John Berger, Ways of Seeing
In painting, literature, advertising, journalism, and TV:
“The essential way of seeing woman, the essential use to which their images are put, has not changed.
Women are depicted in a quite different way from men–not because the feminine is different from the masculine–but because the “ideal” spectator is always assumed to be mal and the image of woman is designed to flatter him.”
Lambroso, Cesare, The Female Offender
The female criminal is monotonous and uniform, compared with her male companion.”
Denis de Rougement:
“Society requires that women have husbands, but in novels, it is found necessary that they have lovers.”
(In L. Fiedler, Love and Death, p. 76)
Georges Sanders in Albert Lewin’s The Picture of Dorian Gray:
“Women, as so many Frenchmen put it, inspire us with the desire to do masterpieces and always prevent us from carrying them out.”
Ideas:
A cycle of films about independent women who are villainized , showing them as career women without families, being driven into pathological behavior.
When the father transgresses, the whole family is punished.
When women transgress, they’re personally punished and punishment is wreaked on their bodies.
The Hand that Rocks ; Fatal Attraction; Basic Instinct
Kramer Vs. Kramer: Joanna seeks fulfillment and is denied access to her child.
Fatal Attraction: Alex wants a job and a child and dies violently
Terms of Endearment: Emma enters her husband’s workplace and is punished with diagnosis of cancer
Women in James Bond Movies
Picasso’s wife: Who Is She Without Him?
Breaking In Is Hard to Do: Women in the Film Industry
The Lost Generation:
Susan Anspach
Candice Bergen
Jacqueline Bissett
Karen Black
Joanna Cassidy
Valerie Perrine
Katharine Ross
