my twitter is @SHandstad.

I’ve never ever used Twitter before so don’t judge my terrible tweet-skills.

 

Blessings

Hello, my name is Jermaine Whitaker, but I have several different nicknames. You can call me Exotic Gourmet, LeBomb James, Obi Bomb Kanobi, Little Red Bombing Hood. However I prefer Jermaine Avocado Toast. I’m a Senior in the Mortuary Science program here at the U and honestly I took this class because I love women, and I feel that in general women are objectified and are not treated fairly because of gender roles that are placed in our society. I’m all for women getting paid just as much as a man and them being respected like everybody else and not treated differently because of their gender. Also I learned that you don’t have to be a woman to be a feminist, so I’m all for women and their plight. And lastly, I love movies so if I can experience film through a woman’s perspective or with more women in power positions I’m all for it.

P.S. I don’t use twitter a lot but I’ll use it just for this class, because I’m too lazy to make a burner account 🙂

Twitter: WinnesotasOwn