Women in Photography and Cinema

This course will survey how the media of photography and film have represented women over the past 50 years, thereby shaping ideas of femininity. Specifically, we will examine how mainstream photographic and cinematic representations of women have sculpted ideas of femininity that tend to fulfill men’s desires, what British film scholar Laura Mulvey described as the “male gaze.” After having analyzed photographic projects and films that have adopted the “male gaze,” we will look at the work of contemporary female photographers and filmmakers, discussing how women artists can resist traditional, male-centered representations of femininity as viewers and image-making producers.