Laura Mulvey, bell hooks, Van zoonan

Laura Mulvey 

Laura Mulvey studied the idea of the male gaze theory. The male gaze theory is where women are made to be entertaining for men to look at in the media; women are objectified. Mulvey also believes men are the center of action and narrative and are perceived as dominant, powerful, and prevalent; and women are passive in media therefore other women see themselves as passive. Narratives are heavily gendered and media is the voyeuristic pleasure of looking for men(scopophilia). However, to flip her perspective there is also such thing as a female gaze; an example of this is in casino Royale when Daniel Craig walks out of the ocean for the female gaze.

bell hooks

bell hooks argues feminism is the struggle to end patriarchal oppression. She believes feminism is a political commitment so if your not politically active, you can't be a feminist. hooks also said that only certain women are discriminated against not all.

Van Zoonan

Van Zoonan believes that our ideas about gender are determined through historical and cultural context and that women are objectified in the media. Van Zoonan describes our society as patriarchal and that women are shown in a stereotypical way; for example, women are shown as emotional, nurturing, and domestic.

Has the way women are portrayed in the movies changed?

According to a study in 2018, more women protagonists are prominent but representation as a whole is getting worse. Only 35% of films had 10 or more female speaking roles, but men had a far larger 82% of movies that had 10 or more male characters with women speakers according to the study 'It's a mans (celluloid) world'

In addition, the percentage of movies that feature a female protagonist rose to 31% in 2018, an increase from 24% in 2016. The percentage of black women characters in movies rose 16% in 2017 to 21% in 2018.